August brings rainy days, sunny days and days of incredibly high humidity. Changing weather is challenging for most of us, and especially so for those of us whose immune system isn’t functioning at peak capacity. Our immune system serves as a guardian – fighting back bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and the diseases they cause. There are many ways to build up your immunity – taking vitamins, medicinal herbs, eating some foods and avoiding others, and of course, ensuring proper hydration.
Understanding the Immune System
When we take care of it, the immune system runs like a well-oiled machine – it’s almost as if the body wants to be healthy! The immune system is intricate, complex, and very, very strong. As you’ll see below, it has several redundancies – all to ensure your survival. Broadly, the immune system is made up of two main components: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system.
The innate immune system is the first line of defence that you are born with. It consists of physical barriers (such as skin and mucous membranes), chemical barriers (such as saliva and stomach acid), and cellular barriers (such as white blood cells and natural killer cells). The innate immune system responds quickly and broadly to any foreign substance, but it does not have a memory of previous encounters.
The adaptive immune system is the second line of defence that develops with exposure to microbes. It consists of specialised white blood cells called lymphocytes, which can recognize and remember specific antigens. Antigens are parts of foreign substances that trigger an immune response. This immune response takes the form of antibodies and memory cells. Antibodies are proteins that bind to antigens and neutralise them. Memory cells are long-lived lymphocytes that remember how to fight a particular antigen.
This is why, when you have a repeat infection, the immune system responds more slowly, but more specifically and effectively. This is also why vaccines work to keep you safe. Several childhood vaccinations give us a mild infection, so that the immune system can fight it and remember, so that when the body encounters this infection the next time, it knows exactly how to fight it, and win.
Isn’t the body amazing?
The Connection between Hydration and Immune Function
The immune system, like any other system in the body, needs an intricate balance of fluids, macronutrients, minerals and salts to do its job effectively. This is where fluid balance comes in.
In simple terms, fluid means having enough fluid and electrolytes in the body to keep electrical impulses firing between cells, keep your blood flowing, your skin moist, and your brain (and all other organs) happy. Electrolytes are essential minerals, like sodium, calcium, and potassium, that help our bodies regulate chemical reactions, maintain the balance between fluids inside and outside our cells, and more.
This means that good hydration goes beyond drinking lots of water – you also need your electrolytes! When we lose water through sweating, urination, diarrhoea, vomiting, or fever, we also lose electrolytes.
Water and electrolytes form the foundation that support various immune activities, including antibody production, immune cell communication, and pathogen neutralisation. Proper hydration enables these processes to occur seamlessly, enhancing the immune system’s ability to combat infections. It also helps with circulation, making it easy for immune cells to journey to the infection site.
When we’re dehydrated, it hampers our immune response and puts us at unnecessary risk of infection and disease. As dehydration also diminishes blood volume, it also makes it harder for immune cells and antibodies to get where they need to go. In fact, the lowered immune response due to dehydration is also one of the reasons that diseases spike.
The role of water and electrolytes
Let’s look at water first. When there is enough water in the body, it is able to transport oxygen, nutrients, hormones and immune signals through the bloodstream to different organs and tissues with ease. It is also easier to flush out toxins, waste products, debris, abnormal cells and pathogens from the body through urine, sweat, faeces and lymph. Moreover, it helps lubricate the joints, eyes, mouth, nose and throat, which are important entry points for pathogens. It also helps regulate body temperature. When the temperature is in the ideal range, immune cells and enzymes work at peak efficiency.
Electrolytes, on the other hand, are especially important as they help retain water in the body, therefore maintaining fluid balance and blood pressure. They also help regulate acid-base balance in the blood and elsewhere in the body, and keep our pH levels balanced. They give us steady energy by supporting cellular energy production and metabolism, and help the nervous system by transmitting nerve impulses and triggering muscle contractions and release. Of course, they also help modulate inflammation and immune responses.
WHO ORS: The perfect mix, in the perfect ratio.
If you’re dehydrated, one of the easiest, fastest, doctor recommended ways to bring your body back into balance is by using an Oral Rehydration Solution. Since its discovery in the 1960s, the World Health Organisation has spent decades researching the most effective formula. This formula is labelled WHO ORS, and luckily for us, has been available in India since 1972 as Electral.
Electral has been proven to be a safe, effective and inexpensive way to rehydrate people of all ages and conditions. It enhances the absorption of water and electrolytes from the intestines and improves the recovery from illness.
Electral is available in two sizes – the large packet is meant to be dissolved in one litre of water, and the small packet is meant to be dissolved in 200ml, or one cup/glass of water. It is important to follow the instructions on the packet to get the best results. Adding more or less Electral to water lowers its efficacy. This is why the third option exists – Ready to Drink Electral in tetra pak form.
Conclusion
Many of us don’t know enough about our bodies to appreciate how truly spectacular they are. We were meant to be healthy! Most of the time, all we need to fight disease is to get out of the body’s way, and let it do its job. The easiest way to do that, is to first take care of our hydration. After all, a well hydrated body is an effective one – it fights off infections and diseases, and files away the information it needs for the next fight. The best part: hydration is easy, especially when you have Electral.
This is a partnered post.
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