Issue #78: Why We Get Sick
Good morning. It’s Monday, December 5th. With the holidays right around the corner - including cross-country travel, parties, and seeing relatives - we're here to talk about immunity this week. Plus, it seems like everyone and their brother is fighting off something right now.
Did you miss any of our issues on NUTRITION last week? Catch up on Issues #73 - #77 here.
This week we're switching gears and talking about SCIENCE, specifically immunity.
“When you’re under stress, your immune system doesn’t work as well.”
From the Lab: Don't Be a Good Host
Take Action: Vitamin D Rules
Speed Read: Stem Cells in Space
Monday Metabolic: Sprint, Swing, Sled
Monday Q: How Healthy Are You?
The estimated number of viruses that exist on Earth. That's 10 nonillion (not a # you hear every day) - that is 100 million times more viruses than there are stars in the universe. (National Geographic)
From the Lab
Ugh - you wake up and it’s still dark. Your throat is swollen, your nose is clogged with green snot, and you’re burning up.
Why today?? You’ve got a big sales meeting that you’ve been trying to close before the end of the year. If you have to reschedule they might push it to January. Goodbye bonus.
You quickly think back to your coworker that was sneezing all day last week and silently (or not so silently) blame them for getting you sick.
Maybe that was the culprit - but who knows. At any given time we are covered with 10 billion bacteria and surrounded by countless microscopic organisms always trying to make their way inside us to become their potential new home.
It makes sense that we get colds/flu in our lungs and stomach bugs. Our skin is a pretty excellent shield, so bacteria and viruses are keen to enter our nose, ears, mouths, and eyes.
We take over 20,000 breaths per day and each breath is over half a liter of air containing millions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and mold. We also take over 100 daily bites of food with all of our food covered in bacteria. So yea - there’s a lot coming in all the time.
Most of these little guys are harmless or will get crushed by our immune system before we even know there’s a problem. But sometimes they take us down - we can’t even see it coming.
While we can try to not get infected in the first place, as we’ve seen over the past few years, pathogens will probably find their way in. The best thing we can do is to make sure we aren’t a good host.
For everything we know about our brain or heart, our immune system is a bit of a black box - which is crazy given how important it is to our health and survival.
Think back to those symptoms - there's actually a war going on inside our body that would rival any battle in world history:
Your swollen throat - that’s your immune system building up an army of cells in your lymph nodes
The runny nose - that’s your body creating mucus to make it harder for bacteria and viruses to move in the hopes of slowing down them multiplying
That green color - that’s the remnants of dead immune fighter cells (probably neutrophils to be exact)
The fever - this is actually kinda fascinating: your immune system releases pyrogens that are able to break the blood-brain barrier and tell the brain you’re in trouble. The brain then gives orders to constrict blood flow just below the skin to prevent heat from being released and raising your body temp.
Because your skin is cooler than your core you’ll feel chills at the same time. It does this because bacteria and viruses don’t do well in heat and it creates building a home-field advantage for your immune system in the upcoming fight. (Kinda like why despite being a way better team, the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots always had trouble playing the Dolphins in hot and humid Miami).
This is only the beginning - stay tuned as we follow this story all week to outline, how our immune system gets triggered, how it wins the war, when it knows to stop fighting, and what we can do to prevent and minimize getting sick.
Take Action
We’ll get into more prevention tactics this week, but for now just remember to take your Vitamin D. We’re getting close to the darkest days of the year and for many of us it’s nearly impossible to get any D from the low angled sun in winter.
*Check out Issue #20 for our full story of Vitamin D and supplementation recommendation - which is increasingly being shown to reduce the severity of COVID symptoms.
Thrive25 Partner Spotlight
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Speed Read
Health & Longevity in the News
"Ahead of Schedule": Over the weekend, the favorites won at the World Cup - Argentina, England, France and we all know the Dutch took down the U.S. You're going to hear "we're ahead of schedule" and "watch out when we host in 2026". If momentum is the next day's pitcher in baseball, not sure what 4 years does in football, or is it soccer? (Good commercial, bad snack)
Just Take a Breath: Lumen promises a personalized health solution, based on an individual’s metabolism, just by blowing into a small device. The company just raised $62M to replace complex lab testing - then get personalized recommendations on nutrition and workouts and track your metabolic outcomes. The new funding will go toward “support[ing] business growth and new research.” (TechCrunch)
Stem Cells in Space: UCSD Sanford Stem Cell Institute launched another round of stem cells into space. Stem cells are valuable because they provide insight into aging, cancer, DNA damage/repair, etc. Space acts as an accelerator - allowing stem cells to age rapidly will inform researchers’ understanding of stem cell aging without lengthy and expensive clinical trials on Earth. (Read more)
Monday Metabolic
It's like you're at football practice (but no pads and definitely no hitting involved). Get running, grab a kettlebell and if you have a sled - get pushing!
Click HERE to view the workout on our YouTube channel.
Workout and video courtesy of Connor J. Obrochta. Check out all of Connor's workouts on Playbook!
Monday Q
How often do you get sick? What do you do to support your mind & body for a quick recovery?
Product Recs
Life Extension Zinc Lozenges - zinc is a nutrient found throughout your body, it helps your immune system and metabolism function.
Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega w/ D3 - we know Omega-3 is essential to optimize our health. Now one of the leading brands has added Vitamin D3 into the same capsule - 2 for 1!
*Thrive25 has no affiliation with either brand.
Thanks for joining us today!
Check out the latest workout videos on our YouTube channel
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Why Thrive25
We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 3-5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.
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To health!
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The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25 Labs LLC does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.