Podcast #14 Obesity and The Immune System
I think in a time of pandemic, a discussion about the immune system is pretty important. As we start to head back into the fall season we will be seeing more influenza, strep pharyngitis and yes of course COVID-19. Then there are many other unidentified viral illnesses that we see every year. Gastrointestinal illnesses included. And don’t forget allergies.There are many people who know as soon as summer ends they are in for several months of misery and chronic upper respiratory infections, whether they be viral or bacterial.
How do we help? And why do some have more illnesses than others? Why would one person be an “asymptomatic carrier” and another become severely ill?
In the light of this current pandemic and the discussion of things like cytokine storm, resurgence and vulnerable patient populations this is a very pertinent topic to explore now. Viruses are nothing new. Cytokine storm is nothing new. Vulnerable populations are nothing new. How we address this and move forward from this current situation has to be new.
I am yet again going to talk about obesity and inflammation.
Man those words are everywhere in all this Healthy talk aren’t they??
I hope you are seeing the importance of those 2 topics and the connection they have to so many issues now. And why I am so passionate about helping my patients get healthier to reduce their risk of becoming severely ill or even dying from something like a virus, as well as sharing this information with you.
Even before COVID there were deaths from the flu and lost time from work, school and life due to chronic and recurrent acute infections. Contributors to the current lack of health in our population and the increased susceptibility to illness is the lack of food with nutritional value to fuel our immune system, the inflammatory load related to stress, sedentary lifestyle, obesity and poor sleep to name a few. All of the things I just mentioned are considered stressors. Stress is known to wear a person down and contribute to a poor immune system. Stress can also lead to obesity, which is a contributing factor to chronic inflammation, which Holy Cow!, is an added stressor, and keeps the cycle going with no end in sight. This leads to feeling tired and wore out, which leads to depression and often a less active lifestyle. Again a contributor to more weight gain and more stress and more inflammation!
How does this all lower our immune system?
First is let’s look at our poor nutrition. The body is amazing at adaptation and defense mechanisms to protect itself. But if it doesn’t have enough fuel to adapt quickly and fight, it takes longer to get the job done.
The fuel our body needs to boost the immune system and prevent or quickly fight off unwanted illness comes from phytonutrients.
Phytonutrients come from plants, specifically, fruits and vegetables.
These phytonutrients are high in antioxidants that fight the fight and have anti-inflammatory properties to clear the damage when it’s over. So boosting nutrition, filled with antioxidants, will allow for full support and available resources to either prevent or quickly control any invasion from a foreign intruder, like a virus, allergen or bacteria.
Now let’s look at inflammation. A chronic state of inflammation can dampen an immune response. If there is chronic inflammation, the body’s defense mechanisms are exhausted from always monitoring that smoldering ember, just in case it becomes a fire. If the inflammation is controlled, and you have gotten your tank full of phytonutrients, your defense mechanisms will be well rested and ready to fight the fight and come out with minimal effects. If an acute infection arises in a person with a poor immune system, with chronic inflammation, the outcome can be as detrimental as we have seen in this pandemic. This cytokine storm that is killing people is just like the cytokine storm we can see leading to death in patients with sepsis or an influenza they couldn’t overcome. It is the out of control surge of inflammation that the body CANNOT overcome. The immune system just can’t win the fight with such an overwhelming attack on a weak, tired, beaten immune system with no resources to defend itself.
That was an extreme look at the outcomes associated with a poor immune response, but a necessary connection to understand.
To look at another connection of an altered metabolic state, as seen in obesity, to immunity, we need to address T-cells. In conditions where glucose levels may be elevated, there is insulin resistance and altered fatty acid metabolism, leading to poor T-cell production. T-cells are responsible for activating the immune system and building immune memory by building antibodies to recognize the pathogen that may be presented and to be prepared to strike when it tries to invade the body. Because, if you know your enemy, you can prepare the troops to destroy it on sight.
Obesity associated inflammation and the resulting impaired immune system preparedness and response, can actually lead to vaccine failure via poor ability to build that adequate recognition and response. Sadly, this same impairment allows for increased risk of cancer. The immune system is supposed to recognize the altered malignant cells as danger and kill them off rather than allow them to proliferate, but cannot. Especially, if the impaired metabolic state has high levels of circulating glucose to feed and empower the malignant cells.
Cancer is the #1 fear I encounter in my practice. COVID has impacted many as a current contender for fear of a lurking enemy with a fatal outcome, but still not like the fear of cancer.
We must be diligent in our efforts to make an impact on the obesity crisis. I am not “selling you a course” for vanity weight loss. I am offering you a way to make an impact in your every day practice, with your patient population, that may save their lives through my course that teaches you how to address it without going through all of the nonsense I went through to figure it all out.
We have to do things differently. We can’t keep trying to manage each so called “individual disease state”. We have to manage the person as a whole. We have to be proactive, not reactive. We have to make them aware of the processes that we know are putting them at risk and how to stop them from speeding down their own path t destruction. Even worse, is that they are taking the next generation down that path with them. You can’t get through to everyone, but if you can even help them make 1-2 positive changes, you can impact their life and maybe the life of someone you’ve never even met that followed them in making those few changes.