Does Sugar Mess With My Immune System?
The first signal that the holidays are coming – and bringing all of their delicious sweets with them – is
Halloween. But the avalanche of sugar doesn’t stop there. The sweets and other delicious delights that
will be arriving in full force, as there will be co-workers bringing snacks from now until New Year’s Eve
strikes. And maybe even for a few weeks after that.
The tasty items are generally not the healthiest of snacks, but all of that sugar can cause problems
throughout your health. Sugar and the nervous system don’t get along very well, and it’s important that
your nervous system keeps working at its best level throughout the holiday season – because those
winter months bring a lot of other issues, as well.
Sugar & Your Immune System
Halloween candy may just be the start, but it takes a lot of willpower to fend off the dangerous food
throughout the rest of the year. When we eat sugar, it releases a popular hormone called dopamine,
which sends a message to your brain that whatever you ingested makes you happy. Those good feelings
are wonderful, but they can get addictive because all of us want those feelings to continue. That starts
us down a path to hunt down even more and more sweets.
However, not everything is rosy. A sugar crash is a real thing, and when it lands, heavy fatigue can set in.
Sugar works through our system pretty quickly, and that drop in blood sugar is what causes the crash.
Along with fatigue, this crash can also bring about feelings of stress or anxiety, and lessen the
effectiveness of our immune systems. Pumping in more sugar doesn’t slow down the crash, intensifying
it instead. That up-and-down from dopamine high to crashing low can cause issues with your nervous
system, and it can also contribute to feelings of depression.
Getting Help to Manage Sweets
The nervous system is one of the most important systems in your body, since it communicates
everything from our brains to the rest of the body. A number of things can impact those lines of
communication, from injuries to diet to age and everything else going on around you. Improper
nutrition is one of the fastest ways to get those lines of communication blocked, and making sure your
spine is properly aligned can get things communicating again.
Having a properly aligned spine can not only enhance how your nervous system talks with the rest of
your body, but it can also give an indication to how your diet is impacting the rest of your systems.
Keeping your spine aligned can help keep the nervous system pumping properly, and will offset some of
those nasty side effects from overindulging over the last few months of the year.
Look, we are all going to eat something that isn’t the best for us throughout the holidays. That’s part of
the joy of celebrating with your families and letting loose after a long year. But you can give your body
its best chance for success by making sure it’s aligned properly to begin with. For more information,
reach out to Dr. Morgan Sheridan at Foundation Chiropractic today.