Maintaining a healthy strong immune system

Today I heard an interview with a doctor on the radio. She reported the recent findings pointing to the stronger immune systems in children who attended child care centres compared to children who stayed at home in more isolated conditions.

Apparantly the children exposed to lots of different germs developed a greater resistance to them. Us paranoid athletes who avoid all contact with others just before major races may not be doing ourselves any favours. Fearing illness is a sure fire way of attracting it into your life.

Last year about this time of year our club ran an event called “Cycos Survivor”. An all night event which involved carrying a log for ten km, swimming across Brisbane River twice, travelling through 1/2 km of stormwater pipes and running 46km. Some observers were shocked at the type of things involved. Swimming in the river, trudging up creek beds and into storm water tunnels. As kids we did these sort of things every weekend, we never got sick.

In the past week I have had contact with two people who have become quite sick after having a flu vaccine shot. Wouldn’t it be better to work on building our immune system up to full strength so we naturally resist the flu germs? The flu vaccine only protects against one variety of flu. A strong immune system protects us against all types of flu, and lots of other illnesses.

Another doctor who was interviewed on the same show a couple of weeks ago, stated that 80% of our immunity comes from our stomachs. The millions of bacteria which populate our stomachs are all working together to protect us from attack.

The benefical bacteria in our stomachs (which is the core of our immunity) can be harmed by poisons on fruit and vegetables. By preservatives in foods. By chlorine in our drinking water. By pollutants in the air we breathe. And most of all by antibiotics.   

Health starts in the stomach. Every nutrient needed to keep your hair healthy, your skin young and flexible, to rebuild your muscles so you become stronger from training, all has to be digested from your food. So your youthful good looks are being maintained by your digestive system collecting enough nutrients from your food to keep repairing your body.

So with the goal of faster swimming, cycling and running,  avoiding illnesses which will prevent us enjoying our passion, we have to watch what goes down our throat. 

Harmfull chlorine can be absorbed by our skin. How many athletes don’t wash their skin with soap after swimming in a chlorinated pool. The chlorine in our drinking water can be filtered out. Relatively cheap filters can stop that chlorine getting into your stomach and killing off your little mates.

How many of us wash our fruit and vegetables well enough to get rid of any pesticides. Slight traces of pesticides can harm our beneficial bacteria. How many athletes are in the doctors waiting room waiting for another dose of antibiotics for every ailment which could very likely be avoided by maintaining a strong immune system. The dose of antibiotics is going to further undermine the body’s resistance to the next bug that comes along.

Don’t get me wrong, antibiotics can save lives. But save them for the life threatening situations and then follow them up with a course of Inner Health, or one of the other pro-biotics.

There’s lots of controversy about drugs in sport. No-one wants to be beaten by someone on performance enhancing drugs. But put that issue aside for a moment and go look in your own medicine cupboard. The painkillers, the anti inflammatory drugs and a lot of other potions which are only necessary because the body is unable to do the job it was designed for. All of these chemical cocktails which you faithfully wash down your throat may be harming the immune system designed and tested by nature over the past million years.

I’ve identified a problem, I should offer an answer.

The healthy athletes diet should consist of 60-70% fresh fruit and vegetables (organic where possible and always well washed) Raw fresh salads should be eaten often. Some vegetables, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower are more easily digested if steamed. 

Preserved or smoked meats should be eaten rarely, as a treat maybe. (bacon, ham, corned meat, seafood extender, whatever that is, processed chicken, you wouldn’t want to know what that was made from) the preservatives in these foods are designed to stop the natural breakdown of these foods. What do you think happens when you dump them into your stomach and expect the guys inside to break them down. They do their best but they die by the millions trying.

Fresh meat and fish is full of nutrients, they also contain the important enzymes which will send them “off” in a few hours if left out of the fridge. This enzymatic action is one of the most important chemical reactions in life.   

Last year while on holiday in Venice, my wife and I ran out of bottled water in the night and drank tap water. It tasted like it came straight out of the canals. Through the next day I felt a bit queezy in the stomach but my wife got quite sick. As the day went on we were driving South, she got worse. I seemed OK. I managed to get her some acidophilis capsules from a chemist and after several doses she came good over the next 24hrs.

We had drank the same amount of water but I didn’t get sick. The difference was. My health “Guru” had given me “digestive enzymes” capsules to take at mealtimes because I couldn’t avoid cheese in the standard Italian diet, and I have difficulty with dairy foods. I spoke to him when we returned to Brisbane and he pointed out that digestive enzymes are an important first line of defence against stomach bugs.