Ideas on boosting immune systems in older people....
Today's Post: Friday, 9-11-2009
Last Wednesday, HealthDay news had a brief article noting that as people get older their immune systems begin to be less effective.
It took its info from the U.S. National Library of Medicine listing problems that tend to happen more often as people get older.:
Their immune system becomes less able to prevent diseases such as bacterial infections or viral diseases.
Cancer risk increases as the immune system “sees” it later or not at all or doesn’t get rid of it as well.
Wounds and injuries take longer to heal due to lower levels of growth hormone &/or cells not copying themselves accurately.
And, since in some people the drop off in their immune system includes its ability to NOT attack things it should leave alone, the risk of getting an autoimmune disease increases.
There are two overall strategies to combat this.
Slow aging; & boost the health of your immune system.
A. Here are six proven ways to slow aging.:
1) Regular exercise each week including some safely done vigorous exercise several times each week slows aging due to increases in growth hormone release, relative improvement in heart function and circulation, and the release of BDNF, a growth hormone that grows new nerve and brain cells. (Strength training, interval cardio, and other vigorous exercise tend to be most effective at growth hormone release.)
2) Don’t smoke at all; and to the extent you can avoid second hand smoke. Smoking is quite effective in ruining circulation, causing heart disease, and directly speeds the aging process.
3) Taking 1,000 mg a day of vitamin C, eating lots of vegetables and some fruit daily; avoiding severe stress when you can; getting regular stress relief; getting decent sleep; taking a daily multivitamin plus mineral tablet; having a good social network, good social skills, and socializing often – each help prevent your telomeres from shortening as fast as they otherwise would which directly slows aging & to some extent prevents it.
4) Keep your homocysteine below 9.0 to the extent you can. Not smoking; eating right; and getting regular exercise all help to do that. So does taking robust amounts of B12 & folic acid & taking 50 to perhaps 100 mg a day of B6. (More B6 than that can be harmful.) Periodically getting your homocysteine tested and adding 500 mg each of TMG and NAC if your reading is still over 9.0 can also help.
5) Taking 100 mg a day of ubiquinol, 50 mg first thing in the morning and 50 mg at mid-day every day may considerably slow aging according to an experiment on mice reported by Dr Al Sears.
Taking 100 mg a day of trans resveratrol may slow aging overall and HAS been shown to slow the aging of your heart.
6) Eating lots of nonstarchy vegetables each day; going easy on good fats such as avocados, walnuts, other nuts, extra virgin olive oil and fish oil & NOT ingesting other oils, including NEVER ingesting hydrogenated oils; getting abundant regular exercise; eating very little sugar & only on occasion; eating no refined grains; AND cutting back some days of the week on your total food intake if you start gaining weight will tend to lower your overall intake of calories without harm. And, eating fewer calories tends to slow aging while eating too many increases it.
B) Boost your immune system effectively.
Here are some ways to do that that may help.:
1) Get immunized for seasonal flu each year; & get immunized for things like tetanus and bacterial pneumonia at the recommended intervals. This helps ensure you get less of these things; that you are less damaged if you do get them; and it provides your immune system with regular exercise.
Some health writers suggest not getting immunized citing the occasional side effects. The stats I’ve seen suggest this is like preventing one unit of risk in exchange for leaving a 100 units of risk alone. I strongly disagree.
(Such writers may be correct for some new vaccines. They may well be correct that vaccines with adjuvants, boosters for your immune system, that contain mercury or aluminum, all of which may over-rev your immune system may be a lot less safe than sticking to vaccines without them. They are definitely correct that boosting your immune system in other ways is a good idea.)
2) Take at least 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 and 600 mg of turmeric or its active ingredient curcumin. Both boost the capacity of your macrophages to get rid of amyloid plaque in your brain; both may help prevent cancer for the same reason. AND, vitamin D3 apparently makes your immune system better at recognizing things it should get rid of & things it should leave alone thereby preventing autoimmune diseases!
3) Taking 1,000 mg a day of vitamin C, eating lots of vegetables and some fruit daily; avoiding severe stress when you can; getting regular stress relief; getting decent sleep; taking a daily multivitamin plus mineral tablet; having a good social network, good social skills, and socializing often – each directly help keep your immune system strong.
4. Taking 30 to 45 mg a day of zinc ( & 2 or 3 mg a day of copper to balance it); but not taking more than that tends to boost your immune system. 60 to 90 mg of zinc may help for a day or two if you get sick; but more than that or taking that much for a longer time seems to reverse the good effect.
5. 100 mg a day of panax ginseng may help; but more can cause undesirable increases in blood pressure; and panax ginseng can interfere with many kinds of drugs.
6. Drink LOTS of water when you get sick. It boosts your immune system and avoids the weakness, confusion, disability, and the complications you can get if you don’t and get dehydrated which you otherwise might easily due to the unperceived effects of fever or mouth breathing due to a stopped up nose.
7. Take 500 mg a day or more of l-arginine if you aren’t taking an antibiotic.
And STOP taking l-arginine & take 500 mg a day or more of l-lysine instead if you ARE taking an antibiotic.
L-arginine causes your body to release nitric oxide and your immune system uses nitric oxide to kill some kinds of disease organisms. So usually it’s a good idea to take l-arginine which also keeps your blood vessels health and relaxed & releases growth hormone.
But I just read that bacteria resistant to antibiotics have developed a way to use nitric oxide to prevent the antibiotics from killing them. Since you want to have the antibiotics kill the disease bacteria instead, when taking the antibiotics, STOP the arginine and add the l-lysine. (Like zinc and copper arginine and lysine interact, so to get less effect from the arginine in your body or in foods you eat, take l-lysine instead.)
Today's Post: Friday, 9-11-2009
Last Wednesday, HealthDay news had a brief article noting that as people get older their immune systems begin to be less effective.
It took its info from the U.S. National Library of Medicine listing problems that tend to happen more often as people get older.:
Their immune system becomes less able to prevent diseases such as bacterial infections or viral diseases.
Cancer risk increases as the immune system “sees” it later or not at all or doesn’t get rid of it as well.
Wounds and injuries take longer to heal due to lower levels of growth hormone &/or cells not copying themselves accurately.
And, since in some people the drop off in their immune system includes its ability to NOT attack things it should leave alone, the risk of getting an autoimmune disease increases.
There are two overall strategies to combat this.
Slow aging; & boost the health of your immune system.
A. Here are six proven ways to slow aging.:
1) Regular exercise each week including some safely done vigorous exercise several times each week slows aging due to increases in growth hormone release, relative improvement in heart function and circulation, and the release of BDNF, a growth hormone that grows new nerve and brain cells. (Strength training, interval cardio, and other vigorous exercise tend to be most effective at growth hormone release.)
2) Don’t smoke at all; and to the extent you can avoid second hand smoke. Smoking is quite effective in ruining circulation, causing heart disease, and directly speeds the aging process.
3) Taking 1,000 mg a day of vitamin C, eating lots of vegetables and some fruit daily; avoiding severe stress when you can; getting regular stress relief; getting decent sleep; taking a daily multivitamin plus mineral tablet; having a good social network, good social skills, and socializing often – each help prevent your telomeres from shortening as fast as they otherwise would which directly slows aging & to some extent prevents it.
4) Keep your homocysteine below 9.0 to the extent you can. Not smoking; eating right; and getting regular exercise all help to do that. So does taking robust amounts of B12 & folic acid & taking 50 to perhaps 100 mg a day of B6. (More B6 than that can be harmful.) Periodically getting your homocysteine tested and adding 500 mg each of TMG and NAC if your reading is still over 9.0 can also help.
5) Taking 100 mg a day of ubiquinol, 50 mg first thing in the morning and 50 mg at mid-day every day may considerably slow aging according to an experiment on mice reported by Dr Al Sears.
Taking 100 mg a day of trans resveratrol may slow aging overall and HAS been shown to slow the aging of your heart.
6) Eating lots of nonstarchy vegetables each day; going easy on good fats such as avocados, walnuts, other nuts, extra virgin olive oil and fish oil & NOT ingesting other oils, including NEVER ingesting hydrogenated oils; getting abundant regular exercise; eating very little sugar & only on occasion; eating no refined grains; AND cutting back some days of the week on your total food intake if you start gaining weight will tend to lower your overall intake of calories without harm. And, eating fewer calories tends to slow aging while eating too many increases it.
B) Boost your immune system effectively.
Here are some ways to do that that may help.:
1) Get immunized for seasonal flu each year; & get immunized for things like tetanus and bacterial pneumonia at the recommended intervals. This helps ensure you get less of these things; that you are less damaged if you do get them; and it provides your immune system with regular exercise.
Some health writers suggest not getting immunized citing the occasional side effects. The stats I’ve seen suggest this is like preventing one unit of risk in exchange for leaving a 100 units of risk alone. I strongly disagree.
(Such writers may be correct for some new vaccines. They may well be correct that vaccines with adjuvants, boosters for your immune system, that contain mercury or aluminum, all of which may over-rev your immune system may be a lot less safe than sticking to vaccines without them. They are definitely correct that boosting your immune system in other ways is a good idea.)
2) Take at least 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 and 600 mg of turmeric or its active ingredient curcumin. Both boost the capacity of your macrophages to get rid of amyloid plaque in your brain; both may help prevent cancer for the same reason. AND, vitamin D3 apparently makes your immune system better at recognizing things it should get rid of & things it should leave alone thereby preventing autoimmune diseases!
3) Taking 1,000 mg a day of vitamin C, eating lots of vegetables and some fruit daily; avoiding severe stress when you can; getting regular stress relief; getting decent sleep; taking a daily multivitamin plus mineral tablet; having a good social network, good social skills, and socializing often – each directly help keep your immune system strong.
4. Taking 30 to 45 mg a day of zinc ( & 2 or 3 mg a day of copper to balance it); but not taking more than that tends to boost your immune system. 60 to 90 mg of zinc may help for a day or two if you get sick; but more than that or taking that much for a longer time seems to reverse the good effect.
5. 100 mg a day of panax ginseng may help; but more can cause undesirable increases in blood pressure; and panax ginseng can interfere with many kinds of drugs.
6. Drink LOTS of water when you get sick. It boosts your immune system and avoids the weakness, confusion, disability, and the complications you can get if you don’t and get dehydrated which you otherwise might easily due to the unperceived effects of fever or mouth breathing due to a stopped up nose.
7. Take 500 mg a day or more of l-arginine if you aren’t taking an antibiotic.
And STOP taking l-arginine & take 500 mg a day or more of l-lysine instead if you ARE taking an antibiotic.
L-arginine causes your body to release nitric oxide and your immune system uses nitric oxide to kill some kinds of disease organisms. So usually it’s a good idea to take l-arginine which also keeps your blood vessels health and relaxed & releases growth hormone.
But I just read that bacteria resistant to antibiotics have developed a way to use nitric oxide to prevent the antibiotics from killing them. Since you want to have the antibiotics kill the disease bacteria instead, when taking the antibiotics, STOP the arginine and add the l-lysine. (Like zinc and copper arginine and lysine interact, so to get less effect from the arginine in your body or in foods you eat, take l-lysine instead.)
Labels: 6 proven ways to slow aging, boosting immune systems in older people; 7 ways to boost your immune system effectively, live longer, prevent disease
posted by David at 2:38 PM
3 Comments:
Good sensible advice, and useful information. I am not sure about ubiquinol, I have not heard of this. Thanks again for your post.
regards michael.
Thanks Michael for your comment.
I realized I forgot some things that would also be helpful to many people to boost your immune system. I considered simply adding a comment here; but decided to do a new post. So, the post for Monday, 9-14 is 7 more ways to boost immune systems in older people. And, of course all these methods work for younger people too.
Two more ways to boost your immune system!
1. Laughter even if from watching comedies that make you laugh on DVD's boosts your immune system. It even works if you try to laugh and hash it up since you likely will laugh for real at how awful you intially sound.
And, it's a strong effect. Writer Norman Cousins cured himself of a disease his doctors could not by watching several hours of his favorite Groucho Marx comedies for several days in a row.
2. Having sex boosts your immune system too. Really. Although the health benefit is quite a bit more if your partner is free of STD's.
One of the reasons married couples have better health is that they get this effect more often by having sex more often than even most sexually active single people.
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