boosting your immunity

written by dr. Bell moody, PT, dpt

I am writing and researching this as we navigate cold and flu season in the fall of 2024. It seems as if sickness and viral illnesses are running rampant everywhere. Are we just sitting ducks for when it's our turn to have a cold, or the flu, or COVID, or more? Is there anything we can do to prevent and protect ourselves during cold and flu season?

YES-let's break it down. 

Immunity is directly related to the proper functioning and homeostasis of your body. So simply-the better your body operates and feels the stronger it will be to fight off pathogens. One of the best ways to improve your immunity is through your diet. If your body is nourished well with adequate amounts of proteins, fiber, fats, and carbs-it fuels your immunity systems to work with peak performance. Being physically active and having adequate muscle mass improves your immunity. It's important to stay moving during the winter months for this very reason. Prioritizing enough sleep also boosts your immunity by allowing your body to recharge and be strong enough to fight off pathogens. You might see certain products touting to improve your immunity like a certain tea, or supplement, etc but remember the way they might be improving your immunity is through supporting your natural body's function. Turmeric is not going to fight off the flu. What it can do is improve your inflammation levels that will in turn improve your body's functioning and strength. So if you are taking turmeric or other supplements and still get an infection, virus, etc-there are probably other areas of your body's health that need to be addressed and improved like sleep, diet, etc. 

There are things you might be doing that are harming your immunity such as smoking. And not just tobacco/cigarette smoke-ALL smoking such as vaping, marijuana, and other illicit drugs. Alcohol consumption also impairs your immunity as well as being overweight. 

https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-weight-growth/about/enhancing-immunity.html

Vaccines and immunization shots can be an extremely divisive topic. I am not trying to convince anyone to do any certain thing (this is not medical advice) but I would like to educate on how vaccines and immunizations work and you might learn something you didn't know before! 

According to the WHO: 

Vaccination describes the use of vaccines to stimulate your immune system to protect you against infection or disease.

Immunization describes the process of making you immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically via vaccination.

There are different types of vaccines: inactived, live attenuated, mRNA, subunit/conjugate, toxoid, or viral vector. All of these have different mechanisms of action and most rely on herd immunity meaning that if one person alone gets the vaccines it doesn't make you immune to getting it. Approximately 90% or more of the population would have to be vaccinated for most vaccines to protect against certain infections. This is why we sometimes see outbreaks of infections like measles or mumps in recents years. 

The flu shot is an inactivated strain of the virus that is injected to allow your body to develop antibodies. So while yes-it can help prevent you singularly from getting the virus it works at its full effectiveness with herd immunity in place. In the past two years the percentage of the population receiving the flu shot was ~40-50%. So if you got the shot and still got the flu-this is partially why because the percentage wasn't high enough for herd immunity. 

Once again-I'm not trying to convince anyone of any certain decision (this is not medical advice) but I know that I had NO idea of any of this until I was in PT school. 

In summary, there are lots of ways you can improve your immunity through diet, exercise, sleep, immunizations, and reducing/eliminating your use of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.