Supporting Your Immune System for the Fall and Flu Season

Supporting Your Immune System for the Fall and Flu Season

by Stephanie McKeith
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Tis the fall and flu season! It's that time of year when lots of people put in extra effort to support their immune systems. What most people miss in this immunity boost scramble is to give attention to the immune system’s boss; the endocannabinoid system (ECS). Your body has some complex inner workings happening in there.

Supporting your immune system is more than just supporting your immune system!

Your endocannabinoid system (ECS) fit into this big picture of your body's complex inner workings and for complete support, you should know why it is so important, especially for managing disease.

Knowing how the ECS interacts with the immune system is key.

For example, if your body is dealing with a virus or parasite, mold or bacterial invader, your immune system will produce a fever to raise your temperature and kill off the invader.

When the job is done, the ECS signals the immune system to chill out and restore homeostasis – in other words it can go back to its normal duties. This creates internal balance and allows everything to go its new solid ground knowing all's well.
When we run into major issues is when the feedback loop doesn’t work correctly. Skewed signals from your endocannabinoid system and your immune system – and vice versa -- can eventually cause you to develop inflammatory disorders that progress into illness or autoimmune issues and can eventually be a causative factor of disease.

Think of your ECS as the task master.

As the "master" of (all) tasks, it is continually adjusting and readjusting the complex network of molecular thermostats – cellular control panels – hormone directors – digestive coordinators – emotional adjustors (amongst all the other tasks that are happening on a minute-to-minute basis) that control our physiological tempo.
This tempo is the rhythm of which processes happen (and don't happen). Your body is constantly striving to keep this tempo balanced. This is the most unique characteristic of the ECS.

What I consider to be a pretty darn fascinating characteristic is that it works in reverse fashion. This process is called "retrograde signaling" and is what happens when your ECS tells your immune system to calm down after a fever has done its work. Retrograde signaling is a form of communication that inhibits immune response, reduces inflammation, relaxes muscles, lowers blood pressure, dilates bronchial passages, and normalizes overstimulated nerves. These are all things we want to be working properly when we aren’t feeling well.

There are multiple other processes happening in the background while the immune cells are at work coordinating with your ECS. Should you have other neurotransmitters that are firing too fast, the ECS acts as an inhibitory feedback mechanism that tells them to calm themselves and slow down.

More than immune function regulation
It's not just your immune system that the ECS interacts with. It's ALL of your systems, actually. This even includes non-cannabinoid systems like the endorphin system and the vanilloid system (the one responsible for changing pain from acute to chronic).

In holding such a powerful management position as this, modulating these other systems gives the ECS ability to regulate many things in the body: inflammation processes, pain / aches, bone health and development, reproduction, resetting poor sleep hygiene, healthy menstrual cycles, repairing gut dysbiosis, formation of new nerve cells, fat and sugar processing, mood, weight management, increasing energy, hormone balance and one of the majority of my clients favorites - brain health: calming effects of stress and anxiety that lead to sleep disturbances.

It seems to work on .... everything!
Add this all up and these are the reasons you have probably heard so many people finding relief for so many ailments when taking some formulation of CBD.
The study of cannabinoids such as CBD, CBN, CBG, CBDa, etc. are hot topics right now. Scientists are finding the reasons why we are able to use these compounds from the cannabis (hemp) plant for such broad treatments. There are thousands of people using this natural and nontoxic compound at this very moment for research purposes.

How do you know if your systems need support?
I encourage you to get tested to determine which of your systems are in need of balance. This will lead you towards which cannabinoids will be most suited for the support your ECS is searching for. To schedule your Bioscan test, send a message and I’ll get back to you within 48 hours (that’s 2 days)!
BIOSCAN TEST: Contact - Theta Living

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