Dr. Giulia Enders

Like when everything's already done and you're healing up, sometimes it overcompensates.

But then you have it also in things like allergies or autoimmune disease.

And when I hear people say these things like, or promote supplements and like everything's just targeted for...

for having a stronger and stronger and stronger immune system, I say, oh, I think you don't have the whole picture because it's really not about just having the strongest army on the planet, but it's about having a balanced one.

If you had like security personnel around you and they were stoked up all the time, almost like on cocaine, be super aggressive and super strong, then this might lead to some risky situation.

You really want them well balanced and really analyzing the situation well before they overreact.

So this is, I think, the same for the immune system.

And if you have all these substances to stimulate it, or let's just say sugar, because sugar gives all the energy to produce more and more and more immune cells, and with more, more can go wrong.

And sugar also gives it a signal to maybe be a bit more pro-inflammatory because it can afford it.

Studies show that over 20 years or so, if people regularly drink soft drinks with lots of sugar in them, then they just have a higher risk of having, as you said, rheumatoid arthritis for

for example and so you don't want it on overdrive you don't want it doing too much you want a balanced immune system

And of course, I want to really be clear, there's other ways to get those diseases.

It's not people's fault or having too much sugar that will then lead to them for sure to get this disease.

So people have genetic disposition, there's environment like air pollution, all these things can also lead to that.

So it's not the only cause, but it's just one aspect you might want to be careful with because it pushes it in a wrong direction.

And there's other ways when I think people say, well, should I not at all strengthen my immune system now?

And here I would also interfere and say, no, no, oftentimes it's about not weakening it.

Because, for example, chronic stress really weakens it because the body uses all this energy for problem solving, for ruminating, and then it takes it away from, for example, sleep and forming ripe, good immune cells that regulate the immune system.

So

When there's a cold season and everyone around you is sick, you might as well strengthen it with some substances.