A common question I get is, “How can I have a healthy immune system?” I’m going to discuss why having a healthy gut is so important to having a healthy immune system and some tips on how to optimize your gut health.
My name is Dr. Tom Rofrano, the founder of the Natural Medicine Clinic and the author of The FreeDiet®, a clinically proven plan to heal your gut and thyroid and free yourself from pain, fatigue, fogginess, and fat. Not only does everything regarding your health depend on the health of your gut, including your immune system, but approximately 70% of your entire immune system is located in your gut.
Healthy Immune System from a Healthy Gut
It stands to reason that having a healthy gut plays a large role in having a healthy immune system. I had a patient recently let me know that ever since she’s been a patient of mine she hasn’t been sick, had a cold. or anything in months, even though people around her were sick. The reason she became a patient wasn’t to strengthen her immune system but to address a gut issue. I’ll give you some tips on how you can also improve your gut, and in turn, your immune system.
She came in with severe digestive symptoms she had been suffering from for many years. She was in her 30s and was experiencing bloating, constipation, nausea, and vomiting. With all the chronic digestive issues, she was feeling miserable, tired, had shortness of breath, and she was so tired she could barely workout. She would get dizzy when she stood up quickly, had shallow breathing, and cold hands and feet while feeling cold all over. She needed a lot of sleep and had heart palpitations. She was feeling overall terrible, and whenever she ate, she would feel bloated and get heartburn.
If you felt like this, do you think you would have a strong, healthy immune system? Of course not. When she went to doctors, they would say it’s IBS or irritable bowel syndrome. I think more accurately it should be called irritable bug syndrome because in a lot of these cases, people have “bugs”—yeast, parasites, or bacteria—in their gut that are a root cause of their IBS.
She went to a functional medicine doctor who was more thorough and at least found out that she was anemic, low on iron, and that was causing a lot of her tiredness. He gave her iron supplements and a natural supplement for her gut, but she still had all these symptoms. When she came in, I did an evaluation, did some thorough testing, and several things came up. She had deficiencies of iron, vitamin D, and many other nutrients. Her white blood count was low, which meant her immune system was compromised.
When you have somebody that is weak and borderline anemic with an under functioning thyroid, you must figure out what’s causing all these symptoms. Someone just doesn’t become anemic unless there’s some gut issues or malabsorption. We did a stool test that came back showing that she had H. Pylori and yeast overgrowth. H. Pylori are bacteria in your gut that can cause ulcers, reflux, heartburn, gastric bleeding, and other symptoms, and cause deficiencies including low iron.
Root Causes of Gut Issues
We must address getting these infections cleared out and then we have to address the deficiencies. If your gut is compromised, then you can have malabsorption and on top of that food reactions like gluten sensitivity. Gluten can cause a leaky gut, more malabsorption symptoms, and these can lead to other food sensitivities. She had true allergies and needed to avoid these allergenic foods along with her sensitivities. These foods were wreaking havoc on her gut, so no wonder why she had nausea, bloating, gas, constipation, and infections.
Malabsorption from infections and food reactions also caused her to have hormonal imbalances. On top of this she had high levels of mercury, which is another issue. If you’re not eliminating and are constipated, you’re not clearing out toxins. All these different things need to be addressed to get healthy and improve your immune system so that you stay healthy and avoid getting sick. With the Coronavirus currently going around, the people that are avoiding getting sick are the ones that have a healthy immune system.
Diet for a Healthy Gut and Immune System
You want to do everything you can to strengthen your immune system, and having a healthy gut is so important. I came up with a treatment plan of diet and supplements. The FreeDiet® is what I created to help with gut and other chronic health issues like this. It is a diet free of gluten, grains, sugar, yeast, dairy, eggs, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods.
It’s free of all those common allergenic and inflammatory foods, so that allows your gut to heal while you’re avoiding those. As you get better, you can start reintroducing foods later in phases two and three. Since the diet is free of so many of these foods, yeast, overgrowth of bacteria, and any parasites are all starved out because they thrive on sugar, yeast, grains, and starches.
Supplements for Gut and Immune Support
As far as supplements, we start with what I call the the Functional Five™, which includes ActivMulti™, OmegaSorb™3X fish oil, D3 5000 +K2, Magnesium Malate and a probiotic. When you have yeast overgrowth and bacterial overgrowth, you want to have a very strong probiotic. In this case I used ProbioSupreme™350 which is a very powerful therapeutic dose. As far as the other supplements, I use GI Mend™, Yeast Defeat™, and a product called GastroBlast™ for stomach support with H. Pylori. Gut Immune Repair™, and GI Mend™ are helpful to supporting leaky gut situations.
For iron deficiency, I had her take Iron Glycinate with C-Bioflavanoids 500 for absorption, which is also helpful for your immune support. When I rechecked labs in four weeks, her iron levels were back to normal and most of her symptoms had cleared up. Her energy was back, she could exercise, and the shortness of breath cleared up as well as the palpitations. Her gut symptoms cleared up after having them for years.
Get Help Today
It’s a matter of finding out what your underlying root causes are, and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve had a symptom, if you take the time to investigate what the underlying causes are, then you can most likely clear up these chronic gut issues. In turn, you can have a healthy strong immune system so that you can live a healthy life.
If you’d like a complimentary copy of The FreeDiet® phase one food chart, go here and enter your information. If you have health challenges and would like our help, call us at 561-627-5800 or email us at info@nmcwellness.com. We would love to help you experience vibrant health.
