Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey everybody, what's going on? Dr. Chad Woolner here and dr buddy Allen. And this is episode 30 of the health fundamentals podcast. And on today's episode, we're going to be sharing with you how to Bulletproof your immune system. So let's get started.

Speaker 2: (00:12)
You're listening to the health fundamentals podcast. I'm Dr. Chad Woolner and I'm Dr. buddy Allen. And this show is about giving you the simple but powerful and cutting edge tools you need to change your health and your life. So sit back and enjoy the show as we show you the path to your best life down to a science.

Speaker 1: (00:31)
So, Hey everybody, hope you're having an awesome day on today's episode. We've got something really cool we want to share with you guys. And that is how to Bulletproof your immune system. Uh, what do we mean by Bulletproof? Your immune system? Bulletproof means just make yourself as resilient as absolutely possible to diseases, to colds, to the flu, to any really distress, even yell to the things that beat you down in life. Yeah. Um, how can we make you Bulletproof to those issues? Yeah. If you listen to our previous episode, we dove pretty deep in terms of, uh, flu, cold and flu season. What is, what typically, uh, refer to as this time of year is that kind of time of year. We kind of make the argument that it's not really cold and flu season as much as it is the fact that certain, uh, things change in terms of our lifestyle this time of year that make us far more susceptible to, uh, illness, you know, uh, we get less sunlight, uh, where we're more sedentary this time of year.

Speaker 1: (01:34)
Dietarily speaking, you know, starting right about Halloween time. We're eating a lot more refined sugars and carbohydrates and just junk. Um, you know, uh, we're typically not as active. Sure. I'm kinda talked about that sedentary, but, uh, you know, just kind of a lot of these different factors that, uh, tend to lower our body's immune response. They tend to have a negative impact on our bodies. Uh, overall resiliency and its ability to be able to take care of itself. So, uh, if you guys have followed the podcast for any length of time, we try and make things as, as straightforward as possible because any more these days, it's not a matter of, uh, you know, a lack of information that I think causes people to, uh, stray or to kind of miss the Mark in terms of making good decisions for their health. But the, the challenge I think is how to make the best, or how to, how to, how to Wade through the massive information as to what's gonna be, uh, the best information, what's going to be useful, um, what's not useful, what's a distraction, what's, you know, just information that we need to be able to kind of Wade through defined, kinda refer to it as the in and out menu or cheesecake factory menu.

Speaker 1: (03:01)
Right, exactly. No, it's like there's so many things on the cheesecake factory where it's, it's like Allah, you don't even know what to choose because well, maybe it's too much. Yeah. Whereas when it's simplified, it's real easy to say, Hm, that makes sense to me. Yeah. That's what I want today. Absolutely. And so that's what we're going to do for you guys today in terms of, uh, bolstering your immune system, really doing the essential things that will help you, uh, the most dramatically increase your odds of, uh, either avoiding altogether, uh, illnesses that come around this time of year and, or helping you, uh, mitigate and reduce the impact of the symptoms associated if you do wind up getting a cold or flu or some other, a nasty bug or, or anything like that. So, um, if again, if you followed what we've taught for any period of time, we talk about this lens of five fundamentals of health, and we talk about five fundamentals of health, again, for terms of just providing clarity, making it really clear and easy to understand for people.

Speaker 1: (04:02)
So fundamental number one, we talk about this idea, uh, that health comes from the insight, uh, and not the opposite. And you had mentioned, you know, that people's instinct is to do what this time of year be extremely reactive. You by the minute that we start, we get a sniffle. Yeah. Or we're around someone that had a cold and we're like, we're, we're dropping the airborne and we're pumping the vitamin C and taken our multivitamin and, and uh, you know, the, the, the truth is that we have to be building up all the time. It just has to be a steady, like a regular part of our life, not just a, Ooh, you know, cause this, that's kind of how we've been conditioned though is absolutely sick. And you're like, Oh, I need medication. I have a headache. Ooh, I need something to make the pain go away, Ryan.

Speaker 1: (04:48)
And most of what we're talking about with avoiding colds or even future more severe issues is about making smart, simple choices now, creating healthy routines, doing, doing the things you know, that, that consistency is what we want. And that's, and that's the number two exactly. Led set in listening. And since this simplicity and consistency. So what does that mean in terms of practicality for you? Right. So, number one, you know, health comes from the insight that might seem like, okay, that's good in theory, but how do I actually take that and implement that into day to day action? Well, that kinda takes us to number two. And that is this whole idea of simplicity and consistency. And what I would simply say in terms of very pragmatic approaches that you can take for you individually and for your family. It's just to do a, almost like create your own personal and family battle plan for cold and flu season.

Speaker 1: (05:40)
And basically write down a simple checklist of things that you can do daily that you know, will have a positive impact on your body's immune system. You know, those daily putting in those daily, uh, you know, um, deposits, you know, in of your health. So things like, you know, are you hydrating adequately? Most people don't do this. And I think most don't do it because they just, it's an oversight. Yeah. It's cold outside. Cold outside. Yeah. Thirsty. Yeah, absolutely. So, so proper hydration, making sure you're getting adequate hydration throughout the day. Um, you know, there are numerous different, um, flavorings that you can get that are actually really good that, that don't really interfere or aren't loaded with crappy sugar and things like that that you can do that make drinking a little bit easier for some people. Um, I actually just got this new electrolyte, um, powder that I put that tastes great.

Speaker 1: (06:34)
It's an orange mango flavored, uh, tastes really good. I know you have several that you use that are good for hydration, you know, so, but if people who are just like, ah, I don't like the, you know, I don't like drinking all that water by itself. There's that variety of different ways that you can make it a lot more fun and enjoyable. Lemon. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Fresh calling. Yeah. I'm saying there's no number way. So hydration is a good way. Making sure that you're reminding you, you, yourself and your family washing your hands regularly, making sure you're getting adequate vitamin D intake. We talked in our last episode about that, you know, making sure if you're not somewhere that is allowing you to be able to get adequate sun exposure. Uh, doing a good vitamin D supplement. Uh, there's some really good liquid vitamin D supplements out there that allow you get really high doses of vitamin D very easy in a dropper too.

Speaker 1: (07:22)
Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, vitamin D, making sure dietarily you know, that you've got that on your checklist as well. Um, making sure that you're getting adequate rest, making sure that you're getting adequate exercise. Um, so, so those are just a few of the simple things, you know, in terms of when we talk about that second fundamental simplicity and consistency. The third is making sure our bodies are functioning both correctly, mechanically and chemically. And I would say most people when we talk about biochemically, that's when they think of a, your immune response. That's where most people think, uh, and that's true. You should think in that respect. But believe it or not, your physical frame is gonna have an impact for, for good or for bad on, uh, your body's immune response. Right? So let's talk a little bit about that. Let's, how could a nagging neck, shoulder, or back issue or knee issue or whatever have an impact on, uh, your immune response?

Speaker 1: (08:19)
You know, I once heard, um, it was, uh, Kelly's Dorette I believe. Um, he had talked about our, our frame meaning our axial skeleton. Our spine. Yeah. He says that's the chassis of your body. Yeah. And he said, um, he was, he kinda just said, listen, it's like your car. If your chassis is bent or, or messed up your, your car is gonna drive crooked. It's gonna wear weird on every, I mean it's, everything is going to be effected by that. So he said, you know, he basically says your chassis or your spine needs to be functioning and, and moving correctly. And then, you know, the, you know, your extremities, your arms and your legs and everything else. When things hurt, we don't want to do, we don't want to move, right. Our, our movements get, um, altered. Right. And so, and what happens when, if we alter movement or limited movement or if there's too much movement and the joints start breaking down, they start falling apart.

Speaker 1: (09:14)
So I me it in and that's exactly right. You know, in terms of it's going to make people less motivated, less inclined, less inclined to stay active to do those things. They're going to want to just kind of sleep in and kind of nurse those wounds and things. But then on top of that too is that, uh, you know, if you're dealing with a nagging back issue or a shoulder issue or whatever, that's just one more stressor, uh, a physical stressor on your body and that will take its toll. Um, you know, think about it in terms of like we talked about, you know, in turn when we talked about the simplicity and consistency, we talk about putting in deposits. You know, it's, it's this whole idea. You could, you could simplify it by looking at it in terms of like the scale that you're trying to balance withdrawals versus deposits.

Speaker 1: (09:58)
You know, this time of year there tends to be more withdrawals than deposits. Um, because again, you think about it this time of year, we are more sedentary. We're eating things that probably we wouldn't eat the rest of the year. Uh, we're not getting the sunlight that we need. We're probably not getting the rest that we need. So all these different things, these are all w, you know, just small little withdrawals. But collectively over time what happens is it puts us out of a state of proper balance in terms of our body's resiliency. Um, and so what we're trying to say here is that if you're dealing with injuries, those are gonna, uh, create some, some withdrawals on the body. And we don't want to do that. You know, that's, we want to kind of create that rebalancing, so to speak, by, by making those necessary deposits. And so part of that is taking care of our frame, making sure, uh, that you're getting adjusted regularly, making sure that you're, uh, taking care of any sort of, uh, muscle imbalances, you know, getting, getting massage, making sure that, uh, you know, you're, again, staying moving, you're, you're, you're staying mobile and, and making sure those, those areas are addressed.

Speaker 1: (11:01)
So mechanical. And then in terms of chemically, you know, making sure we are aware of what's happening in our body chemically. You know, I think one of the most simple things, one of the most basic and fundamental things, making sure we're not throwing our body's biochemistry out of total whack by giving it these absurd and ridiculous, uh, spikes and crashes when it comes to blood sugar. You know, again, this time of year, it's not uncommon for people to pound down, you know, a handful or more of candy of, of cakes, of cookies, of sugar, sugary treats, um, all sorts of those things. And so it's, it's, it's that time of year, you know, where it's real easy for people to just indulge. And that's one way chemically in our body that we can throw things out of whack. And again, just add one more element of stress on the body.

Speaker 1: (11:52)
You know, that the body, when it's, when it's having to process a lot of that sugar and, uh, having to, uh, shoot out, uh, you know, a tremendous amount of insulin to help stabilize our body's overall blood sugar. Um, that can be a problem, right? So, so making sure, so, so again, number one, health comes from the inside. Number two, simplicity and consistency. Number three, making sure we're functioning both correctly, mechanically and chemically. Number four, making sure we are mentally, emotionally and spiritually in tune. And when people hear that, I think some people might immediately dismiss it. It sounds like new age, you know, [inaudible] something. But the reality of it is what we're trying to basically say here is that mentally, emotionally, and or spiritually, these components can and will have a huge impact on our physical health and wellbeing. Right? Uh, there's a great book, uh, that just came out, um, by an author that both Dr. Allen and myself really love his, his work.

Speaker 1: (12:55)
Uh, Ryan holiday. Uh, some of his other books he wrote that are great are, uh, the obstacle is the way, um, I love another bunch of his books, but obstacle is a ways is a great book is, but he just came out with a brand new one called stillness is the key. Uh, and we're not done with it, but we, we recently took a road trip together, um, and we listened to a chunk of it and it's just what he shares in that book is amazing. So what you heard and what you learned just from the little that we kind of listened to. What were your take? What were some of your takeaways? What w well, with respect to, um, just your, uh, mental and emotional, um, health and or happiness as he talks a lot about just quieting the noise, being able to, to, to, um, silence a lot of the stuff that you hear around you and kind of just simplify things.

Speaker 1: (13:47)
Again, it's a really about simplifying your right, your life and not letting the noise. Cause you know what I mean? We are bombarded by stressors, whether it be from social media, from work, from family, from, um, personal, um, things that we're struggling with and, and, and the problem being is when we're overwhelmed, it's hard to process anything correctly, you know? So if we are struggling making poor decisions because we're so overwhelmed with different stressors going on in our life, it also makes it harder to eat right. It makes it harder for us if we do get hit with a virus for, believe it or not, our mental health absolutely plays a massive part in our ability to fight off infections, diseases, and other issues that are kind of always working against us or right. You know, that potentially can work against us. Right. Well, and I would even say go so far as to say that the problem isn't just that it's an overwhelming amount of information in terms of just overall volume.

Speaker 1: (14:47)
Right. Which is true. It certainly is that we're, we're overwhelmed by just information in general, but to compound that and make it even worse, is that a significant or an inordinate amount of that information happens to just be negative? Yeah. You know, when you look at the news these days, when you turn on the news, uh, what's the percentage of information that just is outright negative? I would say the majority of the information is always some new thing to worry about or be concerned about or be afraid about. And not to dive into any sort of conspiracy, anything like that. But you think about it just from a marketing standpoint, it would make sense that they would lead with those sorts of stories because it creates a greater level of consumption if you're in a state of fear and or, uh, that fear is creating certain levels of uncertainty.

Speaker 1: (15:41)
And how do I fix that uncertainty? Well, I need to find out more information as to, yeah, exactly know what the, what the punchline is here. And they're going to be sharing more with me about, you know, updates as to this story. If I just keep tuning in, I'll never forget, you know, I think who can, who can forget for those of us who are old enough to remember, uh, when nine 11 occurred, I mean, all you, all I wanted to do during that time, I remember I had to go into work and I remember everybody was just freaking out. And the one thing they w that we all wanted to do was to just watch the news the whole day, to just see what was going on, to stay in the loop. And that's not to say that you shouldn't be informed. That's not to say that at all.

Speaker 1: (16:21)
What I'm just saying is that, uh, you know, negativity, negative information can be very almost addictive sometimes and it can create these very negative spirals. And so what happens is, uh, you know, that that negativity can kind of feed and grow if we don't keep it in check. And so in terms of the information that we receive, you know, going on an information diet can be a very Earnin information. Detox even can be a really powerful thing that you can do in your life. So what would be some ways that you would recommend practically for people to go about doing that? You know what, one of my favorite recommendations was from the four hour work week. Um, I read that years ago and he says he was, uh, the, uh, Tim Ferriss, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, he had mentioned that, uh, he says, I don't ever look at the news.

Speaker 1: (17:10)
He says, I have people that I trust, people that I believe are well-informed and I will just sit and chat and talk and see what their, see what's going on. I'll ask them, Hey, what's going on in the world? And if they don't say anything worthwhile, he says, I don't waste my time looking for it. So I'm like, you know, having, having people that you, that are level headed, that are, you know, that you can trust that maybe are well-informed. I actually think that's wonderful. You know, I mean, just people that you can trust to kind of give you the straight scoop and, and then, yeah, if you need to do more research, you certainly can. But honestly, most of the stuff that we, that we're, you know, confronted with on a day to day basis is completely useless information anyhow. Yeah. Well, and I would say too, you know, we talked about at the beginning of this episode, this whole idea of making your kind of battle plan or a checklist of things, I would include intentionally in that battle plan, open space.

Speaker 1: (18:01)
Yeah. You know, space for you to have quiet time to be able to think, to be able to turn off the noise. If you're the type of person where you hear that and that resonates with you. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to just basically cut that out. More power to you. For some people, some people may want to watch the news just to stay informed or for to feel like they're getting the information that they need and that's fine. But what I would simply do is create on very, very limited time. I wouldn't do any before bed. I wouldn't do anything in the, in the middle of the mall. You know, first thing in the morning, I would find some time in the day where you limit it for, you know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, where you, you know what, we're going to get the essentials.

Speaker 1: (18:37)
We're going to go through here and we're going to look at the information that's available, see what's going on, see what's happening. Um, and again, I would highly recommend that you look at trusted resources. Um, which is challenging these days. It is challenging, you know, to get unbiased information, but just to try your best to really look at collectively everything that's, that's going on. Um, but again, in limited doses, don't get in the habit of learning this thing. You hit it on the head in 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops. You can, you can hear every single, um, news story that's of any relevance around the world. Yeah. Very easily. And if it's not something that really is important for you, just move on. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so, so in terms of that then, uh, you know, w w again in, in the grand scheme, we're talking about these five fundamentals of health to really help you boost your immune system.

Speaker 1: (19:27)
You know, we, so we've talked about this idea of health coming from the inside, simplicity and consistency, making that daily kind of battle plan to help you and, or your family. What are the things that you're going to do to proactively help bolster your immune system? Making sure that things are functioning both mechanically and chemically. Uh, you know, then talking about making sure mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, we're feeding ourselves, uh, with good information and making sure that we're not getting overwhelmed or overstressed. Making sure we're creating sufficient quiet time to either meditate or to journal or to, um, just give yourself time to kind of decompress. And then last but not least is making sure we are fueling ourselves properly. Right? Um, our bodies need to be fueled and so oftentimes we don't think of eating as fueling. We just think of it as this indulgence or this pleasurable experience or this torturous experience.

Speaker 1: (20:23)
It's one of the other, right? It's, it's uh, and uh, and so unfortunately, uh, when we don't view it in terms of this proper light of, of fueling ourselves properly, uh, we missed the Mark either way. Right? Either overindulgence or just punishment. I think you hit it on the head there because fuel, our fueling can be something that is the necessary support we need for the building blocks to stay healthy. It can also be a negative stressor. FCR, if we are overindulging, if we are spiking our blood sugar with the ups and the downs of, of just crappy food. Yeah. I don't remember who said the quote, but it said our food can either be the strongest and most wonderful medicine or the slowest form of poison in our lives. And it's true, right? What we eat can be either or. It can either be medicine or it can be poison.

Speaker 1: (21:14)
You know, Hippocrates said, let thy food be thy medicine and they met us and be thy food. Um, and it's so true. So this time of year, you know, what would you recommend in general guidelines in terms of fueling yourself properly? Um, make a plan. First of all, cause if you don't plan what you're going to be eating and what you're going to be doing, it makes it really easy to say, Oh, I'll grab this or, or, Ooh, Hey, please. Yeah, the path of least resistance. Exactly. Too easy. So if you don't make a plan, you're gonna, it's going to be really easy for you to slip and fall. Absolutely. Um, in terms of general guidelines for fueling yourself, you know, general guidelines you're gonna want, make sure I actually always tell people that's good. It's a good idea to try to have a, you know, just a safe, a safe ratio of a, a one to one ratio of protein and carbs obviously up your, it's always good to focus on vegetables.

Speaker 1: (22:08)
I'm a little bit of fruit. Yup. And then just be smart with the sweets and the candies. You know, it's not, I'm not saying like you should enjoy your food, but to healthy fats this time of year can be really helpful. Avocado is a great way to go. Um, various nuts can be a great source of healthy fat, lean protein, uh, fish. It's going to be a great way to go. All these things can play a role and can really, really help. Um, but yeah, and, and, and then again too, the other thing is this time of year it's going to be really easy for us to overeat. Um, and so just making sure that the proportion or the, the portion sizes are not out of control. I literally use smaller plates and smaller bowls. Yeah. You know, they have, we have the big massive dinner plates and there's that other plate that's kind of like about a nine inch plate.

Speaker 1: (22:56)
If you kind of stick with the nine inch plate, your, you know, studies show that if you, the smaller the bowl or the smaller the plate, you eat less. Yeah, yeah. Pretty simple. And the opposite is true as well. Yes. Yeah, exactly. If we're going to a platter, you're going to fill it. Yeah, absolutely. So those are what we call our five fundamentals of health and within that framework that that should be a sufficient way for you to really help Bulletproof and bolster your immune system. And I think you kind of started it off really well, dr Alan when you talked about this whole idea that if we look at this time of year from the lens of, okay, the minute that I start feeling symptoms is when I'm going to start popping the emergency or the airborne or the, you know, home remedy of your choice.

Speaker 1: (23:41)
And that's not to say that that's necessarily inherently a bad thing. Um, you know, most of us are conditioned to do this to some degree or another, but what's more effective than that is to proactively plan ahead, um, and really do things to make those daily deposits to help strengthen our immune system overall. Right? So we talked about making sure that we recognize that health comes from the inside, not from the outside. That our approach is one of simplicity and consistency that we need to make sure our bodies are functioning correctly and mechanically and chemically, making sure that we are mentally, emotionally and spiritually in tune, making sure we manage that stress. And then last but not least, fueling ourselves properly. Those are five ways, uh, collectively and individually that we can take steps necessary to help strengthen our bodies resilience to any assaults that come this time of year or any other time of year. But especially this time of year as people are hearing more and more about cold and flu season. Uh, these are just some simple yet pretty practical ways to go about strengthening your body's immune response. So any other thoughts you have to share? Nope. Okay. Hopefully this has been valuable for you guys. Uh, take this implemented into your life and, uh, strengthen your immune system. Let's get you a Bulletproof. Uh, so you can enjoy all the fun things that happen this time of year. So, uh, we'll talk to you guys on an upcoming episode.

Speaker 2: (25:04)
Thanks for listening to the health fundamentals podcast. Be sure to subscribe so that you stay in the loop. And in the note with all of the cutting edge health information that we share, if you know other people that could benefit from this information, please share it with them as well. Also, be sure to give us a review. These really help us to ultimately help more people. Last but not least, if you have questions that you want answered live on the show, or if you have ideas for topics that you would like us to cover, please shoot us an email and let us know at info@thehealthfundamentals.com.