Lifestyle Changes for Low Immune Function

When we neglect to establish the root cause of one illness, it can turn into another, stronger illness in the future.  The first step in resolving a specific ailment or disease in the body is to assess the nature of our lifestyle and make general modifications.  Living our day-to-day life with a deliberate intention to improve our health will help us to both resolve the disease we are suffering from and prevent further incidence of it and other diseases in the future.

When it comes to addressing low immune function, we need to investigate all systems of the body and mind to identify the weakest part; disease will make its home in not the stronger parts of the body, but the weakest. Below are remedies and lifestyle changes that can help to build digestive strength, restore life-sap, and balance each of the doshas:

To Build Digestive Strength

• If going through a bout of indigestion, stop eating and fast with warm or hot water until the symptoms have gone away.
• Eat only two or three times a day, and eat at the same time every day.
• Eat slowly.
• Drink a cup of warm water first thing in the morning to build digestive fire.
• Watch that your breathing while eating and speaking is not erratic or short, as this will hinder digestion.
• While eating, focus on the food and not your thoughts as you will eat unconsciously. This will lead to over- or under-eating.
• Avoid eating fewer than three or four hours before going to bed.
• Avoid eating processed foods, junk food, and anything else with abundant chemicals and additives.
• Avoid eating after the stomach is half or three-quarters full.
• Avoid eating while watching TV, working, or engaging in another activity (multitasking).
• Avoid mixing fruit, fish, meat, and raw foods with dairy products and other foods with incompatible enzymes.
• Avoid smoking and drinking alcohol.

To Build and Restore Life-Sap:

• Go to bed early and wake up early. Follow the same sleeping routine every day, which will bring the body and mind in line with nature.
• Spend five to twenty minutes gazing at the sun rising or setting every day.
• Practice calming yoga postures and breathing exercises every day to settle the nervous system and relax the mind. This practice, when followed on a daily basis, will transform a person existing within the realm of the mind and body into going to a higher place, to the spirit. This is meditation.
• Avoid excessive amounts of TV, computer use, cell phone use, and other habits centered on using technology, as this disrupts one’s relationship with nature and thus depletes life-sap.
• Avoid high-stress situations that disturb the mind and create emotional turmoil in the form of anger, irritation, fear, anxiety, and worry.
• Avoid overworking and over-exercising to the point of burn-out, as this can deplete life-sap.
• Avoid excessive amounts of speaking, thinking, and analyzing, which promote a lot of desires and places demands on oneself as well as others. This stimulates the senses and creates anxiety.
• Avoid expectations and judgments of situations and people, which will stress one’s body and mind as well as the body and mind of others.
• Fast with warm water one day a week for better digestion and to burn off invasive toxins in the blood and colon.
• Avoid excessive amounts of sexual release, as sexual fluid is the highest concentration of life-sap in the body.

To Balance Doshas

Vata:

• Favor nourishing foods such as white basmati rice, barley, and cooked vegetables.
• Apply ghee to foods and mix the ghee with a pinch of ginger, licorice, black salt, and/or triphala.
• Take a tablespoon of ghee or sesame oil with half a cup of warm water.
• Obey all urges to move bowels as soon as possible.
• If possible try to get into a squat when defecating so as to emulate a more natural position for passing stool. This would mean the feet would need to be lifted onto the rim of the toilet.
• Enlist the help of an Ayurvedic practitioner to administer oil enemas and other treatments like shiro dhara so as to stimulate the functionality of the colon and bring calmness to the mind.
• Create more stillness through the practicing of calming yoga postures.
• Avoid being in the wind.
• Avoid dry foods such as chips, cold cereals, cookies, crackers, granola, and nutrition bars.
• Eat more sweet, sour, and salty foods.
• Foods can be a little heavier to ground the airiness of the Vata element. Favor cooked foods.

Pitta:

• Eat foods with sweet and cold qualities.
• Avoid eating spicy, hot, sour, and greasy foods.
• Avoid using too many hot spices such as garlic, hot peppers, and onions.
• Avoid drinking alcohol and other stimulants.
• Avoid frequent, continuous, and excessive amounts of eating.
• Avoid eating fewer than three or four hours before going to bed.
• If the body is strong, take 1 teaspoon of castor oil in a cup of warm water, or adjust the amount to be more or less as needed. This is a good purgation to relieve excess heat from the system. (This is best to do before bedtime or in the early morning, but not if you have to leave the house within 3 hours.)
• Avoid rapid movements and aggressive exercise.
• Avoid artificial lights and sitting indoors too much. Take walks, especially when you are at the office.
• Avoid speaking too much and emotionally investing in too many conflicts.
• Avoid the hot sun and letting it shine directly on the head and body.
• Avoid too many selfish and self-indulgent thoughts.
• Avoid the need to be right or to always have things your way.
• This brings on a lot of heat in the mind and body.

Kapha:

• Wake at the time of Vata, which is before 6am. This early activity will help dry up the body.
• Eat light foods and soups to help purge the congestion associated with excess Kapha energy.
• Follow eating with a half cup of hot water.
• Keep meals to once or twice a day, without snacking. This will quickly relieve the body of excess food to digest and bring it back into balance.     
• Take light walks and stretch the body so that it can release the excess, stagnant Kapha.
• Avoid eating dinner as it will create more mucus in the system as food remains undigested until the early morning.
• Avoid heavy foods and drinks at night, which will create more stress on the digestive fire.
• Avoid food until later in the morning, after 10am. This will help digestion become stronger.
• Avoid sitting around too much, which will make the body stiff.
• Avoid being out in heavy, rainy weather.
• Avoid sleeping in excess.
• Avoid too many sweet, sour, and salty foods.
• Follow a more stimulating yoga posture practice done with more energy.
• The Kapha element can be brought under control by fasting for 1 to 2 days a week with warm water or broth.

Breathing Practices For Low Immune Function

Controlling the breath is a central practice toward developing peace and stillness in the mind and body. When the breath is under our control, we are no longer at the mercy of the senses that are stimulated by everything and lead to greater fluctuations of the mind. When applied to the context of resolving specific ailments, the breath is used as a tool for developing lung capacity, heating and cooling the body and resolving mental afflictions like anxiety and stress.