How Not to Get Sick: A Whole-Body Guide to Building True Health

Why We Get Sick

Germ Theory

For more than a century, medicine has focused on germ theory — the idea that microorganisms like bacteria and viruses are the direct cause of disease. Germ theory transformed healthcare by improving sanitation, vaccines, and infection control. It’s an essential truth: microbes can and do cause illness. However, pathogens are artound us and in you all the time but you are not always sick... This is where terrain therory comes into play.

Terrain Theory

Your “terrain” refers to your internal environment — your immune strength, gut health, nutrient reserves, stress level, and toxin load. When your body’s terrain is strong, well-nourished, rested, and balanced, microbes are managed swiftly and quietly by your immune system. When your terrain is weak, nutrient deficient, inflamed, or chronically stressed, pathogens find fertile ground to grow, multiply, and cause harm. The goal isn’t to live in fear of microbes; it’s to cultivate an internal environment so healthy that pathogens have no place to thrive. Avoiding pathogens actually hinders your immune system from growing stronger over time.

The focus of this blog is on how to strengthen your terrain to prevent illness and live a healthier life overall.

How the Body Prevents and Fights Illness

Your immune system is a network of organs and cells that constantly scans for threats. The skin and mucous membranes act as the first barrier; white blood cells (macrophages, lymphocytes, neutrophils) detect and destroy invaders; and your microbiome maintains balance by training immune tolerance.

When immune balance is strong, you often fight infections without ever realizing it. But when systems are overloaded from high stress, nutrient depletion, toxin buildup, etc., that quiet defense becomes chaotic, leading to chronic inflammation or recurrent illness.

Why We Don’t Suppress Symptoms

Fever, congestion, and fatigue are not signs of failure — they’re signs of a body doing its job. Over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, humans have created ways to not only alert you of internal problems, but to simultaneously treat the problems.

• Fever raises body temperature to destroy pathogens and activate normally dormant parts of your immune system.

• Coughing and sneezing expel infectious particles from your respiratory system.

• Fatigue conserves energy for immune repair.

• Diarrhea and vomiting remove pathogens from your digestive system.

Suppressing symptoms not only slows healing, it suggests we are smarter than evolution.

How to Prevent Illness

Preventing illness is about cultivating resilience — training your systems to stay adaptable, efficient, and strong long before you feel symptoms. We do so by adhering to the following:

Nutrition

Every immune cell, hormone, and enzyme your body produces depends on the nutrients you consume. Food isn’t just fuel; it’s molecular information that tells your body how to function.

The Importance of Organic, Whole Foods

Organic, whole foods deliver vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients without pesticide residues or inflammatory oils. Processed foods, dyes, and additives increase oxidative stress and weaken the gut microbiome — where nearly 70% of your immune system resides.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals — unstable molecules that damage cells and accelerate aging. Vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and polyphenols from berries, greens, and herbs reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. Chronic free radical damage can impair immune signaling and tissue repair. The color of your food indicates the presence of different antioxidants. Strive to consume a "rainbow a day" of vegetables to ensure proper antioxidant diversity.

Decreasing Carbs and Sugar

Carbohydrates and sugar create inflammation in the body which dampens your immune system and creates a more ideal environment for pathogens to reside. Bacteria and viruses favorite food is sugar. Consuming large amounts of carbs, which get converted into sugar in your body, feed pathogens while your body is trying to kill them.

Increasing Fat and Protein

Protein provides amino acids used to build immune molecules like antibodies and cytokines. Healthy fats (omega-3s, olive oil, avocado) create anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and provide energy to your immune system.

Important Nutrients

An organic, whole foods diet should provide you with all the necessary nutrients to build and maintain an healthy immune system. However, we cannot ignore the fact that our soils are depleted of nutrients and foods do not contain the same amount of nutrients they once did. Even with the best diet, supplementing certain nutrients may be necessary.

There are many nutrients out there for preventing and fighting illness, but the strongest are:

Vitamin D

Your Vitamin D level is the most significant indicator of overall health. It binds to receptors on immune cells, regulating their response and preventing overactivation. Deficiency is linked to increased susceptibility to viral infections, autoimmune flare-ups, and inflammation.

Keep your levels between 50–100 ng/mL by getting plenty of safe sun exposure late spring through early fall and supplementing during the winter.

Zinc

When people get sick their first response is typically to reach for Vitamin C. While there is nothing wrong with taking Vitamin C to prevent and fight illness, it is not the heavy hitter we think it is. Zinc is the unsung hero here. Zinc is a gatekeeper of immune function, required for the development, activation, and regulation of immune cells, and for controlling inflammation and oxidative stress.

Probiotics

We have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that make up our microbiome. We feed them and they return the favor by preventing harmful pathogens from flourishing, digesting our food to usable nutrients our immune system can use, decreasing inflammation, balancing hormones, and creating neurotransmitters. A microbiome diverse in many different strains of bacteria is the key to overall health.

Glutathione

Glutathione is the most abundant, and strongest acting, antioxidant that your body makes itself. An oversimplification of human health I like to use is that bad things don't happen until the level of oxidative stress (from free radical damage) outweights the antioxidant support in your body. Supplementing with additional glutathione can help nutralize the damage done from more harmful events.

The Autonomic Nervous System’s Role

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) — composed of the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) branches — controls immune readiness. Chronic sympathetic dominance suppresses immunity.

Sauna and Heat Exposure Therapies

Heat exposure stimulates heat-shock proteins, which repair damaged proteins and improve cellular resilience. It also mimics fever’s benefits by enhancing circulation, detoxification, and immune cell mobilization. Regular sauna use lowers infection rates and improves cardiovascular function.

Cold Exposure Therapies

Short, controlled cold exposure (cold showers, plunges, or cryotherapy) trains the body’s adaptive response by activating cold-shock proteins. It increases norepinephrine and activates brown fat, improving metabolic efficiency and immune resilience.

Contrast Therapy

Alternating hot and cold exposures balances the ANS and improves circulation to help your immune system get to the pathogen and clear out the debris. Constitutional hydrotherapy treatments are the absolute best way to facilitate this.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the body’s strongest defenses against illness. Studies show that sleeping five hours per night the week before exposure to a cold virus results in a 50% infection rate, while those getting seven or more hours drop that risk to just 18%. The same pattern appears with vaccines—7–9 hours of sleep before a flu shot produces a stronger immune response, whereas 4 hours cuts it in half. Even a single night of 4-hour sleep can reduce your natural killer (NK) immune cells by 70%, leaving the body far more vulnerable to infection.

Stress

You cannot simultaneously be in a state of healing and survival. Chronic psychological stress raises cortisol and adrenaline which suppresses immune cells and delays recovery. Cortisol increases the amount of glucose in your blood stream which is a good idea if you are fighting or fleeing for your life. However, this is not the evolutionary reality most of us find ourselves in. This excess blood glucose becomes inflammatory if you are not physically utilizing it. Stress management — through breathwork, journaling, meditation, or therapy — is as vital as nutrition for staying healthy.

Hydration

Water supports every immune function: it transports nutrients, flushes toxins, and maintains mucosal barrier moisture. Dehydration thickens mucus and slows lymph flow, reducing your ability to clear infections. Aim for half your body weight (lbs) in ounces of filtered water with added electrolytes per day.

Movement / Exercise

Exercise enhances lymphatic drainage, oxygen delivery, and immune cell circulation. Overtraining suppresses immunity, while moderate, consistent movement strengthens it. Activities like daily walking, yoga, and resistance training build adaptive immune function.

Being Outside and Nature Bathing

Spending time outdoors lowers cortisol, boosts mood, and enhances immune regulation. Natural environments release phytoncides — airborne plant compounds that increase natural killer (NK) cell activity and promote calm, restorative states.

What to Do When You Start to Feel Illness Creeping In

If you create the conditions for health every day by following the guidelines above you will certainly find yourself in a place of sustained health. Unfortunately, illness can still sneak in even if you do everything right. Luckily for you, you've set yourself up for success! If you start to feel yourself getting sick acting fast with the following recommendations will drastically shorten the duration and lessen the severity of the illness; and can even stop it in its tracks!

1. Rest early – Don’t wait until exhaustion hits. Prioritize sleep now to shuttle excess energy to your immune system.

2. Hydrate – Herbal teas, electrolytes, and filtered water support detox pathways.

3. Eat light and clean – Focus on broths, steamed vegetables, and nutrient-dense foods. We want to provide nutrients to your immune system but we do not want to waste unnecessary energy on digestion. This is a great time to reach for supplements instead as they are easily digestible. Fasting may be appropriate for some people here.

4. Support detox – Get in the sauna ASAP to activate heat shock proteins and sweat out toxins.

5. Supplement support – Reach for zinc and Vitamin D here. These work the fastest and strongest in this scenario.

6. Stay positive – Your mindset directly influences your immune response. Trust that all the work you did up until this point will pay off!

The Bigger Picture: Health Is Hard Work

True health doesn’t happen by accident. It requires commitment, awareness, and consistency. Whole-body medicine means strengthening every system — not just preventing illness but optimizing how your body functions daily.

Health isn’t about avoiding sickness; it’s about earning resilience through disciplined care, smart choices, and self-awareness. That’s the foundation of our philosophy at True Health Centers — where prevention, performance, and healing are one in the same.

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