HerbalGenX

We live in stressful times. Admit it; you have felt some degree of stress in the last two weeks. Kids, work, spouse, aging parent ... the list of stressors goes on and on. In a recent Gallup poll, 40% of Americans say they are frequently subjected to stress and another 36% says they sometimes feels that way. Several factors contribute to the daily pressure felt by Americans, ranging from finances, unemployment, traffic, divorce, parenting, work pressure, to moving. According to APA, "Given the potential health complications related to [stress], it is fair to say that stress is a major health problem in America."

While stress doesn't "make you sick", it can compromise your immune system, the complex mechanism designed to protect you from the invasion of germs, bacteria, and virus. Stress can open the floodgates to disease and illness thus it is important to enhance your immune system in times of stress by maintaining a healthy, balanced life.

Think back to the Disney movie, The Lion King’s opening scene, where Mufasa is standing stoically on the peak as Zazu soars toward him with the chorus of "The Circle of Life" at its crescendo…did you realize that your immune system also reflects the Circle of Life?

When people think of aging, they think of a slowdown in step and a few "senior moments", but did you realize these aren't the only things that are no longer working at peak performance as you age? And did you realize your immune system has its own peaks and valleys in performance as you progress through life?

As an infant, your immune system is somewhat susceptible to invasion. At this stage, an infant’s immune system and the body's natural ability to "understand" its warning system are not fully developed. Mothers pass on immunity to their infants through the placenta and then through breast milk. Slowly but surely, as children mature, so does their immune system. With a healthy lifestyle, your immune system is at its peak performance from your teenage years into your forties. Upon entering the golden years, however, your body's ability to fight off infection and other health problems diminishes. The immune system simply does not function as efficiently in older adults as it does in younger people and often needs a boost.

One cause of this is that elderly adults are less capable of producing lymphocytes, a primary tool in the arsenal to fight infection. While still produced, the lymphocytes of an aging person are not as strong or as fast to react to the intrusion of germs, viruses, and other triggers of illness. To make matters worse, aging adults produce auto antibodies which fight the body, not the infection and cause rheumatoid arthritis, hardening of the arteries and other ailments. Aging impacts your hormonal system as well; many lay dormant as you age, such as the growth hormone and melatonin, which can also relate to a compromised immune system. As you age, it is vital to your health that you continue boosting your immune system.

If We Could Turn Back Time - Unfortunately this is wishful thinking, but there are a number of proactive steps we can take to boost our immune system and get it working similarly to the way it worked when we were younger.

Nutrition - Vitamin and dietary supplements have been found to enhance the response of the immune system in both healthy and nutritionally deficient adults Nutrition plays a major role in maintaining a healthy immune system.

Just Dance - Stay healthy and happy, dance, laugh, and exercise. Easier said than done, but adults of all ages are continually bombarded with stress, pressure, and fatigue. A suppressed immunity has been associated with bereavement, depression, stress, and lack of activity. Maintaining an active social life could boost the older adult's immune system.

Get Plenty of Rest - We have been hearing this since we were children, but as we age, it has never been more important to get sleep. In an interesting study by James Krueger of the University of Tennessee1 found that sleep enhances the immune system and subsequently, the immune system helps enhance the pleasure sleep. Certainly hormonal activity and cell regeneration are at their height during restful periods, so getting a good night's rest is ever so helpful.

Look to the East - For thousands of years, Eastern medicinal observations noted that certain herbs could affect one's health and well-being. Today there are many products that are based on their observations to maintain and promote a healthy immune system. These are fast becoming a focus of good health practices in medicine as we know it today. Dietary supplements and vitamins rooted in traditional medicine will help you work keeping a healthy immune system.

While following these tips will not reverse aging, it will help you maintain balance within the circle of life allowing you to feel healthy, refreshed, and happy.

There may be a very good reason why coffee and cigarettes often seem to go hand in hand.

A Kansas State University psychology professor's research suggests that nicotine's power may be in how it enhances other experiences. For a smoker who enjoys drinking coffee, the nicotine may make a cup of joe even better.

And that may explain why smoking is so hard to quit.

"People have very regimented things they do when they smoke," said Matthew Palmatier, assistant professor of psychology at K-State. "If you think about where people smoke or who they smoke with, you realize that it occurs in very specific places, often with a specific group of people. Maybe it's a reason why nicotine is so addictive - if you get used to having that extra satisfaction from things you normally enjoy, not having nicotine could reduce the enjoyment in a given activity.

"People may not be smoking to obtain a pleasurable drug state. They may be smoking in order to regulate their mood, and that effect could make nicotine more addictive than other drugs."

Palmatier said much previous research on nicotine addiction has looked at the drug itself rather than the other factors he is studying.

"The approach we're taking is out of left field," he said. "But it seems to be one of the best explanations as to why people smoke."

Palmatier has a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to understand how this phenomenon can be used to better design tobacco addiction treatments, usually offered in patches and pills. He began psychological research in addiction as a graduate student and later began researching the reinforcing effects of nicotine.

"The big picture is trying to figure out why people smoke," Palmatier said. "There are a lot of health risks, and the majority of smokers already know what they are. They want to quit but can't. It's not because nicotine is a potent drug; it doesn't induce significant amounts of pleasure or euphoria. Yet, it's just as difficult if not more difficult to quit than other drugs."

At K-State, Palmatier studies rats that are allowed to self-administer nicotine by pushing a lever. The main source of light in their testing environment shuts off when the rats earn a dose of nicotine. After about a minute, the light comes back on to signal that more nicotine is available.

By manipulating this signal, Palmatier and his colleagues found that the rats weren't really that interested in nicotine by itself.

"We figured out that what the rats really liked was turning the light off," Palmatier said. "They still self-administered the nicotine, but they took more of the drug when it was associated with a reinforcing light."

Palmatier and colleagues published a paper on their research in the August issue of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Palmatier has begun looking at how rats respond to sweet tastes after having nicotine. He said preliminary results show that nicotine has comparable effects on sweet tastes. That is, rats respond more for sugar-water solutions after getting nicotine.

"The taste aspect is really important because we can actually figure out how nicotine is increasing the subjects' behavior," Palmatier said. "If it makes a reward more pleasurable, then it may increase the palatability of a sweet taste."

Palmatier said that a future phase of research would be determining whether nicotine can make unpleasant experiences more tolerable, helping explain why lighting up after a bad day at work can be tempting.

Medical News Today

We know it is difficult to give up the habit of nicotine, but did you know that in just 20 minutes you will see and feel the results. A recent article written by researcher Liz Lewis* demonstrates an astounding time line of just how quickly your body responds to that last cigarette.

In 20 minutes your blood pressure will begin to drop.

In 8 hours oxygen levels begin to return to normal and the levels of toxic gas known as carbon monoxide begin to drop. (You know that poisonous gas that you probably have a detector in your home to protect your family against?)

In just two days, (if you are at two days, keep going!) your chance of a heart attack decreases and your energy level increases.

Day three brings increased energy.

From 2 weeks to 10 weeks, (you can do it!) your circulation improves and energy increases.

The coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath begins to dissipate and your lung capacity improves by over 10% in 3 to 9 months.

In one year, your heart attack risk will drop by one half, and within five years your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.

In ten years, your risk of lung cancer will return to that of a non smoker, and in fifteen years your risk of a heart attack is that of a non-smoker.

So stop for today, stop for tomorrow, stop forever.

*HerbalGenX and LifeForce, LLC neither endorse nor suggest any affiliation with the author of this article.

Me too! You are not alone. According to health experts, a 'lack of energy' is one of the top five complaints doctors face, and as we age, this feeling is even more prominent. But we can take some steps to help combat fatigue and restore the energy we once felt.

Experts say* that there are steps one can take to help combat fatigue:

1) Exercise. While aerobic exercise is difficult for some, even moderate exercise can help re-energize and boost the immune system, and will promote better brain and heart health.

2) Get Lots of Sleep. In today's challenging economic times, it is easy for us to lose sleep or sleep less, but sleep is one of the most important aspects of good health.

3) Improve Your Diet. Eat fatigue-combating foods like salmon, trout, almonds, walnuts, legumes and dark leafy greens.

4) Boost Your Immune System. Boost your immune system with all natural dietary supplements.

*Data collected for this article was derived from a number of sources including, but not limited to data collected from the CDC and 50plus.com - no endorsement or affiliation is implied.