01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
Walking is something many of us do without thinking, how walking can promote and even lower our risk of breast cancer so, get out there and walk and take of advantage of walking and the health benefits it offers.
01 - Living My New Norm After Surviving Breast Cancer
Immune System 101: Your Body's Defense Team
The immune system consists of five key components that work together to identify, attack, and destroy pathogens while creating memory cells for future immunity. Lifestyle changes, natural remedies, and supplements can significantly boost the body's natural defense mechanisms to prevent illness and reduce the duration of infections.
• White blood cells, antibodies, lymphatic system, bone marrow and thymus work as a team to defend against pathogens
• Incorporating more fruits and vegetables helps strengthen immunity and can be made enjoyable through techniques like dehydration
• Physical activity like walking or dancing costs nothing but significantly improves immune function
• Creating an optimal sleep environment with dim lighting, cool temperature, and no TV supports immune health
• Natural remedies like turmeric, ginger, and garlic contain anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties
• Vitamin D from sunlight enhances white blood cell function and decreases inflammation
• Zinc protects skin and mucous membranes, the body's first defense line against pathogens
• Probiotics support gut health, which is closely linked to immune function
• Recognizing symptoms early allows for quicker response to colds and flu
• Home remedies like rest, hydration, warm liquids, and humidifiers can reduce symptom severity
If you like what you heard, please hit that like button, subscribe, and the bell notification button to be notified when I release new and exciting podcasts. Also, check out Silver Tea where I cover many of these topics in detail with recipes and more health information.
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Hi, my name is Sherry and welcome to my podcast, holistic Harper, and this episode is about boosting your immune system, and I just want to do a brief overview of the immune system and the five members on the team. We have the white blood cells, the antibodies, the lymphatic system, the bone marrow and the thiamus. These are the five members on your immune system team and they have a big job and we're going to go over how they work. They work by, they work together by identifying pathogen just trying to make its way into your body I'm going to call it unauthorized pathogen Into your body. They see it, they attack it, they destroy it and they create memory cells and then they create immunity. So the next time this unauthorized pathogen makes its way into your body, your body already have all the information it needs to destroy it. Now, how do you boost your immune system? I think that is important and I'm going to start with lifestyle change. Lifestyle change we're going to aim to change the way we eat, or we're going to add more vegetables and fruit, protein and grains into our body, into our diet. We're going to try to eat more lean proteins like chicken. We can do more vegetables and we can do more fruit.
Speaker 1:I was just in the store the other day and I saw these very large strawberries. They were huge and I said who eats strawberries this big? And I said, today I am going to eat those strawberries this big. So I got these very big strawberries they were like the size of small apples and I got some navel oranges. So when I got home I sliced them up and I put them in my food dehydrator and hours later, the next morning, they were nice and dry to the point. If you just snap them they will break like a chip. And if you're thinking that you're eating a chip, you're really just incorporating healthy foods into your body. So you want to make sure that when you make this lifestyle change, you're going to make it fun. I absolutely love the dried oranges, the sliced oranges. They're beautiful and they they snap like a chip. I would. They're all gone. Let me just say that I tore them up. They were delicious.
Speaker 1:Exercise we want to make sure that we are getting our walks in and you can even incorporate some dancing. Shape your romp shaker, shake it, shake your rump shake. So you want to make sure that you're getting in some type of movement. So exercise is fun and dancing you can do. Dancing you can do walking. Walking doesn't cost us anything. Neither does dancing Doesn't cost us a dime. Go for a walk. When you go for a walk, you're building a stronger immune system, and I'm going to tell you how later.
Speaker 1:Try stress management. Stress management is also another way to build your immune system. So if you're in a situation or you're thinking about something that's really stressing you out, just kind of close your eyes, take a deep breath, just try to breathe in and breathe out, to slow down your heart rate and try to de-stress yourself. Try meditation, another lifestyle change you can do stay hydrated. I find that I do not drink enough water. I do drink a lot of liquids, just not enough water. Water is life. Try to get some water in, so stay hydrated. Try to get some water in, so stay hydrated. Limit yourself from drinking too much alcohol. Maybe one glass of wine a day. I will probably have that glass of wine just before I go to bed.
Speaker 1:The next lifestyle change, which I think is very important, is sleep. Now I was watching this whole news report on that sweet number. That sweet number is around seven. So seven to nine hours is the recommended amount of sleep that you are supposed to get a night. I only get about five or six. But what I do even get five or six is I set up my room for success, and what I mean by that is I try to set my room up for me to get a good night's sleep, or try to fall asleep and get those five to six barely kind of squeaking in seven.
Speaker 1:I turn off my light. I turn my lamp to the dimmest setting that I can get it to. I try to make sure the room is nice and cool, not too hot, and the number one thing is turn off the TV. The TV will keep you engaged. I know it does for me. I am laying there and I'm trying to go to sleep and I'm listening and this lady is in the room and then this monster's in there and she's like I'm like get out, lady. No, turn off the TV. And she's like I'm like get out, ladies. No, turn off the TV, because you're not going to be wondering if she's going to make it out that room or out the house or if she's going to have an accident. Turn off the TV because it's also messing with your circadian system where you have too much light coming in, so no TV. So you're trying to set your room up for success.
Speaker 1:I will have the dimming setting for the lamp that I have. I will have my book light out, I'll have it around my neck and I I will read a nice book. Or I will say, alexa, turn on some sleep music. And it will turn on some sleep music and it would turn on some sleep music. But I always make sure I set it to only run for about two hours, because the same thing that puts me to sleep is also the same thing that will wake me up. So I don't need that continuous noise, I need it to put me to sleep and then it goes off. So I'll let it run for about two, three hours, two or three hours. So it let it run for about two or three hours so it will stop playing in about two or three hours. Let's move on.
Speaker 1:Before I move on to natural remedies and supplements, I want to put my disclaimer in. My disclaimer is I am not a licensed professional doctor. I do not work in the health industry. So I ask you please to consult your doctors before you add any natural remedies or supplements to your diet. Make sure you check with your doctor first, because I made that mistake of and it just seems so innocent I I added this licorice tea to my diet at night. I was drinking it every night for about I guess about a week to two weeks. Oh my goodness, that tea is so good.
Speaker 1:But then I found out this tea actually stops my body from absorbing my medicine. And I found it out because I was starting to not feel well and I went to the doctor. I'm like, look, the medicine you gave me is not working. What's up, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm doing this, that and the other thing. And she said, well, and she's looking it up. Oh yeah, you do licorice. Don't do that. Licorice root tea.
Speaker 1:Some of these natural remedies are stimulants, so you don't. You want to make sure that you're checking with your doctor to make sure they're not interfering with some medicine that you really probably need to be on this medicine. So make sure you consult with your doctor before taking any of these natural remedies and supplements. So let's go over some of the natural remedies that I want to talk about, and we're going to talk about turmeric. Absolutely love turmeric. Turmeric is a new discovery for me when it come down to drinking it as a tea. Turmeric tea has wonderful properties. It has anti-inflammatory properties. What do I hear when I say that? Less pain? The other property that it has is the antioxidant property, so it is very helpful for the immune system. So you maybe want to try some turmeric tea. Check out my video for silver tea, where I did a whole episode on my three favorite teas and you can get a couple recipes with the silver tea. I like to with the on silver tea, my three favorite teas. So check out. Was it my three favorite teas where I did the turmeric where I?
Speaker 1:I will have turmeric after I eat. And why do I? Why did I mention that? I mentioned that? Because I think turmeric is good but it's strong on my stomach and my stomach's a little sensitive. So I like to have turmeric after I eat because it is good for the digestive system and it doesn't have any caffeine in it. So I mean you can drink it at nighttime too, but I like to drink it after lunch. It really gives me, it wakes me up and it's good for pain. So try turmeric tea. Check out my video on my three favorite teas. On silver tea, I will leave the link below so you can check out and get some recipes.
Speaker 1:Because I make my turmeric tea with nut milk and I'm mentioning the milk only because you are going to be trying to help your immune system when you have a cold or when you have the flu and you don't want to have milk like cow's milk that will cause a mucus buildup. You want to have a tea that's like. The nut milk is very helpful. I like to do almond coconut milk or just almond milk, because the almond coconut blend I really like, but I also can do just almond milk by itself. So check out that video, subscribe, give it a thumbs up and hit that bell notification and that way you'll be notified when I release new episodes for the Silver Tea Podcast as well.
Speaker 1:Next is ginger. So far it was the turmeric, which is. It was the turmeric, which is a root tea which is a root, and then it's uh, ginger, which is a root. Ginger is very nice. It's very relaxing, it's very refreshing. It also has a nice property it's an immune stimulator with an antioxidant. So this actually helps stimulate your immune system to be healthier and it also has the antioxidant property. So you can just take a nice chunk of ginger. Just slice it real thin, put it in some hot water and some honey and you're well on your way to boosting your immune system.
Speaker 1:Garlic to boosting your immune system. Garlic Now I was reading about garlic and I like to cook with garlic. I won't necessarily make any teas with garlic, but I will cook with garlic. Garlic is really good in food. It brings a wonderful flavor to food, but I will not eat it raw. I was reading some people just like to pop it in their mouth and just eat it. I am not going to be hanging around that person, but anyway, let's move on past that. So some of the properties that garlic has is antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties that are good and assist with the immune system.
Speaker 1:Citrus fruits them citrus fruits. Like I told you earlier, the lifestyle change. If you want to add more fruit to your diet, I added it by slicing oranges and drying them along with strawberries. Wonderful, really good vitamin c you're adding with the antioxidant along with it. So if you want to just slice a little bit of lemon and some hot water with some honey, lemon is also a cancer fighter. Along with it has rich in vitamin c and it's an antioxidant. So check it out and then enjoy it. You know, I think I think you will enjoy it, because lemon is also good for your digestive system. So I'm going to jump on over to supplements. So remember what I said about supplements Please consult your doctor before you start some of these supplements, because I already told you my experience.
Speaker 1:Vitamin D Vitamin D kind of goes hand in hand with the lifestyle changes that I talked about earlier. You want to make sure that you're getting your walk in, and when you're getting your walk in, you're also getting that vitamin D in there. And when you're getting your walk-in, you're also getting that vitamin D in there. And vitamin D enhances the pathogen fighting effects of the white blood cells and decreases inflammation. Wow, there we go again. What am I hearing? What am I hearing? What am I hearing again? I am hearing less pain. So get out and get your walk in. It is really good to get your vitamin D.
Speaker 1:Vitamin C we can get our vitamin C again. That falls under the category of lifestyle changes and increasing your vegetables and your fruit into your diet. So vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, protects the body from toxins and supporting immune function. So try to increase your vitamin c by increasing. But try I'm sorry, let me rephrase that Try to get more vitamin C by increasing your fruits In your diet and try to make it fun, because when you, when you're changing your diet, you don't want to make it boring, then you don't really stick with it. So try to Find ways to enjoy Changing your lifestyle, changing your diet, because then this way you will stick with it, because you enjoy cooking with ginger or having ginger tea, cooking with garlic or biting into garlic. I mean, if that's your thing, I say go for it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go on to elderberry. Elderberry is also really good for boosting the immune system and it helps reduce inflammation. It also contains antioxidants. So again, elderberry is really really good for the immune system. It actually helps with the immune system. Remember we talked about the five members. That's a part of your immune system. So you want To make sure you give your immune system and your five members of your team Some help. So pass that ball, you know they go. Pass the ball, you know. Anyway, I know. You know what I mean. I'm talking about basketball.
Speaker 1:I'm going to talk about probiotics, because I find it strange that people prefer probiotics in so many different ways and there are different ways that you can get probiotics into your body. Now why am I talking about probiotics? Probiotics is more for the gut health, but your gut works with your immune system. So you want to make sure that you're getting probiotics. And there are several ways that you can get probiotics into your body. You can take it by a capsule. That's how I take mine. You can drink. You can have a drink by. My brother-in-law likes to get these drinks. It's like a fermented something. I don't know what it is, but it has probiotics in it. He has it every day. You can have it in yogurt. I have a friend. She doesn't want to take it as a capsule. She prefers to have her yogurt every day. So gut health, which is closely linked to the immune function, is important. So try to get your probiotics in any way that you prefer, because there are different ways you can get it in. There's also sourdough. It's rich in probiotics and prebiotics.
Speaker 1:Echinacea tea Echinacea may help reduce the duration and the severity of colds and other infections. So echinacea you start seeing echinacea a lot during the cold and flu season because they're trying to get you to drink and boost your immune system during the cold and flu season. So get out there and get your echinacea in Now. I'll save the best for last.
Speaker 1:Zinc Zinc acts as an antioxidant protecting cells from damage caused by the free radicals. What are free radicals? Those are the pathogens that made their way in, and now your body is in a full-out war to fight off these free radicals, and zinc is there to assist. Free radicals can weaken the immune system by damaging the immune cells, so zinc antioxidant properties are vital for protecting a robust immune defense. Now listen to that. That zinc is in there. It's down in the trenches, it's in there fighting.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you more about zinc. Zinc helps protect the integrity of skin and mucous membranes, which are the body's first line of defense against pathogens. A strong barrier can a strong barrier can protect pathogens from entering the body and causing infections. So what you want to do is understand this. Skin is the largest organism on your body. I did a whole thing on how to take care of your skin in one of my Silver T episodes, because the zinc is necessary for DNA synthesis and cell division, both of which are critical to the production and maintenance of immune cells. You hear that that is some serious stuff, so try to get your zinc in. So zinc is a vital, vital, vital, vital to your body. So make sure you try to get some zinc in your body as much as you can, to help that number one first line of defense, which is your skin.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about how you can recognize the symptoms of a cold and flu. The common cold usually starts out with a sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, sneezing and coughing and you feel a little run down. So those are the symptoms that you look for a lot of times. When I'm coming home and I my throat feels sore and I'm saying, oh, oh my god, like why, why, what is I'm catching the cold, that's the first thing I'll be like oh my god, I'm catching the cold. So the first thing I do is I go get some lemon and some honey yes, I do, and I start the process of assisting and boosting my immune system and I try to get some rest. Flu symptoms you have fever, feverish chills, which are very serious because it seems like nothing can get you warm, nothing.
Speaker 1:I remember I had the worst flu of my life when I lived in California. I had to get off from work that day. It was flu and cold season. Somebody must have came to work. I don't know why People just come they sick, stay home. Somebody must have came to work. I don't know why people just come they sick, stay home. So they'll come to work with the cold or the flu. And then I got it. So I had to leave work early, pick up my son and we went to Carl's Jr Because I knew I wasn't going to be able to cook anything for him. I was too weak because I knew I wasn't going to be able to cook anything for him. I was too weak, so we got the star-shaped nuggets, some french fries and a drink and I was living with my uncle at that time, and it was it. I'd never, ever want to see the flu like that again.
Speaker 1:So I, so you got fever, the feeling of fever, chills, cold, sore, throat running and stuffy nose, muscle and body aches those hurt. That's why, when you get your vitamin cn, it has an anti-inflammatory property to it that will help you with your muscle and body aches, reducing the inflammation in your body. Headaches and you are beyond worn out. You are just wiped out, you're. You just can't really do that much. So what do you do when you are trying to treat these cold, the cold or the flu. Some of the some of the prevention. So you already got the cold, you got the flu.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about what can you do to prevent it or just try to stay away from it. Let's start with walking into the house and washing your hands. My, my family already know the first thing you do when you come in my, my, my, my home you wash your hands, wash your. You can either go to the bathroom If somebody in the bathroom, the kitchen is open go to the kitchen. I do know some people that do not like to wash their hands in the kitchen. I just want your hands clean. I'll wipe down the sink when you're done. So just clean your hands, wipe down the sink when you're done, so just just clean your hands.
Speaker 1:Although I feel like this does not need to be said, but you still got to tell people not to rush head face in into seeing somebody sick and then you're gonna go to the house. No, don't go to the house. Give them a call, see they're doing. Stop by in about three to five days. If you see somebody sick, don't go. Sit next to them. They sitting there, coughing and sneezing. They got a box of tissue, uh-uh, do not go sit next to them. The first thing you do is you leave Okay, you out of here.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about some home remedies for the cold and flu. Get plenty of rest and make sure you drink plenty of water. Make sure you also having some nice warm liquids like broth, teas and I get excited when I hear teas and try to have a humidifier in your room. Close the door, turn on the humidifier, because it just makes you breathe better. You get the vapor that's in the air and it helps you breathe while you're trying to recover from the cold or the flu infection. Now, I know that I don't want to mention this, but I want to talk about it real quick.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people want to go to work. They're trying to suppress some of these symptoms by taking over-the-counter medicine. So if that's your thing, do it. I don't like over-the-counter medicine. So if you, if that's your thing, do it. I don't like over-the counter medicine.
Speaker 1:I try to find natural ways to to heal, heal, to heal myself. Or while I'm going through a cold infection, I try to boost my immune system as much as possible. I also use what they call um the clear, like, if you're trying to breathe, there's. There's a natural way you can do the neti pots and the neti pot is just some water and some saline that they give you a little neti pot and they give you like these little packs. They give you like these little packs that you put in here and you fill it up to wherever it tells you to fill it up to and then you just you put it in your nose and do your thing. It's a little messy, but I really do that. It cleans out your sinuses naturally and try to get you to breathe again, because the worst thing is when you catch a cold and one side is clogged up and the other side is like dried up and it hurts from breathing. So that's that. That's in place of over the counter, I would try the natural remedies by using a neti pot or boosting my immune system by drinking warm fluids like broths and teas.
Speaker 1:Now, this is the end of my episode. I hope you really enjoyed it and I hope you got a lot of information from this. Boost your immune system, because we are in the cold and flu season and I really wanted to bring this to you because I feel like this is above and beyond just the cold and flu season. This is also if you are just trying to boost your immune system. So when you do get sick, you can definitely shorten the time of the infection when you are really starting out with a strong immune system immune system. So I wanted to share this information with you so you can try to find holistic alternatives to boosting your immune system.
Speaker 1:So I want to say this if you like what you heard, please don't hesitate to hit that like button below. Please hit that follow button, that subscribe button and the bell notification button. You will be notified when I release new and exciting podcasts. Also, go over and check out Silver Tea, because I cover a lot of some of these things in detail, like recipes for the teas, as well as taking care of your skin, which is your largest organism on your body. So please share this video with someone else that you know that would love to get some nice herbal recipes or just get information on how to take care of your immune system before, during and after you catch a cold or the cold and flu season. So until next time, please, my viewers and my listeners, please have a nice cup of tea. You.