A proper diet, a lifestyle that involves physical activity, managing stress and acquiring enough sleep are four ways to build a solid foundation for better health, a doctor suggests.
“Regardless of what we do in medicine, whether it’s supplements, pharmaceutical medication, surgery (or) treatments of any sort of modality, if we don’t have this foundation of health imprinted, then we’re never going to get 100 per cent of our outcome here,” said naturopathy Dr. Joel Guillemin.
The Moose Jaw Public Library hosted Guillemin via Zoom on Nov. 5. The naturopathic doctor talked about how people can boost their immune system and maintain good overall health.
Proper foods
Diet — including what to eat and how much water to drink — is one of the biggest factors in a healthy system, Guillemin said. Healthy diets should limit sugar intake, processed foods, and alcohol, and be high in whole foods.
“It’s just interesting that after decades of all the research on diet and nutrition we’ve done, we’re still hitting these important messages,” he remarked. “It shows in our North American diet (that) we’re still struggling with this concept here.”
Each person requires an individualized diet or food plan since that’s the best approach, he continued. A person’s genetics and environmental factors can play a big role in what the body can handle.
Three popular fad diets right now are the Mediterranean diet, Paleolithic diet and ketogenic diet. The common link among them is they all propose to limit sugar and carbs or starches.
“Sugar is the biggest problem for our body. It messes up our immune system,” said Guillemin, noting people should limit their intake of it.
The best foods to boost the immune system include mushrooms, garlic, onions, shallots, turmeric, ginger, cayenne, spinach, kale, leafy greens, almonds, nuts, seeds, Greek yogurt, olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil.
Healthy lifestyle and physical activity
Whether people take part in strenuous exercise or light activity, they should engage in it regularly and take an individualized approach to it, Guillemin said. Exercise options could include running, lifting weights, yoga, qi gong, prayer or meditation, along with daily activities such as chores or gardening.
“I like to see people get a little bit of everything (for exercise) … ,” he remarked. “Muscles need to move to rid the body of cellular debris.”
Stress management
Stress can be good since it prepares us for our day or readies us to give a speech, said Guillemin. However, many people experience negative stress; the body produces cortisol, which suppresses or turns off the immune system and makes us prone to illness.
Some ways to reduce stress include breathing exercises, meditation or prayer, journalling, art or music therapy, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Sleep habits
Sleep hygiene is the actions we take to prepare ourselves for bed, including reducing screen time before bed, he explained. An increase in screen use at bedtime or in bed is getting worse, especially among children. The white and blue lights that our devices produce stimulate the brain, but red light tells the brain to produce melatonin and go to sleep.
Some ways to encourage the body — or the parasympathetic nervous system specifically — to sleep include drinking warm herbal tea, gargling with salt water and reducing the blue and white lights of screens and devices.
Other ways to boost the immune system include taking supplements such as vitamin D, zinc, glutathione, probiotics, fish oil, and vitamin C. Antiviral options include amino acid lysine, oregano oil, grapefruit seed extract, and vitamin A.
Physical medicine could include massages, acupuncture, infrared saunas, IV vitamin therapies — known as Myer’s cocktail — and hydrotherapy.
“The immune system is very complex and constantly in a state of fluctuation,” Guillemin added. “Everyone requires an individualized approach when managing their immune system.”
