Strengthened through challenge and adversity

Our immune system works 24/7/365 and knows exactly what’s wrong with us and what it needs to repair it with, whether it’s better food to work with, more water, more rest, less stress, or more sunshine and exercise. 

The immune system gets stronger first by getting challenged and depressed. It’s like muscle fibers that have been broken down during an intense workout. Our body uses this signal to build the muscle back stronger, to prepare it to handle the physical stress that we have told it that it can start expecting from us. However, if we work-out too hard when we first start exercising or when our body is not fully recovered from the previous exercise routine, we increase the risk or injury and if the injury is bad enough it can put us out of commission for a while. Strengthening our immune system works much the same way, (in how that it strengthens itself through exposures to our surroundings). Just like muscle, if we live in a sterilized bubble for long enough, our immune system will waste away, since it never gets challenged.

Most of us have at one time or the other ate and exercised to get in a certain condition, whether it was taking in more protein to build muscle, or dropping sugar and starch intake to drop body fat levels. Building our immune system works in much the same way. A healthy balanced diet, exercise, plenty of rest and let’s not forget, exposure on a consistent basis to our environment, in-turn strengthens our immune system naturally. And just like overdoing it when exercising, we can also overdo it when exposing ourselves to our surrounding environment when we know we are feeling run down. When we already feel run down, it’s the wrong time to expose ourselves to potential pathogens, but when this happens, it is important to pull back and rest so your body can use the energy for fixing what is wrong. 

We’ve got a powerful system within us that is constantly sending alert signals and gathering defenses to kill foreign invaders as they enter our body. Anaphylactic shock is a good example of how powerful our immune system is, (not something we want to happen but helps us to realize how very powerful our immune system is when it zeroes in on something). 

Our immune system is like a 24/7/365 personal doctor and giving it the tools (healthy habits) to work with is vitally important if we expect it to do its job. After all, the immune system is the ONLY thing that actually heals us.