Why Today, Your Immune System Needs An Increased Level Of Daily Support

"A vitamin is a substance that makes you ill - if you don't eat it."
Albert von Szent-Gyorgy, 1893 - 1986

Your health can depend on your ability to cope with the demands of the 21st century

Living in the 21st century has created many challenges for our immune system - our innate healer or 'inner doctor'. Our hectic polluted lifestyle places more demands on all our body systems and our immune system needs even more nutrition to nourish and protect us than ever before. Stress burns up our nutritional reserves which our bodies need to function properly.

We are only 200 generations from being simple hunter gatherers to now flying round the world and living by computers. 200 years ago the total lifetime intake of information for a person working on the land was equivalent to just one edition of the Sunday Times. As each generation passes, the pace of change and overload becomes both greater and faster, yet our body systems have only marginally adapted.

With a 40% reduction in the daily levels of essential nutrition available to us over the last 25 years the World health Authority has warned a balanced diet from our modernized global food chain does not provide sufficient vitamins. Fruit and vegetables stored in a supermarket or refrigerator can lose 50 - 90% of their vitamin content just 3 days from picking. Intensive farming has depleted our soil of vital natural minerals need to feed and nourish our crops.

Most disease is caused by the long term deficiency of only a single vitamin or mineral, yet most people are now deficient in 8 out of the 13 key minerals. We all need over 90 nutrients on a daily basis.

The government's flaunted 'recommended daily allowance' (RDA) of 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day now needs to be 9 to cope with today's demanding lifestyle - realistic! What about children! Therefore we must supplement.

"All diseases begin in the gut" Hippocrates 460 - 370 BC

Congestion or ingestion - the fight against the challenges of our polluted environment

Congestion of the gut / intestine is now one of the most common lifestyle conditions in the Western world. One in five people suffer from some degree with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), bloated stomach, overweight, digestive problems, stress, moodiness and lack of energy and wellbeing. 99% of the time the job of a healthy immune system, which is more active in the gut than any where else, is to switch off the adverse reaction to food and toxins which effect both the mind and body.

We are continually exposed to car exhaust fumes, pesticides, 3000 chemical preservatives and additives in our highly processed food chain, sunshine rays, alcohol, microwaved food, medical drugs and radiation, computers, mobile phones etc, all producing the damaging and cumulative effect of free radicals (scavengers). Free radicals attack vital cells, like rust eats into metal, destabilizing life giving cell function, causing ageing, common ailments, serious conditions and reduce the ability to cope with modern day stress. Additional nutrition is now, more than ever, essential to support the immune system to combat free radicals.

All this pollution has to pass through the gut - it is the 'Piccadilly Circus' of our body system. Food and toxins are digested through the gut creating the cumulative build up of toxins blocking the lining of the intestine depleting our essential good bacteria, thereby reducing our ability to absorb essential nutrients and vitamins - further increasing our nutritional deficiency. An absorption rate of only 15% is not uncommon when taking additional supplementation. You are not what you eat - you are what you absorb from what you eat! We have more bacteria in the gut than cells in our entire body and they are absolutely vital for proper immunity. With over 80% of your immune system living in the gut it must be strong enough to adapt to the stresses of life.

An unhealthy gut with depleted good bacteria not only prevents the efficient digestion and processing of nutrition but increases the absorption of calories and fat. Just as exposure to carcinogens can trigger cancer, scientists are finding exposure to certain fat-promoting chemicals found in everyday consumer products, can lead to excess weight and obesity. Even pollution in the womb can have major effects on child obesity.

We are interconnected - not brain and body. Our digestive system is our 'second brain' producing neurotransmitters, hormones and immune-transmitters that cross-talk with both immune cells and brain cells. When you go into a state of shock the gut shuts down digestion and promotes inflammation. Your gut is the interface between the exterior world and your body and as such any gut related problem has a direct effect on your brain. Gut reactions can literally make you feel depressed and have the effect on the mood-boosting neurotransmitter serotonin. The vast majority of serotonin made in the body is made in the gut.

A healthy gut holds the roots of our health, processing our vital nutrients. 'Find out where to start and what action plan you need to take to achieve a healthy digestive and immune system.' We cannot thrive without a well functioning digestive system.

"We carry our future health in our gut pretty much from birth. Exhaustion, moodiness, depression, bloating, twenty-first-century-itis is a response to our polluted, urbanized, speeded up world."
Patrick Holford - Founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition