Protecting And Building A Strong Immune System

Every day at Hippocrates Health Institute we are working with people challenged with all types of ailments ranging from mild health disorders to serious life threatening diseases. In virtually all cases health and vitality can be restored through enhancing the immune system to perform at its full potential. Although this may sound simple, our immune system is highly complex with over two trillion defenders capable of identifying and eliminating alien invaders. There are however some basic fundamentals that when adhered to can go a long way to optimizing and maximizing the potential of our immune systems.

Lets begin with by identifying the main defenders in the ranks of the immune system.

1. Phagocytes – These are cells that behave like scavengers consuming dead cells, inanimate rubbish, and large numbers of invading microbes. They also manufacture enzymes and antimicrobial agents, and act as communication links between other immune cells and the brain.
2. MHC (major histocompatibility complex) – Serve as badges on the surface of cells so the immune system can identify them as non-alien.
3. Helper T-Cells – These cells play a vital part of the immune system, identifying enemies and triggering the production of other immune system warriors. They call macrophages (white blood cells), other T-cells and B-cells to action, and stimulate the production of plasma cells.
4. Lymphokines – Act as protein mediators directing communication and signaling between immune cells.
5. Killer T-Cells – These identify and destroy cells harboring viruses and microbes, and can eliminate cancerous cells by punching holes in their membranes. 
6. B-Cells – These cells receive help from T-cells to create antibodies that stick to the surface of antigens on the surface of germs. These form into clumps that alert the body ‘s phagocytes to engulf and destroy the antibody-covered intruders.
7. Plasma Cells – A type of white blood cell that produce antibodies by the millions.
8. Antibodies - Proteins that travel throughout the body identifying and neutralizing bacteria and viruses, by clumping them together and attracting phagocytes to come and consume them. The also work with complement proteins to devour invaders. 
9. Complement Proteins – After the antibodies have clumped the invading antigens (bacteria and viruses, etc.) together, complement proteins arrive and destroy it by injecting liquid into the clumps causing them to burst. 
10. Suppressor T-Cells – Once an infection is neutralized and the immune system has won, these cells signal the system to stop all immune responses.
11. Memory Cells – Lasting many years these cells retain memory of previous invading microorganisms and will immediately recognize and destroy them again should they happen to enter the body.

This powerful system requires our help if it is to function as nature intended and keep us in a perfect state of health. Without going into too much detail lets summarize the external man-made causes that can weaken and compromise our immune system.

1. Lifestyle – This is an area the Hippocrates Health Institute has worked hard on over the past 40 years by promoting healthy eating, exercise, and positive thoughts. Imbalance and stress in any of these areas weakens the immune system that leads to illness and the development of disease.
2. Environment – Humans have polluted the planet to the brink of ecological collapse in many areas. Living in these polluted areas we become affected by toxic water, air, and even electromagnetic fields.
3. Chemicals – Artificial man-made substances are to be found everywhere in our food, bathing and drinking water, medicines, supplements, etc. that have exponentially added to the load on our immune system. This leaves our immune systems exhausted working constantly to fight an overload of toxic invaders.
4. Poor Agricultural Methods – In recent decades modern agriculture practices have resulted in soil trace mineral depletion, and contamination from chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As a result the plants grown in this soil become less nutrient dense, which our immune systems depend on to restock and rebuild itself.

Hippocrates Health Institute has witnessed great success in helping people strengthen and maintain a healthy immune system over the past decades. The following 12 guidelines are simple and powerful tips that will enhance and strengthen your immune system.

1. Receive direct sunlight for 20 to 30 mins a day (avoiding peak-strength sun in hotter regions). The sun is one of the most powerful immune system builders.
2. Consume more oxygen! Get out into forests, by the sea, and streams or into a greenhouse and learn to breath deeply. Ideally eat plenty of oxygen-rich foods such as raw leafy greens. Oxygen-producing air purifiers are great if you spend most of the day indoors. Many indoor plants also can help to oxygenate your home or office.
3. Drink clean and pure water that has been distilled or filtered by reverse osmosis. Ensure you are drinking an adequate quantity of water.
4. Remove all animal derived foods from your diet (meat, dairy, eggs), and ideally replace with at least 75% raw vegetables, such as sprouts and leafy green veggies. This is a process that you can develop over time and enjoy increasing vitality and wellbeing on the journey.
5. Drinking fresh green juice from sprouts, greens and wheatgrass twice a day. This is the fastest way to ingest high quantities of immune system enhancing nutrients from nature’s most healthful source.
6. Consume blue-green algae, spirulina, and chlorella (green algae). These are high quality natural and whole super-foods. 
7. Remove/reduce immune suppressing foods from your diet: processed salt, refined sugars and flours, dairy products, vinegars, heated oils, and foods containing artificial preservatives and colorings.
8. Don’t eat foods that have been fried or are heated in microwave ovens. There is much research linking these foods to various cancers and heart diseases.
9. Avoid alcohol (toxic to the body and destroys healthy cells), and only take drugs that are absolutely necessary.
10. Engage in exercise for 20 to 30 minutes at least three times weekly, such as stretches, aerobics, and resistance work.
11. Rest and relaxation – besides getting adequate sleep, fasting occasionally gives the body a ‘complete rest’ and allows the immune system to detox and recharge. This could be spending one day a week consuming only fresh juice and water.
12. Smile and be happy! A positive happy attitude is proven to contribute massively to maintaining health and maximizing wellbeing. The power of the mind on our state of health is incorporated into all the programs at Hippocrates Health Institute and should not be underestimated.

Vegans and Meat Eaters Having Same B-12 Defficiency

Over the years at Hippocrates Health Institute many hundreds of blood profiles of people have been analyzed to check among other things the level of B-12 also known as cobalamin. As far back as 2005 Hippocrates began using urine and cell-specific analysis for B-12 deficiencies, as it was known to be far superior to the standard method of testing. The test results showed that well over 50% of the hundreds of people tested were shown to lacking B-12 irrespective of whether they were vegan, vegetarian or standard meat eaters.

In past studies at Hippocrates Health Institute on people who were consuming a living food diet of vegetables, sprouts and limited fruit for a period of no less than 18 months, results showed less than a 5% deficiency in B-12. The same group when re-tested to a leukocyte (white blood cell) analysis, where B-12 absorption within the cell is recorded and the results showed a drastic increase to 65% deficiency of bioactive B-12.

It is often believed that foods such as blue-green algae, green algae, tempeh, etc. contain the soil based bacteria cyanocobalamin 4 that produce bioactive B-12, and consumption of these foods would provide one with this essential nutrient. However studies have indicated that the human body is unable to absorb B-12 from plant sources. Hippocrates Health Institute has also found that the same B-12 deficiencies also appear in people who consume meat and dairy diet as those on vegan and vegetarian diets. It seems that processing and cooking of meat and dairy render the B-12 produced unusable or not bioavailable to the body. So although we may have plentiful amounts of B-12 in the body, our cells are unable to absorb it and prevent diseases mused by B-12 deficiency.

This unusual finding caused intrigue into what was going on inside the gastrointestinal tract where B-12 is stored. The Hippocrates Health Institute researchers began with delving into past medical archives dating back as far as 1700 and found sketches of the colon. Comparing sketches and Hippocrates Health Institute researchers surmise that prior to the disappearance of this protruding pocket, B-12 was digested and absorbed by consuming naturally organic foods, free of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers.  This pocket stored B-12 cultures and acted as an organic ‘fertilization factory’, facilitating re-culturing of the nutrient in a sustainable and adequate form and maintain appropriate and sufficient levels of B-12 in the body. Since this culturing facility has all but disappeared, we are faced with B-12 shortage and are vulnerable to diseases related to B-12 deficiencies.

This unusual finding caused intrigue into what was going on inside the gastrointestinal tract where B-12 is stored. The Hippocrates Health Institute researchers began with delving into past medical archives dating back as far as 1700 and found sketches of the colon. Comparing sketches and photographs at 50-year intervals up until 2008 revealed a continuous decrease in the size of the pocket protruding just below the Ileocecal valve in the colon. The earlier sketches show this pocket as quite defined and quite protruded, until its near absence in the early 20th century.

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Fortunately for both vegans and non-vegans B-12 supplements are available that are digestible and provide bioavailable B-12 the body can use. LifeGive B-12 Forte formulated by Hippocrates Health Institute is a soil-based supplement recommended for those on any diet.

Sea Vegetables, a valuable Source of Important Nutrients

For most of us when we think about sea vegetables, food is not the first thing that comes to mind. Hippocrates Health Institute have long recognized the valuable contribution sea vegetables can make to maintaining health by implementing a wide range of these vegetables of the seas into their signature Life Transformation Program. However sea vegetables such as kelp, nori, wakami, and

dulce contain a rich source of many essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements not found in land-based vegetables.

To understand why sea vegetables are highly rated as part of the optimal health diet at Hippocrates Health Institute, it’s important to know why some of the nutrients they provide are not available in most land-grown vegetables. Since commercial farming practices began over the past decades they have contributed a great deal to land erosion and depleting our soils of many essential nutrients that would otherwise have made it into our foods. The oceans however are abundant in naturally occurring minerals and vitamins that become part of the sea vegetables.

 Although Hippocrates Health Institute always encourages organic produce; many people still eat non-organic vegetables that have been treated with chemical fertilizers. While fertilizers contain minerals essential to sustain plant growth such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur and magnesium, these minerals have been chemically processed.  Nitrogen for example is gassed at high temperatures and pressure to produce ammonia. Phosphorus and potassium are treated with acids forming granules designed to dissolve in order to reach plant roots.

Hippocrates Health Institute regard the following list of nutrients found in sea vegetables highly beneficial for maintaining good health if consumed on a regular basis: dietary iodine (one of the best natural food sources of iodine essential for healthy thyroid functioning), potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, nitrogen, iron, zinc, boron, copper, manganese, chromium, selenium, bromine, vanadium, and nickel. In all sea vegetables contain 56 minerals and trace elements required for biological functions in quantities greatly exceeding those of land plants.

Most people are familiar with or have eaten sushi, and will know that the green wrapping on the outside, is a sea vegetable or seaweed. This is in fact called nori and is probably the most commonly known sea vegetable. Other edible sea vegetables, a lot less well known include dulse, kombu, wakame and kelp, and even less known is - how to eat them. At Hippocrates Health Institute all of these vegetables are used to dress salads and flavor sauces adding colors such as red, brown, blue and various shades of green.

The most popular seaweeds used in the Hippocrates’s kitchen are:

Nori
This is a dark green, sometimes reddish sea alga, most commonly dried into sheets and used for

sushi. Nori is one third protein and high in dietary fiber. Nutritional values vary, but typically a 100g serving of dried nori contains about 40g of protein, 36g of dietary fiber and 3g of zinc. It also contains high levels of iodine, carotene, vitamins A, B and C, as well as significant levels of calcium and iron.

Dulse
This purple-red alga, has a strong salty taste and can be dried and eaten like a cracker. When hydrated it can be used as a flavoring in soups or tossed over a salad adding an extra dimension of color.

Kelp

Kelp has a brown color and is commonly found on tidal shores growing up to 6 feet in length. Its best-eaten fresh in soups or over salads, but can also be dehydrated to make a crispy garnish for grain or pasta dishes. Kelp is a highly nutritious super food with the best quality to be found in Iceland. Icelandic kelp can be sourced in supplement form.

Kombu
This sea vegetable is harvested in deep waters where it clings to rocks, and when dried appear almost black on color. Loaded with minerals, vitamins and trace elements, especially iodine, calcium, potassium, iron, carotene, and Vitamin B, they have a slightly sweet taste, and are helpful in dissolving mucus and regulating blood pressure.

Wakame

Also known as alaria, this sea vegetable grows in thick beds in shallow waters, and contains high levels of fuxcoxanthin, which helps to burn fats.
It is also an excellent source of omega-3 oils, calcium, iodine, thiamine and niacin. In Asian medicine wakame is used to purify blood, and for strengthening the intestines, skin, hair and reproductive organs. Korean mothers traditionally drink wakame soup to help fortify their milk during nursing. In japan miso soup is not a true miso soup without wakame!