Why Compromised Immune Function Starts in the Gut

More and more working mothers are focused on immune health, what with all the bugs children can bring home, and also the need to be on top of their game to ensure they can keep work and family and everything else spinning.

But often Mums don’t have the full picture of the things that impact immunity the most.

In this article, we’re going to share why compromised immune health can often start in the gut.

Immunity is Much More Than Supplements & Exercise

When people think of immune health they think about taking supplements, eating a little better, or working out.

While all of those things are important, often they miss some of the most important areas where they need to focus if they want to protect their own and their family’s immunity… and one of those areas is gut health.

And one of the things that can impact your gut the most is stress! And hustling mothers, we know there is a lot of that!

Secretory IgA - Your First Line of Defense 

So when we talk about your first line of defense,  it's your secretory IgA, or your immune response, that is triggered when an invader comes in contact with your soft mucosal tissues, like your gut, sinuses, lungs, vagina, and bladder. It's really SIgA's job to fight against pathogens. 

A lot of people will develop infections if the secretory IgA isn't functioning very well - and one of the major things that cause your SIgA to go out of whack is stress. 

So when you become very stressed, your secretory IgA is suppressed, and the more dysbiotic your microbiome becomes. This can lead to other immune system issues. 

It can lead to other infections anywhere in the body (like the gut, sinuses, lungs, vagina, or bladder) and even to conditions like autoimmunity.

The other aspect to keep in mind is how your gut flora plays a role in protecting your immunity as well. Helpful flora will tend to the mucosal lining where SIgA is found but oftentimes burnt-out, depleted Mum’s have compromised gut colonies and too much of the harmful bacteria. When this happens the mucosal lining can become damaged and impact your body’s ability to protect itself.

So when you visualize this mucosal lining, you can think of the openings in the body where we have mucus and how those areas can come in contact with germs from outside.

So when people are suffering from things like  sinus infections, vaginal infections, lung issues, it often comes back to a compromised secretory IgA, which is compromised because of some form of ‘stress.’

If you are really stressed all the time or if you are eating foods you are allergic to, it's going to upregulate the secretory IgA. And your immune response will start acting against that, creating a lot of inflammation in your body. 

This can eventually lead to an autoimmune reaction which can start eating away at different tissues in the body, which can cause you to feel overwhelmed, overreactive, and a bit of a basket case of a Mum and as a professional. 

Getting To The Root Cause of Poor Immunity

While we work together on all the biological pieces we also look at mindset factors that impact immune and gut health, because often this is THE ROOT CAUSE of poor immunity.

When we work with clients we also go deeper on motivation to understand why overdoing, eating habits and lifestyle habits are established and how to change those habits that can directly impact your overall health as well as what’s happening in your gut.

And we help support clients through the mindset changes necessary to dismantle certain mindset beliefs around overdoing, food, exercise, and their bodies so that they can calm down, take back control, and become more connected with their kids, their family, and their highest values.

Learn More About Immune Function In Our FREE Video Course

To go deeper on the topic of immune function,  and the impact this is having on your family, register at this link for our free video course series on Conquering Hormonal & Gut Burnout & Rebalancing Naturally - https://www.chrisandfilly.fm/minicourse 

Co-Authors: Chris & Filipa Bellette are the Co-Founders of Chris & Filly Functional Medicine, which is best known for turning time-poor, burned-out & frustrated professional working Mums & Dads, into Power Parents who are present, healthy & connected to their family, their passion and their purpose in this world. They have worked with over 2,000+ burnout clients in the last 10+ years, with their own passion for creating Power Parents coming from their own personal experience of body, mind & family breakdown, after a prolonged period of physical and mental stress.

Filipa is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist, and a Functional Medicine Practitioner, graduating from the Kalish Institute of Functional Medicine. She is also a Ph.D. thought-leader, author, and award-winner writer in Human Rights. Chris is an accredited Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner, holistic personal trainer, and holds a Bachelor of Human Movement Science, and has won multiple placings in state and national level sporting competitions.

To find out if this is something we can help you with, head over to book in for a - Free Discovery Call