We lose about 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells every minute.We “shed” our skin and replace it with a new one every 2-4 weeks! In fact, most of the dust in your house is made of dead skin cells!
Even at wound location, dead cells, which were own-self few minutes back, are treated as non-self and treated like any other microbe/fungi/virus.
This is vital indication that Human immune system is not so much antimicrobial or antiviral as it is anti–non-self.
So much of brainwashing in last century about Microbes as enemy, virus as enemy, nature as enemy, is hurting our immunity (Self-identity) greatly. We really don’t need any anti-organism agents. Our body is intelligent enough to clean non-self elements. That is real immunity.
Hence, plague of immune system disorders. Various levels of identity crisis.
Potent solution is: Self-realization by Meditation and concentration. This is possible when mind is calm and stable. Calm and stable mind is possible when you spend good amount of time with mother nature.
Experimental suggestions:
1) Spend at least sunrise and sunset time with mother nature.
2) Plan at least 1 trip to mountain, river, jungle for a week period during period of 1 year.
3) Develop interest in gardening, farming, tree plantation.
A whole bunch modern mental and life style disorders can vanish from the screen if we just take little care to go into nature with a son-mother relation.
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Sanskrit word मुनि means anyone who is moved by inward impulses. Someone who is self-inspired. Someone who is performing duties intuitively.
Now let us understand Latin: Latin word Munis (early *moinis, moenis) has as its principal meaning someone who discharges his office/duty, somebody accomplishing a tasks also contained is the connotation present, gift. Related to it are im-munis (with its derivative im-munitas {immunity}, that is, the exemption from charge or duty.
So in our body, all active cells are Muni(s) or मुनि ((S). They are working as per self-inspiration based on cellular intelligence they carry from birth. Immunity is the process of retiring cells from their duties. Why do we need it?
We need it because their job is over. To maintain the integrity of the body, it is necessary to give them good bye. This process of good bye is a Immune response. This is called Innate immunity. Sometimes, when external conditions are not good, cells die prematurely or their processing is affected severely. So they broadcast messages for help or to alert others in cell community. We call it Viruses. Viruses are dead information. They are not मुनि. They are born to get uprooted once message is conveyed to other cells. We call it viral infection. When severe condition persists for cells, they die prematurely. We call it bacterial infection.
In short, integrity of organism is essential for Muni(s) or Body cell to perform tasks. To help them immune system perform immunity process.
So-called immune system knows which part of the body is self, and what is not-self. A self-marker or a suimarker is endowed to each self-element, an advantage not denied to an alien unit or cell present at the time of thymic maturation.
Philosophically, better the self-image, stable mind, focused actions lead to efficient self-marker system. Increase in auto-immune disorders is nothing but identity crisis. Children are not exposed to mother nature (overuse of antibiotics, cleaning agents, sterile environment, non-exposure to dirt, jungle, river etc) so they miss important synergy with nature and hence…identity crisis -> ASthama, Type 2 diabetes, IBD.
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Who else can nurture the self-markers best than mother?
Do not just hike or trek, go with reverential attitude. Worship mother daily to become stronger and healthy.
Research
Immune system may be pathway between nature and good health
Research has found evidence that spending time in nature provides protections against a startling range of diseases, including depression, diabetes, obesity, ADHD, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and many more. How this exposure to green space leads to better health has remained a mystery. After reviewing hundreds of studies examining nature’s effects on health, University of Illinois environment and behavior researcher Ming Kuo believes the answer lies in nature’s ability to enhance the functioning of the body’s immune system.
“I pulled every bit of the research in this area together that I could find, and was surprised to realize I could trace as many as 21 possible pathways between nature and good health—and even more surprised to realize that all but two of the pathways shared a single common denominator,” Kuo said. She said it was remarkable to see how important a role the immune system plays in every one of the diseases that nature protects against.
“The realization that there are so many pathways helps explain not only how nature promotes health, but also why nature has such huge, broad effects on health,” she said. “Nature doesn’t just have one or two active ingredients. It’s more like a multivitamin that provides us with all sorts of the nutrients we need. That’s how nature can protect us from all these different kinds of diseases—cardiovascular, respiratory, mental health, musculoskeletal, etc.–simultaneously.”
One way to understand this relationship between nature, health, and the immune system, Kuo explains, is that exposure to nature switches the body into “rest and digest” mode, which is the opposite of the “fight or flight” mode. When the body is in “fight or flight” mode, it shuts down everything that is immediately nonessential, including the immune system.
“When we feel completely safe, our body devotes resources to long-term investments that lead to good health outcomes—growing, reproducing, and building the immune system,” Kuo said. “When we are in nature in that relaxed state, and our body knows that it’s safe, it invests resources toward the immune system.”
For those who prefer playing a board game or visiting an art gallery to taking a walk in the park, Kuo says some of the same restorative benefits can be obtained. “if you are absorbed and relaxed, chances are your parasympathetic system is happy and your immune system is going to get a boost. That said, these enjoyable indoor activities don’t provide the phytoncides, mycobacterium vaccae, negative air ions, vitamin D-producing sunlight, and other active ingredients found outdoors. So we’d expect a smaller boost than you’d get from being in nature.”
Kuo is the director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the U of I and has conducted numerous studies of her own linking green space and health.
Kuo hopes her exhaustive compilation of studies will provide a map for what researchers in this field might study next.
“Finding that the immune system is a primary pathway provides an answer to the question of ‘how’ nature and the body work in concert to fight disease,” Kuo said.
“How might contact with nature promote human health? Exploring promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway” is published in Frontiers in Psychology and available online. Partial funding for this research was provided by the TKF Foundation.
