Podcast 8 The Blue Zone, Immune System, The Killer Cells
America is in a nutrient famine, as result, according to the CDC or the center for disease control, 6 out of 10 people in America have a chronic disease, Most Americans are sick. And it is killing more people than any pandemic. In 2017, a total of 1.7 million people died from 5 diseases that are mostly preventable, Heart disease, Cancer, Respiratory diseases, Stroke and Alzheimer. And now the first scientific studies report that if you add obesity to the list of the 5, 94% of the US deaths and Bloomberg reports 99% of Italian deaths from the coronavirus were people already sick with one of these preventable diseases.
We are talking about getting out of the Nutrient Famine and living in the Blue Zone. The Blue Zones are Communities in the world where people have an average life and health span of over 100 years.
We have been talking about the importance of water for health. The water source for most farm plants, industrially grown or organically and let’s not even talk about foreign grown, you would never drink. But you drink that water every time you eat most vegetables and fruits.
Last week we talked about the importance of water and sleep. Particularly waters impact on the critical sleep hormone. Some of you were surprised that the lack of sleep decreased the hormone testosterone enough to shrink men’s testis by 50% if they only slept 5 hours but estrogen also shrinks. Ladies, while we know that estrogen helps develop and maintain both the reproductive system and female characteristics. Estrogen contributes to cognitive health, bone health, the function of the cardiovascular system, and other essential bodily processes. The proper level is critical to wellbeing.
Today, we are talking about additional immune system problems by sleeping less than 8 hours. Immune killer cells but first let us talk about sleep and your DNA on the immune system.
In this study, they took healthy adults and limited them to 6 hours of sleep a night for a week. They then measured their gene profile as compared to 8 hours of sleep a night. There were 2 critical findings. First, more than 700 genes that impact your immune system were distorted in their activity. Roughly half of those genes decreased in activity and half increased in activity. The genes that were switch off usually increased immune response. The genes that were turned on were associated with increased tumors, long term chronic inflammation and stress that impacts the cardiovascular system. Insufficient sleep literally damages the very fabric of life itself, the DNA.
Now, what about your Killer cells. Your immune system has Natural killer cells that kill tumor cells and virus-infected cells without having been previously exposed to them. They control or stop the viral infections while the adaptive immune response is generating specific T cells that can clear or defeat the infection.
In other words, if you have plenty of killer cells it stops infections before they get started and spreads. Likewise, the body is being attacked by millions of nanotumors but these killer cells stop them from becoming cancer especially in the prostate, breast and colon.
Now, just one night of only 4 hours of sleep dropped the number of killer cells by not 10%, 30% or 50% but 70%. 70% less killer cells. And that’s why when you hang out all night you can easily catch a cold, the flu or the coronavirus the next day. But if you make this sleep pattern a habit, studies show an increase risk to cancer, especially prostate, breast and colon.
There is simply no aspect of sleep deprivation that allows you to get away unscathed. We are still talking about the lack of water on sleep. Insufficient good water results in poor sleep, and the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.
Good and Plenty water is critical for Sleep and the Immune System
Life in the Blue Zone is a choice
Remember It is rarely our DNA