Science Behind Immune System Function with Dr. Shiva

The current medical model of how your immune system works is not accurate according to the latest scientific research. Researchers have shown that your immune system is much more than basic innate and adaptive immune systems. It also includes your nervous system and bacteria that live in your gut called your microbiome.

Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai has his doctorate in biological engineering from M.I.T. He holds degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, visual studies, and mechanical engineering, all from M.I.T. as well.

As a scientist, his research has shown that your immune system is like your body’s operating system. You can think of your immune system like the software that your computer uses to run. In this analogy, the nervous system is the hardware of the computer used to run this software.

Dr. Shiva has written several books, with his most recent titled, Systems Health. Using his computer science background, he has been able to use computer modeling for health. What he has found has changed the understanding of our immune system profoundly.

According to Dr. Shiva, your body has a set point, which in scientific literature is called homeostasis. He also showed that this set point is different for every individual. As he says, “It is not one size fits all.” Your set point is the optimal functioning state of your body.

This set point can be altered a little by genetics. However, stresses are what cause the most significant shift. Stresses come in all different forms. Physical stresses; like accidents, sports injuries, or falls. Chemical stresses; like what we eat,and other toxins in our environment. Or mental and emotional stresses; like relationships, work, or other societal pressures like isolation.

Dr. Shiva Talks About Chiropractors

What Is The Old Model of The Immune System?

The old medical model is a two-part system- innate immunity vs. adaptive immunity. Innate immunity is the outer layer of the system, which consists of your skin, eyes, nose, and mucous membranes. The adaptive immune system is the internal system consisting of antigens that attack pathogens that get into the body. These two systems need to work together.

The innate immune system is the first line of defense. You know it is working when you get watery eyes or a running nose. It uses immune system cells like macrophages and neutrophils. The main job is to attack the pathogen on the outside of the body.

The adaptive immune system is more specialized and precise. As Dr. Shiva states, “these are more like sharpshooters.” The body takes out the pathogens with specific antibodies. The body’s production of antibodies is the underlying concept of vaccines.

The Old Model Is The Basis For Vaccines

The idea behind vaccines relies on this old two-part model of the immune system. A vaccine tricks the body into producing antibodies to the pathogen. The vaccine stimulates the adaptive immune system response.

We now know that because of the new model of how the immune system works, vaccines are ineffective in providing immunity for an extended period of time. Research shows that most vaccines, like the flu vaccine, lose effectiveness in a few weeks.

Dr. Shiva also talks about the safety of vaccines. To date, there have been no double-blind, placebo-controlled studies on vaccines for safety or efficacy. The Cochrane review also shows that research for the flu shot is neither safe nor effective. The analysis of research showed that 2% of people get the flu without a vaccine, and 1% get the flu with the vaccine.

What Happens To The Body When Is Stressed By a Virus?

As Dr. Shiva described, the pathogen (virus or bacteria) is not what eats away the body. It is the immune system that is trying to modulate itself. In a stressful environment, it will hyper respond cause the breakdown of the other systems of the body. Your body is disturbed or in dis-ease.

The wrong environment, such as eating poorly, not getting enough exercise or social isolation like we are experiencing now, causes many more issues with your immune system response. The immune system in the right environment works perfectly.

What About Germ Theory?

If the medical model of germ theory were correct, nobody would be around to know about it. Germs are all-around use and are attacking our body and immune system daily. Challenging our immune system is a natural part of life.

Think about diseases of the past like scurvy. Doctors at the time thought a pathogen caused scurvy. Not until British sailors realized that eating limes kept them from having this “disease.” We now know that it wasn’t a disease at all but a nutritional deficiency. Once again, emphasizing that the wrong environment, lack of vitamin C, is what causes an imbalance in your immune system and body.

How Does The Neurological System Play a Role In Immune System Function?

If your immune system is like the software you run on your computer, your immune system is the hardware that the software runs on. Scientists have shown that you can’t separate the nervous system and the immune system.

The body’s natural system state relies on the nervous system and immune system working together to help keep your body in homeostasis. As long as the inputs from your environment are allowing your body to stay at it’s set point, then you will be healthy and happy.
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What Steps Should You Do To Help Your Immune System and Body Get Back To Health?

Dr. Shiva talks about 3 steps-

1. Know Who YOU Are

   Your body system or any other system in nature has three significant forces of transport, conversion, and storage. Your body system has a unique combination of these forces to stay in balance. Once you know your body’s specific set point for these forces, you have your baseline for where you function best.

2. Knowing When You Are Not YOU

   Much like an airplane flying from point A to point B, there are systems to let the pilot know if the plane is getting off course. When you have your set point, then you can find out if day to day stressors are sending you off course.

3. Be Happy, Be YOU!

   Once you notice your system is not where it should be ideally, then you can take steps to return to your set point. Things that you can add in to change the forces we talked about in step one are nutrition, exercise, prayer/mediation, and chiropractic adjustments. Adding all of these will get you back to feeling like the best YOU possible.

Dr. Shiva’s Full Video-

Conclusion Of The Science Behind The Immune System

The concept of how the immune system functions have changed dramatically since the 1960s. Our current policies for dealing with pathogens are based on that old understanding of how the immune system worked. The lack of knowledge about the immune system means that vaccine policy is an outdated way of dealing with viruses. There haven’t been reliable double-blind, placebo-controlled studies to validate the use of vaccines.

The new understanding of immune system function that is backed up by science is your immune system helps your body system stay in balance. It uses not only innate and adaptive immunity, but it also uses your nervous system and microbiome to help keep that balance. The most significant factor of your immune and body system getting out of balance is the stressors in your environment.

You can follow the three steps that Dr. Shiva recommends, know when your body is in balance, know when your body is out of balance and do the things to restore that balance.  I talk about how chiropractic adjustments help your immune system function in this article- What Does Science Say About Chiropractic and Immune System Function. If you do this, you will be happy and healthy for a lifetime.

If you would like to find out more about how we can help you or a loved one, please contact our Littleton, CO chiropractic clinic here.

Are you like most Americans- scared of catching the latest pandemic disease, the Coronavirus? 

According to the media, you will catch this virus if you are in public places with many people or if you travel.

Is this true? 

What Are The Odds of Catching The Coronavirus?

In an interesting article published in Psychology Today, the author Samuel Paul Veissiere Ph.D. discussed the odds are that 98% of people will not contract the virus. He also stated that the Coronavirus is simply a moral panic. I can’t agree more with him. 

If you look back in history, we have had a virus cause moral panic around every few years. Do you remember the SARS, Bird Flu, or MERS? Those are some of the recent viruses that have caused panic in the media.

What Are The Experts Saying About The Coronavirus?

Here is what you need to know. At the time of writing this, there have been 3,562 deaths with the majority of those deaths being in China. To put this in perspective, within the same timeframe as the Coronavirus has been around, at least 12,000 people in the U.S. alone have died from the seasonal flu according to the CDC.

As Dr. Veissiere stated, the human mind tends to ignore basic probability and tends to jump to the most negative thought possible. He also states we are programmed to look for potential dangers and threats. These dangers are then blown out of proportion so we can remember them for future encounters.

8 Ways to Catch the Coronavirus

Now that you understand that the Coronavirus is not worse than the seasonal flu and that humans tend to blow these virus epidemics out of proportion, here are some ways that you can be sure to catch the Coronavirus if you want to.

1. Skip your chiropractic adjustments: If you want to handicap your nervous system, which is the Master Controller of your entire body, don’t get a chiropractic adjustment. By not getting adjusted and increasing the interference of the communication between your brain and body, you will reduce your body’s ability to find and attack any viruses. Instead, wait until symptoms are clearly present and bother you. If you are interested in getting checked to see if your body has interference, visit this page.
2. Eat a poor diet: Make sure your body lacks the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, micronutrients, and building blocks it needs to keep itself healthy and have the ability to heal and repair. If you are interested to see if your body is getting what it needs, visit this page.
3. Avoid adequate rest: If you want to decrease your immune system’s ability to find and fight viruses, stay up late, get up early, and use caffeine, sugar, tobacco, and energy drinks as needed.
4. Become dehydrated: Dehydration is a sure way to reduce the effectiveness of your natural defense mechanisms. You can do this by not consuming enough water each day. 
5. Stop exercising: Not exercising will reduce the efficiency of your Lymphatic System, which requires movement to circulate the important germ-fighting fluid that it circulates. Exercise is also known to reduce stress which makes your body more resilient. Make sure to catch the Coronavirus by stopping any and all exercise.
6. Think negative thoughts: Worry that you and your family will be victims. Closely monitor all the news reports, looking for outbreaks and set alerts on your phone for updates. Fear the advancing pandemic. As we talked about earlier, this will definitely activate your fight-or-flight response and lower your resistance.
7. Do not wash your hands: After you don’t wash your hands, use your dirty hands to rub your eyes, pick your nose, wipe your lips, and touch the food you eat. The most direct way to catch any disease is direct contact with mucus membranes, like the nose, eyes, and mouth. 
8. Do not consume any supplements: To further reduce the strength of your body and immune system, be sure to stop consuming any supplements. If you fail to give your body the basic building blocks it needs to function and fight invaders, you will surely be able to catch the Caronavirus! If you would like to learn what supplements will help keep you strong and fight invaders, check out this page.

Conclusion

The bottom line is, the only way to catch a cold or sickness is to become a hospitable host for the bacteria or virus that causes it. Let’s make sure that you and your body are not a great place for the Coronavirus to hang out. Be vigilant in keeping your immune system strong. Don’t let the media hype machine cause a moral panic in your life.

If you would like to keep your Immune System strong, give us a call at 303-794-1737 so we can help! Alternatively, you can request an appointment online.

Are there ways to boost your immunity by optimizing the function of your lymphatic system? The short answer is yes. To understand how this all works you need to know more about the lymphatic system.

I am sure you have heard of the lymphatic system, but it is not talked about a whole lot. This is pretty astounding because the lymphatic system is one of the most critical components of the immune system!

What is the Lymphatic System?

The lymphatic system is the body’s internal drainage system. The main job of this system is to help remove toxins and waste from the body.

The lymphatic system consists of the following:

All of these parts work together to support the immune system, along with the other functions.

What Does the Lymphatic System Do?

The lymphatic system is an essential part of our immune system that helps eliminate toxins, waste products, and cancer cells from the body. It does this by moving fluid, called lymph, throughout the body. The lymph moves around in the body collecting toxins, cellular waste, and invaders, and brings them to the liver and kidneys to be processed out of the body.

It helps every system in the body including the digestive system, nervous system, and respiratory system. It helps the immune system by carrying white blood cells throughout the body. It helps with the fluid balance between the tissues and the blood by absorbing the fluid leaked by the cardiovascular system and redistributing it to other parts of the body.

Also, the lymph regulates the absorption of fat and fat-soluble vitamins in the body and delivers nutrients to the cells.

How Does the Lymphatic System Work?

The lymphatic system does not have a pump in the body to move it around as the cardiovascular system does, so it depends on muscle contractions and other movements to keep moving.

Since lymph carries waste and toxins back to the liver and kidneys for excretion, it is very important to keep it moving in the body. You do not want a buildup of toxins and waste building up in the body.

Signs of Lymph Congestion:

Some signs of lymph congestion or stagnation include:

• Infection (ie. more colds)
• Inflammation
• Swelling
• Skin issues
• Constipation
• Congestion

Since the immune system depends on the lymphatic system to deliver white blood cells throughout the body, when the lymph is congested, the immune system weakens.

How Can I Activate My Lymphatic System and Boost Immunity?

Fortunately, there are a few ways we can activate the lymphatic system and boost immunity in our body.

Chiropractic Care: Any lack of movement in the thoracic/upper chest area of the spine can prevent the lymphatic system from doing the final dump of toxins that it has collected for cleansing. The rib cage helps the lymphatic system by acting similar to a pump, so it is critical for lymphatic circulation. Correcting any anatomical abnormalities or displacements from everyday activities, which prevent movement in the spine, helps to create pressure within this region which assists in bringing oxygen to the cells.

Hydrate: Drinking enough water helps the lymph move throughout the body. The lymph holds most of the water that is in the body, and if we are dehydrated, the lymph fluid becomes thicker and harder to move.

Diet and Lifestyle: Generally, adopting a healthy diet is one of the most significant things we can do for our health. If we eat a cleaner diet with less toxins, there is less burden on the lymphatic system to remove these things from the body. Whatever diet you choose to be right for you, here are a few things to consider:

• Choose clean proteins (grass-fed, organic, wild-caught) as much as you can.
• Buy organic whenever possible. If you feel like you cannot buy all organic, follow the infographic here to find out what produce is the most important to buy organic. This information is from the Dirty Dozen list by the Environmental Working Group.
• Eat a rainbow and a variety of foods.
• Choose Green/Low-VOC/Chemical-free furniture, paint, and materials for your house.
• Choose natural/organic/chemical-free household cleaners. Since cleaning supplies are not regulated by the FDA, they are not required to label the ingredients and are typically loaded with unhealthy chemicals.

Walking: Everyone knows that walking is healthy, but it really helps the lymphatic system. When you walk or exercise, you use muscle contractions and this is what helps the lymph move. Even if you don’t walk for a long time, it helps just to get out for a short while!

Deep Breathing: Most people tend to fall into shallow breathing throughout the day, but it’s important to remember to take some time to breathe deeply. There are many beneficial things to breathing deeply, but one of them is that it helps the lymph move throughout the body. Deep breathing improves oxygen in the body, and this is good for lymph flow. Also, the actual act of breathing is similar to a pump for the lymph.

Dry Brushing: Dry brushing helps to remove toxins on the skin and to get the lymph moving. It does this by stimulating sweat glands and supporting circulation below the skin. Dry brushing involves using a coarse brush on your skin in the direction of your heart.

These are a few good strategies to help lymph movement in your body and thus, making you healthier. Have you tried any of these things before? What did you notice?

Conclusion on How to Boost Lymphatic and Immunity

Having your lymphatic system functioning well is essential for immunity. There are many things that help to keep the lymph flowing properly throughout your body. Ways to boost your lymphatic system are: chiropractic care, exercise, hydration, diet and deep breathing, just to name a few. When your lymphatic system is working your immunity increases!

If You Are Thinking About Getting The Flu Shot Please Read This First-

Flu vaccines were first introduced in the 1980s. The flu shot was initially only offered to those at high risk with extremely compromised immune systems or a history of lung-related infections. Then, the makers of the flu vaccine realized that there was a HUGE profit to be made by expanding the target populations for the shot. It soon became the norm for physicians to recommend that all elderly patients and children with weakened immune systems receive the shot. Next, the vaccine makers began to target the everyday working population. After all, getting the flu is inconvenient, and wouldn’t it be great to avoid getting it if all possible? Then, employers began to mandate that their employees receive the flu vaccine. All this fuss and the few available studies that exist point to probably less than 10% of flu-like illnesses are “caused” by the influenza virus.

Some important questions:

How do they know what to put in the flu shot?

Every year, federal health agency officials try to guess which three flu strains are most likely to be prevalent in North America the following year to determine which strains will be included in next year’s flu vaccine. If they guess right, the vaccine is thought to only be 70-80% effective in temporarily preventing the flu of the season in healthy persons less than 65 years old. However, sometimes health officials do not correctly predict which flu strains will be most prevalent (sounds like a weather prediction, right?!?) and the vaccine’s effectiveness is much lower for that year.

Are there reactions to the flu vaccine?

According to the CDC, the most common reactions are fever, nausea, painful joints, and headache. The most serious reaction that has been associated with the flu vaccine is Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). GBS that results from a flu shot occurs most often within two to four weeks of vaccination. GBS is an immune-mediated nerve disorder characterized by muscle weakness, unsteady gait, numbness, tingling, pain, and sometimes paralysis of one or more limbs or the face. Recovery lasts several months and can include residual disability.

How do I avoid getting the flu?

Keeping your immune system functioning at its optimum is the best prevention. Proper nutrition, proper supplementation, getting adjusted, washing your hands, getting lost of rest, and minimizing your stress are the best ways to stay healthy this flu season. Even if you have had your flu shot, it is wise to follow these rules also as there is no guarantee that a flu shot will offer 100% protection against this year’s flu strains. We talk about how chiropractic boosts your immune system in this article- What Does Science Say About Chiropractic and Immune System Function?  We also talk about what supplements help your immune system in this article- Virus Resource Page.

Is the flu potentially harmful to people with compromised immune systems or multiple health issues?

Absolutely.

If someone who has regular contact with someone in this category contracts the flu and brings it home, can there be major health issues for the susceptible individual?

Absolutely.

Do young, healthy people with no compromise to the functioning of their immune systems really need the flu shot?

Therein lies the multi-million dollar question. According to the Cochrane Reviews, which is a highly regarded institute, the flu vaccine reduces a healthy individual’s chance of getting the flu from 2% to 1%. Is it worth the known side effects for a 1% less chance of getting the flu?

What are the long-term consequences of being vaccinated on an annual basis for an illness that may not even pose a serious health risk for most people?

No one knows! For some reason, officials do not want to conduct this study… hmmmm.

Where are the studies that show that the benefits far outweigh any long-term adverse impacts?

I haven’t seen any yet.

These are some important questions you should consider when thinking about getting the flu vaccination. Whatever your decision, we encourage you to do your own research and not just go off what your doctor tells you. Inform yourself and make your own decision!

If this article interested you, you may enjoy reading this article on a natural antibiotic.