Dr. Shmuel Shields | Immune Health: Building Better Immunity | CHAZAQ

Welcome viewers. My name is Dr. Shmul Shields. I'm a nutritionist in private practice in Queens and I was asked by Khazak to do a um a health series. Um so that's what I'm here to do. Uh it's going to be called a healthy aging series. Um we're going to do a few topics and today um the first topic we're going to do is on immune health, building better immunity. We know that the immune system is a very important system. We think of it as the body's police force. The body's army uh made up of specialized cells that are geared towards attacking invading forces like bacteria and fungi and viruses and microorganisms. Um it's a it's important that we do whatever we can to optim optimize the health of the immune system. And I want to give you uh basically I'm [clears throat] going to give you really we're going to cut right to the chase. I'm going to give you tips that are scientifically valid that have been well researched, well established over the years uh on how to boost uh immunity. Uh I also want to just say as a waiver, I'm not a physician, so I'm not giving medical advice. Um I would suggest that before you make any [snorts] lifestyle, dietary, exercise, any kind of changes, always check with your uh your health care professionals. Um, okay. So, let's get started. The first thing I want to tell you is that the immune system is sensitive to the needs of certain nutrients. It needs certain vitamins and minerals. And if there is a deficiency in even one of the vitamins or minerals that are important for good immune health, the immune system will be compromised. And as we get older, uh, the immune system is working, let's say, less efficiently as it as it should. Uh, nevertheless, there are things we could do at any stage in life to try to strengthen immunity. Um, and that's an important thing to do because if not, we become more vulnerable to colds and flu and infections and even, you know, shalom, even things like cancer and things like that. So um so the first tip that I want to give you is nutrients. Uh vitamin A, C, D, E, B12, B6, folate, copper, iron, selenium, and zinc are all needed for a healthy functioning immune system. So I just rattled off a lot of vitamins and minerals. And I mentioned about deficiencies and um it might be a little confusing to the viewers where do we get all these from? Well, the best places to get them from your foods and we're going to jump into that next uh because the body will absorb better what's in foods than in anything else. There could certainly supplements do play a role uh particularly vitamin D. Many people are deficient in vitamin D because it's not heavily found in our food supply. So people do have to write rely on supplements. Uh you can check with your doctor. You get blood work. You can find out where your vitamin [snorts] uh D level is and then the doctor can make a suggestion on oral supplementation, a maintenance dose, what would be appropriate to get vitamin D in range if you're low. Okay. So as I said, let's talk about foods now. um the opportunity to get many of these vitamins and minerals, essential nutrients that we need, can come from your foods, provided that you're a more selective eater, and you try to aim for what we call a Mediterranean type meal plan, which is basically a whole food uh meal plan uh made up of, again, it will vary from country to country, but it it's a healthy way of eating. It includes things like colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, olives, uh fatty fish, avocado, um cultured dairy products like yogurt, uh preferably unsweetened without the added sugars or flavored yogurts. There's things like cafir. Um there are other, you know, cultured products besides dairy. There's things like miso and tempeh. um natto. These are some of the Asian foods that uh kimchi is like a a Korean uh sauerkraut. Okay. But these are different kinds of cultured foods that uh do play an important role in in immune health as well. So by getting a variety of these foods and and keep in mind the [snorts] Mediterranean meal plan is definitely plant-based. It's whole foods. Uh we're not talking processed foods or sugary things or things like that. Uh however, it is not a strict vegetarian meal plan. They do include uh one of the staples I would say would be fish. That's their main go-to uh you know animal protein because they're surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. And um it's they do use some chicken in the diet and meat is used you know rarely uh you know very rare and even when it is used it's used uh as well as chicken in smaller amounts. It doesn't make up the whole plate. Okay. Anyway uh by choosing these kind of foods you will definitely do be doing a favor to your immune health and your general health and well-being and so on. uh and you'll cover a lot of the nutrient bases that I spoke about earlier. Um okay, so some of the additional immune boosting foods just to get a little more specific would be things like the betaarotene group of foods. Betaarotene is found in primarily your orange foods like um sweet potatoes and carrots and pumpkin and cantaloupe. Um it's also found in the dark green uh vegetables but the is a higher concentration in the uh orange foods. Betaarotene is basically the plant source of vitamin A. The body will convert it into a usable form of vitamin A and it's important for for immune health. [clears throat] Um by the way just a little little humor here. Um, when I was growing up, I was told that carrots are good for the eyes. Um, and they're rich in betaarotene. And I accepted it as being true. But then as I got older, I said, "Is there any proof that carrots are good for the eyes?" So, somebody told me, "Did you ever see a rabbit with glasses?" Okay, there you go. That's the proof. Okay. Um, okay. Let's talk about the u next [clears throat] uh uh immune boosting tip. Um, the next actually immune boosting food. We mentioned betaarotene. Mushrooms have been well researched and do provide uh immune boosting ability. Uh fish is a good food. Oats, barley, garlic, and some of the cultured uh products that we mentioned also that have the friendly bacteria. Um okay, good. Let's move on to another immune boosting tip. [snorts] Spice it up. Uh there are many herbal seasonings that not only make your foods that taste better and give you an opportunity to use less salt. Uh but they also have some antiviral, antim microbial and anti-inflammatory properties. Some of these herbs include things like cloves, oregano, thyme, uh cinnamon, uh cumin, uh rosemary, ginger, curry, and turmeric. and of course garlic. Uh so uh you may want to consider using some of these uh uh some of these things. By the way, uh if anybody wants to uh uh has any questions or comments on any of these talks or any future topic suggestions or any other information you want, you can contact events at Kazak. That's e v e n ts at khazak spelled c h a z aq. Okay. Okay. Let's continue. Uh so we mentioned about uh some spices. Um let's move on to staying hydrated. Um water believe it or not plays an essential role in immune health. The immune the specialized immune cells need a means of travel. And the way they travel, the body has to be hydrated. So they have streams. Think of streams of water that they could these cells could move on. If you're dehydrated, it slows up the immune response. So try to stick with proper hydration, primarily coming from water. A little bit of tea or coffee could fit in, but you don't want to go overboard because that could dehydrate you. Um, so try to make water the primary beverage and then you can fill in with some other healthy beverages as well. Uh, okay, let's move on to another [snorts] immune boosting tip. Regular moderate physical activity has been shown to improve immunity. Too much exercise can actually harm immunity and obviously being too sedentary works against immunity. So you want to have um some regular moderate physical activity. Um I know the surgeon general usually recommends about 30 minutes of reg physical activity daily. Um so that might be a guideline. Again talk to your health care professionals about what might be appropriate for you. Fresh air and sunshine both are immune boosters. Uh again, too much sunshine, too much exposure works against you. Everything in balance, everything in moderation. Um sleep, get more of it. Uh less than 6 hours a night can impair immunity and slow the healing process. Uh then we have a very interesting field of science. It's called psychoimmunology. And basically what that means is that um if we have a positive outlook, if we're optimistic, if we're hopeful, um we enhance immunity. It's no coincidence that the Rambam uh who lived about 800 years ago and uh besides being a great uh rabbi, he was also a physician. and he um basically told his fellow uh physicians he said make sure that your um patients have a cheerful frame of mind. Amazing. uh he saw the connection clearly between a person's mental status uh you know how they view things in the world in their lives and how it could impact on their well-being, their health, their immunity uh and so on and so forth. Um, [snorts] last but not least, uh, relax. Seek out social support, engage in calming activities, take a walk without your cell phone, and, um, you know, relaxation and things like that are very important for uh, immune health. Um, doing volunteer work, um, helping other people. Um, all of these things are going to be beneficial to immunity. uh not to isolate yourself but to try to be involved in positive uh activities. Okay, so that ends the first topic for today on the health aging series on immune health uh building better immunity.