Signs of improved immunity

You will be less likely to get sick when the seasons change, recover quickly from minor illnesses, get rid of fatigue quickly, and have fewer mucous membrane problems.

I had a dinner with a friend who works in public health last month. She also said that last year she was doing follow-up work for chronic diseases in the community and met a 62-year-old Aunt Zhang. In the past two years, she had to wear a sling bottle for half a month in autumn to treat cough and asthma. This year, she followed people in the community to play Baduanjin for 20 minutes every day and took vitamin D supplements for three months. The temperature dropped three times throughout the autumn. An old sister next to her coughed half of her body. She just went downstairs to blow the wind and felt a dry throat. After drinking warm honey water for two days, she was fine. This is the most typical manifestation of improving immunity. Later, she went for a physical examination and found that NK cell activity increased by 17% compared with last year, which was completely consistent with the changes in body sensation.

If you look at different medical systems, the logic of judgment will be different: Traditional Chinese medicine says that "good qi exists within, and evil cannot be affected." What it depends on is whether you have a good appetite, sleep deeply, and your hands and feet are at normal temperature. The essence is to see whether qi and blood can moisten the defense barrier of the whole body; modern immunology explains it more To put it bluntly - the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract and digestive tract are like security guards at your door. If they secrete enough immunoglobulin A, viruses and bacteria will be suppressed as soon as they touch the door. There is no need to alert the immune cells throughout the body to come out to "fight", and you will naturally not have reactions such as fever and coughing.

There is also a controversial point that has been debated in the academic circles for many years: "Does not having a fever all year round mean strong immunity?" I have seen two groups with completely opposite clinical conclusions: One group tracked the follow-up data of more than 3,000 healthy adults for 10 years and found that the basic activity of immune cells in people who have not had fever and colds all year round is generally 12 times higher than that in people who have more than two colds per year. %-18%, it can eliminate the pathogen before it replicates to a pathogenic dose; but another school of experimental research also mentioned that a low-grade fever of 37.5-38.5℃ is actually a "training" of the immune system, which can stimulate the differentiation and proliferation of memory T cells. People who have not had this kind of immune stress for a long time will have a higher probability of immune storm once they encounter new pathogens. There is no unified conclusion yet. Ordinary people don’t need to worry about this at all. They really need to look for judgment criteria. “Recovering faster after getting sick than before” is much more reliable than “never getting sick”.

There are also many small signs that are easy to be ignored: for example, a mosquito bite used to swell for three days, and it was so red and itchy that I couldn’t help scratching the skin. Now it disappears in half a day, without even leaving a mark; I used to stay up late at night and feel hazy for two or three days, but I can’t get over it. Come on, I feel so top-heavy that I can't even eat. Now, even if I am forced to work an all-nighter, I can regain my consciousness by sleeping for three or four hours the next day and taking a 20-minute nap. In the past, I would feel thin after eating something spicy and cold, but now I occasionally get craving for ice and hot pot, and I don't feel any discomfort after eating it. These small changes are actually signals of improved immune function, so don’t take them seriously.

Of course, don’t just blame any abnormal body sensation on improving your immunity. I met a 28-year-old young man in the outpatient clinic a while ago. He said that he has been particularly resistant to freezing recently. He didn’t feel cold even when he went out wearing single clothes in winter. He thought it was because he had been exercising well recently and his immunity had improved. However, it turned out that he had hyperthyroidism. The hypersensitivity caused by abnormally high metabolic rate had nothing to do with immunity.

In fact, to put it bluntly, immunity is your body’s own defense force. Everyone’s troop configuration and combat style are inherently different, so there is no need to impose other people’s standards. You only need to compare yourself with yourself three to five months ago: there are fewer minor ailments that come to your door at all times, you are more resilient, and you can recover quickly even if you are tired or cold. That means your immunity is quietly getting better, and it is more real than the false indicators in health product advertisements.