Immune Support | Three Ways to Boost Your Immune System

With cold and flu season just around the corner, I am urging my patients to take a proactive approach to support their immune function as we head into the sniffle season. In Chinese Medicine, our immune system is called “wei qi”, a protective energy that protects our body from exterior pathogens.  The beauty of Chinese Medicine is that our wei qi is an energy that we can strengthen with proper lifestyle, diet and supplementation.  While stress, poor diet, sleep and exercise are all great places to start when it comes to improving our immune function, here are a couple supplements I’ll be keeping close on hand in my household. 

Here’s a road map of some supplements to take at different stages of illness:

Prevention Support: The best approach to illness is prevention! This combo is my go-to when traveling or I am seeing an influx of sick people around me.

• Vitamin D: Studies have revealed that vitamin D helps modulate the immune system, acting as a regulator to maintain a balanced response and enhance its effectiveness in fighting off infections.  What may be more alarming is that studies show that 42% of americans are deficient in vitamin D.

Good sources of Vitamin D include:

• Fatty Fish:  The flesh of fatty fish trout, salmon, tuna, mackerel and fish liver oils

• Sunlight

If you aren’t regularly consuming fatty fish three times a week:

• Zinc

• Glutathione: the powerhouse of antioxidants. Glutathione utilizes two mechanisms to strengthen your immune system.  It increases your white blood cell count by increasing their number. Altered glutathione concentrations may play an important role decreasing inflammation and cancer causing oxidative stress in the body. It gives life to the cells that keep you healthy.

Circumstances that deplete glutathione in the body include:

•  Smoking

• Alcohol

• Chronic acetaminophen use

• Excess fat in the body

• B vitamins

Acute Support: These supplements are recommended at the first onset of illness.  These symptoms usually include: itchy throat, fatigue, feeling foggy headed or chills.

• Yin Qiao- one of the most popular chinese medicine to fight off an illness and boost your body’s immune function. Yin Qiao San is available for purchase at an Acupuncturist Office and some Health Food stores.  It’s a great formula to have in your medicine cabinet.

• Sweat it out. A natural way to combat illness is to help your body generate some heat.  Utilizing a hot sauna, gentile hot yoga class or simply bundling up will support your body’s immune function. Similar to a fever, generating enough heat in the body can create a hostile environment for the pathogen.  

Congee: A tried and true tonic 

Congee is a medicinal rice porridge often referred to as a magical healing soup.  This soup has healing properties as well a soothing effect on the soul, much like your mom’s chicken noodle soup. The soup is rice based, making it very easy for the gut to digest and liquid base, to keep the body hydrated. Immune tonic herbs are typically added to the soup to make it a medicinal delicacy.

Dr. Michelle’s Magic Immune Boosting Congee

• 1 oz of astragulus root

• 8 chinese dates

• 2 tbsp Goji berries

• 1-2 tbsp goji berries

• 1-2 tbsp fresh minced ginger

• 4 pieces of tangerine peel

• 1 cup of white rice

• 6-8 cups of water depending on desired thickness.

• Dash of cinnamon

• Dash of cardamom

• Raw honey (optional)

• Asian pear or other pear of choice

Cooking directions:

1. Rinse the rice well

2. Place first 7 ingredients in a large pot bring to a boil and then simmer, covered for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking.  The congee is ready when the rice is soft and isn’t sticking.  The consistency should be like a porridge.

Falling Into a (Pumpkin Flavored) Fall Season

One quick trip through trader Joe’s and you can’t deny that fall is here on the central coast.  Pumpkin Cream Cheese, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, its pumpkin everything in there! No, the leaves haven’t changed yet, but the flavor of our lattes and cream cheese have changed to the ever alluring “pumpkin flavor”….which in SLO town, means Fall is here! Living in our mild San Luis Obispo climate we don’t find ourselves noticing extreme shifts in weather; but our bodies still go through energetic shifts as the seasons change.  The more aware you can get with these seasonal energetic changes in your environment and in your body, the greater the potential for you to harness the wisdom the season can provide.

The energy of the fall season is the Metal Element. The metal element correlates to the Lungs and Large Intestine organs.  At this time of year it’s a season and a time for colds and flus. The kids go back to school and come home with not only a new teacher and new friends, but also a whole new set of pathogens.  After the skin, the Lungs are the first defense system in the body to fight off pathogens in Chinese Medicine. The Large intestine organ in Chinese medicine specifically correlates to the colon.  The shift in weather and climate can also cause digestive disharmony within the body.

The emotional component of the lung is grief.  The lungs store unresolved grief in the body; some physical manifestations of this can include chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, and shortness of breath. I have found when processing  grief it’s important to develop a deep sense of gratitude for what has served us in the past, yet is no longer in our present. Let it be a relationship, a home, a job or even a loved one, the path to transforming grief is through gratitude and appreciation for what and how those things served you. 
Respiratory illnesses are heightened this time of year as the weather shifts and we find ourselves susceptible to upper respiratory infections.  I see an abundance of asthma, bronchitis, and coughs walk through my doors this time of year. Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs are excellent at building the body’s immune system to support this seasonal transition with ease. Some great essential oils to treat upper respiratory conditions at home include eucalyptus or rosemary.  Applying a drop these oils in carrier oil to the acupuncture point Lung 1 is very beneficial at opening the lungs while also tonifying the immune system.

The emotional aspect of the Large Intestine captures the active/yang side of grief, the ability to “let it go.” It’s about deciphering what needs to stay and what needs to go in order for you to function at you highest potential.  Just as the Large Intestine releases toxic waste from the body, it’s has an emotional energetic capacity to clear out the negative emotions and patterns which no longer serve the highest version of ourselves. Low vibrational emotions such as shame, guilt, anger and fear can be very powerful to release this time of year.  

If you would like to look further into this concept I would highly recommend the book Letting Go by David R. Hawkins.

This book transformed my life; as it fell into my hands as I was processing my divorce and struggling to create a positive new life for my family.  With this book I was able to release a lot of negative emotions, and habits that were holding me back while creating space for new beliefs and thought patterns. A great read for anyone feeling stuck.   

I hope you find yourself healthy and happy this Fall Season with a pumpkin-flavored-something in your near future. ☺