The Real Immune-Boosters

What comes to your mind when we say “immune support”? Vitamin C and maybe zinc? Those have their place, but there are things we can do that are a lot more important!

It’s just, these things are not talked about as much, because stores can’t sell them to you

Sleep

One of the biggest difference-makers. Get good sleep! Getting at least 7 hours decent sleep (not lying in bed, not counting interruptions to sleep as part of the sleep duration) can improve your immune system by three or four times.

Put another way, people are 3–4 times more likely to get sick if they get less sleep than that on average.

Check it out: Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold

Eat an anti-inflammatory diet

In short, for most of us this means lots of whole plant foods (lots of fiber), and limited sugar, flour, alcohol.

For more details, you can see our main feature on this: Keep Inflammation At Bay!

You may wonder why eating to reduce inflammation (inflammation is a form of immune response) will help improve immune response. Put it this way:

If your town’s fire service is called out eleventy-two times per day to deal with things that are not, in fact, fires, then when there is a fire, they will be already exhausted, and will not do their job so well.

Look after your gut microbiota

Additionally, healthy gut microbiota (fostered by the same diet we just described) help keep your body pathogen-free, by avoiding “leaky gut syndrome” that occurs when, for example, C. albicans (you do not want this in your gut, and it thrives on the things we just told you to avoid) puts its roots through your intestinal walls, making holes in them. And through those holes? You definitely do not want bacteria from your intestines going into the rest of your body.

See also: Gut Health 101

Actually get that moderate exercise

There’s definitely a sweet-spot here, because too much exercise will also exhaust you and deplete your body’s resources. However, the famous “150 minutes per week” (so, a little over 20 minutes per day, or 25 minutes per day with one day off) will make a big difference.

See: Exercise and the Regulation of Immune Functions

Manage your stress levels (good and bad!)

This one swings both ways:

• Acute stress (like a cold shower) is good for immune response. Think of it like a fire drill for your body.
• Chronic stress (“the general everything” persistently stressful in life) is bad for immune response. This is the fire drill that never ends. Your body’s going to know what to do really well, but it’s going to be exhausted already by the time an actual threat hits.

Read more: Effects of Stress on Immune Function: the Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

Supplement, yes.

These are far less critical than the above things, but are also helpful. Good things to take include:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D
• Zinc
• Elderberry
• Echinacea
• Garlic

Enjoy, and stay well!

Lipedema occurs mostly in women, mostly in times of hormonal change, with increasing risk as time goes by (so for example, puberty yields a lower risk than pregnancy, which yields a lower risk than menopause).

Its name literally means “fat swelling”, and can easily be mistaken for obesity or, in its earlier stages, just pain old cellulite.

Cellulite, by the way, is completely harmless and is also not, per se, an indicator of bad health. But if you have it and don’t like it, you can reduce it:

Keep Cellulite At Bay

Obesity is more of a complex matter, and one that we’ve covered here:

Shedding Some Obesity Myths

Lipedema is actively harmful

Lipedema can become a big problem, because lifestyle change does not reduce lipedema fat, the fat is painful, can lead to obesity if one was not already obese, causes gait and joint abnormalities, causes fatigue, can lead to lymphedema (beyond the scope of today’s article—perhaps another time!) and very much psychosocial distress.

Like many conditions that mostly affect women, the science is… Well, here’s a recent example review that was conducted and published:

Lipedema: What we don’t know

Fun fact: in Romanian there is an expression “one eye is laughing; the other is crying”, and it seems appropriate here.

Spot the signs

Because it’s most readily mistaken for cellulite in first presentation, let’s look at the differences between them:

• Cellulite is characterized by dimpled, bumpy, or even skin; lipedema is the same but with swelling too.
• Cellulite is a connective tissue condition; lipedema is too (at least in part), but also involves the abnormal accumulation and deposition of fat cells, rather than just pulling some down a bit.
• Cellulite has no additional symptoms; lipedema soon also brings swollen limbs, joint pain, and/or skin that’s “spongy” and easily bruised.

What to do about it

First, get it checked out by a doctor.

If the doctor says it is just cellulite or obesity, ask them what difference(s) they are basing that on, and ask that they confirm in writing having dismissed your concerns (having this will be handy later if it turns out to be lipedema after all).

If it is lipedema, you will want to catch it early; there is no known cure, but advanced symptoms are a lot easier to keep at bay than they are to reverse once they’ve shown up.

Weight maintenance, skin care (including good hydration), and compression therapy have all been shown to help slow the progression.

If it is allowed to progress unhindered, that’s when a lot more fat accumulation and joint pain is likely to occur. Liposuction and surgery are options, but even they are only a temporary solution, and are obviously not fun things to have to go through.

Prevention is, as ever, much better than cure treatment ← _{^{because there is no known cure}}

One last thing

Lipedema’s main risk factor is genetic. The bad news is, there’s not much that can be done about that for now, but the good news is, you can at least get the heads-up about whether you are at increased risk or not, and be especially vigilant if you’re in the increased risk group. See also:

One Test, Many Warnings: The Real Benefit Of Genetic Testing

Take care!