How Your Brain Helps Your Immune System
Your body is equipped to defend itself against invaders of all kinds – for example, your skin keeps out surface dirt. The hairs in your nose filter our irritants and dust particles. And when there are microorganisms inside of you, most of which are harmless or even helpful, your brain and body work together to make sure that any bacteria or viruses that could make trouble are dealt with effectively.
Your body makes defender cells called macrophages (mak’-ro-fahj-es), whose role is to find debris, bacteria and other toxins in the blood and eliminate them.
This happens in your body automatically, but your brain is always in the loop – wires called nerves connect the brain with macrophage function so the brain is always aware of and supporting what the immune system is doing.
This is one of the reasons it’s so important to take great care of your brain. Especially now, with the dangers associated with viral infection, we all need our immune systems working at peak efficiency, and the immune system can’t work at peak efficiency without a healthy brain.
Keeping your spine aligned and moving properly with chiropractic care is one of the best things you can do to improve the health of your brain. You also want to sleep enough, drink sufficient water, and focus your diet on taking in less sugar and more healthy fat, which is brain food. Exercise will improve the circulation to your brain, and avoiding toxic agents, including food additives, gardening chemicals and some cosmetics, is wise if you want to optimize your brain. And don’t forget to include stress relaxation techniques that reduce tension and promote ease.
Whatever you can do to keep your brain healthy will come back to you many times over. Be good to your brain, and it will be good to you!