Recently I was asked to write something about immunity. I rarely get sick or have serious pain, but I’ve been working at prevention for forty years. Some of what I do I learned from a very forward-thinking doctor back in the 60’s and some is from things I’ve learned through my studies of health over the years as a Neuromuscular Therapist working with chronic pain patients in the Boston area. There is definitely a connection between a healthy clean body and pain. Health also supports our immune functions. Here are some suggestions and guidelines from my personal program for reducing pain while you boost immunity .

Guidelines:
1) Get rid of waste products and keep them out of your diet (preservatives and additives, processed foods)
2) Give your body regular rests from digestive activity to allow it to take care of itself.
3) Regulate pH, reduce acids and waste (disease thrives in acid environments, acids break down cells and cause pain)
4) Use a diet high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, good proteins like eggs cheese and some meats and seafood, and low in acid-producing carbohydrates and meats, esp. processed meats, refined sugars and white flour (check glycemic index).
5) Take a multivitamin with B-complex, extra antioxidants (like C and E), calcium with vitamin D

Suggestions:

1) Take antioxidants and other nutrients (I take C w/bioflavanoids, garlic, olive leaf, resveratrol, omega-3, E w/selenium, kelp for minerals) Antioxidants reduce oxidative stress that weakens tissue and produces acids that cause pain.
2) Take vitamins for overall health, incl. Vitamin D shown recently shown to protect against infections including influenza.
3) Use herbs for immune support and antiviral correction (search antiviral herbs)
4) Exercise to stimulate immune function and the elimination of wastes
5) Drink lots of water (half your body weight in ounces, more if you drink coffee or alcohol or other dehydrating substances)
6) Increase lymphatic flow (any movement helps, but a mini-trampoline is fun and effective)
7) Support adrenals and reduce stress to prevent adrenal exhaustion
8) Detox, detox, detox
9) Keep liver and kidneys healthy, they keep you clean
10) Keep pH urine levels on the alkaline side. Take alkaline drops or pills to increase bicarbonates in blood after age 45.
11) Exhale CO2, breathe deeply, exhale completely to get rid of waste gasses
12) Probiotics keep good intestinal bacteria and kill the infectious ones
13) Digestive enzymes are important to break down food into molecules that can be used by the body. Poor digestion produces waste that becomes toxic and strains your body’s self-cleaning mechanisms.