How to beat the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse

Apocalypse is a word that is often associated with death or destruction.

And in current times, there is no shortage of religious fanatics who claim that the end of the world has already begun.

Apocalypse in Greek means “revelation”, which has a kinder tone. And it can be related to the awakening of millions of people who are finally understanding that having healthy habits can save their lives.

Here I am going to introduce you to the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse. They are responsible for deactivating your defense system and leaving you without weapons to fight viruses, bacteria and germs.

In addition, I will teach you what actions to take to face any external aggressor who wants to violate your protective shield.

The world changed. Before and after this pandemic. As I always say, everything bad that happens to us has a positive side.

I imagine that it is due to the physical principle of action and reaction or to the balance of energies of the universe that we know as Ying and Yang. But we need to learn from the bad to take advantage of it and get the most out of it.

Thanks to the advent of the internet, it is easier for us to have immediate access to tons of data. And if we add to that the social networks, the information sources (which do not guarantee their veracity) and quantities of supposed experts who dominate an infinite number of topics increase exponentially.

Without knowing it, we begin to suffer from a new phenomenon called INFOXICATION, which refers to the excess of information on a specific subject, which makes it difficult for us to analyze and compress it due to excess data.

We invest valuable time reading or listening to different and often contradictory opinions on the same topic. In the end, we don't know where to start, what to do, and we end up in a state of paralysis.

What I don't understand is why most human beings procrastinate and need a great stimulus, such as a good scare, to start acting. We leave things for later, imagining that our problems will be solved by magic.

In this case I mean our health. All the implications of leading an unhealthy lifestyle are already vox populi and, in any case, many do not decide to take control, knowing that sooner or later death will knock on their door.

Faced with an unprecedented threat, we are all scared, hopeless and want to find automatic solutions that boost our immune system to reduce the effects of the virus in case of contracting it and even prevent it from being lethal.

But since the cure is unlikely to fall from the sky, you must prepare to protect yourself from any current threats and those that may come later.

The best way to prepare for war is by getting to know the worst enemies of your health, whom we decided to call the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse.

Rider #1 Lack of sleep

In the modern era, technology has made many of our daily tasks easier, but it also keeps us exposed for longer periods of time to our cell phones, computers, and televisions.

The high exposure to blue light produced by these devices disrupts melatonin production, causing us to go to sleep late at night and fail to get the recommended 7-8 hours.

Sleep is essential for health and survival. Even if you don't eat very well, you could live around 75 years. But if you don't sleep, your body is likely to collapse and you'll die in a matter of weeks.

When it comes to your health, sleep plays a key role. While getting more sleep doesn't necessarily prevent you from getting sick, failing to do so could negatively affect your immune system, leaving you susceptible to a bad cold or case of the flu.

If you don't get enough sleep, the body produces less cytokines, a type of protein that attacks infection and inflammation, affecting the immune response.

Even chronic sleep loss makes the flu shot less effective by reducing your body's ability to respond.

If you want to know how to have a restful and quality sleep, I invite you to read the Simplified Guide to sleep like a baby and lose fat while you dream.

Rider #2 High stress levels

While stress alone can't cause you to catch a cold or flu virus, it does weaken your ability to respond to invaders, leaving you more vulnerable to infection.

Your recovery is also likely to be slower, since the immune system is suppressed in favor of stress.

The body's response to stress must be self-limiting. Once the perceived threat has passed, adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.

However, when stressors and "feeling under attack" remain constant, the fight-or-flight reaction remains active, overexposing the body to cortisol and other stress hormones.

Cells of the immune system (and other body systems) are unable to respond normally and levels of inflammation occur that increase the risk of further health problems.

Stress can also have a spillover effect on your defenses if you resort to unhealthy coping strategies, such as smoking or drinking too much caffeine and alcohol, eating too much sugar and processed foods, not sleeping well, and not exercising.

Mood and attitude have a tremendous impact on the immune system. When we are happy and optimistic, it works well. But when we are stressed, negative, and in a low mood, our immunity tends to be low as well.

Rider #3 Sugar and processed foods

Beyond immediate satisfaction, the positive effects of sugar on health are very few.

Eating too much sugar can affect the brain and body, including increased risk of cavities, weight gain, cognitive decline, and disease.

Its negative impact is a complex interplay of hormonal, metabolic, and immunological processes that can seriously threaten human health.

And its harmful effects can be immediate:

• Reduces the output of white blood cells and increases inflammatory markers.

In fact, obese people have fewer white blood cells with a reduced ability to fight infection. That impact can be cumulative and far-reaching.

• Many foods that are high in refined sugar are low in nutrients and because of this deficiency can increase the risk of infections.

Sugary processed foods can also deplete nutrients from other foods, and for this reason, the body needs to deplete its stores of vitamins and minerals essential for the functioning of the immune system.

What you eat can determine whether or not you get sick.

We all have trillions of tiny bacterial cells living in our intestines, which help break down food, absorb nutrients, and keep out toxins.

It turns out that these cells thrive on what we feed them. So when we give them too many chemical additives and saturated trans fats, we really affect the whole ecosystem.

This is how processed food affects the body:

• As it causes the growth of the wrong bacteria and yeast, our immune function is compromised and we are unable to fight off the cold or flu like we should.
• The immune system activates the inflammatory response in an effort to protect our cells and tissues.

And as we continue to bombard our bodies with more processed foods, our immune cells overreact and inflammation begins to spread throughout the body.

This chronic inflammation impairs our immune system's ability to respond when we come into contact with the flu and other contagious diseases.

Do you want to delve deeper into this topic? I recommend you read the post Processed foods damage your immune system and intestinal health

Rider #4 Sedentary lifestyle (the new tobacco)

When we move, exercise and have a healthy lifestyle, the white blood cells responsible for the body's defenses increase and make us more resistant to attacks by bacterial, viral or fungal pathogens.

The human body was designed to move. For thousands of years, that's what humans did. Much of it was to survive: gathering food, escaping predators, and migrating to more forgiving lands.

Even as the humans advanced, our bodies were in motion.

Long days of farm work, commuting to the city for school or for supplies, and other factors of daily life meant there was little time for our ancestors to rest on their laurels.

However, in the mid-20th century, technological advances, increased car use, and the shift from physically demanding jobs to office work began to displace our physical activity.

Today, when we have more choice than ever in almost every aspect of life, most choose to be sedentary and stay at home watching the latest series on Netflix.

But how does not moving regularly affect us?

The World Health Organization estimates that a lack of physical activity is associated with 3.2 million deaths a year.

A 2017 study of 3,141 adults over the age of 50 concluded that the effects of not moving vary depending on their level of frailty. The researchers found that the highest level of frailty experienced the most severe impact. (1)

Although the disastrous consequences of a sedentary lifestyle are already known, it does not hurt to make comparisons.

A sedentary lifestyle causes the same number of deaths as tobacco, according to a study published in the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet. (2)

The publication says that physical inactivity is causing no less than 5.3 million deaths worldwide, a not insignificant number to think that physical exercise is, without a doubt, the greatest medicine.

Those millions are similar to the deaths that occur due to smoking.

Another pandemic that weighs heavily, but is not given as much importance

I don't want to let go of a topic that has too much influence on your health and has a lot to do with the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse.

Did you know that for years we have been experiencing another pandemic, apparently silent because it does not scare us, but that each year kills more people than viruses, influenza and the flu combined?

Well, if you didn't know, obesity causes 300,000 deaths a year. And if we add to this the deaths from diseases related to overweight and obesity, the alarming figure increases to 2.8 million annually.

I want to show you these figures that I got from the WHO website: (3)

• Global obesity has nearly tripled since 1975.
• In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, ages 18 and older, were overweight. Of these, more than 650 million were obese.
• 39% of adults 18 years and older were overweight in 2016 and 13% were obese.
• 38 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2019.
• More than 340 million children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 were overweight or obese in 2016.

If we analyze the data, we can realize that this problem is a time bomb and is affecting more and more people. And sadly this pandemic DOES affect children.

There are more and more headlines in the newspapers like these:

• “Obesity increases the risk of premature death”
• “Obesity-related diseases among top three killers in most countries, says World Bank”
• "More and more people die from obesity than from traffic accidents"
• “Obesity is the second preventable cause of death worldwide”

I don't know how many more people have to die for us to open our eyes and decide to put an end to this problem that concerns us all.

What is the relationship between overweight and obesity with the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse?

It turns out that they are all interconnected and if we do not deal with them in time, it will be the end of our existence.

According to the CDC website, the group of people most likely to suffer serious illnesses and even die are: (4)

• People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma.
• People with heart conditions.
• Immunocompromised people.
• Overweight or obese people.
• People with diabetes.
• People with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis.
• People with liver disease.

As I already mentioned, being overweight and obese trigger a host of problems and diseases.

Well, it turns out that the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse, in addition to decreasing the defense capacity of our immune system, are also responsible for causing our body to begin to accumulate extra pounds, causing us to become overweight to later qualify as obese. .

I don't want to scare you, but almost all of us are overweight and don't know it.

Is it hard for you to believe it? I invite you to look for a tape measure and measure your waist so that you can compare the result with the data that I am going to provide you below:

What is your measure? Are you in a healthy range, at risk or at high risk?

Most people fall into the risk range and that means they are overweight.

Now look at how each rider can affect your weight:

1. If you have trouble getting enough sleep, waking up with little energy will be the least of your problems.

And it is that you could present from hormonal imbalances, a decrease in your metabolic rate and an increase in anxiety about eating foods high in sugars and fats. A poor night's sleep can cause you to eat an extra 300 to 400 calories that day.

2. Do you lead a life full of stress, with overwork, endless hours in traffic, problems with your partner, you can not face all your debts and your cortisol levels are at the maximum?

Well, now you know why you are eating more than necessary and have cravings for junk food all the time.

3. If you spend your time eating high-sugar foods and processed foods like Oreos or Cheetos, let me tell you, your blood sugar levels can be skyrocketing and, in addition to gaining weight, you could become insulin resistant and paving the way for suffering. type 2 diabetes.

4. To go up one floor do you take the elevator, go to the corner pharmacy by car or did you decide to join the gym 2 years ago, but you haven't started yet?

Statistically, people gain 2 pounds a year even if they maintain good eating habits. If you don't exercise, how much will you weigh in 10 years?

Remember that overweight and obesity cause a state of constant inflammation in your body, which triggers a variety of pathologies, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, cancer, depression, anxiety , among many others.

It is a vicious circle from which many cannot seem to escape.

How to beat the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse to recover your health and avoid being overweight?

Perhaps the answer seems simple and you may not like it: start moving towards a healthy lifestyle, be patient and make progressive changes to ensure that they are sustainable over time.

To combat lack of sleep:

• Disconnect from all kinds of electronics 2 hours before going to sleep. I know, I am asking you something that seems impossible, but it is extremely important to reduce exposure to blue light and stop exciting your neurons.
• A hot shower, making your room like a dark cave, turning the air conditioning down to 68-70 degrees F and reading a book will go a long way.

To lower stress levels:

• Stop watching the news all day and avoid toxic people.
• Eliminate expenses that are not necessary.
• Find an activity that helps you relax as a hobby that you enjoy or put together puzzles to disconnect for a while.
• Drink green tea for its high content of theanine amino acid that helps you relax.
• Start practicing yoga and meditation.

If you still can't reduce your stress levels, I recommend you buy our ebook Stress and the immune system: A complete guide to control it that will keep you away from diseases.  

To eliminate sugar and processed foods:

• I know that it is impossible to change your eating habits overnight. Before cutting them out, I recommend starting to incorporate vegetables and increase your protein intake to feel full and avoid eating extra calories.
• You can try intermittent fasting. If you need help getting started, check out our Quick Guide to Intermittent Fasting and the safest and most delicious way to break it.
• You can also browse our website www.evolutionadvance.com where you will find an ocean of healthy options, one more delicious than the other. You won't believe they are low in calories. You will be able to sin without remorse!

To put sedentary lifestyle aside:

• Take action and start moving the skeleton. You don't have to go to the gym to take the first step.
• Start doing exercises at home. You no longer have excuses because social networks are flooded with options and you can do the routine that you like best and that suits your needs.
• You can also purchase our Exercise Plan to strengthen your immune system in 30 days , where you will find multilevel routines that have proven to be effective in invigorating defenses.

If you follow these steps, little by little your health will begin to improve and your immune system will be prepared to confront the 4 horsemen of the immune apocalypse.

The best thing is that you will feel full of energy, happy and wanting to conquer the world.

Remember that you have the power to change!