Is your immunity top of mind these days? You’re not alone.
Join Dr. Josh Axe on this special Q&A episode as he tackles YOUR pressing immunity questions head-on to empower you with science-backed solutions.
Get ready as Dr. Axe reveals:
* His top daily to-do’s and don’ts for naturally raising white blood cell counts
* Whether cold showers actually help fend off sickness
* The shocking impact oral health has on overall immunity
* Surprising strategies to reverse autoimmune disease
With immunity dominating conversations in the midst of cold season, this is one Q&A you need to tune into! Walk away with over a dozen of Dr. Axe’s top immune-supporting recommendations so you can start fortifying your body’s defenses immediately. You’ll also discover surprising immunity insights you can apply to safeguard your health and that of your loved ones this winter and beyond.
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ABOUT DR. JOSH AXE
Dr. Josh Axe is a leadership expert, entrepreneur, and physician. He earned his doctorate from Palmer College and his Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Johns Hopkins University. Josh is the cofounder and CVO of Ancient Nutrition and founder of DrAxe.com. His company ranked on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies two years in a row. He is the bestselling author of Eat Dirt, Keto Diet, and Ancient Remedies. Josh is the founder of Leaders.com, an online platform that provides the latest on breaking news, leadership, business, and wealth. He regularly teaches lectures and trains entrepreneurs on leadership, mindset, and self- development. Josh is married to his wife, Chelsea, and they have two daughters. They live between Nashville, TN and Dorado, PR and enjoy cooking, staying active swimming and cycling, and prioritize time for their faith and family. His latest book, Think This Not That, will be available nationwide April 2, 2024.
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DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Josh Axe and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither Dr. Axe nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program.
what are your top daily to-dos and don’t do to build immunity how can I boost my baby’s immunity if she’s under the age of one breastfeed okay Co affects the blood here are some of those things that I have found when I worked with some patients and clients that helped them overcome this these long covid symptoms something has happened in your past and you haven’t let go of it that causes autoimmune disease do you hear that welcome to show I am Dr Josh ax hey every week on the show I cover the science behind how to grow yourself your health your wealth and take your career your spirituality and relationships to the next level hey I recently did an episode on the immune system and I got so much feedback that I decided to do a question and answer session where I answer your most commonly asked questions there we put a post up on Instagram and got some great questions so excited to dive in and I’m going to be talking about immunity for many things during pregnancy for infants for children for adults both flu and cold season and autoimmunity and allergies and Asthma all on today’s episode so I’m going to Dive Right In and start answering your questions by the way if you’re watching on YouTube feel free to ask additional questions that I’ll try and cover in the future and if you’re not on Instagram follow me on there because that’s that’s where we actually get a lot of the questions where I can then uh answer here on the podcast okay here’s the first question what are your top daily to-dos and don’t do to build immunity and raise white blood cell count okay so if you want to raise your white blood cell count by by the way white blood cells are your body’s Defenders they’re going to go and Gobble up and take care of infections it could be viruses parasites bacteria mold but white blood cells help you do that and it really is important that your system is robust and strong and it’s able to produce plenty of white blood cells so here are ways to naturally raise your white blood cells uh according to medical research the first is spend at least 20 plus minutes a day outside in the winter and then other times of the year an hour plus outside so the more time you spend outside the better your immune system is I think a lot of times there’s this misconception that well hey during the winter I just shouldn’t spend any time outside now I do want to preframe this and say my wife grew up in northern Minnesota and I’ve got a lot of Canadian friends and if it’s negative 40 out don’t spend time outside okay but if you in like I’m in nashille Tennessee and let’s say it’s a bris 25 degrees out go on a walk still get outside now if it’s rain if it’s raining or it’s sleep and the or the winds are blowing 40 miles per hour then that’s not good either if there’s way too much wind and way too much dampness and you’re out for hours that can be hard on the body but if it’s at all a nice day um spend as much time outside as possible and if it’s in the 20s or teens hey bundle up but still get outside even if it’s just for a 20 minute walk at breakfast and at lunch so so that’s key so spend and and listen if it’s spring if it’s fall if it’s if it’s summer then and and the weather is nice then you want to spend hours outside so really the more time you spend outside the healthier it is for your body and so one practice I love is doing a spiritual walk in the morning where I will maybe pray and I’ll listen to the Bible on audio or I’ll meditate while I walk but I’ll do that for 20 minutes right when I wake up right before after breakfast and then I’ll do that right around lunch and so I’ll eat lunch I’ll go for a brisk walk maybe I’ll do some calls something like that uh during that time as well so I think the more that you can walk and be outside that actually helps build your white blood cell count one of course is vitamin D but also what it does for your eyes your circadian rhythms it starts resetting hormones in your body that also help strengthen your organ systems which will indirectly increase your white blood cell count so that’s answer number one to how do you build your immunity and increase white blood cell count here’s the other thing is diet-wise certain foods will help white blood cells and they tend to be foods that are white or light yellow so ginger garlic right but what is the color of those they’re both light yellow chicken bone broth that’s light yellow miso soup Okay so miso that comes from chickpeas that’s light yellow so the more you can get a lot of these light yellow Foods in your diet that are immune boosting gangal is another one that will really help also getting plenty of protein that’s been shown to help you create white blood cells so especially wild CAU fish chicken and red meat so wild CAU fish chicken red meat cooked vegetables you want to do less raw to support your immune system you want to do a lot of cooked vegetables like in soups or steamed vegetables would be fantastic it could be be carrots broccoli caul flow cabbage spinach but steam them and then you could eat them with something like hummus or just a little bit of salt and oil um uh spec specifically olive oil or coconut oil healthy fats like olives and olive oil I mentioned coconut there as well and a little bit of avocado and then some fruit and rice that’s the ideal diet for improving white blood cell count again it’s meat it’s vegetables it’s a it’s a moderate amount of fat very small amount of fruit like blueberries or pears and then getting some a little bit of rice cooked uh that’s ideal that’s an ideal immune system diet so like a chicken bone brth soup perfect uh next here would be take vitamin uh take zinc vitamin D and A B complex in clinical studies those were shown to be the best for white blood cell count now vitamin C may also be beneficial as well but zinc and vitamin D are the top two and I want to encourage you when you take vitamin D It’s good to take that in a combo formula where it also has vitamin K in it I think there’s some benefits there as well and one of the things I encourage a lot of people to do if you’re like well that’s a lot of things to take it’s zinc and it’s vitamin D and an A B complex well there’s a lot of companies that sell immune system multivitamins and I’m just going to share the one I personally take it’s by ancient nutrition and that’s a company that I co-founded with Jordan Rubin but they have a really amazing multi that Jordan Rubin specifically formulated that I know I take my wife Chelsea takes and it has extra levels of zinc and vitamin D in it in certain B vitamins so it’s an immune multi um there listen there’s a few brands that sell them so again I just don’t want to be biased here so whatever you want to take there there are now make sure it’s a food-based brand that has really high quality but again I take the immune multi by ancient nutrition because it has extra doses of those but that’s a good way to get a lot of those in another thing would be take herbs I love a stralis I think a stralis is one of the best herbs for uh raising white blood cell count in fact in clinical studies arist and eonia another herb have been shown to do that also ginger garlic and medicinal mushrooms like turkey tail uh have been shown to increase your white blood cell count so those would be the top sort of herbals and remedies estris eonia ginger garlic and mushrooms all right next question here do cold showers help boost immunity yeah actually do you know I was reading a study this was a a Dutch study done and they did it on nearly 3,000 people and what they found was is now here’s how this would work in the study they went in and um and you started off with a warm shower but then they turned the shower temperature down for 30 seconds 60 or 90 seconds and they did that for uh it well they of course they did it for amount of time I just said 30 60 or 90 seconds and then they they they might have just got out or they might have turned it back up for a minute and then got out of the shower well this is amazing this stud and by the way this wasn’t a small study it was 3,000 people so this is quite a few they found that those people who took those cold showers okay and by the way it’s not a cold shower the whole time it’s just turning it down for about one minute getting it cold those people reduced their risk of Cold and Flu by 30% so they had 30% less likely to take time off for sickness than those in the control group that’s pretty amazing a 30% reduction in getting sick or sick time off work work because you just for one minute in the shower a day when you’re taking your shower you turn it cold and by the way I I’ve actually found too that those people that do that it does something else to them one it makes their body more resilient it helps them increase white blood cells strengthens immunity but I also think it strengthens their mindset I think it makes you a more resilient person to say you know what listen it might sound silly hey I’m turning it down for one minute for 60 seconds and standing you know in cold water in the shower but it makes you a more resilient person in life so I want to encourage you it seems like such a small thing but sometimes doing those small things can make a big difference in your health and in your life so start doing cold showers just 60 seconds a day next question here how can my pregnant daughter build her immunity safely do you have any home homemade cough remedies as well so so this is always a challenge you know when you’re in pregnancy because there’s very very few herbs or supplements and things you can take but there are some things you can take some things you could do uh one thing I would say is if it’s not cold and miserable out right so again if it’s raining if it’s super windy but if it’s generally nice out spend time outside go going back to that thing I that question I answered earlier spend time outside especially walking when you’re pregnant and getting some sunshine that’s first the next is a couple herbs that are approved in just normal doses like in a tea or if you’re doing a you know quarter teaspoon in a meal is ginger and cinnamon Ginger Ginger especially in studies has been shown to to decrease cold and flu symptoms and strengthen your immune system so drinking G ginger tea waking up first thing in the morning doing and by the way you can also do a chai tea because a chai has ginger and cinnamon in it but doing a more organic natural with nothing added chai tea ginger tea that would be really really good for pregnancy the other thing was eat foods that are really going to nourish and strengthen the immune system like chicken vegetable soup okay so you’re doing organic chicken lots of vegetables like carrots and celery garlic onion rice you could put a little bit of miso in there uh a little bit of ginger in there and doing that soup regularly is fantastic okay so soups in general and doing meat and vegetables that’s going to help strengthen the immune system and it’s very very good for pregnancy doing those types of soups and then in addition doing some vitamin D and zinc some vitamin C just taking some extra vitamins and minerals can also help build immunity during pregnan see and I think also just making sure your rhythm is good being able to take some time relax connect with friends laughter so being able to improve your M mood and have more joy that also can help build your immune system and so I think being able to be around people that are encouraging that are loving scheduling time with family trying to build that sort of Harmony and peace that’s also going to help strengthen the immune system during pregnancy next question my baby keeps catching viruses and colds how can I boost my baby’s immunity if she’s under the age of one everything on the market seems to be Age Two Plus well because we’re not talking face to face I don’t know your exact situation but I will tell you by far the most beneficial thing that you can do as a mom if you’re breastfeeding is H is breastfeed okay so so between that age of zero and one and even Beyond really up to 18 months and Beyond um breast milk is is is the most profound and incredible immune booster on the planet for kids now it’s normal for kids to get sick right that their noses should be running uh that’s just normal their their immune system is is being strengthened at this time but I will say um breast milk is key and I want to give you two scenarios here one is you are able to breastfeed okay if you’re able to breastfeed and and I’m assuming by the way that this is a mom asking it could be a dad as well and so this could be on behalf of your spouse or your your your you know your your significant other there um breast smoke is the best it has colostrum it’s high in B vitamins and fat things there’s actually things in breast milk we don’t even know we’re not even able to measure that boost the immune system that’s the reality there are things we haven’t even discovered yet probably that actually are there nourishing the immune system so it’s amazing so what I would say is as the mom there uh making sure their diet is very good okay so the mom is eating a lot lot of vegetables a lot of fruit staying away from allergens like wheat and dairy products like when we had Arwin Chelsea um noticed that you know Arn’s body would react if she ate certain things and so Chelsea really went on a diet here’s what it was it was meat vegetables and rice and it was BL just and salt meat vegetables right and salt rice and salt and that’s what she did really consistently she might also do a little bit of ginger tea okay she did that and then and then we noticed uh Arn’s just you know really really really was thriving on that diet her digestive system her immune system so I would say as the mom that’s the most important thing I think maybe getting some probiotic so and by the way anything the mom gets that’s healthy can be passed on to the child so I think the mom taking very good care of eating very healthy taking the right vitamins and supplements like zinc and vitamin D um colostrum you know the Elderberry um bone br and collagen like getting those things in the diet I think is tremendously beneficial now let’s say there’s a scenario where uh there there there’s a there’s some for some reason where you can’t breastfeed that’s not the ideal the ideal is what I just shared but let’s say you can’t okay if you’re in that scenario then I would say making sure the food that they’re eating you know infant formula 99% of it is just terrible it’s terrible so I would say really put your child on a diet of meat and cooked vegetables and fruit and rice meat vegetables fruit rice maybe sweet potato maybe but but that’s that’s really the majority of it so making sure they’re not eating packaged foods with additives all the stuff all of those things are going to affect the baby’s immune system so there are no specific supplements really you can do a little bit of probiotic powder uh but but outside of that I think that that’s those are the big things okay I think here’s the other thing with a baby getting them some sunshine so when rwin was 0 to one like I would bring her her outside or uh and I would I would hold her and I would flip her around and get about 10 minutes on each side of her body of direct sunlight even in the winter and if I would go outside and it wasn’t too cold I would hold her and then if not I would stand in the window or I would sit in the window and I would hold her and I would turn her around making sure she’s getting sunlight so that’s the other thing you want to do is make sure you’re getting sunlight and of course love and care you know that sort of sort of virtuous um you know nourishing home is very very important for child’s immunity as well that they’re safe protected that they’re being held uh all of those things help but by the way it’s hard I want to just kind of empathize here with you for a minute because I know when Arwin when she was like a month old we remember Chelsea I it just being so hard when she just was not feeling well right it’s so hard as a parent you would take on and bear that you know that suffering for them and so I know that’s a it can be incredibly difficult next question here what are the top things that help children’s immune systems especially asthmatic children during the winter well you know it depending on age let’s say you get over 2 years old or let’s say between the ages of six and 18 I would say that getting them some herbs in their diet turmeric ginger rosemary and garlic have all been shown to strengthen the immune system now um you know they might if your kids are too small to uh to take a capsule which they could do tumeric they could do Ginger they could do Rosemary they could do garlic and capsule but even if not if you’re making a chicken soup throw a bunch of garlic in there throw a little bit of Rosemary in there when you’re making chicken if you’re making beef sprinkling just a little bit of turmeric so adding some of those herbals to their diet will help strengthen their immune system the other thing that I love that we give our daughter right now is we give her collagen and bone broth protein okay we really believe that bone broth I mean you probably know this but chicken bone broth has been consumed for thousands of years it was recommended by ancient Physicians to help nourish the immune system right when we ever we were sick as a kid I remember when I was sick my mom gave me two things chicken noodle soup which by the way the noodles were terrible she had good intentions and the other thing was uh well I would get like seven up but the reality is my mom used to give me ginger ale which by the way the ancient Chinese remedy when you’re sick or you have a child that’s sick is to give them ginger tea and chicken bone broth soup okay and it’s mostly broth maybe a little bit of vegetables and a little bit of chicken but that’s that sort of ancient recipe and sometimes a little bit of rice but but again somehow over time at morph to seven up and chicken noodle soup with MSG but if you you know if you’re a parent who knows what you’re doing like I know you do then you want to go and your children are sick or not well you want to give them a lot of chicken soup is very very good for them getting a lot of the herbs like ginger it’s CZ in turmeric a little bit of rosemary garlic and then also if you want to give them a shake put a scoop of bone broth protein put a scoop of collagen in there those are going to help uh help their their their overall health in addition to that I would say um eliminate common food sensitivities like Dairy and wheat you know look at their diet less snacks I see a lot of kids with these issues they’re just snackers they’re always eating something out of a package and if your child throws a fit and says they want the food well you know what they cannot eat for a couple meals and they’ll eventually start to eat sometimes as a parent you have to do that hard thing of saying you know what um I know you may not like this diet but you can’t continue to do the conventional Dairy you can’t do the wheat I love you too much and so and and and and by the way that could be seen as controversial but I would I’ll just tell you what I would do if if Arn just said hey I will only eat junk food then then I would be okay with her not eating a meal or two now we would do everything we can to get vegetables and fruits and those things in her diet but eventually by the way I’ve done this plenty of times I I I worked as a functional medicine doctor working with uh a lot of children on the autistic spectrum and this was a battle that parents went through to get their kids to eat healthy but eventually and and by the way there there’s an element of negotiation here hey you want chicken nuggets well you can’t have this brand that has wheat and and and gluten and all these things that we know are continually causing neuro and and digestive inflammation but we are going to find a brand maybe that’s a lot healthier so even though it’s not the perfect meal at least it’s a step better so that’s what you want to continue to do is migrate your kids towards something better less snacks less conventional Dairy less wheat less GMO corn less all the JK food and more real food meat vegetables fruit whole grains like rice next question what is the role of oral hygiene in overall immunity and health well uh according to clinical studies um H oral hygiene is most tied to heart health there are several studies that show both in Animals by the way and in humans that if you have poor Dental Health it increases your risk of heart disease so there’s a really close connection and I think part of that is due to if you have gingivitis or some sort of these low- grade infections that are happening within your mouth um you know the first thing affected is your blood and your heart I mean they’re very these systems are they’re very they’re very close together overall I want to share another just a quick example of this too I had a family recently that I was just giving some advice to some some health advice and they had a daughter who was getting um she she had an infected tooth and they didn’t realize it it’s gone on they noticed her immunity was really low for a long time well they ended up and listen they this wasn’t the first thing they wanted to do but they ended up extracting one of the teeth and boom all of a sudden the girls immunity for the next couple years just got just got to be great so they were sharing this with me and we actually had a dog once and so this is obviously not a human example but we had a dog once who we didn’t know had an infected tooth uh and for a year he just was just didn’t seem like himself and he was probably like seven years old and then we got that tooth extracted and and got rid of that infection and boom I mean we Chelsea and I joked around our saying what was you know he’s he’s you know he’s hopping around like a like a young spring chicken cuz he was 8 to you know 13 years old then and he was like a puppy I mean it was amazing what happened so let me say this these chronic infections uh they can be very low grade that happen in our mouths okay um they are definitely tied to our overall immunity so making sure you have great Dental Health now listen Dental Health uh brushing your teeth is foundational it’s one of the things that should in must be done in addition flossing and or oil pulling can make a really big difference okay oil pulling you’re going to put po coconut oil in your mouth uh or and swish it around for five minutes so you can do it while you’re in the shower and then spit that out in the garbage but that those have been been both shown to help eliminate a lot of the bad bacteria both flossing and oil pulling and then here’s the other big thing you know there’s a one of my favorite uh dentist of all time uh is a guy named Weston a pry uh I’m sorry uh Royal Lee okay well there’s a couple of these guys who who who who examined um tribes in Africa and it’s Weston Price but also Royale Lee and Royale Lee went and he studied this African tribe and he found that there was almost their teeth looked almost perfect now they were having other issues but their teeth were just looked brilliant and um and he found it was because their diet they were eating a lot of high they were eating a high fat diet they were getting like you know things like um full fat Dairy and coconut and uh and eating animal fat so they were getting a lot of good fats in their diet and that alone was important so when you look at the studies on oral health and uh and Immunity vitamin A d k and E getting those fat soble vitamins was really important and also eating a mineral Rich diet with a lot of trace minerals you know our soil today has less minerals than it has because of all of our uh all all of our our agriculture practice to do monocrops monocrops mean you plant them one year you have to replant them every year such as is wheat or corn or soy products versus if you’re eating like an apple tree well you’re not continually having to deplete the soil apples just grow naturally every year or blueberries or certain foods and so you’re it’s better for the soil so they tend to have more nutrients if if they let the r land rest every seven years okay so all that being said um you know a lot of people are deficient minerals as well like magnesium and iron and selenium and even you know uh manganese so so making sure that your diet is organic and if you can go to a local farmers market you know they have these good practices or to regenerative agriculture there’s a lot of benefit so your food should have more be more nutrient dense if you’re really conscious of this but also taking a multi-mineral supplement or a supplement that has minerals in it would also benefit the tea so fat soluble vitamins and minerals and if you get a good quality food based multivitamin that would be helpful I mentioned earlier the the immune multi by ancient nutrition is a good one or just their General men’s or women’s multi I I I can only speak to those because those are the ones I take those and I helped formulate a couple of those products um what do you recommend for lingering coughs and colds if if you have a cough and cold that’s just holding on one thing I recommend that listen let’s say it’s been a month and you still have it if you can find an acupuncturist and they can do cupping on you that can really help break up a lot of fleem and get things moving so if you’re a person it’s just chronic just it’s in your chest acupuncture cupping having acupunctur who knows how to do cupping can really really help move things and break it up so that’s my favorite probably natural treatment practice now in addition zinc and vitamin D are good eanaia and aages together really help strengthen the lungs there’s also a mushroom that’s really helpful called Corps so I would say eonia argolis Corp mushrooms are very good and as I mentioned doing a lot of warm soups with like ginger in them that’s also going to help break up that mucus inflam help somebody heal more quickly from a cough um as well and then in terms of a beverage I like ginger tea with a little bit of lemon and honey it’s real simple ginger lemon honey as a tea can also has been shown to help break up those lingering coughs next question we had co uh we had I think he’s saying our family had covid two years ago and ever since then we catch every cold that goes around what can we do one thing I want to mention about this and why I think maybe more people are getting it historically is is that this was a if it listen if it was in fact as most experts believe a lab leak this was a this was a new sort of virus that was introduced to us and sometimes it takes a year or two for your body and your immune system to adapt now the first round I think maybe more people caught it because it was new I mean nobody’s system had dealt with it and was more severe now we see the incredible physiology of humans being to be better able to adapt to this type of virus now viruses are intelligence so they adapt and change as well all that being said one of the things that I found as I did research and I’ve and I’ve also uh looked at the again the research talk to other medical experts and what I’ve seen is covid affects the blood remember that it affects the blood and so even when you go on WebMD and even some of these more conventional sites you’re going to see it says it causes blood clotting which of course can also increase issues like myocarditis which there’s been a huge spike in 20 to 30% according to studies so remember if you want to if you’re still having Co issues a lot of people think well it’s an issue related to my uh some area of your immune system a lot of times people don’t understand there’s so many organs that are acting but your blood is particularly important and your cellular mitochondria that were doing things to heal and help those heal here are some of those things that I have found when I worked with some patients and clients that helped them overcome this these long covid symptoms or got their immune systems back strong again there’s a product called nmn okay it is a NAD precursor and that I believe can be helpful okay that really helps strengthen your ATP and mitochondria good for the blood I like that supplement beetroot juice beet juice helps increase nitric oxide helps with that blood clotting helps with remove the blood I like that as well turmeric is another one I really like Gango which is turmeric’s cousin quatin and bramin quatin helps with those hisam reaction Spike protein that you maybe have heard of and then bramin Spike protein as well some of those benefits but all of these have a similar benefit and that they’re good for the blood and they’re good for the immune system and so these are things that I think NMM beet juice turmeric gangal coratin bromin that have benefits and if I had to add one other to that list I would say zinc is another one that you should consider that I think would really help you know another thing you might consider is getting a micronutrient test it’s a blood test where they take between two and four vials very small all and um and basically test your blood to see what nutrients you’re deficient in and there might be something you’re incredibly deficient in that’s actually still causing these issues because maybe that virus just depleted your body at that time but I would say the big thing is get your blood moving get your blood healthy and from a dietary standpoint again eating beets getting red meat getting lots of green vegetables that are cooked in your diet can all help move and help strengthen your blood which in turn turn can help your immune system one of the last questions here is what are your top strategies for reversing autoimmune disease well I think the thing that we have to look at when it’s autoimmune disease is is recognizing where it begins and it really is with the gut almost every single time and so there’s a condition called leaky gut and basically your gut acts like a net has little holes in it or gaps they’re called Gap Junctions in the scientific literature and those can start to get too big okay those can open up and then things start getting in your bloodstream that shouldn’t get in there could be heavy metals undigested food particles certain proteins like gluten and casine bacteria and viruses they get into your bloodstream and then your body starts attack all your white blood cells go and natural killer cells everything goes there to start to try and get rid of these organisms these compounds that should not be in your blood um and then over time what happens is that chronic infl inflammatory reaction your body can start saying okay we’re going to go on overdrive here and we’re not only going to attack attack this protein we’re going to attack anything that resembles that protein and that’s where your body can actually start attacking its own body part you can start attacking its own thyroid causing Hashimoto thyroiditis it can start attacking the joint spaces causing rheumatoid arthritis so you know of course there’s lupus there’s sometimes Ms and fibri algia fall in that category not always all that being said what you have to do is you got to heal and seal that gut lining and so in order to do that you have to remove the things that are causing the chronic inflammation in the gut you need to remove the gluten and casine and inflammatory foods and fast remove all that stuff and then you want to only consume things that heal the guy that’s going to be foods rich in collagen like bone broth it’s going to be meat it’s going to be cooked vegetables it’s going to be easily digested fruit that you may tolerate well probably blueberries applesauce pears those sort of foods uh in addition um doing um you know a little bit of rice cooked for a long period of time called kanji the ancient Chinese recipe where you put rice in with a little bit of broth cook it until it’s mush and eat that very good for for for reversing autoimmunity as well so that’s really the diet that you should follow and only that until your guts healed and then supplement wise I really like again bone broth protein and collagen I like zinc for healing that gut lining that’s a necessary nutrient Al glutamine is necessary aalis is probably my favorite herbal I mentioned licorice but a straggas uh is probably those are probably my top two uh Ginger is good too um so so so there are a lot of things but generally speaking those one other thing I want to mention there’s an emotional component to autoimmune disease think about what’s happening physiologically your body is attacking itself your body’s attacking itself and according to Chinese medicine if you go back this is connected to something called the metal element it’s really your immune system is your lungs and your colon your colon is where all of 90 plus% of your bacteria your good probiotic itics live so your colon is a massive part of your immune system well certain emotions affect the way your gut works and function and heals and the emotion of grief and that’s where you’re looking at that something has happened in your past and you haven’t let go of it that causes autoimmune disease do you hear that this is huge something happened in your past maybe it was physical abuse maybe it was an emotional trauma maybe that you have a regret you just did something and you messed up and you still have guilt and shame from it you’re still living with shame if you have any of those issues that have happened in the past and you have not emotionally mentally and spiritually resolved them it actually weakens your immune system decreases your overall Digestive and lung function and impacts your immune system negatively so what you want to be able to do is you need to write down what are the things that have happened in the past that still bother me today today what are those things and whether it’s by yourself or with a therapist or with a close friend or a church group whatever it is you need to work through those things forgive let go of and move on and start focusing on and meditating on something I’ve done if I had something in the past and I have had before where I it was bothering me still I would I I went back and I either forgave the person sometimes it’s forgiving yourself and I would go on also and say you know what um God uses all things for good if I wouldn’t have been in that situation where my mom had cancer or where I messed up or did this thing I I would not have learned from it and been able to help other people now and saying I’m going to now focus on the future and I’m going to focus on using this for good you have to change your perspective but again living in the past living with grief that is often tied to depressive symptoms lack of motivation and unforgiveness all those sort of things have happened if you can’t let go of those and move on that actually feeds autoimmune disease one other thing from a mindset and belief standpoints affects autoimmune disease which is your body attacking itself is if you have thoughts where you’re attacking yourself here’s some selft talk I’m just not smart enough oh I’m not worthy oh I’m not good enough oh I messed up oh I could never do that oh why did you do that you’re so dumb those sort of negative selft talk actually shuts down and weakens by the way this is thousands of years old what I’m sharing with you I mean this is thousands of years old of ancient Chinese and Middle Eastern medicine I’m sharing with you right now and so many people today Physicians have taken the mindset and the emotions out of our health but it’s the mindbody connection when you have that mindset where you’re ATT attacking yourself it weakens your immune system so that’s also important for healing autoimmunity is write down what what what are the things I say negatively okay that’s not serving you write down what I should believe and then go and prove it to yourself and start reading books that are uplifting and helping you have more a positive mindset getting rid of those limiting beliefs and that negative selft talk is crucial to Healing hey if I didn’t get to your question I would love to answer hey feel free to ask your questions below also want to say thanks so much for tuning in you know each and every week I’m releasing three episodes a week on the science behind how to grow yourself your health and just take your life to the next level hey make sure to subscribe like and share this and also hey click that ring notification Bell so you know anytime a new episode is released by the way if you haven’t watched yet you need to check out my full episode on immunity where I discuss the immune crisis and go into even greater detail that I did on this Q&A on how to take your immune system to the next level you can watch it right here hey thanks so much for watching
