This Blog Post Has Been Inspired by Me Getting Sick (Again)

By Lauren Brose ‘15

I’m bad luck when it comes to getting sick. Two weeks ago, I took the initiative and got a flu shot mainly because I knew it’d make my mom happy. 48 hours later I was checking myself into the emergency room so I can get hooked up to an IV because I had a bad reaction to the vaccine. Accompanied by a dead arm that reminded me of the days when I got into fights with my older brother, I had a migraine headache, fever and a bacterial infection where the shot was administered. After a week of taking antibiotics, I was free from illness. This only lasted me a week at best. So here I am, sniffling, as I sit here writing this blog post because now I have been blessed with the common cold.

This time, I can’t blame the flu vaccine but instead myself. My immune system clearly isn’t being carefully maintained thus making myself susceptible to illness. Still, I cannot be too harsh on myself. Every year, the United States has reported 1 billion cases of the cold. Additionally, it’s highly contagious. Catching the cold is as simple as touching surfaces with germs on it and then touching your eyes or nose. If the germs are airborne, you can inhale it and become infected. Going to a big school where students are touching their face and opening doors is a surefire way of guaranteeing at one point during the semester, you will catch the cold too.

The first thing to bear in mind is that the immune system isn’t singular in the sense that if you fix one thing then everything else should follow. It’s much more complex than that—so complex, we still don’t fully understand it. Although there isn’t yet a link between lifestyle choices and the strength of one’s immune system, it is being extensively researched. On the whole, there is so much more to learn about the functionality of our immune system with research focusing on the effects of age, diet, fitness, stress, and supplements.

Everything is all connected. Having a balanced diet, sleeping and exercising regularly, managing stress levels and simply taking care of yourself is the key to keeping your immune system in check. Of course, there will be times when your immune system naturally wont be able to fight off bad germs. This blog post is by no means a how to guide on never getting sick again (I wish). It will, however, shed light on why its important to be mindful of your body’s needs.

Stress

The stress hormone cortisol is released when we feel anxious. One of the main functions of cortisol is to excrete energy toward threats, which in this case is our stress. They’re also called inflammatory responses and when cortisol is attacking these threats, it temporarily depletes the immune system. Symptoms such as coughing and sniffling are caused by the inflammatory response to the cold virus. Those who experience high levels of stress consistently have a low sensitivity to cortisol; therefore, their body’s aren’t able to regulate the inflammatory response to the cold thus resulting in vulnerability to catching it. 

This makes sense. I always get sick around the same time of year, namely when a lot of projects are due, which is coincidentally at this time of the year. *Sigh* Wonderful.

Fitness

Regularly exercising contributes to leading a sustainable lifestyle as it helps maintain a healthy weight, cardiovascular health and lowers blood pressure. Still, there aren’t any scientific findings to support the notion that exercising strengthens their immune system. Regular exercise is in fact more beneficial to your health due to it promoting circulation which causes cells in the immune system to travel efficiently throughout the body.

Our diet

I always tell myself “my body is a temple” and then I skip out on breakfast because I’m in a rush and snack on Hot Cheetos between classes. To be honest, my diet sucks. I’ve been requested in the past to write a blog post on what my fitness regime and diet was since I typically cover health and wellness (and am a bit hesitant to address this right now) but if I was to write a blog post on my diet and fitness, it wouldn’t be constructive. In fact, it’d be an exposé on myself about how I, a blogger on the importance of health and fitness, am a hypocrite. While I am knowledgeable on nutrition, I am not the best at taking my own advice.

According to Harvard Health Publications, their research delves deeply into nutrition and why having a balanced diet is pertinent to maintaining harmony in our immune system. Impoverished parts of the world is stricken with malnourishment, making these communities more likely to develop infectious diseases.

Take care of yourself, man.

Water

Last year I dedicated a post on why water is so tight. It’s the number one thing doctors tell sick old me to do and as much as you don’t want to chug a glass a water when you feel sick to the point of rolling yourself into a human burrito in bed, drink some water before you do that.

Drink alcohol in moderation

Whenever I go to the doctor because I’m sick, I’m always asked how frequently I drink. I think to myself, “why do you care I feel judged.” Within 20 minutes of ingesting alcohol, your immune system is affected. Loyola University Health Systems performed an experiment on the affects of consuming large amounts of alcohol and found that the immune system is substantially more sluggish.

Smoking is a no go

when you smoke, high levels of tar as well as other chemicals enter your body, which is increases your number of white blood cells due to your body fighting off inflammation. Continual spikes in your white blood cells means your body is always fighting infection which weakens your immune system. Nicotine is also known to tighten blood vessels, making it less efficient for nutrients to reach wounds. In other words, if you get a cut or have surgery, it will take more time to heal as well as there having a higher risk of infection.

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