Naturopathic Treatment for Immune Dysregulation
Immune dysregulation is a common by-product of living in modern society, but it doesn’t have to be. There are many things you can do to improve your immune function. Improving your diet and lifestyle habits is a good place to start. However, treating immune dysregulation or suppression may need a little more assistance and that is where naturopathy can help.
Naturopathic treatment is focused on a holistic approach to care involving herbalism, nutrition, energetic medicines and diet and lifestyle improvements to stimulate the bodies innate healing abilities in order to restore vitality. Naturopaths use a range of herbs that are intelligent enough to modulate, enhance or stimulate the immune system.
Naturopaths can identify nutrient deficiencies such as vitamin D, A, C, E, zinc, selenium, B vitamins, iron and omega-3 (EPA/DHA) that may be negatively impacting your immune function and help you to increase levels either via diet improvements, supplementation or both.
The integrity of the gut microbiome is extremely important to immune health. Addressing leaky gut, healing the gut lining and reducing inflammation are all necessary to support immune regulation. It is also vital to support the liver and aid detoxification. This can be achieved with diet and lifestyle improvements, a range of nutrients and herbs and by reducing your exposure to environmental toxins.
Reducing stress and regular exercise also helps boost our immune system. You should aim for approximately 30 minutes of exercise daily. Regularly getting a good night’s sleep is another important consideration. During sleep our body repairs. Inadequate sleep or poor sleep quality reduces release of cytokines, special proteins that fight infections and reduce inflammation (Besedovsky et al 2019).
References:
Besedovsky, L. Lange, T. Haack, M. (2019). The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease. Physiol Rev. 99(3):1325-1380. Doi: 10.1152/physrev.00010.2018.