Video

Transcript

so the question we want to answer today

is why are some people very susceptible

to getting infections and other people

are immune from infections I was flying

somewhere this last weekend and I’m

sitting in this plane and the person

right behind me is just coughing and

hacking and the lady next to me has a

scarf around her mouth and I’m sitting

there trying not to breathe the air in

this plane it was disgusting and I had

no symptoms at all but you always think

that wow I wonder if I’m gonna get sick

because I’m all these floating viruses

and bacteria in this very small space

you never know but let me just define

this word susceptible likely or liable

to be influenced or harmed by a

particular thing and we’re talking about

viruses and bacteria and microbes what

are the key things that make you liable

to be influenced by a microbe well the

first thing you need to know is that

there’s two main parts of the immune

system you have the innate part and you

have the adapted part of the immune

system

now the innate is something you’re born

with it’s a rapid response of your

immune system it already has a

pre-programmed

function and I’m talking about

neutrophils monocytes and natural killer

cells but the Adapted is very different

when you’re born you don’t have this

system developed yet and it’s composed

of t-cells and b-cells

this system requires education and

training so as soon as you start being

exposed to the environment whether it’s

a virus or a bacteria your body starts

reacting and learning and developing a

memory so the next time you’re exposed

to it your immune system knows exactly

what to do this system is always trying

to differentiate between your own cells

and not kill your own cells off and only

focus on the invader microbes and of

course certain people in certain times

of their life start having this system

broken down where they can’t

differentiate and they start getting

self attack or autoimmune diseases

there are five main things that make you

susceptible to getting infections at the

top of the list it’s stress there’s some

interesting research on bereavement

which is the condition that someone’s in

grieving over a loss of a loved one and

they’ve done Studies on that and they

found that your immune system is

suppressed neutrophils okay white blood

cells are actually suppressed and when

your immune system is suppressed it

leaves the back door open to have this

microbe invade and create damage

part of this is controlled by the

flight-or-fight sympathetic nervous

system the other part is controlled by

cortisol cortisol is one of the main

stress hormones produced by the adrenal

gland cortisol suppresses white blood

cells so anytime cortisol is elevated

you are susceptible to getting an

infection now if you have a chronic

stress over a long period of time

cortisol tends to go down and now you

don’t have the buffer the suppressive

force for these hyper immune reactions

so you can also have problems with the

immune system with low cortisol as in a

condition called

Addison’s disease which these people are

usually always sick with viruses just as

much as having high cortisol and there’s

a condition called Cushing’s syndrome

which involves high cortisol so both can

create this susceptibility to this

microbe I mean when you think about

people getting sick many times it

happens after a stress event then we get

into low vitamin D levels okay vitamin D

is probably one of the most important

vitamins to protect your immune system

simply because it modulates or controls

both the innate and the adaptive part of

the immune system so if you are

deficient in vitamin D both of these are

not going to work and you’re not going

to have the defense mechanisms in place

and this is really why people get the

flu in the fall and they get sick in the

winter it’s simply because of the

vitamin D it’s not the cold it’s not the

rain

it’s the low vitamin D this is why I

always recommend taking vitamin D

through the winter months and their in

the summer get more Sun then we get to

zinc very important in immune protection

if you’re low in zinc

your risk for getting strep especially

strep in your lungs

goes way up also you can’t kill bacteria

as well

zinc is present in certain white blood

cells that help kill bacteria and by the

way one billion people on this planet

are deficient in zinc all right number

four vitamin A very important in the

mucous lining of your sinuses of a

respiratory area of your throat vitamin

A is involved in the protective layer on

the inside of the body so if you’re

deficient in vitamin A your risk factors

go up for getting infections in the lung

and by the way I forgot to say this when

you’re low in vitamin D you definitely

your risk factor for viruses of the lung

go way way up but if you’re low in

vitamin A you’re phagocytes the cells

that kill bacteria and clean up bacteria

out of the system are suppressed and it

just so happens that there is something

that has a nice equal amount of vitamin

A and vitamin D and you guessed it it’s

cod liver oil something that your

grandmother probably recommended growing

up okay then we have vitamin C essential

for your immune system and to protect

you against microbes not having enough

vitamin C makes you very susceptible the

phagocytes don’t work anymore you get a

buildup of bacteria you can’t produce

antibodies as well anymore so overall in

summary these are the five things

involved in susceptibility to getting

infections so if you want more knowledge

on how to create a healthy body

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