Immune System Essentials

Have you ever heard an orchestra playing a symphony? Every instrument has a unique sound. Each plays a unique part in the masterpiece. The conductor brings out the best in every musician. Even the acoustics of the surroundings enhance or detract from the performance.

This is an accurate description of the way we harmonize the outside world with our inside world. From the instant of conception our life is a symphony of activity, ever-changing to meet new and varied circumstances. 

The orchestra

Your immune system is the great harmonizer between the world inside your body and the world outside. Many scientists believe that the immune system may also be the “mind-body connection,” the communication system that changes the health of our body in relationship to our values, thoughts and feelings.

Just as an orchestra has sections, such as strings, brass, woodwind and percussion, the immune system has divisions. The first, important division is “active” versus “passive” immunity.

• Passive immunity includes barrier protection like your skin as well as surface resistance from bacteria on our skin, in our sinuses, lungs, digestive system and reproductive system. All mucous membranes work to filter what is supposed to come into our body and what should stay out.

• Active immunity includes two further divisions called “adaptive” and “innate.” The word innate describes something you were born with rather than something acquired along the way. The innate immune system is not really specific; it reacts in whatever way is needed at the time – like the musician that plays multiple instruments. Our adaptive immune system “goes to school” to adapt or adjust to its environment. It is very specific, often doing only one thing to contribute to harmony. Elements of our immune system can learn from experience and help us adapt to changing circumstances.

We need harmony between our mind, body and environment. Our immune system usually provides it. But what happens when things go wrong? What happens if we are exposed to “bad” bacteria, viruses or other pathogens?

Disease and our immune system
Sometimes we ask the wrong questions when we start to experience disharmony in our immune system. Sometimes we ask, in effect, “What makes sick people sick?’” That’s like asking, “What ingredients make bad music?” As pertinent as that question is to a sick person it is usually more productive to ask, “What makes music great” or, “What keeps healthy people well – and how can I be one of them?”

Wellness is:

• Created in the way our immune system interacts with our environment
• Based on our genetics
• Modified by our behavior or lifestyle

Illness is really a disharmony produced by trauma, toxins from inside or outside our body, deficiencies in vital elements like air, water, sleep and nutrients, as well as emotional distress.

In order to help protect against disease and achieve wellness we must restore harmony between our world and our immune system. Immune-system harmony is the exclusive realm of the 10 Essentials!

Immune essentials
We participate in this symphony along with the individual members of the orchestra within our immune system. We are not merely passive observers. A deficiency in any one of the 10 Essentials – Air, Water, Sleep, Nutrition, Activity, etc. – may result in a compromised immune system. Conversely, attention to the 10 Essentials may result in an improved immune system.

Take time to learn how to harmonize your immune system so it works smarter, not harder. 

Live Life #VoxxLife Strong