Dr. Giulia Enders

centuries and things like that.

But actually a huge part of what the immune system is doing is sort of cooperating with these microbes, looking at what's going on.

And actually it doesn't sort of shoot first and ask questions later.

Actually, it's sort of looking at what these bacteria are doing, being quite thoughtful and deciding these responses.

And in fact, the way that you think about it is you think about us as having this microbe cloak around us.

Very few of these bacteria are making us sick, and actually many of them might be helping to look after us, which is a completely different way of thinking about it, which I love it.

Then you talked about rethinking what happens if you're sick.

And so don't think about all your cold symptoms as being caused directly by

this infection.

Actually, this is your immune system helping to look after you.

And that can make you feel better about it.

And that also means be thoughtful before you try and get rid of all the symptoms.

So I am allowed to take a decongestant if I can't sleep, which is great.

I can take a painkiller if it's really getting in my way.

But, you know, the other example you gave was like, if I have diarrhea, you should really try and let that happen because this is just getting rid of this pathogen.

And similarly, you know, when I've got a runny nose, actually it's doing a great job getting this stuff out.

So don't be so hard on yourself.

And then I think we talked about like what are the specific things you can do not to boost your immune system because you don't want that, but actually to balance it.

And I think you have this really broad set of areas.

You started with stress, which is interesting that this is actually really important and you can see stress.