Dr. Albert Schweitzer famously said: “Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within a chance to go to work.”
Using this metaphor, everyone is a “patient.”
But who is this so-called doctor within?
Answer: your brain-body immune system, the most amazing healing mechanism on planet earth. Perhaps even in the known universe.
No doubt you have heard on the news about the two main risk factors related to whether a person gets sick from a virus or bacteria or other types of harmful organism.
One risk factor involves the type and length of exposure to a source of infection. Typically, someone with the illness or an environmental source such as contaminated objects or spoiled or infected food. That’s the important reason for implementing recommended prevention strategies—the basic ones at least, whether there is an epidemic or not. Calm vigilance and a prudent lifestyle are two of your best allies.
The other risk factor is the strength of your built-in healing system. That’s the reason for developing wellness habits that will keep the doctor within strong. Embracing a longevity lifestyle matters.
According to Neil Nedley, MD: “Your singular duty to the immune system is to develop a lifestyle that will support its constant defense work on your behalf. How you live day by day determines whether your immune system works at peak levels or is inhibited by neglect and even abuse.”
Your brain-body healing systems are very closely connected. If healthy and sound, they function as one coordinated system. They “communicate” with each other regularly. Think “social media” here: text, tweet, email, Instagram, phone, and Facebook messaging. One writer put it this way: “Their hands are shoved so deeply into each other’s pockets you can’t tell which is which.” That’s both good news and bad news. Good news because what happens in the brain impacts the body—and vice versa. Bad news if one or both are not in tip-top shape.
The doctor within has four main jobs:
In 1986 the newly formed science of Psychoneuroimmunology began to formally investigate the two-way links between the brain-body immune system and the endocrine or hormone system and to learn how this impacts illness and wellness.
Let me repeat: your immune system is the most amazing healing system on planet earth. It is your doctor within! However, its level of effectiveness is typically tied to your lifestyle and habits of everyday living—just as the effectiveness of your car is linked with the correct gas or petrol and regular engine tune-ups.
Studies are revealing how you can give your doctor within a chance to go to work. That’s good news any time. Great news in a pandemic—especially if you have been strengthening your immune system on a regular basis.
It’s crucial to know and understand the components that make up your immune system. After all, if you tried to drive a vehicle as if it had an automatic transmission when it was a stick shift or vice versa, you might create havoc with some of the car’s parts.
By the same token,it is important to know something about your immune system. Of equal or greater value is knowing something about your brain. Without a healthy brain the body will likely be unable to accomplish a great deal. Without a healthy body, your brain would be limited in where it could go—if anywhere. Remember, the body’s main job is to support the brain and transport it from place to place safely and efficiently.
Do you know the components that comprise the immune system?
The immune system—nicknamed The Doctor Within—has been touted as the most effective healing system on the planet. Estimates are that 85 percent of all illnesses are within its reach for healing.
Unexplained healings do occur, but if you get sick and if you recover, the immune system plays a huge part.
As with everything else, the health of the body begins in the brain. It appears that the mammalian layer directs immune system function. That is fascinating, since emotional impulses appear to arise in this subconscious layer of the brain. This suggests that high levels of Emotional Intelligence—helping you manage emotions and feelings in a way that results in positive outcomes—may be critical to the health of the immune system.
Do you know the names of your healing system’s components. If offered $100 for naming each component, how much money would you collect?
The thymus gland. A rather small triangular organ composed of two lobes, the thymus is located between your lungs, just above your diaphragm and behind your breastbone or sternum. It oversees the maturing of T-lymphocytes, white blood cells that are critical for fighting infections. Avoid confusing it with the thyroid gland that is wrapped around your trachea at the front of your neck, just below the Adam’s apple.
So, how many of these components could you have named? One Thymus, three pairs of tonsils with different names, one spleen, and one appendix, 30-40 Payer’s patches, and potentially 200 bone marrow sites.
Do you still have all of these “components” or have you lost some along the way? Amazingly, they are only part of your healing system. There are several others, and a new one was discovered in 2015!
]The Human Immune System is composed of many components. In Part 2, six were identified. There are other important parts as well.
Lymph vessels, for example. Estimates are that the average body contains well over 420,000 kilometers (or 250,000 miles) of lymph vessels—about four times the number of blood vessels. Laid end-to-end, these lymph vessels would stretch around the equator about 10 times.
The fist-sized powerhouse that is your adult heart beats roughly about 100,000 times per day. Depending on a person’s size, it pumps approximately 5.5 liters (six quarts) of blood throughout the body each minute. The lymph fluid leaves your heart as part of the blood but moves out through the walls of tiny capillaries to deliver nutrients and oxygen from the blood to cells all the way from the end of your fingers and toes to the top of your head.
Unlike blood vessels, lymph vessels do not contain muscular walls. They do contain valves that prevent the fluid from back-flow, depending on the movement of large muscle groups around them to move the fluid forward to the heart. You may have noticed that when you sit for long periods of time—as on an airplane or in a chair at work or during long commutes—your ankles and legs may swell with lymph fluid. At that point and ideally before, it’s time to get up and exercise.
Lymph nodes—500 or more—are grouped in clusters at strategic intervals in the lymph vessels throughout the body. Operating as strainers, they remove foreign particles (such as bacteria) from the lymph fluid and can even kill invaders. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, metastatic cancer cells, and other harmful organisms can travel in both blood and lymph fluid. Too many in the lymph fluid and the lymph nodes may be unable to strain out and destroy them all.
When the immune system is activated, the lymph nodes begin producing large numbers of white blood cells called lymphocytes to attack the invaders. This can cause the lymph nodes to swell, resulting in heat and pain. Swollen lymph nodes are an early warning signal that something inside the body has triggered the immune system to mount a response. As such, medical personnel usually check for swollen lymph nodes during a physical examination. You may have heard someone say, “I have swollen lymph glands.” What they really mean is that some of their lymph nodes are swollen.
Now to the brain!
Until quite recently, no one believed that the immune system extended into the human brain. The prevailing idea was that there was no direct connection between the brain and the immune system, that the brain was only connected with the immune system via immune messengers carried in the blood stream. Drawings of immune system components in anatomy textbooks showed nothing in the brain that could be identified as an immune system component. Nada. Zip. To all appearances, the immune system stopped at the 3 pairs of tonsils.
In 2015 this theory changed in a nanosecond when Jonathan Kipnis, MD, a researcher at the Virginia School of Medicine, and Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow in the Kipnis’ laboratory, identified lymph vessels throughout the meninges, the three membranes covering the brain. The brain was directly connected to the immune system by lymphatic vessels previously thought not to exist.
How could it be? Probably because 21st Century science has better equipment. Because this stunning discovery overturned decades of textbook teaching, authors around the world scrambled to re-write textbooks!
At the time, Dr. Kipnis was quoted as saying: “I really did not believe there were structures in the body that we were not aware of. I thought the body was mapped . . . This changes entirely the way we perceive the neuro-immune interaction…. We believe that for every neurological disease that has an immune component, these vessels may play a major role.” In individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Kipnis also theorizes that protein chunks may accumulate in the brain because they are not being efficiently removed by these lymph vessels.
The lymphatic portion of the immune system is way more important than most people realize. The total lymph flow in the body is estimated at about 4 to 5 liters per day. Two or three times more if you are active. Thus, the importance of physical exercise!
At this point you might wonder what can suppress—or strengthen—immune system function. The general answer is whatever suppresses—or strengthens—the immune system. There are some more specific answers, however.
Information about suppressors begins in Part 4.
In combination with your brain, how long and how well you live is related to immune system functions. While unexplained healings do occur, generally if you get sick and if you get well, you can thank this healing system.
Your immune system is designed to prevent illnesses (where possible) and heal illnesses that could not be prevented (or were not prevented through personal lifestyle choices).
Some factors suppress immune system functions: busters, if you will. Here are examples.
Avoid or minimize these common immune system suppressors or Busters! Use your brain power to focus on incorporating strengtheners or Boosters into your daily routines. A place to begin is with the 14 researched components of a Longevity Lifestyle.
Because it matters, these immune system boosters are outlined in Part 5.
The Doctor Within is your own personal and unique brain-body healing system.
Estimates are that 85 percent of illnesses are within your immune system’s reach for healing.
Fortunately, “boosters” have been identified. Here are the first eight components of fourteen addressed in this series.
1. Mindset. Your mindset matters. It affects everything. ―Peter Diamandis
A positive, active, and creative mindset provides the foundation and direction for an immune-boosting Longevity Lifestyle. Why? Because everything starts in the brain. Optimism is associated with health, longevity, and retention of cognition. Maximize a ‘growth’ can-do attitude. If you have an enemy outpost of negativityinside your brain, get rid of it. Forgive yourself and others. The price of unforgiveness is too high as it creates a chemistry that interferes with normal immune function.
2. Self-talk. Self-talk is the channel of behavior change. ―Gino Norris
Use a positive self-talk style. Stop talking about what you don’t want to happen. Dump from your vocabulary words like don’t, can’t, won’t, maybe later—or not. Effective communication begins with your own self-talk since you tend to communicate with others in that same style. Your brain can only do what it thinks it can do. It’s your job to tell it what it can do as if it’s a done deal and already happening. It is more likely to get in gear and help you when it perceives you mean “now.”
Here’s the formula: use your name (so the brain is clear who you are talking about), the pronoun you, and positive, present-tense words. For example: “Skeet, you drink a glass of water 15-30 minutes before you eat.”
3. Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Out-of-control emotions can make smart people stupid. ―Daniel J. Goleman, PhD
EQ is the label for a set of skills that enables you to manage your emotions and feelings effectively and avoid a great deal of conflict. Learn to identify the four core emotions of joy, anger, fear, and sadness quickly and accurately. The last three protective emotions signal that the subconscious is trying to give you information. Get the information and let go of the emotion messenger. Your brain creates your feelings based on its interpretation of what the emotions mean. To change the way, you feel you must change the way you think. Raise your level of EQ!
4. Sleep. Sleep is independently linked with longevity. —INR
Give your brain the sleep it needs in a dark room to avoid interfering with melatonin production. Keep all electronics out of the bedroom. Aim to begin sleeping a couple of hours before midnight. Inadequate sleep can lead to weight gain, dementia, and a shorter life, as the brain-body immune system may not have time to complete vital tasks, such as:
- Repairing brain and immune system cells and DNA
- Moving short-term memories into long-term storage
- Flushing synapses and removing waste products
- Creating an energy supply for the next day
- Preparing food for the neurons and creating hormones and other necessary substance
5. Water. Water is your most essential nutrient. Water deprivation kills faster than lack of any other nutrient. —Boeckner & McKinzie
A mere one percent level of dehydration results in a five percent reduction in cognitive function. The resulting lack of water can shrink and pull brain tissue away from the skull, which is now linked with dementias. Learn to distinguish between thirst and physiological hunger. Thirst sensation diminishes after age 50, so it is not a reliable indicator of dehydration. Drink enough water to have 1-2 pale urines per day. Drink a glass of water 15-30 minutes before you eat a meal.
6. Safety. Safety happens between your ears. ―Jeff Cooper
Protect the brain and body that have been leased to you for use on this planet. You’re not taking them off this planet, as far as we know. Fall-proof your environment. Avoid pugilistic sports and games that ‘head’ the ball. Buckle up and wear a helmet when bike-riding and for other sports activities with a potential for head injuries. According to the USA Alzheimer’s Association, brain injuries as mild as a concussion can increase your risk of brain decline and dementia.
7. Exercise. Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. —Carol Welch
Exercise is critical to brain function. It brings nutrients to the brain, removes waste, promotes balance (homeostasis), and tones the body. Use it or lose it. Variety is key to staying interested and motivated. Select activities you enjoy, and have fun doing them. Minimize sitting; be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day.
8. Brain Stimulation. Physical exercise is the single most powerful tool to optimize your brain function. It can improve creativity, concentration, problem-solving, and help delay the onset of any memory loss. It prepares your neurons to connect with each other, while mental stimulation allows your brain to capitalize on that readiness. —Richard Restak, MD
Engage in stimulating mental exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. Minimize passive mental picturing (e.g., television, movies) and maximize active mental picturing that can stimulate your neurons or thinking cells. Read aloud for 10 minutes a day, learn to play a musical instrument, and do word games and puzzles to keep your brain engaged and thinking.
Make sure these eight boosters are part of your daily life. An alert, challenged, and stimulated brain is more likely to help you stay on track.
Check out Part 6 for Boosters 9-14.
Other than catastrophic events outside your control, the Institute for Natural Resources says it is possible to stay healthier and younger for longer. The Doctor Within—your brain-body immune system—plays a big part in making that happen.
Here are the last 6 of 14 components considered to be immune system “boosters.”
9. Sunshine. Sunlight is the best natural source for Vitamin D (acting like a hormone and likely playing a role in serotonin production) —NIH
Sunlight is required for life! Lack of sunlight can lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder that can be associated with depression, problems with calcium/bones, and may be linked with Multiple Sclerosis. Overexposure can damage DNA and collagen, impact macular degeneration and cataracts, and accelerate skin aging. Do add protective clothing, a hat or umbrella, and sunglasses if out in direct sunlight, especially during the mid-day. Avoid sunburn, tanning parlors, and ultraviolet light.
10. Nutrition. What you eat clearly impacts not only your risk of developing cognitive disturbances but affects potential longevity. —NormanRelkin MD, Cornell University
Lean toward a Mediterranean-style cuisine. Select plant-based, unrefined, and unprocessed foods. Select quality nutrition and eat when you are physiologically hungry. Avoid snacking and ingesting “empty” calories. According to T. Colin Campbell, PhD, plant protein is the healthiest type of protein. When you eat, how you eat, the type and quantity of what you eat and drink, and the atmosphere in which you eat all matter.
11. Laughter. Laughter is the best medicine. —Dr. Madan Kataria
Laugh at least 30 times a day—and last. People judged to be very happy reportedly laugh between 100 and 400 times a day; they tend to be healthier and often are very long lived. Mirthful laughter is beneficial to both your brain and immune system. Hone your sense of humor as it can trigger laughter—although you can simply choose to laugh and alter your brain-body neurochemistry. Schedule regular opportunities for fun, variety, and laughter. It is “cheap medicine!”
12. Support Network. Be around people who will help you grow. ―Joyce Rachelle
You need some close friends whom you can trust. Choose them carefully because within three years you are at risk for picking up the habits of the four or five persons with whom you spend the most time. Studies have shown this to be especially impactful for happiness, smoking, health, and obesity. Remember, you also influence others! Studies of unstressed mice show the same brain changes after they have spent time being around stressed mice. Hang out with those who are smart, affirming, reciprocal, and are living a Longevity Lifestyle.
13. Stressors. Under stress, the brain automatically ‘downshifts’ to a lower functioning level. —Renate & Geoffrey Caine
Downshifting makes it more difficult to access cognitive thinking, especially in the prefrontal cortex right behind your forehead. Only 20 percent of the negative impact to your brain and body is due to the stressor or stressful event itself; 80 percent is due to your perception of it. If you cannot prevent the 20 percent, you can at least manage the 80 percent. When stressed, identify and assign it to one of three general categories to help you manage it more effectively: eustress (helps you grow if you have chosen the activity); distress (avoid it whenever possible); and misstress (you may be able to it once you are aware of it).
14. Life Satisfaction. Life satisfaction is one of the most decisive factors for healthy aging and longevity. —David Schnaiter
Review your overall life. Identify and make time for things that have brought you satisfaction: nurturing and reciprocal relationships, things that trigger a sense of awe, ways to “give back.” Tap into your super-ego and take good care of yourself. For example, practice healthy selfishness and don your own oxygen mask first, even as you care about and help others! Hone your spirituality—the spirit in which you live life. Internalize that every brain on the planet is unique and dump criticism and unrealistic expectations of yourself and others.
Gratitude has been shown to enhance life satisfaction. William A. Ward has been quoted as saying, “You received a gift of 86,400 seconds today—have you used even one to say, ‘thank you’?” Gratitude is the antidote for fear. Joy cannot coexist simultaneously in the brain with anger, fear, or sadness. Give thanks for your brain and for a body to carry it around. Thank yourself for doing everything in your power to keep them both working efficiently for as long as possible. Craft a personal life vision and move toward it, role-modeling wellness and longevity.
The brain can only do what it thinks it can do. Talk to your brain. Tell it what you want it to do. Thank it for helping you develop and maintain a longevity lifestyle that assists in strengthening your brain-body immune system.
Do you know how the immune defense system works?
That is addressed in Part 7.
The human immune system and its defense strategies make Star Wars look like a stroll in the park. Each component has specific tasks to perform, some of which were outlined in parts two and three of this series. To be effective, all components must work together in harmony. Each must do its job accurately and pull its own weight to ensure that all aspects of the defense system remain in tip-top shape functioning smoothly, flawlessly, and timely.
The “Doctor Within” is a massive and finely tuned operation with two main lines of defense. The first is generalized and nonspecific. It includes:
White blood cells (leukocytes) patrol the body 24/7, continually on the look-out for invaders and constantly communicating with the “samplers” (e.g., appendix, Peyer’s patches, and lymph nodes) if something is amiss. A healthy adult human has between 4,500 and 11,000 white blood cells per cubic millimetre of blood.
Natural killer cells (NKs) aggressively attack virus-infected cells, cancer cells, and some bacteria. They have a special dislike for the Borrelia species that cause Lyme disease. Electron microscopy has observed these NKs sideling up to an undesirable cell, shoving in a type of “chemical” grenade—then backing off and watching the cell explode. One after another and another and another. A way to test immune system strength is to place NKs in a test tube, add tumor cells from a laboratory supply, wait three hours, and then count how many tumor cells were massacred.
Another type of white blood cell (macrophages) are sanitation engineers as well as fighters. In addition to directly swallowing cancer cells and other disease-triggering microorganisms, they surround and digest cellular debris—such as in the explosions caused by the NK fighters. That’s the good news. The bad news is that white blood cells are weakened by refined sugar. The sugar in just one soft drink or one candy bar can significantly reduce their effectiveness. No wonder illness rates rise around holidays too often celebrated with an overabundance of high-sugar desserts.
The second line of defense involves some sophisticated “Green-Beret” type hand-to-hand combat with fighters matched to specific invaders. Known as lymphocytes because they are the main type of white blood cell in lymph fluid, they include:
There are five general classes of antibodies. It’s easy to remember them with a sentence such as All Dogs Eat Green Meat: All for IgA. Dogs for IgD, Eat for IgE, Green for IgG, and Meat for IgM. Interestingly, IgG is the only class of antibodies that can cross the placenta during pregnancy to offer protection to the developing fetus. If you see one of these five abbreviations on a medical report, it refers to an antibody.
All this—and still only the tip of the proverbial ice burg!
The Doctor Within works unseen, mostly without your awareness or appreciation unless the immune system fails. It can take a lot of abuse from “busters” before collapsing. But if it crashes, it is a catastrophe—impacting both brain and body. Fortunately, the immune system often can be rebuilt, but only by a slow, careful, thoughtful process. Prevention is by far the best policy. Your brain would much rather prevent a catastrophe then suffer the consequences, because when the body suffers the brain suffers, too.
How do vaccines play into this sophisticated healing system?
That’s for Part 8.
Attempts to create something that could help protect people against disease goes back to at least 1000 AD. That’s when the Chinese developed a type of smallpox vaccination that was likely the first ever immunization. Jump to 1796 when Dr. Edward Jenner used cowpox material to create immunity to smallpox. Two hundred years after that, a refined smallpox vaccine effectively halted one of the most devastating diseases ever to hit Planet Earth, ending a 2000-year reign of terror wherein 500 million people died.
Louis Pasteur of France was another immunization pioneer. As far as is known, he was the first to create a vaccine in a laboratory when he developed a vaccine for chicken cholera in 1879. That was followed in 1885 with a rabies vaccine he developed from the spinal fluid of infected rabbits.
During the 1930s, thanks to the science of bacteriology and dedicated researchers, several vaccines or antitoxins were developed against diseases such as anthrax, cholera, diphtheria, plague, tetanus, and typhoid. Over time, more and more vaccines have been developed, each preventing its own brand of illness, disability, and death: polio, whooping cough, rubella, rubeola, mumps, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Hepatitis A, B and C—and more.
Vaccines typically introduce into the body a tiny piece of the causative organism or a toxoid—a modified toxin. The toxoid is still antigenic (i.e., it can produce an immune response) but no longer toxic. This stimulates the immune system to create new antibodies. As recently as 2019 a vaccine is being tested for Ebola—a rare but deadly disease also known as viral hemorrhagic fever. Regarding the recent epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in April 2020 the WHO reported 3453 cases with 2264 deaths—an over 65 percent death rate.
How does the “Doctor Within” create antibodies—or immune globulins—against a disease?
Briefly, you may recall that two jobs of the immune system are to recognize the “self” and to fight invaders. When something enters the body that is not “self”—such as harmful bacteria, viruses, or fungi—it is called an antigen. The immune system compares the antigen against its files to see if it has ever seen that specific antigen before and if an antibody or immunoglobulin has been created. If yes, the B-cell factories simply begin manufacturing clones of the antibody as fast as possible from the information on file.
If no, the B cells immediately begin developing a new specific antibody (immunoglobulin) for that antigen. Then the B-cell factories begin manufacturing, by the millions, clones of the new antibody. The antibodies (immunoglobulins) attach themselves to the antigen (the invader) and deactivate it. When the antibodies outnumber the antigens, the war is won. This can sometimes be accomplished in just a few days, often before the individual in question has even exhibited any symptoms of illness. Other times it is a longer process, and perhaps 15 percent of the time the immune system simply is unable to fight off the invaders without help–and maybe not at all, especially if underlying health issues have weakened the immune system.
Estimates are that the immune system can create antibodies against a minimum of ten 10 million different antigens. Every time a new antibody is created, information for that immunoglobulin is filed in immune system archives. If that antigen ever shows up again, the immune system instructs the B-cell factories to immediately begin cloning the matching antibody.
Some have said, “I got a shot and still got the flu.” That is possible. Typically, a vaccine can only protect against one to three viruses at a time. As such, you may still catch one of the other hundreds. However, there is some evidence that by boosting the immune system to produce new antibodies, you reduce the risk of complications even if you do get sick from a different virus. Not everyone is on board with becoming immunized, however. In 2017-2018 only 37 percent of adults obtained a flu vaccine.
All things being equal, you likely will never get sick from the same virus twice. You can get a relapse if the immune system hasn’t yet won the battle before you returned to your usual lifestyle. You can also get another infection on top of the first one from a different virus or a bacterium.
All things being equal, you likely will never get sick from the same virus twice. You can get a relapse if the immune system hasn’t yet won the battle before you returned to your usual lifestyle. You can also get another infection on top of the first one from a different virus or a bacterium.
Avoid exposure to antigens (harmful organisms) whenever possible. That’s one of the great pluses of social media: you can communicate with someone who has an infectious communicable disease while still protecting your own brain and body. The fewer infections you get, the less work the immune system must do to destroy the organisms.
Bottom line: although not everything is preventable, a great deal is. Use your brain to create and maintain healthy habits—to make it easier for the Doctor Within to do its job and keep you well.
