Stop Doing these 3 Things that is Hurting your Immune System

 [The Foolish Couple are founders of the Foco Academy, nutrition specialists and success coaches. We focus on teaching Jack Canfield’s Success Principles and applying the principles to the 3 areas of life that money can’t buy, that is, Health, Time, and Love Relationship.]

Over the last few months, our daily lives have changed drastically. The Shelter-in-Place order has kept us staying at home most of the time, and we are ordered not to go out unless we have to. We social distance, we wear masks, and we sanitize everything that we touched, we order take-out food and have groceries delivered to our homes. All of  these safety’ measures are supposed to protect us from catching the Coronavirus or if we do catch it, supposed to lessen the severity of the viral infection.

It’s been 6 months since the COVID pandemic, and for most of us, our lives have changed drastically. But has your life change for the better, or for the worse?

Before the SIP order, many of us may have dreamt of the day where you can stay home all day, don’t have to fight the traffic to and from work, and that you can work at home, at your own time.

So, if that’s your dream, then your dream has come true! You are now working from home, you no longer have to fight the traffic, and you get to spend more time with your family.

So, how’s that working out for you?

Is your new life, your new normal, everything that you’ve imagined? Or do you find yourself more annoyed and angrier than ever, having to juggle your work, childcare, cooking, cleaning, and everything else? Do you find yourself getting stressed up and upset over the smallest things? Maybe even feeling depressed and angry over the whole pandemic situation?

The thing is, some people actually turned their life around during the pandemic and they are now happier and healthier than ever. But for many others, that’s just not the case. Are you finding yourself getting annoyed all the time, feeling unproductive, sad, scared and afraid? You find yourself constantly in fear, and having a lot of doubts in yourself?

Do you feel like you’re stuck at home and too afraid to go out? Are you feeling exhausted? Tired all the time? Do you have problems sleeping?

If that’s you, then you really need to stay with us and listen to this. All we ask is that you keep an open mind and really think about what we’re telling you.

If you feel depressed, scared, annoyed, and constantly doubting yourself, then there are 3 things that you must stop doing right now. These 3 things are hurting your immune system, and if you think, that well that’s not you, if you think your immune system is fine, then stay with us.

Your immune system isn’t just about you not catching a cold. It has widespread effect and it doesn’t just affect your health; it affects your whole life. And when you are stuck at home and not going out, you may think that you are protecting your immune system, but the opposite is true. You are compromising your immune health.

The first thing that is hurting your immune system is the fact that you are staying at home all the time. And here’s 3 reasons why.

1. Stress:

I am sure that you can feel your stress level elevated over the last few months. The news puts a lot of fear to the public and got us worried about your health, many people have lost their jobs and have to worry about their finances also. For many couples, their relationships have also taken a toll also. They are fighting constantly, arguing all the time, and just don’t get along with each other. The financial worries, the health threats, and the relationship woes are all stressors in our life. And stress is a silent killer for many people, even if they don’t know that they were stressed out. Stress can lead to depression, give you sleepless nights, and physically, stress drives inflammation in your cells and in your brain,  which can lead to chronic diseases, and stress also lowers your immune system, making you more susceptible to viral infections.

2. Toxic environment

According to the EPA, the air inside your home can be 2-5X more toxic then the air outside. In some cases, it can be 100x more toxic, especially if you are constantly cleaning everything inside your home with strong toxic specific cleaners. You and your spouse, your children, your pets are breathing in all these toxic fumes 24/7. Our lungs are designed to breathe in oxygen and not toxic fumes. Breathing in these fumes can damage our lungs in the long term and make them more susceptible to infection from viruses such at the Covid-19.

3. Lack of movement

 With so many things to juggle at home, who has the time to exercise? And even if you had time inside your home for exercise, where do you do, how do you do it and what equipment do you do it with? Not only does lack of exercise slows down your metabolism, gaining unwanted weight but it also lowers your immune system.

So, the first thing that you have to stop doing is staying at home all the time. Get out of your house once in a while. Go out, get some sun, take a walk. You need the exercise, the sun and the fresh air. You also need some alone time to reset your mind. So, go out to your local park, take in the beauty of nature, breathe in the fresh air to recharge your lungs and your cells with oxygen and get your exercise. You can take a quick jog outside or take a brisk walk which will boost your cardiorespiratory health. You can read about how cardiorespiratory health is beneficial in our earlier blog here. And of course, that added benefit of going outdoors, Vitamin D! Vitamin D boost your immune system and has all sorts of benefits. For more on how Vitamin D is so important and can protect you from the Coronavirus, check it our blog on Importance of Vitamin D.

OK so that first thing that we need to do to boost our immune system is to get out of the house and get some fresh air. It sounds counter-intuitive, and yet it makes sense. We’re not saying go crazy partying or anything like that, but just take a light walk outside is good for your body and it also helps you declutter your mind.

Now the next thing that you need to stop doing if you want to build up your immune system, is this. And it is also counter-intuitive. We’ve seen people stocking up on bleach and Clorox and all sorts of crazy strong chemical cleaners. We’re told that the virus can live on surfaces, so not only are we cleaning everything, we are actually over sanitizing. We are over sanitizing our cars, our homes, the delivery boxes, our groceries and even our clothes. We are washing our hands a thousand times a day. And if you follow the guidelines and use the so-called COVID cleaners, not only are you cleaning the virus, which you may or may not have, but you are also killing good bacteria. Those cleaners literally kill everything. The good and the bad. And while it is generally considered a good thing to kill the virus, it is really bad for your immune system if you don’t have any good bacteria.

And, hey. I hate cleaning the house, so I am happy to just let my bacteria stay where it is. If you love cleaning houses, I would love for you to come over and clean my house, but I would provide you with cleaners that we make ourselves. 

Over sanitizing and cleaning everything is damaging our immune system and lowering the protective innate system our body uses to protect ourselves. Here are three ways that over sanitizing with Covid specific cleaners is hurting our immune system. Here’s why.

1. You are trapped in a toxic box

 The toxicity of the cleaners actually stays inside our homes, and since we are pretty much home all day long, we are essentially creating and living inside a toxic box, breathing poison, as we work, play with our kids and our pets and even when we are sleeping. And if you clean your car the same way. Well, your car has probably about 50 to 80 square feet of space inside the car. So, you are breathing a much higher concentration of deadly toxins while you are inside your car. You are literally damaging your lungs and immune system with every breath you take inside your home and inside your car.

2. You are killing the good bacteria on your skin and in your body

 When we over sanitizing our homes, groceries and clothes, we are not only putting toxins in the air that we breathe. We are killing bacteria on our skin and inside our bodies. Not all bacteria are bad. Bacteria on our skin is our first line of defense for infection. When we over wash our hands, we are drying out our skin which allows bad bacteria to enter our bodies. The chapped skin also allows more of the deadly chemicals through our skin into our bodies.

 Our body has trillions of bacteria! And most of the bacteria is located in our microbiome, inside our gut. This bacteria in our microbiome is very important because 70 % of our Immune system starts in the gut, and when we are killing all bacteria, including those in our microbiome, inside our gut, we are tearing down our immune system making us more susceptible to catch any and all types of diseases and viruses.

Living in a world that is over sanitized and devoid of all viruses and bacteria puts our bodies at risk. It creates superbugs that are more deadly and lowers our body’s innate intelligence to incorporate these viruses in our bodies to cut them down, neutralize them and in some cases use them to strengthen our bodies in the long run.

Did you know that at any one time, the number of viruses in the air is (10³¹). This includes all the different strains of Coronavirus and is 10 million times the number of stars in the universe. There's a similar number of viruses in the ocean, and the same number in the soil, so we are surrounded by viruses, and if viruses kills us, humankind would have been dead long ago.

When our bodies are working properly, our genes have the ability to limit and kill viruses in our bodies to keep them in balance and control for our bodies to fight them off. That is assuming our bodies get all the essential amino acids it needs from foods to make the proteins that make up these genes.

What I’m saying is that viruses are crucial to life on the planet and have a host of beneficial mechanisms to our bodies.

 So, we really need to stop using the highly toxic chemical cleaners and stop over sanitizing.

The toxic chemicals can weaken our lung function, our immune system, mess with our genes and possibly make us more susceptible to super bugs in the future. Instead use safe organic cleaners that you can buy or even better make your own. If soap and water work on your hands, then it works on your kitchen counters too.

Alright. I don’t like being stuck at home, and I really don’t like to clean. So, I am really digging the first 2 points that we’re talking about here and it actually makes sense! The last thing that we recommend that you stop doing, not only does it apply to these crazy COVID times. It actually applies to you all your life.

Stop eating inflammatory foods

 Well what does that even mean? It’s not like I can eat a burger from a fast food restaurant and I immediately get a fever. No. but foods can either be inflammatory, or anti-inflammatory.

When you go out and shop for groceries, or when you order takeout or food delivery, do you think about whether that food is causing more inflammation in your body, which lowers your immune system? Probably not. When you shop for groceries or ordering out, you’re probably just thinking about what you feel like eating, and how they taste like. So, to ask you to think about whether an apple is inflammatory or anti-inflammatory may not be so intuitive for you. But let’s start with these 3 most common simple mistakes you do when you go grocery shopping.

First. Let’s get down to the basics. You are using the wrong cooking oil. And it’s a good chance that if you order takeout, then the oil that is used causes inflammation in the body. If you cook at home, then it is easier to distinguish between good fats and bad fats. Good fats, such as coconut oil and avocado oil, can actually heal the body and help our bodies become more metabolically efficient

Bad oils, such as canola oil, vegetable oils, soybean oils, sunflower and safflower oils. These are most commonly used in restaurants because they are cost effective, handle high heat and because they are tasteless. But these highly processed oils actually cause inflammation inside the body because they are created with high heat through harsh chemicals, solvents and then bleached and deodorized which makes them flavorless and odorless.

So, when cooking at home, go with coconut oil, avocado oil, and olive oils. Choose organic, cold pressed with minimal processing. I also like to use organic grass-fed butter or ghee because they have so much flavor.

Now that we’ve talked about oils, let’s switch over to sugars. And while you may think that you are not eating any desserts, you are still eating sugars. Processed carbohydrates are the same as sugars. So, breads, pasta, rice, they are all sugars. And that’s not all, many of the starchy vegetables and almost all fruits have high levels of glucose, which is sugar. Proteins, if the proteins that you eat are not being used to build muscles in your body, the leftover proteins are also broken down into glucose. So, if you eat more protein then you need, you are essentially eating sugar. And I’m not sure you know this, but your body stores excess glucose inside your fat cells, making you overweight, and lowers your immune system.

So, what can you eat? We’re not telling you to stop eating altogether. Although that’s actually not a bad idea to stop eating for a few days. But really try to stop eating inflammatory foods and go with something that is anti-inflammatory for your body.

It took us over 7 years to really figure out what to eat, and what not to eat. And we are here to help you also, but it is a journey that you need to take the first step.

 What got us started is that in our late thirties, I had IBS, massive joint pains, headaches and was generally miserable to be around. Just eating more veggies and fruits and less carbs didn’t really help much. And it really did not relieve any of my symptoms. We then started on supplementation and we’ve experimented with many different ones to know which ones worked and which ones don’t work. It is really the combination of eating the right foods and supplementation, staying active and improving the quality of our sleep that our lives started to turn around. We knew we were on the right track when both of us actually started to feel healthier and look younger.

So, in a nutshell, stop eating inflammatory foods and start feeding your body with organic fruits and vegetables, grass fed meats, wild caught fish. Stay away from meats with growth hormones and antibiotics, and stay away from produce that are sprayed with glyphosate

Glyphosate disrupts a particular pathway that helps produce essential amino acids that our bodies need. This pathway is called the Shikamate pathway and it blocks the production of phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, essential amino acids our bodies cannot make and must get from our foods.

This is crucial because these amino acids make help make our hormones and many proteins, especially the proteins that create the genes that regulate and keep viruses in our bodies in balance. So, if we don’t have these amino acids in our bodies, we get sick easily.

So to summarize, go out and get some fresh air, stop cleaning with toxic cleaners, and eat clean foods. Just by doing these 3 things, you will notice that your body grows stronger and your resilient to sicknesses and infections. And you will feel healthier, look younger, and you will be happier.

Until next time, love what you live, and live what you love. 

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