Hey there, health enthusiasts!
Your immune system is crucial to your wellbeing.
Whether you live or die depends on its ability to fight off sickness and infection.
Even the common cold can hurt when you have a bad immune system.
But the immune system affects a lot more than just the body.
It can also affect your mental health.
Let’s discuss 7 Ways Your Immune System Affects Your Mind and Body.
Do your wounds slowly heal?
How does your stomach feel?
Does the immune system affect your mental health, or is it the other way around?
We’re talking all that AND more...
Slower Healing Wounds
If your immune system isn’t healthy, the body’s cells are going to repair slower
than expected.
This means that your wounds won’t heal as quickly.
Let’s talk about one of life’s more embarrassing moments…
Falling and scraping your knee.
It’s happened to all of us at one point or another.
When this happens, you’re left with one heck of a gash.
As soon as you hit the ground, the two primary layers of skin have been broken.
I’m talking about the epidermis and the dermis.
This disrupts your blood vessels, causing you to bleed.
No matter what you do to stop the bleeding, eventually you're going to have to let the
wound go through the natural healing process.
This process has 4 stages:
Hemostasis Inflammation
Proliferation Remodeling
These are all done with the help of immune cells.
But the speed of the healing all depends on how efficient your immune system is.
If the immune cells are unhealthy, the wound won’t regenerate.
It will just stay around longer and have a much harder time healing.
What’s the worst wound you’ve ever had?
Where did it come from?
How long did it take to go away?
Sound off in the comment section and start a conversation with our Bestie community…
2) You’re More Prone To Infections
A bad immune system makes you more vulnerable to infections.
In order to get rid of it, the immune system needs to fight pathogens.
These are biological agents that cause disease.
The immune system weeds through cells and tissues in order to find them.
Once they’ve been identified, the immune system reacts in 2 ways…
First, your innate immune cells will recognize the pathogens and begin to fight the infection.
From here, inflammation will take place, and the pathogens will eventually be killed off.
This is known as the innate immune response.
The second way your immune system reacts is through the adaptive immune cells.
These cells are much more sophisticated, and are able to target specific pathogens much
quicker.
This is referred to as the adaptive immune response.
Both your T cells and B cells come into play here.
The T cells kill off your pathogens as well as other infected cells.
The B cells produce antibodies that attach themselves to the pathogens and signal for
your immune system to kill them.
If your immune system is healthy, the infection-fighting process should go rather smoothly.
If it constantly seems like you’re battling infections, chances are your immune system
isn’t up to par.
There are several signs to look out for.
For one thing, you’ll probably have more than 4 ear infections in a single year.
You probably suffer from more sinus infections than usual.
A poor immune system may also require you to need more antibiotics.
What’s really scary is a weak immune system leaves you more vulnerable to pneumonia.
An older person with bad immunity might get it twice a year.
3) Stress Hurts Your Immunity
Have you been overwhelmed at work lately?
Has being cooped up in quarantine made you feel anxious?
Well an unhealthy amount of stress will weaken your immune system, opening the door to sickness
and infection.
Have you ever heard of lymphocytes?
These are a type of white blood cell that serve the immune system.
During times of severe stress, the amount of lymphocytes in the body will decrease.
If a cold or virus is going around, you are more likely to catch it during this time.
The immune system doesn’t have the ability to kill off pathogens.
This paves a much smoother path for whatever illness wants to infiltrate the body.
Nobody wants to be fighting off sickness while suffering from a bout of anxiety.
It will only leave you more stressed out, weakening your immune system even more.
It’s like a weird cycle.
Your stress level is also associated with bad habits that can lead to illness.
These are things like drinking, smoking and a poor diet.
You will probably also lose sleep.
Fatigue makes you lazy.
As a result, you are less likely to take part in physical activity.
There is also cortisol that is very important, but more on that in a few minutes.
Before we continue, are you trying to take care of your hair?
Check out our recent video discussing 18 Foods That Will Give You Luscious, Shiny Hair.
Now back to our video on Ways Your Immune System Can Affect Your Mind and Body.
4) Awful Stomach Discomfort
A healthy immune system will decide on how well your stomach is feeling.
When the immune system is not where it should be, the stomach gets the brunt of your body’s
anger.
It will often feel like a roller coaster is moving around your bowels.
Why is that?
Well try this on for size…
Nearly 70% of your immune system is located within your digestive tract.
The immune system employs the special bacteria in your gut to go after infectious cells.
Poor immune function equals less comfort and more diarrhea, gas and constipation.
When your gut bacteria is at a lower level, the chances of viruses, disease and simple
discomfort increase.
Autoimmune Disorders
Believe it or not, your cells have a mind of their own.
And much like your brain, the immune system can become confused.
An autoimmune disorder is when the immune system mistakes your body’s cells for foreign
invaders.
This is because it can't tell the difference.
When the immune system mixes up skin cells for unhealthy pathogens, it releases autoantibodies,
which attack them.
Studies show that women get autoimmune disease twice as much as men.
A healthy immune system means that it is able to distinguish the healthy cells from foreign
ones.
You Get a Cold Easier
I mean, it might not be the fever or flu.
But man can a cold go a long way.
Now not a lot of people know exactly what a cold is.
Neither did I until a second ago.
A cold is a viral infection of your nose and throat.
While they are usually harmless, colds can be super annoying, and come at the worst time
possible.
Really intense ones last as long as 10 days sometimes.
The average adult can suffer up to 3 colds a year.
While it might get in the way of your performance, it’s perfectly normal.
But if you find yourself catching more colds than that, it means your immunity’s not
at its best.
There are over 200 different viruses that can bring on the common cold.
The cold will start out by attaching itself to the lining of your nose or throat.
From here, your immune system is meant to send out its white blood cells to battle the
germs.
If your immune system works, inflammation will take place.
Do you often get annoyed with the amount of mucus you are finding in your tissue paper?
Well be happy, this means that your immune system is working at a decent rate.
As a result, you’ll recover from the cold quicker.
7) You’ll Always Be Tired
If you’re feeling exhausted throughout the day, your immune system is trying to tell
you something.
Oftentimes, the message is to lead a healthier lifestyle.
I’m talking about a better diet and more physical activity.
This will boost your energy levels.
There are many great foods to combat fatigue.
I’m talking about eggs, bananas, almonds, and kale.
Spinach and almonds also give your immune system the proper jump.
On top of these choices, you should also eat more broccoli, yogurt, garlic and ginger.
These in turn will get rid of your exhaustion and have you feeling more energized.
The immune system is heavily influenced by your sleep cycle.
This is all the more reason to get a healthy sleep.
Remember a minute ago when I mentioned cortisol ? Well when we are snoozing, the amount of
cortisol in our body decreases.
Large amounts of cortisol can get in the way of our immune system, ruining its ability
to function.
When there is less cortisol around, the signals which activite our immune system are activated.
So if you’re not going to bed at a decent hour, and waking up too early, you will only
be more stressed.
This causes further damage to our immunity.
Experts recommend between 7 and 9 hours of sleep for the average adult.
This is just enough to encourage healthy immune function.
How’s your immune system?
Has your body been through any of these affects?
Let us know in the comments below.
We would love to hear from you!