IMMUNITY AND LYMPHATIC SYSTEM

Role of Yoga and other exercises in improving immunity and good health

1. As Covid-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc throughout the world, Immunity has become a hot topic. What is immunity? How to improve immunity are the questions making rounds everywhere.

1.1 Immunity is the power of the body to fight against infections and disease. It is the most important weapon which protects an individual from infections like Covid-19. Our lymphatic system plays a very important role in immune system.

1.2       Lymph is a fluid which is generated in interstitial spaces between the cells. Arterial blood carries oxygen, nutrients, and hormones for the cells. To reach these cells it leaves the small arteries and flows into the tissues. This fluid is now known as interstitial fluid and it delivers its nourshing products to the cells. Then it leaves the cell and removes waste products.

1.3       After this task is complete, 90% of this fluid returns to the circulatory system as venous blood. The remaining 10% of the fluid that stays behind in the tissues as a clear to yellowish fluid is known as lymph.

1.4       The lymph is moved through the body in its own vessels making a one-way journey from the interstitial spaces to the subclavian veins at the base of the neck. As it moves upward toward the neck the lymph passes through lymph nodes which filter it to remove debris and pathogens. Thus, the lymphatic system aids the immune system in removing and destroying waste, debris, dead blood cells, pathogens, toxins, and cancer cells.

2. Lymphatic vessels do not have any pump: Blood is pumped by the heart. However, lymphatic system does not have any pump. Since the lymphatic system does not have a heart to pump it, its upward movement depends on the motions of the muscle and joint pumps. Therefore, movement of muscles and joints is very important for lymphatic circulation. Only when lymphatic circulation takes place, lymph moves from its place of origin to the lymph nodes where pathogens are killed and debris removed. If lymphatic system is weak, pathogens are not killed and toxins and debris get accumulated in the body. This will lead to infections and disease.

3. How yoga improves immunity:   Yoga helps in movement of muscles and joints and thereby helps in lymphatic circulation. For example, suryanamaskara is a whole body exercise which has many benefits including activating lymphatic system. Similarly, Pranayama like Bastrika, Kapalbhati etc also improve lymphatic circulation. For that matter, any gentle exercise like walking improves lymphatic circulation. Effective lymphatic system means strong immunity.

4. Importance of walking:    Gentle exercises offer extraordinary health benefits. Studies suggest that the people who live longest are not the ones who do the most exercise but rather the ones who move the most. Walking promotes good health and improves immunity. Studies have shown that walking improves life expectancy.

 I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and her team focused on a group of more than 16,000 women in their seventies, comparing the number of steps taken each day with the likelihood of dying from any cause – known as all-cause mortality. They found that women who took more than 4,000 steps a day were significantly more likely to still be alive than those who did only 2,700 steps. It’s surprising that such a small difference could have consequences for something as critical as longevity. By that logic, you might assume the more steps they took, the better. For a range of steps that was true – but only up to 7,500 steps a day, after which the benefits then plateaued. Any more than that made no difference to life expectancy.

5. Sitting is the new smoking: Sitting for a prolonged time has many deleterious effects. Studies suggest that metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries to your muscles, where it can get burned off, slow down. And after two hours, good cholesterol drops 20 percent. Just getting up for five minutes is going to get the thing going again. Most importantly, prolonged sitting weakens the immunity as lymphatic circulation slows down. Therefore, avoiding prolonged sitting prevents many diseases and offers extraordinary health benefits.

6. Even if you are not able to allocate separate time for exercise because of some days of travel or busy schedule you should make it a part of your life style to keep walking whenever it is possible. Besides, avoid prolonged sitting. Get up and walk few steps at frequent intervals.

7.  Immunity is the best weapon of the body against infections and disease. Many things help in improving immunity such as healthy life style, exercise, good nutrition, pranayama, meditation and stress free life. Yoga, pranayama, massage and gentle exercises like walking strengthen immunity by activating the lymphatic system.

Atomic theory for judging human behaviour by Dr Ernst Ijmar

Atomic theory for judging human behaviour by Dr Ernst Ijmar

Political philosopher Jeremy Bentham is the founding father of Utilitarianism. Key principle of utilitarianism was that all actions, laws and institutions must be judged by their utility in maximizing the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The utilitarian principle which was propounded in 1780 is still used for judging whether the actions, laws and institutions are right or not. However, there are no methods to judge a human being. Why we call some personalities great and some as bad? What tests can be applied to judge greatness or otherwise. This is important because we meet lots of people day in and day out. Knowing the method to judge a human being will help in handling ourselves, our interpersonal relations and time better. Atomic theory for judging human behavior helps in this endeavour.

            All of us know atomic structure. Atom has a nucleus in the center which has positive ions, the protons. The nucleus is surrounded by the negative ions, the electrons. Thus the center is positive and periphery is negative.

                

Applying the atomic theory to human personality, the core personality can be considered as the nucleus and non-core aspects as periphery. For great persons the core personality is strongly positive. As the greatness increases the periphery gets thinner and thinner. For bad or weak persons the periphery is thicker compared to the center. The same is demonstrated below: 

               NORMAL      WEAK PERSONALITY        GREAT PERSONALITY

Next question is what is core personality? It is the core beliefs and values of a person. What is positive core personality? For understanding this it would be worthwhile to refer to the concepts enunciated by Thomas Jefferson who authored the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. The second sentence of the declaration is considered one of the most potent statements on human rights. The same is as under “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These are very important principles which define a person. Therefore, core personality can be considered positive if someone believes and acts in conformity with the principles of equality, liberty, humanity etc. Similarly, competence in one’s profession is also part of core personality. If a doctor is good at his job, his core can be considered as positive.  Dressing, looks, colour of the skin etc are non-core aspects of personality. Greed, selfishness, lack of respect for human dignity etc make the core weak. Self preservation is a natural instinct. Therefore, if someone takes care of his interest it is absolutely normal. However, selfishness at the cost of harming fellow human beings is abnormal and definitely a negative trait. At the same time, if someone sacrifices his interest for the benefit of others he is great.

Dr B.R.Ambedkar and Nelson Mandela are great because they sacrificed their lives for others. Besides, they are extremely competent and believed in the core principles discussed above. Roger Federer is great because of his professional excellence and so is Albert Einstein. Pullela Gopichand, Badminton coach is great because of his character (he turned down valuable offer of Coke to endorse their brand as he believed that coke is not good for health which speaks volumes about his character) and also for his professional excellence. Can we say the same thing about Sachin Tendulkar? As far as professional excellence is concerned, yes. Apropos his core behavioral principles, may be not. He got a gift of Ferrari abroad. He sought waiver of import duty of Rs.1.13 Crore though he was stinking rich at that time. When court intervened he sold the car to Surat businessman. 
Adolf Hitler, though talented, is not considered great because of his weak core especially his lack of respect for humanity. One may be rich and powerful but may have a weak core. One may be poor but may have a strong core. Persons with strong core are more reliable and useful to the society. They are helpful to others.

It may be noted that spouses normally interact with the peripheral aspects of the personality. Therefore, wife of Einstein may not recognise him as great. For her, he may look useless if he does not take bath or fold the blanket. Similarly, husband may find a talented wife useless on as trivial an issue as not dressing up well for a party.

Though it is said that one should not be too judgmental, this theory helps us in navigating life smoothly. It has multitude of applications. Best is, we can avoid negative people. Besides, it helps in assessing our subordinates, knowing your boss, knowing if one is your friend or not, tolerance, better time management, understanding your spouse etc., 

Roger Federer needs philanthropists

Being a hard core fan of Roger Federer, I woke up early in the morning today to watch his US Open Quarter finals match with Monfils. Most of the match, Roger was outplayed. ‘The genius at work’ was missing and instead it was as if I was watching an imposter. The serve was off the mark, fore-hand, lethal weapon of Roger, was suspect and back hand was vulnerable. Only saving grace was volleying and foot work. Ultimately, he managed to win the match in five sets not because of his great tennis but philanthropy of Monfils. We enjoyed the artistry of Roger for a long time. He gave us lot of pleasure. Of-late Roger has not been the same force he used to be. The swagger on the court is missing. Earlier, he used to win matches by driving opponents to abject subjugation. Now-a-days, he wins only against philanthropic players. After watching today’s match, I felt that the 18^th Grand slam is a mirage. The present Roger lacks the fire power to beat champions like Djokovic and Nadal. Only constant in life is change. Looks like time has come to search for new heroes. 

                                                             CARDIAC HEALTH

This weekend I received a call from my friend that one of our friends had a heart attack and is battling for life. The guy who got heart attack is a good sportsman and we were under the impression that he would be the last person to get heart attack. This made me ponder. I thought I must share my views on this issue.

People who play sports tend to become over confident as regards heart health. However, one must understand that just playing sports does not guarantee cardiac health. Because most of these sports are stop and run sort of sports. For example, in badminton and tennis, we stop and then run and this sequence continues. What is required for cardiac health is maintaining heart rate at a higher level for a longer time.

            There is a very important difference between increase in heart rate when we exercise and increase when we are under stress. Heart pumps blood into arteries (peripheral vessels). When we exercise all the peripheral vessels dilate (expand) making it easy for heart to pump the blood. As a result of dilatation, blood supply to muscles and organs improves. The dilatation of vessels is as a result of release of endorphins. Therefore, exercise makes heart stronger. However, when we are under stress, adrenaline is released as a result of which peripheral vessels constrict. This puts lot of stress on heart as it is forced to pump blood against resistance. This leads to hypertension and related problems and may lead to heart attack also.

Optimal exercise for cardiac health is one where you achieve target heart rate. The treadmills, cycles and cross trainers have heart rate monitors and monitoring heart rate is not difficult.

There are certain very important concepts one should not forget about target heart rate, cardiac fitness and cooling off. There is a formula to arrive at theoretical maximum attainable pulse rate. We are not supposed to get the heart rate up to or even near theoretical maximum. There is an important but simple formula to arrive at theoretical maximum pulse rate. Subtracting age from 220 gives theoretical maximum pulse rate. Depending on the fitness, one should try to achieve 75% to 90% of theoretical maximum. This is called target pulse rate. It is better to start with 75% and increase gradually to 90%. For example, if my age is 40 yrs theoretical maximum would be 180. Target pulse rate to start with would be 75% of 180 which comes to 135. The target pulse rate should be maintained for atleast 5 minutes.

            One rule is that you never finish a cardiovascular workout and stop cold. Cooling off is must. My experience is that very few people cool off. Not cooling off may lead to devastating results. While you are exercising, your heart is beating very rapidly because both heart and your legs require a lot of blood. By pumping your legs up and down, you are pumping blood from your legs back to your heart. The muscles that are demanding a lot of blood are both in your legs and in your heart, but the blood’s getting pumped back to your heart by running. If you stop cold (stop suddenly), your muscles are still going to demand a lot of blood – they have been deprived of oxygen and glucose – and gravity is going to help leg muscles get the blood. The problem is, they are no longer pumping the blood back to heart. Suddenly your heart is deprived and, if the coronary arteries are narrowed as a result of atherosclerosis (which is very common in Indians), it may lead to heart attack.

            Next question is ‘What is cooling off’. After achieving target pulse rate and maintaining for atleast 5 minutes, you must continue exercising slowly till the pulse rate drops to 30% of resting pulse rate. If your resting pulse is 78, you should not stop biking or walking etc until your heart rate is 101 or below.

            To sum up:

·         When you start exercise check resting pulse rate.

·         Achieve target pulse rate and maintain for atleast 5 minutes.

·         Cool off till your pulse rate is 30% above resting pulse rate.

Cardiologists now believe that the faster your heart rate slows from your target to near resting rate the better your cardiac fitness.

Conclusion: Sportsman should not be over confident. Even if you are playing a sport regularly, it is advisable to swim, walk or jog regularly for atleast 45 mins (continuously) a day (atleast 5 days a week) for cardiac health. If time is there one can pursue both sport & cardio.