One of the best ways to motivate yourself to stick with your weight-loss goal, is to surround yourself with other people who are on the same wellness journey.  But if you don’t have family or friends who have set a weight-loss goal, you can find that same inspiration on social media. And one of the best places to find influencers, fitness experts, nutritionists and regular people who are realizing their goals, is Instagram.

Nutrition Stripped

McKel Kooienga, MS, RDN, LDN has 340k followers on Instagram, and if you browse some of her posts and comments, it’s not hard to see why.  She is energetic, full of great professional advice about personal nutrition, and has a positive and motivating communication style that will make you feel good about your healthy changes. Follow Nutrition Stripped on Instagram.

Sprouted Kitchen

Sara Forte is the creator behind the Sprouted Kitchen Instagram community, and she makes healthy eating look so delicious, you’ll want to try her recipes at home.  Sara also has a great cooking club, where you can sign up for customized meal plans, tailored for health and weight management.  Follow Sprouted Kitchen on Instagram.

Oh She Glows

One of our favorite Instagram nutrition and healthy lifestyle influencers is Angela Liddon.  She specializes in vegan recipes, and has a blog, award-winning cookbooks, and an app you can download to help you plan healthy meals. Follow Oh She Glows on Instagram.

The Crunchy Radish

Don’t let the name fool you, because Miranda Hammer MS RD CDN is a registered dietician and expert when it comes to eating healthy and preparing balanced meals.  The New York City based dietician is also a mom to small children; she makes it look easy and always has some delicious recipes to share.  Follow The Crunchy Radish on Instagram.

Amanda Bisk (Fitness)

Have you heard of this Instagram fitness celebrity?  Amanda Bisk is from Australia, and she is a former competitive Pole Vaulter, Athletics Coach, Yoga Teacher and an Exercise Physiologist.    What we enjoy most about her Instagram posts, is that she provides challenges that are fun, which her audience can participate in at home, and a  great app full of tips.

                     Follow Amanda Bisk on Instagram.

Our Fit Family (Pre and Post Natal Fitness)

Juggling work, and parenting responsibilities is two full-time jobs.  And that can make it hard to squeeze in the essentials of regular exercise, and healthy meal planning.  When was the last time your little one let you out of their sight, let alone a couple hours to exercise at home or the gym?  We know; the struggle is real!

If you have recently had children, you will enjoy Julie Baird, creator of the Mommy Body Bliss series and her new Instagram community, with 199k international followers.  She’ll inspire you to find that balance and carve out some ‘me time’ and incorporate exercises into your daily routine.  Follow Our Fit Family on Instagram.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, or comment on the suggestions that are shared by Instagram experts in nutrition, weight-loss and fitness.  They love sharing advice, and they can be very friendly and encouraging, providing that extra boost you need to stick with your weight-loss plan, until you reach your goal. We’re more than a dietary supplement manufacturer, at RobKellerMD® we’re a community of supportive people around the world, who have the same goal; to learn, benefit and thrive!  We would love to hear your feedback, learn more about your wellness challenges (and victories), and share this journey with you.

From nutritionists, celebrities and models who seem to make it look ‘so easy’ to be fit and fabulous, we only see what is on the outside and presented to us about their lifestyle.  What we know is that many of the people we admire, have a disciplined meal and fitness plan.  It takes work and thoughtful consideration about our meals and activity level every day, to achieve it and sustain a healthy body weight for long-term health.

 The Battle Against Unhealthy Food Cravings

Why is it that the second we become stressed, we want to eat something?  And that ‘something’ that we want to eat, is usually not good for us.  Two major things have changed in our daily lives, that make cravings more difficult to resist; first, we have more food availability than ever before in human history.  Second, food (particularly high-carbohydrate snacks and beverages) are marketed to us relentlessly, on a daily basis.

What we see, we want.  And physiologically, since human beings evolved surviving through food scarcity (cavewomen didn’t have Krispy Kreme drive through), our brains are actually wired to consume food when we have the opportunity to do so.   Check out what Kent Berridge, professor of psychology and neuroscience (University of Michigan) had to say about these biological triggers.

 You aren’t a ‘bad person’ because you are craving something.  There are complex hormonal, psychological and physiological signals processing in the background, that compel you to eat.  The trick is not to try to suppress those urges, but to train yourself to seek foods that are higher in nutritional quality.  So, if you do eat, you are picking something healthy, that will keep you satisfied.

Why Protein and Fiber Are Dietary Weapons for Weight-Loss

We don’t eat enough fiber.  Even if you think you are getting enough, chances are that you are not. And when you are working hard to achieve your weight-loss goal, fiber is critically important because it keeps you feeling full longer.  It helps reduce cravings, by providing the nutrients your body needs.

Proteins can feel a little difficult to source, unless you know where to find portable, easy to prepare foods that you love.  Unlike other vitamins and nutrients, the body has no mechanism to really store protein.  It’s a ‘use it or lose it’ situation, and when your body is running low on proteins, it triggers a hunger or craving sensation to convince you to consume some.  Right away.

Some high protein dietary sources include:

• Dairy foods (milk, cheese and yogurt)
• Almonds
• Tuna, shrimp and other types of fish
• Oats
• Beef and chicken
• Broccoli
• Greek yogurt
• Quinoa
• Peanuts

High-fiber foods are a little easier to source, because food manufacturers are innovating new and healthier ‘convenience’ foods that are fortified with fiber.  But natural sources of fiber are healthier, and include avocados, apples, raspberries, popcorn (plain), chia (add some to your smoothie) and dark chocolate.

How to Stay on Track for Successful Weight-Loss

Keeping a positive mindset about all the healthy benefits that you are going to enjoy when you reach your weight-loss goal matters.  Don’t dwell on the kinds of foods or treats that you are depriving yourself of, but rather stay focused on how good you will feel, and how great you will look when you accomplish your goal.  Remember that every positive choice you make (and each time you avoid the temptation to choose low-nutrient valued meals and snacks) will put you one step closer.  Take it a day at a time, and plan a healthier treat every now and then, to reward yourself for staying on track.

Another Monday rolls around, and you’re wondering how you are going to get through the week.  Remember when you felt like you had all the energy in the world? Where did that go?

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, and we feel like there are not enough hours in the day. Or maybe, we’re trying to pack too much into our day?

The truth is that when your body is nutritionally balanced without the burden of free radicals, you DO have that energy again.  It isn’t about how old we get, or how much we do in our day or week that defines our energy levels.  But if you are feeling like that energy is missing, that’s a message from your body that it needs a little bit of help.

And that’s where glutathione comes in. 

The Cellular War in Your Body

Everything about your health, energy and appearance starts at the cellular level.  Healthy cells throughout the body have a variety of roles; from cognition to carrying nutrients and messaging through the nervous system. They also control production and repair of skin tissues, digestion and your immune system.

When we are young, our cells have not had too much exposure to free radicals.  Plus, the younger we are, the better equipped our bodies are to produce the right amount of glutathione and other natural antioxidants.

We start absorbing free radicals from the air we breath, the food and water we consume, and from lifestyle choices like consuming alcohol or tobacco products.   It is these free radicals that cause the damage that impedes the production of glutathione in the liver.

That’s where it’s made and recycled, so that your body has a natural defense against cellular oxidation and the health risks associated with a high free radical load in your body.

Many of us are not even aware of the ongoing cycle.  Free radicals enter the body and attach themselves to healthy cells.  They damage those cells and impair their functioning.  Next, they leave the dying and damaged cell to find another healthy one to consume energy from.  And this battle is exponential; it goes on and on throughout every cell in your body.

But the worst part is, free radicals also damage the liver, and impede its ability to produce the very antioxidant our bodies need to prevent free radical damage!

What Does It Feel Like to Have Low Glutathione?

You can’t immediately feel the impact of free radicals.  In fact, you might not even notice for decades, until you start to see changes in your normal energy level.  What is the number one way our bodies communicate to us that there is an important deficiency?  We feel tired (even after a good night of sleep), and periods in our day where we struggle to stay alert, and focused.

Your physician can talk to you about testing for glutathione deficiency, if you are concerned about your energy levels.  It’s the best place to start when you get tired of ‘being tired’ all the time.

How many times have you heard someone say, “Oh well, I guess I am getting older”.  But your energy level has very little to do with your age, and everything to do with your cellular health.  When you take steps to optimize your glutathione production, you strengthen your cells against free radical damage.

And the over all benefits?  Optimized glutathione and antioxidant levels reduce the risk of many chronic diseases and Cancer. Glutathione helps to improve digestion and immune system functioning, mental acuity and memory, restore collagen and lipids for healthier skin and much more.

But how does this improve energy levels?  In order to stay alert and feel that surge of healthy energy throughout the day, your cells need to efficiently carry oxygen, proteins, hydration, nutrients, electrolytes, minerals and important antioxidants.

When that cellular superhighway is working correctly, every cell in your body is nourished.  And that means more energy in your day.  Learn more about Dr. Keller’s patented Original Glutathione Formula® as a beneficial daily antioxidant optimizer.

Our progress as a developed society has much to do with our increasing battle against obesity.  Diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, dementia and even certain types of cancer have increased markedly, since the 1970s.  What changed is that we move less, burning fewer calories, while consuming almost twice the average calories (or more) than our bodies can efficiently process.  The math of calories in versus calories burn no longer adds-up; and that has contributed to our current battle against obesity.

Staying informed and learning more about the negative health impacts, can help motivate you to look at weight-loss as an important health issue.   Here are three ways that extra body fat impacts our health and well being.

1. Insulin Resistance and Diabetes

As our body weight and fat ratio increases, the storage of triglyceride in and around the major organs in the abdominal area increases, particularly in the liver and pancreas.  And that’s bad news because our liver is responsible for some very important functions, including the production of bile for digestion, and filtering blood through the digestive tract to detoxify chemicals.

Produced and released by the pancreas, insulin is key regulator, that manages the levels of glucose in the body, and it also manages our absorption of healthy fatty acids (lipogenesis).  Beta cells in the pancreas signal cells to absorb sugar from the bloodstream, when food or beverages are consumed.   It is the key that allows our body to use sugar for energy, and obesity impairs that functioning.  Over time, diabetics lose insulin sensitivity and may develop the need to depend exclusively on medical insulin.

2. Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke

In 1997, the American Heart Association (AHA) published a report that confirmed obesity was a modifiable (fixable) factor that contributed significantly to increased cardiovascular health risks, including heart attach and stroke.  The study suggested that individuals with a BMI greater than 30 may experience early morbidity (shorter life spans) than those that maintained a healthy body weight.

Abdominal fat is particularly damaging to the heart. Read about a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2018, which outlines results from clinical research on 500,000 individuals.   Women who carried more weight around the mid-section of their body, had a 10% to 20% higher risk of heart attack, than women who had excess weight dispersed evenly throughout the body.

3. Osteoarthritis and Bone Health

Do you know someone who has had a knee replacement surgery?  There is a strong correlation between excess body weight and Osteoarthritis, a painful inflammatory bone and joint condition that more than 27 million Americans have, according to population health data from 2018.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES I) revealed that women who were overweight had four-times the risk of developing Osteoarthritis of the knee.  Individuals carrying a significant amount of extra weight, may be prone to 10 times the risk of developing the debilitating and painful condition.

Did you know that the United States is the global leader, accounting for 13% of individuals with obesity worldwide?  Right now, there are an estimated 160 million Americans who are overweight or clinically obese; 75% of them are men, 60% are women, and a shocking 30% of them are children aged twenty years or younger.

Losing weight becomes more difficult as we get older but encourage yourself to stick to your weight-loss program and find resources and support to help you achieve it.  This important step will help you improve your quality of life and longevity, by reducing your risk for weight associated health risks now, and in the future.

Any physician will tell you that beautiful skin and wellness starts from within.  Anything you apply topically to your skin can only have limited results.  Below the surface of your skin are layers of dermis and skin cells that need to be nourished.   That’s where a balanced diet and glutathione (antioxidant) production offers the kind of benefit that cosmetic treatments cannot come close to comparison to.

Can I Take a Lot of Glutathione to Get Healthier Skin?

We know it’s a little confusing, because there are literally hundreds of glutathione supplements that promise to increase your antioxidant levels.  And it’s really misleading because they make you think that all you need is a daily vitamin to raise your natural glutathione levels and sustain them long-term.  But that’s not how it works.

Our founder, Dr. Robert Keller was one of the first to educate the medical community about the unique way that our bodies produce, process and recycle glutathione.  Through his clinical studies and research, he revealed that an individual would have to take pounds (literally) of glutathione supplements daily, in order to achieve that goal.

So yes, it is possible to take a straight supplement and increase your glutathione, but the practicality of the volume of glutathione needed to achieve that, simply doesn’t work. Dr. Keller discovered that the body didn’t need to have supplemental glutathione.  What it needed to offset the impact of declining production as we age, were a combination of extracts, vitamins, minerals and nutrients to nourish that natural production.

From this research came the formulation of the Original Glutathione Formula, and after rigorous testing our supplement was patented for its unique wellness benefits.

What Makes the Original Glutathione Formula® Different from Other Antioxidant Supplements?

The best way to think of the Original Glutathione Formula® as a daily anti-aging supplement, is to consider it a glutathione optimizer!  You see, your body already produces glutathione naturally to combat attacks on your cellular health from free radicals.  Things like heavy metals, pollution, hormones and antibiotics in our food supply, and even some of the residual effects of certain prescription medications and fillers.

All of these free radicals are absorbed by your body, and they are aggressive! They attach to your healthy cells (including skin cells) and have a disabling effect.  A cell with free radicals cannot function normally.  It can’t do its job, and the oxidation process (the damage done by free radicals) can even predispose that cell to becoming carcinogenic, or cancerous.

A free radical robs the cell of electrons, and what is worse, the free radical (once it has damaged a cell) will seek out other healthy cells and attach themselves.  This creates a cascading effect that creates exponential cellular damage.

What does this have to do with healthy, youthful skin?  That cellular damage changes the DNA of every skin cell the free radicals encounter.  That disables our healthy skin cells and prevents them from producing collagen and lipids; the two things that help keep skin firm, hydrated and youthful looking, with fewer wrinkles.

Some visible signs of free radical damage to skin include:

• Premature wrinkles
• Uneven skin tone
• Dull skin
• Hyperpigmentation or dark spots

Remember we mentioned that free radicals had a cascading effect?  As more cells are impacted by cellular oxidation from free radicals, those visible signs of aging become more pronounced.  Natural glutathione production declines with age, but with Dr. Keller’s Original Glutathione Formula® you can help your body produce and recycle glutathione, for healthier skin.

Cardiovascular experts warned that too much cholesterol could lead to arterial plaque, which contributed to narrowing of our veins and arteries, restricting blood flow, increasing hypertension (blood pressure) and with it, an increased risk for heart attack and stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

In the past ten years however, nutritionists and health experts have learned that not all fats are harmful to our health.   And some types of fat are essential for energy, tissue repair and our immune system.  Is fat really good for you?  In moderation, yes.  But you need to avoid the sources of dietary fat that are not beneficial, to manage a healthy body weight and moderate cholesterol levels.

What Kind of Fats Are Harmful to Our Health?

Let’s start with the ‘bad guys’ of dietary fat, because they are what we want to avoid wherever possible for good health.   There are actually two classes of fats that have a negative impact on our health, and they convert most easily into abdominal fatty deposits.

1. Trans Fats

Trans fats are strongly linked to an increase in the risk for developing certain types of diseases; specifically, heart attack and stroke.  Even when you restrict the quantities of trans fats in your diets, they still increase your risk factors, and they should be avoided as much as possible.

Trans fats are found in foods that have hydrogenated oil, which is commonly used in many convenience and processed foods, such as potato and tortilla chips, fried foods, margarine and most baked goods including cookies, pie crusts and shortening.  Flavored creamers are also surprisingly high in unhealthy trans fats (so choose the fat-free versions).

Another thing to remember about trans fats, is that they also work against your body and lower your good cholesterol levels.   Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are the leading cause of hardened arteries.

2. Saturated Fats

This second type of dietary fat isn’t as bad as trans fats, but they can still be harmful for your health.  These represent foods that do not need to be avoided, but should be consumed in moderation, and they include:

• Dairy products (butter, cheese and ice cream)
• Red meat
• Pork and lamb meat
• Processed meats like pepperoni, salami or cold cuts
• Palm oil
• Fresh chicken (skin-on)

It would be pretty hard to completely avoid all those foods (and who can live without ice cream?).  The most important thing to remember when you are trying to eat well, lose weight or maintain a healthy body weight, is to consider the appropriate portion size and frequency that you consume them, and moderate your intake of saturated fats.

Targeting Healthy Dietary Fats with Nutritional Benefits

In a healthy and balanced diet, about 20 to 35% of your total calories should be sourced from fats, but only 10% of them should be sourced from saturated fats.  The secret to balancing your healthy versus unhealthy facts, is knowing which ingredients, cooking methods and snacks are better nutritional options.

Good cholesterol is part of the building blocks of cellular health.  It helps build the structure of cell membranes, and it is essential for balancing hormones like testosterone, oestrogen, and adrenal hormones.  Your metabolism relies on good cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and it is also vital to the healthy functioning of the digestive system, helping the body to absorb other important nutrients through bile acids.

When you are looking at the labels of many of the processed foods you buy, pay close attention to the amount of trans fats or saturated fats, and calculate that by serving size.  If it is a snack or ingredient you indulge in frequently, consider trying other alternatives to lower your intake of harmful cholesterol.  Balance your diet with more healthy foods, that contain HDL fats instead.

At the same time as our lives have become more sedentary than ever before in human history, something else has crept up in tandem with our weight management difficulties; and that’s portion sizes.  We’d like to discuss how the deck (and our plates) are stacked higher, and why self-education about portion size matters so much, when you are working on achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight.

You Aren’t Imagining It! Our Plates Got Bigger

In the late 1960’s, the average plate size in American households was only 9 inches in diameter.  Today, the plate size most commonly found in home dinnerware sets is 12 inches wide.   Why is this a big deal? Because at the same time as our expectation of what we will consume at an average meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) has increased, our activity level has decreased.

It is that programmatic or ‘mindless’ easting that gets us into trouble.  In 2007, Brian Wansink (a professor at Cornell) published a book called “Mindless Eating” and he was featured in The New York Times for his experiments on the psychology of eating.

Psychologically, the larger portions serve several economic purposes for the food service industry.  If restaurant guests are served a large portion, they are likely to be satisfied with their first meal and shorten the length of time they remain at their table (without ordering extras).   The highest priced menu items are always the largest, and most satisfying entrée.   And in some restaurants, guests are even prohibited from ‘splitting’ an entrée without an upcharge, or from taking leftover food home (as is the case with buffet establishments).

The plate is figuratively stacked against us, and our goal to monitor the portion size, and number of calories we consume (and burn) daily.   The Obesity Action Organization provides an informative table that compares portion sizes, net calories, fiber and calories for some popular American restaurant chains, versus cooking a similar meal at home.

What Are the Guidelines for Meal Portions?

There is a great deal of nutritional misinformation online, and fad diets make it hard to know how much you should be eating, and what types of nutritional sources you should be choosing every day.  The results and myriad of pictures of individuals who lost a hundred pounds or more by following the keto diet, can make it seem like eating bacon three times a day works.  A notion that cardiologists and nutritionists do not support as a healthy long-term solution for weight management.

Women and men over the age of fifty years, should aim for these nutritional targets daily:

• 25 to 30 grams of fiber
• 4 micrograms of vitamin B12
• 5oz to 7 oz of healthy proteins
• 1 ½ to 2 ½ cups of high-fiber fruit
• 2 to 3 ½ cups of high-fiber vegetables
• Curcumin (the active ingredient in Turmeric which is clinically suggested to reduce the risk of certain cancers and provide some protection against Alzheimer’s Disease
• Cinnamon (provides anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory benefits)
• 4,700 milligrams of potassium. One cup of pistachios provides 1,200 milligrams of potassium.
• 1,200 milligrams of calcium
• Approximately 1,400 to 2,200 calories per day

Dr. Pamela Peek, the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Hunger Fix” states the struggle with weight balance perfectly: “In youth, it’s all about growth and maintaining a body that can procreate. After the age of 50, the goal is to prevent disease by maintaining an optimally healthy and active mind and body”.

But what about portion sizes?  The National Institute on Aging provides some excellent resources to help retrain the behavioral expectations we have for portion sizes, with some easy to remember examples.

Now that we’ve had some time to think about the size of our meals and snacks, what lifestyle changes can you make to help correct your own ‘portion distortion’ to help you reach your healthy weight goals? What works for you?  Share your comments with us.

The before and after pictures of dramatic weight loss are impressive!  And it can be very exciting to see so many success stories, that motivate you to try that specific nutritional science. The recipes are pretty fascinating, and a quick glance over some of the keto-friendly recipes shows a lot of high-protein and high-fat options.  Bacon wrapped everything!  Or at least, that is how it seems.

But while there is no contesting that millions of people have lost a significant amount of weight on the Ketogenic Diet, it is more complex than simply eating a diet of carbohydrate free proteins.  In fact, Cardiologists and nutritional experts are sounding an alarm.  The answer to weight-loss isn’t surviving on a diet that is high in saturated fats; and there are some significant health risks that some of the most vocal supporters of the Keto Diet are not talking about.

Why the Keto Diet Conflicts with Long-Term and Balanced Nutritional Needs

Let’s start with some of the good things about the Keto Diet.  In North America, we tend to lean toward high-carbohydrate foods. Since the diet restricts carbohydrates to 25 grams per day, it is almost entirely comprised of plants and proteins.  How much is 25 grams of carbohydrates? Consider that one slice of commercial white bread, may have 15-18 carbs.

Some of the benefits that people experience on the Keto Diet include:

• Lower overall calorie intake (daily)
• Fewer cravings due to the high-fat content of meals
• Increased energy levels
• Significant fat loss vs. muscle loss or water-weight

When you are not consuming carbohydrates, you are breaking the cycle of consuming carbs, elevating your blood glucose (sugar) levels, and then the nasty crash and fatigue that follows.   Part of our contemporary struggle to regulate our body weight is due to that cycle; and since we can’t afford to feel tired or groggy in our busy day, we fuel up again with carbohydrates.

Eating more protein and fats keeps you satisfied longer.  Reducing carbohydrates means your body has to change its preference to source fat (instead of sugar) for energy.   You lose inches if you follow the strict weight-loss diet fairly quickly, which is encouraging to people who have struggled to lose weight or maintain a healthy body weight for years.

The following foods are restricted on the Ketogenic Diet:

• Breads, crackers and baked desserts
• Sweets
• Noodles and Pasta
• Grains and grain products
• Certain types of starchy vegetables (sweet potato, potatoes, butternut squash, peas)
• Beans, lentils and legumes
• Specific types of fruit (citrus, grapes, bananas, pineapple)
• Alcoholic and sweetened beverages (beer, energy drinks, juice and mixed drinks)

A dietician or nutritionist would quickly point out, that many of the foods on the Keto diet are actually important for good health.  For instance, while lentils, beans and legumes are starchy and heavy on carbohydrates, they also provide valuable fiber that your body needs.

Foods like bananas also have carbohydrates, but they are an excellent source of potassium, which is essential to help regulate fluid balance (reduce water retention), reduce hypertension, support nerve messaging and many other important functions in the body.

Many of the proteins sourced for the keto diet are high in trans-fats and saturated fats.  Trans-fat foods should be avoided as they contribute to cardiovascular and circulatory health issues, increasing the risk factors for heart and stroke.

Talk to your physician if you are considering the Keto Diet as part of a temporary weight-loss strategy, to reduce abdominal fat.   But for a long-term solution, consider the importance of balancing fresh fruits and vegetables, natural fibers and foods with HDL cholesterol as part of your healthy new lifestyle and dietary habits.

You know the feeling when you get to work, and everyone is coughing or sneezing around you.  You are probably thinking “Oh great, I’m going to catch this thing too”.  We are exposed to bacteria and viruses every hour of the day, from the surfaces we touch in a grocery store, to people we encounter at work or throughout our day.  And let’s not forget parents who are almost virtually guaranteed to get whatever cold or flu virus that the kids bring home from school.

We all lead busy lifestyles, and no one wants to miss time from work, school or family activities by being laid up in bed with a bad cold or the influenza virus.  But there is one small healthy habit you can adopt every morning, to help your immune system ‘do it’s job’ and make it harder for a cold or flu to take hold.

Let’s talk a bit about some of the things that can burden your immune system and impair your ability to fight off infections and viruses.

7 Surprising Things That Weaken Your Immune System

An annual influenza vaccine is recommended by the World Health Organization and practitioners, but it doesn’t provide any protection against the common cold.  And if your body has a compromised immune system, it may not protect you from new strains of influenza.  Did you know that there are more than 144 subtypes of influenza?  Your annual vaccination protects against an average of three every year.

Each day, your body is waging a silent war against bacteria and viruses.  And for most people, it does a pretty good job of killing an invading bacteria or virus before it becomes a full-blown condition (with all the unpleasant symptoms).  Most people don’t realize however, that these five basic things can significantly weaken their immune system, making them more prone to succumbing to the common cold and strains of the influenza virus.

1. Stress

Chronic stress is one of the biggest threats to your healthy immune system.  Our bodies are designed to handle short bursts of stress, with a ‘fight or flight’ adrenaline response that our ancestors used to get out of predatory situations.  What are bodies are not designed for however, is a persistent long-term state of adreno response.  Think about it this way; our physiology isn’t engineered to run from a predator 24/7, but that is exactly the state we put ourselves in with unmanaged long-term stress.

When we are experiencing chronic stress, the brain starts producing more of a hormone called cortisol.  That gives us energy for a short period of time, but at the cost of endurance.  The cortisol hormone has a disabling effect on T-cells, making it harder to fight off invading bacterial or viruses.

2. Nicotine

In spite of what advertisers for vape products want to tell you nicotine is harmful no matter how you consume it.  Whether you chew tobacco, or smoke cigarettes, a cigar, a pipe or a flavored vape, if it contains nicotine you are doing harm to your body in a variety of ways.  And you are compromising your immune system. Nicotine also increases cortisol hormone levels and reduces the B-cell antibodies from forming.  It also reduces the T-cell functioning, and those are the cells that ‘seek and destroy’ bacteria and viruses as part of the immune system. New studies have also suggested that the vapor in e-cigarettes contains heavy levels of free radicals that cause additional airway inflammation (exacerbating chest congestion from a cold or flu virus)

3. Dietary Choices

Bad news for people who follow a high-fat diet, like the Atkins or Keto diets; saturated fats impair the immune system just as much as excessive sodium (salt) and carbohydrates (sugar). When the body carries additional fat, it suppresses the ability to produce adequate numbers of T-cells for healthy immune functioning.

4. Alcohol Consumption

Celebrating with a drink or two on a special occasion isn’t much of a problem for your body. But did you know that even one single night of excessive drinking can significantly reduce your immune system performance?  Alcohol contains acetaldehyde, which reduces the ciliary functions in your lungs (those are the small hair-like objects that help propel mucus out of the airways).

5. Ultraviolet Radiation

You’ve heard that taking a walk outside is good for you, because your body absorbs some essential vitamin D from the sun.  That’s true.  But did you know that too much UV radiation from the sun has the opposite effect?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that UV rays could also effect the cells that are responsible for triggering immune responses, and potentially increase the risk of infection, while decreasing the body’s natural defense against skin cancer.

6. Sedentary Lifestyle

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend sitting every day? From driving in your car, to sitting down for meals, behind a desk at the office or at home watching television, it all adds up to a significant health risk if you do not schedule at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.  A sedentary lifestyle makes it harder for your body to remove toxins and reduces the ability to fight infections.

7. Bad Sleep Habits

Burning the candle at both ends? Have you ever noticed that after a week or longer of poor or interrupted sleep, you may contract a cold or other infection?  That’s because during sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines. They help you sleep, but also provide a boost your immune system needs with infection fighting antibodies. Long-term sleep deprivation or chronic sleep disorders can also increase your risk of certain chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular issues.

When you go through the list of these seven threats to your immune system, you quickly realize how many of these factors are part of our every day lives.  When you start to understand the challenges faced by your immune system, you can also notice some of the warning signs that your body needs a little help to restore and replenish with the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you might not be getting from your diet every day.

Can Daily Vitamins Help Strengthen My Immune System?

With the exception of some health diagnoses, in most cases everyone can benefit from supplementing their diet with quality vitamins.  Even if you think you are eating a healthy and balanced diet every day, chances are that you are functioning with less of those essential nutrients that your body needs to stage its best defense against bacterial and viral infections.

Did you know that a simple blood test ordered by your physician, can help identify your nutritional deficiencies? We recommend getting tested every year, so that you can provide supplemental nutritional to keep your immune system functioning at optimal levels.

RobKellerMD® is a trusted American manufacturer of quality nutritional supplements, formulated by Robert H. Keller, MD, MS, FACP, AAHIVS.  Explore our antioxidant boosting Original Glutathione Formula® and our phyto-nutrient TCM daily multivitamin Advanced Immune Defense. These two supplements from our brand were formulated to work together, to provide comprehensive nutritional and immune system benefits.

Create a healthy new habit every morning, by making RKMD vitamins part of your daily routine and power-up your immune system against the cold and flu season.

You may want to take some time and explore a variety of different apps, until you find one or two that work for you.   If it’s too complicated or difficult to navigate through the app, you probably won’t use it, so keep looking until you find the ones that will work best for you.

We asked some of our team at RobKellerMD® about the health and wellness smartphone apps that they use, and here are a few you may want to explore.

1. Lose It!

Counting calories is a tedious activity, but it is essential to make sure you are staying within your optimal energy in vs. energy burned equation, on a daily basis. The easy to use Lose It! App does all the hard work for you and logs the food you eat for a clear picture on the number of calories (and food sources) you are consuming on a daily basis.

Because getting healthy is more fun with family and friends, the Lose It! App allows you to participate in challenges.  You can scan barcodes of food items to add them to your daily nutrition log, and a new option in beta, allows you to take a picture of food items to enter them as well.  It’s fast and easy to use and can help you accurately monitor your calories.

2. SweatCoin

A little bit of incentive can help you keep moving!  That is the premise behind this great mobile app, which literally pays you to get into shape.   Trying to get in your 10,000 steps per day?  SweatCoin will track those steps, and convert them into coins, that you can use for different types of rewards.  You can earn free apps, virtual personal trainer or weight training sessions, and even gift cards for retailers including Amazon.

What we like about this app, is that it only counts steps that are walked outside.  So, if you were thinking about clocking some time on the treadmill, this app encourages you to get out on the sidewalk or head to your local park to clock some miles.  Download SweatCoin and try it out!  The app is also available for Android smartphones here.

3. Fooducate

Achieving your weight-loss goals means engaging in some new learning, about the kind of meals you prepare and snacks you eat.  There are a lot of smartphone apps out there for nutrition, that provide a directory and require you to search; but who has the time for that?  Fooducate takes it one step further and makes it easy.

Simply scan the UPC code on the package in the grocery store.  It will give you a report or grade on that snack or meal item, based on a nutritional score.   Think of it as the ultimate tool for healthy grocery shopping; it will save you a lot of time comparing food labels manually.  Fooducate also has an active online community and other resources, to help you discover healthy recipes and other tips for eating well.

Download Fooducate for iOS (iPhone) or Android.

 Do you have some suggestions about fitness or nutritional apps that you think we should add to the list? Leave us a comment below and share the link with our readers.