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How our Thoughts and Diet Influence our Immunity
Did you know our thoughts can influence our immunity!
To find out how tune into this episode of me&my health up. We discuss how our thoughts and diet influence our immunity with Dr. Gayl Hubatch.
About our guest Dr. Gayl Hubatch, OMD, LAc, Doctor of Chinese Medicine
Gayl Hubatch, is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, and author. She enthusiastically leads Qigong and Heart Math classes Dr.Gayl has practiced energy medicine: acupuncture etc. for over 30 years, bringing a wealth of knowledge to her clinical practice and courses. She has Co- led Qigong and Tai Chi trainings at various universities, colleges and retreat centers throughout the US.
Gayl specializes in qigong, integrating eastern and western medicine with a practice in acupuncture, herbology, and bodymind therapies in Austin, TX. As a certified HeartMath Trainer, Gayl offers resilience training online. Also, a diplomat through NCCAOM, her book: Fabric of the Soul: Eight Extraordinary Vessels is available on amazon.com.
How to best connect with Gayl
Email: gayl@blueheroncenter.com
Website: www.blueheroncenter.com
About me&my Health Up & Host
me&my Health Up seeks to enhance and enlighten the wellbeing of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food is medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.
Credits
Podcast editing: WE EDIT PODCASTS
Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more
Are you sick and tired of being sick? Would you like a robust immune system? Well, this episode is for you. We are discussing how to improve your immune system through controlling your thoughts and your diet. So we have back on the show Dr. Gayl Hubatch, and you've landed on the me and my health up podcast. I'm your host Anthony Hartcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being. And Dr. Gayl Hubatch. She's going to be doing just that for you. She has a doctorate in Chinese medicine. She specializes in acupuncture, herbology, chi gong, Tai Chi HeartMath training and meditation at her whole holistic studio blue heron center in Lakeway, Texas. So without much further ado, I'd love to welcome you into the discussion I'm having with Dr. Gayl Hubatch. Welcome back to the studio. Gayl Hubatch. How are you doing today?
Dr Gayl Hubatch:I'm doing great, Anthony. Thank you for having me back. I'm excited to be here and talk about this topic.
Anthony Hartcher:It's so great to have you back on the last episode was a real hit, I really enjoyed talking about the stress management. And we got into some breathing exercises, which were a lot of fun. So really looking forward to this episode with you. And we're going to be tackling the topic of how our thoughts and diet influence our immunity. So very excited to have you back and talk about this important topic, because our immunity is certainly been up and down since COVID. And people are looking listeners are looking for an improved more robust immune system. So yeah, no doubt that I am. And they are looking forward to hearing what you have to say in terms of how we can create that robust immune system.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Yes. And that's why I wanted to bring this topic to our conversation. Because it's so important today, you know, we've all been affected, I think on a global level, by what we've been experiencing the last few years. And I think you know, a good way to start this podcast is with a collective sigh of relief. Now that we've learned to adapt as well as we can, or maybe we're learning to adapt better, but I find that this actually a conscious breath practice is to take a deep inhale, do you want to do it with me?
Anthony Hartcher:Absolutely. Looking forward to another breathing exercise session with you.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Yeah, so just take a deep inhale through your nose and hold it for a moment. And then as you exhale through your mouth, let out a sound whatever comes. And we're going to do that twice more, inhaling through the nose and exhaling a sigh of relief, let it really feel like something's dropping. Again, one more time. Ah, you know, the breath is such a powerful tool to release stress in the body and stress. This is actually a good dovetail to the first podcast about stress lessness because our immune system is directly affected by stress. There have been studies at Penn State University and also the National Institute of Health in Washington, and I'm sure in your country and you know, wherever our listeners are, there are studies about how stress affects our health. And what they found is that stress tends to lower lymphocytes. So it's our white blood cells. Those are the cells in the body that help fight infection. And when we feel stressed, what happens we feel tense, we might get heart racing, we might feel sweaty, it's all this adrenaline response that comes up, everything gets tight. And because of that the lymphocytes don't flow as freely and sometimes they're not even be being created as really, they get created in the deep bone marrow. And so the breath is always a tool to allow oxygen to flow more freely in the body and the blood vessels to dilate nerves conduct more easily because of that, your respiration becomes more regular. And in this our immune system actually is influenced in a very positive way. So the key is to notice Sit when you're stressed, and honor yourself with some breathing practices,
Anthony Hartcher:it's such a simple exercise to do. It's really that was three deep breaths. And I did notice as I was doing more and more, my body was relaxing more and more. So it's such a simple practice, it doesn't cost anything. And you can do it whilst enjoying activities and whatnot, you know, you can do it whilst you're driving, if you're a bit frustrated in traffic. So it's, it's a activity that you can do anytime, basically anywhere, I think it would be great to do just before bed to wind down to relax the body and to ease into the nice, comfortable sheets and comfy Duna.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Yeah, exactly. And you can add a little shaking to it. Or if you'd like to dance, you know, whatever you're inclined to do. I don't know your listeners may remember a bit about my background, which is in Chinese medicine, I've had 30 years of practice in TCM, traditional Chinese medicine. And part of that is Qi Gong. And Qi Gong is all about conscious breath practice, we often bring movement to it. But it doesn't have to be associated with movement necessarily, the movement can happen internally, just like I said, when you breathe deeply, and in a regular way, the blood and nerves and everything starts flowing more freely and more in harmony, the immune system works better. That's a form of Chi Gong, just bringing consciousness to your breath, and to your body. So those are two of what we call the alignments. The third one is your mind. So I want to talk about that. But before that, let's just think about the immune system a little more for a minute, because some of your listeners may not know really what their immune system does, other than keep them healthy or make them sick. And I'm not a specialist by any means or chemist in this way. So I'm going to keep the topic pretty basic, but intentional with having done a ton of research and seen probably 10s of 1000s of people in my clinical practice over the years. So the immune system, we know now that it has to do with white blood cells to fight infection. But there's actually two types of our immune system. One is innate, it's what we're born with. And the other is adaptive how we adapt what we can control. And that part, I'm going to talk a little bit later about diet, because that's something we can also control the innate part, you might think, oh, that's genetic, I can affect that. But actually, there are studies now that say, we can affect which genes turn on in ourselves or turn off. And you may have had people on your podcasts that have talked more about this. It's a fascinating field to me to think about that. And my background being in Chinese medicine, I always related more to chi flow, or energy flow. And the meridians, the meridians are energy channels that move through us just like our nerves or blood vessels, but they are linked to our organ function. And so each of the organs has its own meridian. And in that energy flow of the meridian is kind of like a river. If you think about the river systems on the earth, and they go into the seas, while the seas are like our endocrine system, they're very deep and resourceful. And the meridians are like the rivers. And if we keep the rivers flowing, then that deeper, more innate part of us that's closer to the endocrine system, and our central nervous system stays healthy, well and balanced. The meridians are what we can control with our breath with what we eat and how we think. Does that make sense?
Anthony Hartcher:Yeah, absolutely. I love your analogy with the rivers flowing into the ocean, you know, the energy flowing via the rivers into the larger system and supporting the system which supports the ecosystem. So I think that's a fantastic analogy. And I'm really keen to get your thoughts and wisdom on the how our thoughts influence the flow of these rivers, the meridians and how we can improve our immune ocean, so to speak, so please fill this in with how our thoughts influence our immunity.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Yes, so now you know a little bit about how it works. When you think about something that is difficult, maybe you have a situation at work, your problem you're trying to solve. And maybe there are people on your team that are not being very helpful at the time. And maybe you have somebody in your family that's really sick or your child that's having trouble in school. And you bring all of this into your work environment, and the environment is maybe stressful to begin with, because of the changes going on in the world. And the products aren't being shipped, or, you know, there's a myriad of things that are happening right now that we're all trying to continually adapt to. But when we think about all these different layers of things, what happens, you feel exhausted, you might feel tense, like your neck or your shoulders feel tight, or maybe you feel anxious, your stomach gets tense, and you can't breathe. And this is all how we think right? And our thoughts create emotional responses. This is the key to immunity, how our thoughts affect or influence immunity is through our feelings, our emotional self, because the emotional self typically is what drives our thoughts. Like maybe your relationship is in trouble or your child is sick or something like that, where it's just so close to you, it's really hard to let that go when you're trying to focus on solving a problem at work, or even driving to your job, this energy of how you think and work through problems, it creates a chemical change in your body. And the more stress or the more, I don't always like to use the word negative. But the greater the tension patterns, the less your body's ability to create healthy chemistry. And you tend to lower those lymphocyte levels and create inflammatory responses. And so then you've got inflammation going on. And then you feel even worse, you feel cranky, your joints might hurt, your back is tight, maybe you have a headache, all those symptoms that get created a lot of times from how we deal with things that are challenging in our lives. And so this isn't an indicator that your thoughts are affecting your immunity in a negative way. But just consider this, you can also affect your immunity in a positive way. And the way we do that is to what I call feed the lightness, we feed thoughts that bring wellness that bring us joy that bring us happiness, things that don't really change in ourselves that are always there something we appreciate. And so appreciation and gratitude are really key indicators of, I think, an emotional health of a person. How grateful are you to be alive right now, despite all the stress of work, or your family or this or that, can you still honestly say I feel good, I'm enjoying the breeze, I love the sun on my face, like those little things. I can just drink a pure glass of water and release like get in the moment. So I think part of it is putting yourself in the moment with a very positive feeling. And then building on that. And so you build this sense of relationship with that healthy part of yourself, their immune system that's adapting to change that's rising with how you feel about the love in your life or that wonderful meal you had last night or your pet or your spouse or something that honestly makes your heart glad. Those are things that over time will influence our immunity in a positive way. Now so many people are on their phones all the time. And I think social media has created this tracking mechanism to help people get a little bit of that dopamine rush, right that's what why they say it's a addicted to be on your phone? Well, I don't know if those little moments are enough to actually change our physiology. And I always recommend you put the phone down. But you create it within yourself. Because that is where the magic happens. When you create positive beliefs about your life, like, I know that I am strong, and then I can have fun or that I can create a really interesting experience that brings me joy, today or tomorrow, you know, just things like that, that, that you look forward to, that you're excited about your energy level starts to raise, that's when you know, we say your vibrations, raising, right. And you know that when you're with other people that feel that way, too. Like I feel that way about you, Anthony, I have to tell you, like I look forward to speaking with you, because I just feel good with you, you're smiling, you just have a way about you, you're doing really positive work in the world, you're making a positive change. And I love to support that. And so it brings me joy to be here today. And I feel really good in my body because of it,
Anthony Hartcher:it's returned, I really enjoy your presence, and certainly what you bring to the listeners and in the light and conversations we have, and I really love the point you've made in terms of if you're feeling the emotions are getting the better of you, then take a pause and then go back to that breathing exercise. Get into the present moment and have thoughts of what you haven't got, be grateful for what you have, as opposed to what you're not having or what you don't want to experience, that moment of pause, taking some deep breaths, getting present and doing those affirmations as you said of gratitude, being grateful for being alive for what people do for you, and expressing gratitude for what's around you and the beauty and really getting engaged in that present moment. So a fantastic share there in terms of how you've tied both episodes. And I'm really going to include the link to the previous episode for the listeners that may have missed the first episode that Gail did with me on stress management and the power of breath in terms of managing your stress. Have you got any other tips in terms of when those emotions are starting to get the better of us? Have you got any behavioral shifts that you could do besides the pause and breathe?
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Oh, absolutely. So, you know, I'm also a Heart Math trainer, and Heart Math is a system assist the science of the heart, testing the variability between the heartbeats and the sine waves that we create when we're either stressed, or when we're relaxed and alert. And I find that the blend of using HeartMath tools, techniques and Chi Gong really make a big difference because the Qigong is very focused on those three alignments again, so if I may, can I lead you through another exercise?
Anthony Hartcher:Yeah, absolutely. The listeners would be keen. I'm excited. Let's do it.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Okay, awesome. So let's use the first three alignments. The first one is body. So wherever you are, if you're sitting, find your seat and place your feet level on the floor. If you're standing or just standing, if you're lying down, you can just lie down but be aware of how you're lying and keep your spinal column straight. So having the spine straight is part of the alignment. It keeps us connected between head and heart. And the third treasure which is our belly. So we have we call these three treasures our mind, our heart or breath and the body, the belly, which relates to the earth. So if you just notice those three, they're like chakras we kind of the yogi's will think of seven chakras and they think of alignment there. And in Chinese practices, we use three treasures. So align yourself between your, your third eye, your forehead, your heart and your navel center and just notice those three and allow yourself to breathe. Now consciously being aware of this simple alignment. So you're, again breathing in and out maybe a little longer and slower than you normally do. Taking nice easy breaths. Nothing force just easy. Just sensing your body, sensing your breath, and bringing the focus of your mind on to your breath. And now we'll add an intention, and a feeling state to our breath practice. So bring in either a memory of someplace you've been recently that made you really happy, like I was at the Pacific Coast on the beach, that was so glorious. Or maybe you look at the big sky, and you just feel an opening. Or maybe there's a pet or something you love about your life, that doesn't change. It's just always there, however simple or wide, it is. Just connect with that as you breathe and allow that image that feeling to come through your heart, your heart has a mind. And as you bring your attention to it, the heart begins to awaken and to remember, and to also enhance immunity by secreting hormones. The heart is actually a endocrine organ that secretes hormones. And bringing the attention here, we call this the heart, mind, the center of your chest. Or the physical heart, either the spiritual heart in the middle of your chest or your physical heart. And breathing through that, like there's a window, breathing, that good feeling that you have. And just allowing it to spread into the cells of the body. So now you're using your mind, you're using your intention to enhance your cellular activity inside of your physical. And as that happens, your mental state opens up, your emotional state lightens, you might notice there's light coming in like sun ray, maybe there's a color here, maybe it's white light. And you bring that into that beautiful luscious feeling you have in your heart space, your heart mind. And now we're going to send this lovely feeling out into the world, either someone directly connected to you, or the world at large or your city or state send it out allow yourself to be a channel of this good feeling. As energy flows, our mind will follow let the mind go. Let the energy flow. Let your breath flow. The breath is the orchestrator moving through you and now out into the world
Anthony Hartcher:I certainly feel a lot calmer guy. Oh,
Dr Gayl Hubatch:yeah. That's a part of Lacan. I
Anthony Hartcher:really enjoyed the exercise. So thanks for taking me and the listeners through that wonderful exercise. And I was just really keen to now go into the topic of diet and immunity. And if you could please share how what we can do around our diet to support our robust immunity.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Yeah, so you know, there's been a lot of work around food and health. I wanted to just just mention some simple things that you can remember because sometimes people are like, Oh my gosh, it's so confusing. There's so much so many different perspectives of you know what to eat or not eat. My idea of the the end there's also studies around this of using herbs, culinary herbs, particularly the woody herbs like oregano, also garlic, ginger, basil, if you have access to fresh herbs, not the DR but fresh, build them into your diet. Maybe you're changing your diet a little bit and releasing some of the dairy and sugar and fried foods that you know Everybody knows are not so good for us. But bringing in those herbs, they have anti microbial properties, particularly oregano, garlic, also anti biotic, ginger, all of these natural plants and roots will enhance our immune function by killing microbes that don't need to be there and building our natural microbiome, because the microbiome is the balance of bacteria in our gut, everybody has bacteria, it's keeping an imbalance, when it gets imbalance. That's when we develop symptoms, like a cold or other symptoms that viruses can overtake us. But the more you're feeding your gut and microbiome, these products, these herbs and plants that have anti microbials, you're a lot better off with your digestion and elimination like you want to keep your gut balanced. There have been studies, you know that they say 80% of our immune system is in our digestive tract. And I kind of beg to question maybe not, maybe I have a little different perspective of it. Because I really think especially now in today's world, the mind plays a little more role than perhaps it used to. But we do know that the digestive tract is so influential in how we keep our word in Chinese medicine, recall that we keep the blood clean. So we keep the blood as it should be like a nice round red corpuscles and all the macrophages and all those other little byproducts in balance and moving freely through the system using our breath and intention. So herbs are really key. I implore you to grow your own, they're not that hard. Or go to a farmers market or a produce section if you have an access to organic herbs. And plus, it makes everything taste so much better. And you add the herbs, oh, this is important to you add them at the end of your cooking because otherwise, you could cook out the volatile oils. And so you want to keep them pretty fresh, you'll add them at the end, you know if you put them in a soup or on a sandwich or in a salad and try to eat them as fresh as possible.
Anthony Hartcher:And in terms of keeping the blood clean. What does from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, what is recommended to cleanse the blood and to keep it clean.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:So using herbs and also really staying away from phlegm producing foods. The phlegm producing foods are dairy free, especially creams, you know heavy creams or creamy cheeses, also fried foods, charred foods, I know we all love barbecue. But it's considered like dead, right? The carbon it doesn't do anything for us. And so that can over if you too much of it, it can upset the gut flora. And then of course, alcohol and caffeine. All those things that impact or liver function that make our organs work harder to extract tend to lower the digestive fire we call it and the herbs and that's why in traditional cultures, India, China, many of the native islands, they always use herbs they use herbs to preserve their food, and they used herbs so they wouldn't get sick from you know, little bugs and things that tend to grow especially in warmer climates. And so the Chinese because Chinese medicine is very old and it started in the natural world many 1000 years ago. They were very particular about what herbs that they included in their diet. There's this whole avenue of energetics of food. And then also the Chinese herbal medicine is probably the most complex herbal medicine in the world. They've really studied it in depth to help treat conditions and prevent things. My view of it now today and my lifestyle is try to use as many fresh herbs as I can, particularly garlic and lemon and ginger oregano and you know all the herbs, rosemary, they're all so good. And they just really feel good when you eat them and everything tastes so much better. And those are what we call blood cleansers or blood purifiers.
Anthony Hartcher:Thanks for sharing and I feeling that it's making me get those, that saliva building in my mouth as you're talking through the lovely herbs that you're sharing, because it's certainly part of my daily cuisine, he's, you know, lots of garlic and onion, and I love your tumeric, and Oregon. And actually, rosemary, and it just adds so much flavor to what you're cooking. Like, particularly, we've been adding it a lot to our roasted vegetables here in Australia being winter, roasted vegetables are absolutely delicious. And so we, we add a lot of these herbs and spices to the roasted vegetables, and that enhances the flavor of the vegetables. And that makes it such a beautiful meal to have.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Yeah, that's right, it does enhance flavors, and it actually will stimulate brain chemistry to buy all the different flavors of the spices. I'm not talking about just like heat, you know, like spicy hot, but other herbs like tumeric and clove, cinnamon, rosemary, those kinds of things, it actually does help to stimulate brain chemistry as well. It's amazing how you know, bringing more of those foods into the diet can really help a person feel well and like more in control of their health.
Anthony Hartcher:Absolutely. And the tips you shared today is very much in our control. So you know, the way I perceive an event and what I do around that event that occurred and how I react Is Up To Me ultimately, and if I take on the tips you shared in terms of taking a pause and going through some deep breathing, and start having some positive affirmations around what you know what I have and what I'm grateful for. And, as opposed to what I don't have and focusing on that. And then moving into the diet, which we just have, that's totally within our control in terms of you know, what foods we choose to eat, we have so much control around supporting our immune system. And it's really up to us to make a difference to have a robust immune system.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:I think so too. And I think again, you know, going back to where we started, like how this world has been. So there's just been a lot of question about immunity in the world lately, because of COVID that every single person on the planet has been affected by to some degree or another. And, you know, having the vaccines and all of the controversy around that it creates confusion. And I think, in a way, it's like less empowering. And so, you know, wherever you are, like I just know that you can empower yourself by just doing these things that will affect the adaptive aspect of your immunity with your thoughts, like you were just saying, and then the diet and, and of course exercise. I mean, there are other aspects to this conversation. We don't have time for today. But I think you know, with this focus, I'm hoping that people will leave this podcast feeling more empowered and clear about oh, what I what you can do, and then share with others that you care about.
Anthony Hartcher:Absolutely perfect point there. Gayl is certainly getting the information out and supporting loved ones. And just before we wrap it up, Gayl, I'd love you to share in terms of how the listeners can best connect with you because I know you've got some fantastic online Qigong programs and you're doing a lot of great work with the HeartMath. So please share how the listeners can best Connect.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Oh, thank you, probably through my email Gayl GAYL. At Blue Heron. center.com Blue Heron just like the bird, B L U E h e r o n c e n t e r.com Gail at Blue Heron center.com. And that's also my website. I don't have all the classes on my website, but if you email me, I can send you links to everything that we have upcoming Qigong teacher training, I've got Oregon Meridian Qigong, and oh gosh, all kinds of things. HeartMath coaching and Circle of Life Coaching class and other Qigong programs through Condor group. Anyway, hopefully, we'll connect and I can help you find whatever you Need are looking for.
Anthony Hartcher:Absolutely, listeners, I'll include Gayl's email in the show notes as well as a direct link to her website and you can connect with Gayl. Thank you so much Gayl for once again coming on the show. It's been great talking to you, again really got some great tips around immune health and what I can do around my thinking and getting control over my thinking, regaining control over my thinking. And then also around the diet in terms of getting lots of herbs into my cuisine. So I really appreciate your coming in and listeners, thank you for tuning in to another insightful episode of me and my health up, as I said, please share it with others that could benefit those that you know that are getting constantly getting colds and flus. This episode is for them. So thank you listeners. And thank you, Gayl.
Dr Gayl Hubatch:Thank you, Anthony. It's always a pleasure.
Anthony Hartcher:You're welcome.
