What should you pay attention to after improving your immunity

Many people think that by improving their immunity, they will get a "death-free gold medal" for health. In fact, this is not the case. The most important things to pay attention to after improving immunity are: first, don't suddenly let go of your previous accumulation, and second, don't blindly pursue "the higher, the better" and cause immune imbalance. The most comfortable state is to stabilize it within a suitable range.

I had bronchitis attacks as soon as the temperature dropped in the past two years. Last year, I insisted on walking briskly three times a week for most of the year. I forced myself to eat a pound of green leafy vegetables every day. I didn’t even sneeze a few times last winter. I stayed up until two or three o'clock with my friends to play board games and drink iced milk tea. As a result, my tonsils became purulent and the fever reached 39 degrees. I lay down for three days before I recovered. Most of the immunity buff I had accumulated over the past six months was gone in a week.

Later, I talked about this with an immunologist I know well, and he said that there are quite a lot of cognitive biases about immunity. There is a school of thought that the stronger the immune response, the better the anti-infection ability. Therefore, many businesses use "super immunity" as a selling point to sell various supplements. However, the more clinically recognized conclusion is that too strong immunity will "distinguish between friend and foe" and attack the normal tissues of the body. Common urticaria, rheumatoid arthritis, and even some allergic diseases are essentially immune imbalances that are "overdone." A while ago, a fan left a message to me, saying that he never got sick twice a year. He read on the Internet that he needed to take supplements of lactoferrin and acerola powder to improve his immunity. He followed the trend and bought thousands of products and ate them for two months. First, herpes broke out repeatedly at the corners of his mouth, and later he developed itchy rashes all over his body for no apparent reason. After going to the hospital for a checkup, he found out that the immune system was over-activated, triggering the recurrence of herpes simplex. He was in good health, but something went wrong after he took supplements.

In fact, there is really no need to deliberately pursue "extraordinary" immunity. If you rarely get sick and don't feel uncomfortable when the seasons change, don't take those miscellaneous enhancers. Just like charging your mobile phone to 80% is the optimal battery life, there is no need to plug it in and fast charge it, which will damage the battery. If you have just improved your immune status through exercise and diet, don't throw away all your good habits all at once. It's okay to stay up late and eat heavy meals occasionally. The body has its own ability to adjust, but don't break your schedule and eat all kinds of things for ten days and a half in a row. No matter how good your foundation is, you won't be able to withstand the consequences. There is no need to be too tight at ordinary times. There is no need to wear two layers of N95 even when you go downstairs to pick up a courier. Proper exposure to weak antigens in the environment can help the immune system "maintain the feel" and maintain stable protection.

To put it bluntly, immunity is like a puppy you raise. You feed and walk it regularly, and it obediently helps you take care of your home. If you either feed it weird supplements every day and make it too excited, or leave it hungry for ten and a half days, it may get angry and break up the house, or even accidentally bite you. Being steady is better than anything else.