Cooperating with the Immunological Defenses

How can you cooperate, how can you strengthen your body’s immunological defense system? By just using good sense. Do not content yourself merely with not being sick. Give thought to maintaining good health by proper diet, which means not only seeing to it that you get sufficient proteins, fats and carbohydrates (sugars and starches), but also that you get the needed vitamins and minerals. A hamburger and a bottle of soda pop are not a balanced meal. Unrefined foods, such as whole wheat, unpolished rice, molasses and fruits and vegetables in abundance will help you greatly in this regard. Then there is the matter of getting needed rest and sleep, regular exercise if you are a sedentary worker, and avoidance of overindulgence of all kinds​—these are the things that will help you to strengthen your body’s immunological defense system.

Being abstemious at the table will in particular help your immunological defenses. Thus experiments with mice have shown that if they were provided with only one third the normal amount of food, but it was nutritious and well-balanced, they lived much longer. This is said to be due to the changes such a diet makes in the immunological system of the mice. While these results were had with mice, immunologist Dr. R. L. Walford of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, said that this indicated that humans would be wise to eat less, and that for such a diet to be truly effective it should be instituted early, soon after a child is weaned.​—New York Times, August 4, 1971.

How can you cooperate with the interferon ‘system’? Since interferon is aimed at viral infections and the more common of these are those that plague our noses and throats in the wintertime, anything that would work against the common cold may be considered as cooperating with one’s interferon defense system. There are a number of ways in which this can be done. The generous use of citrus fruits, especially grapefruit, lemons and limes, before one gets a cold, may protect one against it. Also avoiding rich and over-refined foods, especially pastries, rich puddings, and so forth, has helped many others to be free from the common cold.

For good skin there is also the need for proper nutrition. Thus we are told that severe skin disorders “appear early and conspicuously” in many cases of “nutritional deficiency.”