With mass public transit, sick co-workers, unwashed door-knobs, and now the Chinese Wuhan virus, pathogens seem to be all around us. Read on to find out how to improve your immune system and fight off viruses.
I think we’ve all seen someone on the train wearing their face mask backwards by now. While they are trying in good faith to prevent the spreading of one particularly feared virus, they aren’t making as much of an impact as they hope. It seems all everyone is talking about these past few days in Singapore is influenza, the coronavirus, the global spreading of it, and the concerns of it developing into pneumonia and becoming deadly for select populations.
Today I want to sit down and talk about something critical to us, your Immune System, how it works, and how we can get your body to its most optimal function. Since our Immune System is complicated, and always ever adapting, we need to be smart and create a solid strategy to promote a natural and healthy defense.
How Does The Immune System Work?
Your body is highly complex, and one of the most basic tasks is to differentiate all of the body's internal moving parts versus foreign invaders that can cause harm. This is no easy task. Imagine a symphony conductor with trillions of musicians, all playing different songs, interacting with each other, and somewhere in the chaos there is organization.
Since your brain has to control, regulate, and adapt to so many external and internal factors, interference in this system can often open pathways for pathogens to get in. Many people with allergies understand how strong a reaction your body can have to something as small as a little dust or pollen. If the brain is not “in sync” and incorrectly considers it hostile, allergy symptoms can occur.
White blood cells are most notable for searching through the body for foreign invaders. If a particle, virus, bacteria, etc has been “tagged” by the body, it then sends reinforcements to break down and eliminate it
Antibodies can recognize antigens (protein signals on the surface of the virus) and can then eliminate them. But viruses are very tough devils, they are not actually alive and replicate inside of your cells. Viruses also mutate very quickly, which can make your Immune Systems detecting job even that much harder!
If your body senses enough of an attack (infection), your immune system sounds off an alarm, often creating a small fever. Believe it or not, this fever is HEALTHY and helpful for you to kill viruses and bacteria. Your body innately knows that these foreign invaders don’t survive well at higher internal temperatures, so it “cooks' them to slow down their replication and function. As long as temperatures in adults don’t go above 40℃, it may be best to let the body run a fever naturally to help you rid the pathogen.
How Does Chiropractic Help My Immune System?
Your brain, spinal cord, and all the exiting nerves make up your Nervous System. This is the main highway of information, communication, and organization for your body. In order for your immune system to mount an effective effort, it needs to have precise up to date information about the virus, and which cells are infected and not infected.
Chiropractor’s detect and correct Subluxation, or interference in your nerve system. When blockages are removed with an Adjustment to the spine, your body can more effectively communicate and organize a proper immune system defense.
“Growing evidence suggests that immune function is regulated in part by the Sympathetic Nervous System. Sympathetic nerve endings densely innervate lymphoid tissue such as the spleen, lymph nodes and thymus”
Many patients come into our clinic with neck pain and low back pain, but with a detailed Chiropractic exam we find that their bodies are also in a very sympathetic dominant and stressed state! Most people are shocked to find that people under Chiropractic care often feel results other than pain relief, like improved sleep quality, less irritable, less sinus trouble, less sick, improved energy levels, and more!
At Align Chiropractic, we do more than just palpate and feel where spinal problems and pain are located, we actually test your Nervous System with state of the art spinal scanning technology to see how best to increase your overall health, including your Immune System!
This is a specific scan of the Nervous System utilizing heart rate variability and can show the neurology balance of your body. Sympathetic dominant (left side) is often associated with people who keep pushing themselves mentally and physically, with their body not being able to recover from the strain of events and their lifestyle. We often find people who track very sympathetic are on and off with colds and the flu, and show signs of a weak immunity.
With consistent Chiropractic care and lifestyle modifications, we can see improvements of their neurology as they get closer to the optimal green box, where best health can be found.
What Other Evidence Is There That Chiropractic Helps Immune Function?
Your spine handles and holds years of stress from forward head posture with phones to old falls and injuries. These restrictions, or Subluxations in your spine, typically slowly build up, and are often not felt until they become a big problem years later.
After fifteen minutes of a Chiropractic Adjustment, neutrophils (white blood cells) have been shown to be significantly activated. Interleukin-2 (another part of your Immune System), which influences the development of the immune system and activating other defenses, has also been shown to be increased after one Adjustment!
“It is well understood that increased stress reactions play a suppressive role in immune function and participate in disease processes. Studies demonstrate that the Chiropractic adjustment is followed by decreased stress reaction as seen in decreased cortisol levels and increased endorphin levels.”
In one study in 2006, they showed significant immune system improvements in people getting maintenance Chiropractic Adjustments at 3 month and 9 month assessments! All patients stayed within healthy and normal reference ranges as their health continued to improve.
So not only does Chiro treatment feel good, relax achy and stiff joints, it also supports proper immune system function.
To get checked, and see if you are at risk of having a sympathetic dominant state, give us a call or text at +65 8830 9420 or email us info@alignchiropractic.com.sg to do a detailed Spine and Nervous System check-up.
