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Low Immune Function

What is Low Immune Function?

The human body has trillions of cells.  Each one of these cells serves a specific biological function, be it providing structure and support to the body in the form of bone cells, transporting oxygen throughout the body via blood cells, transmitting information to the brain with the use of nerve cells, or any number of other actions.

Also present, however, is what Western science calls “pathogens.”  These are tiny organisms such as bacteria and viruses that even outnumber othercells in the body.  Though it’s been reported that many bacteria (such as lactobacillus acidophilus) are of benefit to the health and function of the system, pathogens are considered to be harmful in how they attack and destroy many of the body’s trillions of cells.  These pathogens are therefore cited as the cause of disease.

As the human body depends on the proper functioning of its many cells, the key to it remaining healthy is through the immune system.  The immune system of any organism, is described as an internal network that fights off pathogens and kills affected cells that have the potential to cause disease.

In the West, a person is diagnosed as having low immune function if their body is ill-equipped to fight off pathogens,

which leaves them vulnerable to bacterial and/or viral infections, parasitic growths, and other invasive developments. The most extreme examples of people with low immune function are those who have contracted what are known as immunodeficiencies (which manifest as diseases like AIDS).

Another problematic development of the immune system is autoimmunity, which is when the immune system is overactive to the point that it attacks healthy tissues in the body (examples  include diseases like type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis).

Along with encouraging proper rest, a healthy diet, and a physically active lifestyle, Western medicine uses a variety of medications to regulate immune function.  A patient suffering from extreme deficiency of their immune system (such as with a disease like AIDS) will be prescribed a rigorous pharmaceutical regimen to fight off pathogens. Similarly, a patient might receive anti-inflammatory medication in response to autoimmunity to deter the associated Fiery attack on the body’s various tissues.  In more recent times, it has become common for Western patients to embrace the use of herbs to stimulate immune function, such as with Echinacea, ginseng, and garlic.

How Does Ayurveda View Low Immune Function?

What would happen if someone extracted all of the sap from a tree?  The tree would wilt, dry up, and eventually die.  Much like a tree can’t survive without its sap, Ayurveda considers people to likewise have a life sap that is crucial for healthy and prosperous survival.

Rather than identify immune function through the citing of specific networks throughout the body that fight off pathogens, Ayurveda teaches us that this life-sap is what protects the body from being damaged or destroyed by harmful, foreign substances.  When a person lives a debilitating lifestyle in the form of excessive and poor eating habits, excess work, excessive amounts of sexual release, excessive mental and emotional stress, and crafts a daily routine that

is too dependent upon technology and other habits that depart from a natural existence, their life-sap gets drained and the ability to fight off disease is greatly lessened.

Ayurveda considers other factors significant to healthy immune function as well.  Having one or more doshas that are aggravated or excessive can be detrimental to the body’s life-sap—which causes a sharp decrease in immune function and therefore invites the incidence of disease.  Furthermore, as Ayurveda considers the root of disease to begin with poor digestion, maintaining healthy digestion through proper eating habits is significant toward building strong immunity to diseases.

How Does Ayurveda Treat Low Immune Function?

Along with having a patient work to balance their doshas, an Ayurvedic practitioner will prescribe remedies that help to restore and build life-sap that has either been depleted through an excessive lifestyle or has been genetically deficient. Below are actions to be taken to balance the doshas (as per many of the entries in this application) to build healthy digestion, and to build life-sap and therefore greater immune function.

Lifestyle Changes for Low Immune Function

 

 

When we neglect to establish the root cause of one illness, it can turn into another, stronger illness in the future.  The first step in resolving a specific ailment or disease in the body is to assess the nature of our lifestyle and make general modifications.  Living our day-to-day life with a deliberate intention to improve our health will help us to both resolve the disease we are suffering from and prevent further incidence of it and other diseases in the future.

When it comes to addressing low immune function, we need to investigate all systems of the body and mind to identify the weakest part; disease will make its home in not the stronger parts of the body, but the weakest. Below are remedies and lifestyle changes that can help to build digestive strength, restore life-sap, and balance each of the doshas:

To Build Digestive Strength

  • If going through a bout of indigestion, stop eating and fast with warm or hot water until the symptoms have gone away.
  • Eat only two or three times a day, and eat at the same time every day.
  • Eat slowly.
  • Drink a cup of warm water first thing in the morning to build digestive fire.
  • Watch that your breathing while eating and speaking is not erratic or short, as this will hinder digestion.
  • While eating, focus on the food and not your thoughts as you will eat unconsciously. This will lead to over- or under-eating.
  • Avoid eating fewer than three or four hours before going to bed.
  • Avoid eating processed foods, junk food, and anything else with abundant chemicals and additives.
  • Avoid eating after the stomach is half or three-quarters full.
  • Avoid eating while watching TV, working, or engaging in another activity (multitasking).
  • Avoid mixing fruit, fish, meat, and raw foods with dairy products and other foods with incompatible enzymes.
  • Avoid smoking and drinking alcohol.

To Build and Restore Life-Sap:

  • Go to bed early and wake up early. Follow the same sleeping routine every day, which will bring the body and mind in line with nature.
  • Spend five to twenty minutes gazing at the sun rising or setting every day.
  • Practice calming yoga postures and breathing exercises every day to settle the nervous system and relax the mind. This practice, when followed on a daily basis, will transform a person existing within the realm of the mind and body into going to a higher place, to the spirit. This is meditation.
  • Avoid excessive amounts of TV, computer use, cell phone use, and other habits centered on using technology, as this disrupts one’s relationship with nature and thus depletes life-sap.
  • Avoid high-stress situations that disturb the mind and create emotional turmoil in the form of anger, irritation, fear, anxiety, and worry.
  • Avoid overworking and over-exercising to the point of burn-out, as this can deplete life-sap.
  • Avoid excessive amounts of speaking, thinking, and analyzing, which promote a lot of desires and places demands on oneself as well as others. This stimulates the senses and creates anxiety.
  • Avoid expectations and judgments of situations and people, which will stress one’s body and mind as well as the body and mind of others.
  • Fast with warm water one day a week for better digestion and to burn off invasive toxins in the blood and colon.
  • Avoid excessive amounts of sexual release, as sexual fluid is the highest concentration of life-sap in the body.

To Balance Doshas

Vata:

  • Favor nourishing foods such as white basmati rice, barley, and cooked vegetables.
  • Apply ghee to foods and mix the ghee with a pinch of ginger, licorice, black salt, and/or triphala.
  • Take a tablespoon of ghee or sesame oil with half a cup of warm water.
  • Obey all urges to move bowels as soon as possible.
  • If possible try to get into a squat when defecating so as to emulate a more natural position for passing stool. This would mean the feet would need to be lifted onto the rim of the toilet.
  • Enlist the help of an Ayurvedic practitioner to administer oil enemas and other treatments like shiro dhara so as to stimulate the functionality of the colon and bring calmness to the mind.
  • Create more stillness through the practicing of calming yoga postures.
  • Avoid being in the wind.
  • Avoid dry foods such as chips, cold cereals, cookies, crackers, granola, and nutrition bars.
  • Eat more sweet, sour, and salty foods.
  • Foods can be a little heavier to ground the airiness of the Vata element. Favor cooked foods.


Pitta:

  • Eat foods with sweet and cold qualities.
  • Avoid eating spicy, hot, sour, and greasy foods.
  • Avoid using too many hot spices such as garlic, hot peppers, and onions.
  • Avoid drinking alcohol and other stimulants.
  • Avoid frequent, continuous, and excessive amounts of eating.
  • Avoid eating fewer than three or four hours before going to bed.
  • If the body is strong, take 1 teaspoon of castor oil in a cup of warm water, or adjust the amount to be more or less as needed. This is a good purgation to relieve excess heat from the system. (This is best to do before bedtime or in the early morning, but not if you have to leave the house within 3 hours.)
  • Avoid rapid movements and aggressive exercise.
  • Avoid artificial lights and sitting indoors too much. Take walks, especially when you are at the office.
  • Avoid speaking too much and emotionally investing in too many conflicts.
  • Avoid the hot sun and letting it shine directly on the head and body.
  • Avoid too many selfish and self-indulgent thoughts.
  • Avoid the need to be right or to always have things your way.
  • This brings on a lot of heat in the mind and body.


Kapha:

  • Wake at the time of Vata, which is before 6am. This early activity will help dry up the body.
  • Eat light foods and soups to help purge the congestion associated with excess Kapha energy.
  • Follow eating with a half cup of hot water.
  • Keep meals to once or twice a day, without snacking. This will quickly relieve the body of excess food to digest and bring it back into balance.     
  • Take light walks and stretch the body so that it can release the excess, stagnant Kapha.
  • Avoid eating dinner as it will create more mucus in the system as food remains undigested until the early morning.
  • Avoid heavy foods and drinks at night, which will create more stress on the digestive fire.
  • Avoid food until later in the morning, after 10am. This will help digestion become stronger.
  • Avoid sitting around too much, which will make the body stiff.
  • Avoid being out in heavy, rainy weather.
  • Avoid sleeping in excess.
  • Avoid too many sweet, sour, and salty foods.
  • Follow a more stimulating yoga posture practice done with more energy.
  • The Kapha element can be brought under control by fasting for 1 to 2 days a week with warm water or broth.

Better Foods For Low Immune Function

Ayurveda teaches us that disease and sickness are derived from poor digestion and inappropriate food choices. We then have the opportunity to make deliberate and more conscious decisions as to what foods we do and do not put in our body which increases the chance of resolving the body’s imbalance.

Food needs to be in season, in moderate combinations of one or two food groups, not too hot or cold, in a modest enough quantity to allow for room in the stomach later, consumed without too much liquid which hinders digestive power, and should be fresh and not left over for more than a few hours.  The first list of foods below is recommended specifically to help build life-sap:
 

  • Apples
  • Milk (after being boiled and cooled). Add whole sugar and ghee and drink early in the morning without any other food.
  • Almonds (soak overnight and peel the skin)
  • Sesame seeds (or in the form of tahini)
  • Ghee
  • Dates
  • Figs (fresh)
  • Melons
  • Pears
  • Rice (white basmati)
     
     

 

 

Foods To AVOID In Response To Low Immune Function

While some foods can help to balance an aggravated dosha, other foods can cause further imbalance.  Dry and cold foods as well as pungent, bitter and astringent tastes will dry out the body and aggravate the Vata dosha.Sour, salty and pungent tastes as well as spicy foods will add more heat to the body and aggravate the Pitta dosha.Sweet, sour and salty tasting foods will add heaviness to the body and aggravate the Kapha dosha.   The following foods are known to cause troubled digestion and deplete life-sap, and should be avoided in response to low immune function:
 
Raw and cold foods.
Meat and other animal proteins.
Junk food, sweets, and candy.
Processed and packaged foods.
Leftover foods.
Unnatural and artificial sugars.
Microwaved and other foods prepared unnaturally
Many combinations of different foods at the same sitting.
Out of season foods.
Processed wheat flour made into white and brown bread.
Dehydrated foods.
Cereals except oats or oatmeal.
Pancakes, waffles, muffins, French toast, and other sugary breakfasts, as these are like eating dessert as food. 

 

Beverages For Low Immune Function

Generally, Ayurveda discourages the consumption of too many cold beverages, as doing so hinders the strength of the body’s digestive fire.  Instead, favors room temperature or hot beverages to encourage the strength of the digestive fire.

Herbal tea or milk concoctions with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, ashwaganda, bala, guduchi and shatavari.
Hot water, especially during meals and first thing in the morning.
Take hot milk in the morning with whole sugar and ghee added to it, as per above.
Avoid cold and frozen drinks.
Avoid sugary or fizzy drinks that blend with the digestive juice and make it weak.
Avoid alcohol, coffee, and black tea.
Avoid acidic drinks.
Avoid fruit juice from concentrate. 

 

Herbs For Low Immune Function


Herbs are used in the Ayurvedic system much like Western medicine utilizes drugs and vitamins and can be taken like tea 2 to 3 times a day. Herbs aid in the digestion of food, the breakdown and elimination of toxins, and help to strengthen the cellular structure of our system for greater vitality. Herbs become more potent once mixed with other herbs of similar properties. Mix together 2 to 4 different herbs from the below list by adding a quarter to a half teaspoon full of each, for a total of 1 teaspoon. Drink these in half cup of hot water.

Cinnamon
Ashwaganda
Gokshura
Amlaki

Haritaki
Ginger
Shatavari

Tulsi
Guduchi
Sandalwood (white)

 

Yoga Postures For Low Immune Function

 

When applied therapeutically to specific ailments, yoga postures provide an opportunity to strengthen the body, rid it of toxic matter, and restore balance. The postures included in this section can be practiced as part of a more general sequence or can be focused on in short sessions. When first exploring yoga postures, it is best to only practice them for twenty minutes or so per day and buildup from there once the body becomes more flexible.


Bridge
Shoulder stand
Knee to chest

Spinal twist
Fish
Corpse

Legs-up-the-wall
Hero’s pose

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Aromatherapy For Low Immune Function

Aromatherapy utilizes the fragrances of essential oils when applied to the skin.  Essential oils can burn the skin and therefore must be diluted with a base oil such as sesame, coconut, sunflower, canola, or mustard oil.  Mix 1 fluid ounce of base oil with about 12 drops of essential oil before applying to skin. You can also just mix 5 drops of base oil to one drop of essential oil if using on one spot.

Life-sap can be built with lotus, rose, frankincense, or sandalwood oil.

  • Use a sesame oil base.
  • Apply oil on the forehead or on the back of the neck.

Mantra Therapy For Low Immune Function

Ayurvedic tradition suggests that repeating certain words or sounds can help a person suffering from an ailment to restore subtle balance to nerve tissue and enhance one’s mental clarity.  Different sounds are prescribed to either repeat mentally or chant outwardly.  These sounds are also used and repeated in the mind for the purpose of spiritual growth.

For low immune function, repeat the syllable “Aum” (pronounced ohm), “Ram” (pronounced rahm), or “Klim” for several minutes a few times a day and build more practice over time.

It is helpful to both outwardly chant and inwardly repeat the syllable for the duration of time it is practiced

Breathing Practices For Low Immune Function

 

Controlling the breath is a central practice toward developing peace and stillness in the mind and body. When the breath is under our control, we are no longer at the mercy of the senses that are stimulated by everything and lead to greater fluctuations of the mind. When applied to the context of resolving specific ailments, the breath is used as a tool for developing lung capacity, heating and cooling the body and resolving mental afflictions like anxiety and stress.

 
 
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