Immune Surveillance 101

Your immune system is not just your cold and flu defense. It is also your front line cancer prevention system, running immune surveillance every day to spot abnormal cells and clear them before they can take hold. 

This month we are diving deeper into immune support and in today's episode we are starting with what happens when that surveillance weakens.

We walk through how cancer can start from normal cells that accumulate DNA damage, fail to repair, and avoid apoptosis. Then we zoom out to the real question so many people are asking: why does immune function get impaired in the first place?

Here's some of what we're covering today:

• why immune surveillance is a key defense against recurrence risk
• how sugar intake can directly suppress immune function for hours
• ultra processed foods, inflammation, and microbiome disruption
• alcohol patterns that lower immune response including binge drinking
• chronic stress, cortisol, and reduced immune surveillance
• sleep deprivation and disrupted circadian rhythm as immune suppressors
• the emotional trauma link to longer term immune suppression
• how chronic infection and chronic irritation can create a cancer friendly environment
• plus simple self assessment & monitoring options

If this helped you think differently about immune support and cancer prevention, subscribe, share the show with someone you love, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations. 🙏

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Transcript

Welcome And Month Theme

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Hello and welcome back to the Ground and Root Podcast, where we are exploring the world of holistic and functional strategies to enhance healing and help you stay cancer free. I am your host and holistic cancer dietitian Dion Detraz. I am so excited to be back with you again today. We are kicking off a new month. It is May here at the time of this recording. We are mid-spring and moving our conversation on the podcast from detox support, which is what we were focusing on last month, to immune support. When we think about the different systems of cancer prevention that really play an integral role in helping us stay healthy and cancer free, our detoxification pathways and our immune systems, systems, sorry, are key. So this month, here's what we're going to explore. I'm going to give you a little overview and then we'll dive into today's topic. So this month we're going to explore all the different aspects of the immune system and as it relates specifically to cancer prevention, because obviously there's a lot of areas we could cover with the immune system. We're going to start today by looking more specifically at how the immune system works in keeping cancer away, why surveillance, immune surveillance is so important to help minimize the risk of recurrence and to help us stay cancer free. Also, why so many people are dealing with dysfunctional immune systems? When we think about some of the reasons people get cancer, especially why cancer rates have risen over the last several decades, dysfunctional or imbalanced, not optimal functioning immune systems is a really big reason why. And so today we're going to really talk about the why. Why is this happening? What are some of the things that can interfere with immune function to try to get some of these stressors on your radar so we can pinpoint areas that we might be able to control and shift? And then as we move through the rest of the month, we will talk more about the how. What how how do we enhance our immune function? What are the things and the practices we can bring in that will really help restore immune balance and optimize surveillance? Okay. So, like I said, today we're going to start with the what how the immune system works and why it can become impaired. And then we'll go from there. All right. So let's dive in and start with how the immune system works. And first, just even recognizing, in case you don't already know this, that your immune system is literally the number one defense that you have against cancer cells, but also, of course, against infection and other, you know, factors in your environment that don't belong in your body. So the way this works, a typical healthy cell, right? Let's just go back a minute because I know in the very beginning, when I first started my podcast, we talked a little bit about why cancer grows. So I want to weave that back into the conversation around the immune system. So in a typical healthy cell function, it has a life cycle, right? It has a cycle of growth. It has a cycle of division and reproduction, replication, and then it ha and then it dies, right? There's a life cycle. A cancer cell starts as a healthy cell. It's not something that, you know, we get from somebody else. It's not something that invades us. It is a healthy cell that has become abnormal, right? Its life cycle has shifted. And this can be because of DNA damage. This can be because of a mutation that happened in the cell. And there are a lot of things that can influence this process, right? A lot of factors that come into when we think about what damages DNA, what could potentially damage our cells, so many things. A lot of what we talked about last month when it comes to toxins in our environment and more that we're going to cover today. So in this cancer cell, it has this abnormal cycle, this abnormal life cycle where it grows and divides and it doesn't die, right? And because this piece becomes malfunctioning, it really relies on our immune system to recognize that this cell is not behaving properly and needs to go, right? Most of the time, so really think about this because creating, having damaged or mutated cells is not necessarily abnormal. This happens as part of a human life cycle, right? But most of the time, cells that have damaged DNA either repair themselves or they die off. They get triggered to die off through a process called apoptosis so that it gets taken care of, right? It gets removed as waste through the body. The potential for cancer really only happens when neither of those things happen. So it doesn't repair itself or it doesn't get turned off, right? It doesn't die, it doesn't have apoptosis. And that's when now immune cells, hopefully, recognize that there's a cell that's misbehaving that doesn't belong there and it needs to go, right? And then the immune system, the immune cells can target that cell and help shuttle it out. That's in an ideal functioning system. And honestly, most of the time, that is how our body is functioning. However, here's the kicker, and here's why we're talking about it this month is that when the immune system is impaired, and there's a lot of reasons why it could become impaired. When it becomes impaired, it may not do this surveillance as well as it should or used to do. So this means that now maybe some of these cells are going unchecked. The immune system is not recognizing them, they're bypassing them, the immune system is burdened perhaps with something else, it's weakened, it's just not functioning at an optimal level. And now, as those cancer cells sneak by, they can multiply and grow until eventually it becomes a tumor and it becomes a problem in our body. So this is why. Okay. And just in case you're like brand new to this concept, you're like, help me understand why the immune system is so important. This is why. And a big part of what we do when we work with clients one-on-one or even within our group programs is help to restore and enhance immune function. Because that is really at the crux of helping us to stay healthy and cancer-free. That is our body's internal surveillance. And if it's working optimally, it will catch what doesn't belong there. So let's transition into why is it becoming impaired, right? What's happening? Why is our immune system becoming dysfunctional? Why isn't it working at an optimal level? And I'm going to divide it into two parts. Obviously, there's a lot of pieces here that we could spend more time on, but I wanna just to keep it simple, I wanna classify it into two areas. So one area, which we'll start with, is really looking at our modern lifestyle, what we're exposed to in our environment, right? Like our habits, our diet, et cetera. And then the other part is really looking at more internal. So those are kind of external factors. And the second part we're gonna look at is more internal factors when there becomes a situation of chronic infection or chronic inflammation, and how this then could lead to an environment in the body that makes it easier for cancer to grow. Okay, so let's start with part one. Let's start with those external influences and ultimately the things that we do have some control over, that we can put some attention and energy around. So our modern day, and I'm just gonna, I know that sounds very vague, but I'm gonna say just in general, our modern day kind of Western lifestyle, nutrition habits have really depleted, confused, maybe even overwhelmed in some cases, our immune systems, right? That is going to be a big reason for immune dysfunction for many people. What are some of these lifestyle pieces that play a role? Obviously, diet, right? Nutrition is a big part. And it's kind of twofold. It's are we eating in a way that really fuels the immune system, right? That enough of the right nutrients are coming in to help our body create and produce enough white blood cells to keep things humming properly. So that's one part is are we just eating enough of the right foods, right? And we'll talk about more about what those right foods are later in the month. But it could also be that we're eating too much of the types of foods that are going to deplete the immune system. And some of those foods, first and foremost, we have to mention sugar. We talk a lot in particular in the online space about sugar, you know, quote unquote fueling cancer. A big reason why sugar is a problem, part of it is yes, the glucose itself, we've talked about before. We can talk about more if that's a topic you guys want to dive deeper into, but that the glucose itself can fuel cancer, right? There's a lot of glucose receptors typically and insulin receptors on cancer cells. So it does act as a stimulant, as food, right? But another big issue is that when we eat sugar, especially higher doses of sugar at one time, it directly influences our immune system. So I'm going to give you an example, which very quickly is gonna help you see how, like, at least in the Western world, many Americans are going to have deficient immune systems because just one can of soda, okay. So the amount of sugar in one can of soda has been shown to drop immune function by half, by 50% for up to four hours. And that's just one can. What if you're like sipping on soda all day? Right? You're like your immune system is constantly at 50% function. So sugar is a big problem when it comes to immune function. It is directly suppressing our immune system. Ultra processed foods in general can also be a problem, less about this direct relationship of immune function, but more about increasing inflammation in the body. And as we'll learn, we'll talk about that in just a minute, but the it the connection between inflammation and the immune system is also very important. But these ultra-processed foods increase inflammation in the body and disrupt the microbiome, right? The microbiome is a very important place where our immune system, like immune cells reside, right? So when our microbiome becomes imbalanced and disrupted and, you know, leaky even, that is directly going to impact the immune system. Now, another piece here is alcohol. And alcohol is interesting because it's not black or white. You know, a little bit of alcohol, especially depending on the type, let's say red wine, could maybe even be helpful, right? It's not necessarily going to be a depleter or a burden for the immune system. But high alcohol consumption, you know, and high is going to vary from person to person. But, you know, drinking multiple drinks a night or a day has been shown to drop immune function. And actually binge drinking, having five or more drinks, we'll say going out, you know, to a party or whatever it might be, going out to the club, five or more drinks in a single session has been shown to drop immune function for up to a day after, which also maybe why you get sick. You're more prone to colds and infections after having, you know, after having drunk a lot. So our diet, the choices that we're making every day in what we're eating is gonna be one factor that plays into this. Another one, which I'm guessing you could probably already assume I'm gonna mention is stress, right? So chronic stress is also going to be an issue. Now, again, this is not black or white. Stress is one of those things, and I know we've talked about this before when we talked about the nervous system. Acute stress actually enhances immune response, right? Because we have these beautiful built-in systems that when we need extra protection, we need extra energy so we can get away from the danger or we can fight the danger, we have that support in our bodies, right? So in an acute instance, we actually get improved function. But in a chronic state of stress, and I'll share some research around this in a little bit, but in a chronic state of stress, we're actually gonna have a lot less immune function. So that has been shown to suppress, to drop immune function. A lot of that has to do with cortisol. As cortisol rises, our immune system can drop, right? Inflammation goes up, immune surveillance drops. So that's obviously gonna be a problem. Now, another one that can factor into the stress equation is sleep. And poor sleep is another big contributor to suppressed immune function. Studies have shown that those who chronically or consistently get less than seven hours of sleep a night, especially restless sleep, are three times as likely to develop a cold than somebody who's routinely getting eight or more hours of sleep a night, right? Research has also shown, particularly for people who have jobs that force them to, you know, maybe stay up through the night, they do shift work, et cetera. Even one night of sleep deprivation showed a drop in immune counts, you know, in the bloodstream. So sleep is going to be also directly connected to immune function. Now, again, remember, once in a while this happens and we have suppressed immune function, okay. Like worst case scenario, we might get a cold, right? Or we might be exposed to a virus, get the flu, something like this. But if this is chronically happening, then it's like over time, our immune system is staying in a suppressed state, a depleted state. And that is going to put us then at an increased risk for cancer developing, because if we're if we're chronically functioning with poor surveillance, then some of those abnormal cells are going to sneak by. Okay, a couple more things to consider. When we think about just our modern day Western lifestyle, disrupted circadian rhythms. This is another big one. We've talked about circadian rhythm on the podcast before. Circadian rhythm influences a lot of different systems in the body, but one of those being the immune system. So immune cell function as well as immune response can be shifted, can be changed by specific genes and signaling pathways being disrupted because our circadian rhythm is disrupted, right? It's actually a key regulator of immune function. So what disrupts our circadian rhythm, right? And the poor sleep component might come into this for you if this is something that you're struggling with. The more obvious one is if we're traveling, right? So jet lag, crossing time zones, or when we change time during the year, all of those can disrupt circadian rhythm. But also just even our daily practices of blue light at night, right? Once the sun goes down, still being exposed to electronics and TV and different things without blue light blocking glasses is going to be a disruptor of the circadian rhythm. Not getting out in the morning, not getting morning light in our eyes is going to be an issue. Honestly, just spending too much time in general under artificial lights during the day can disrupt our circadian rhythm. So if most of us are working inside all day, we're working in an office at a desk, that in and of itself could be disrupting our circadian rhythm and then consequently suppressing our immune system. Now, last month we talked all about toxic burden, and that also is going to play a role. So the higher the toxic load in the body, the more inflammation in the body, the more that's going to be impacting immune function and ultimately creating confusion around the signals of the immune system. The last piece here I want to mention is the emotional connection to our immune system as well. And this is another one we talked about previously, but we will keep circling back on this one because I just do not think it is talked about enough. And for any of you who have been following in our new Substack community, this is an area that we're going to spend a lot of time talking about over there. So if you're very interested in this emotional connection between cancer risk, between the nervous system and stress and immune system and all the things, come join me over on Substack, okay? Because we're going to go much deeper over there. But remember, when we experience emotional trauma, an emotional shock or conflict, you know, something we were not prepared for that just wrecked us emotionally, it can start a cascade, which ultimately can lead to immune suppression. It's not direct like sugar. Do you know what I mean? It's not, oh, we have this horrific thing happen and then right away our immune system drops. Typically, that's not the case at all. Typically, we get a surge of immune function to help, you know, depending on what the shock or trauma is. But over time, it creates this cascade, which can then lead to immune suppression, especially when it's left unresolved, right? So when we carry these wounds, we carry these traumas, we carry this sort of stuck emotion, stuck energy in our body, that can over time suppress the immune system. And there's even been some really interesting research showing, again, checking blood and showing that certain emotions can cause the immune system, specifically T cells, B cells, natural killer cells to drop, to essentially kind of lay down their arms when someone experiences loss of hope, powerlessness, despair, deep hurt, resentment, right? Even unresolved anger, grief. These are real factors when it comes to our physiological functioning and something we have to consider as part of the picture. Okay. So those are like emotions are a little bit more internal, but those are the external factors that could be influencing our immune function, immune function. Now, there's also the internal piece, right? So let's say, you know, multiple of those examples I just gave have been put into place and has slowly weakened the immune system. Right. Either it's it's being burdened by other things or it's being distracted, or it's just being suppressed because of some of these habits or, you know, behaviors or conditions that we've been dealing with. Over time, this weakened immune system becomes more prone to infection, right? That seems obvious. But chronic infection, so as we become more prone to infection, that also makes us more susceptible to some of the more difficult bacteria and viruses to handle. I'll talk about some of those in just a second. And chronic infection, whether that's in our gut or elsewhere, can lead to further immune depletion. So now we're just layering on the burden on the immune system. And eventually this does create an environment that can become way more hospitable for cancer to sneak by, to multiply, grow, divide, spread. Okay. Hopefully that makes sense just intuitively. Obviously, too, this is gonna, you know, a lot of those practices I just talked about before are also influencing our microbiome. Just as a remember, as a reminder, the microbiome is a big piece to the puzzle when it comes to immune function. So when we have microbiome imbalance or leaky gut, we're more prone to chronic infections in our gut too, but we're also prone to chronic inflammation in the gut, which is also going to suppress the immune system. So all of this is connected, right? Okay, I want to share, I have a few notes here just because I want to make sure I share it, because it's, I think, very fascinating, a few studies to speak to this infection inflammation piece, which I think is worth thinking about, particularly because one side piece here I want to mention, even though this is not a conversation around autoimmunity, but as cancer rates have been climbing over the past several decades, so have rates of autoimmune disease. And many experts believe this is not a coincidence, that what causes, you know, autoimmunity, like a disrupted immune system that leads to autoimmunity, is just two sides of the same coin of what causes a disrupted immune system that could lead to cancer, right? So it's very likely has similar beginnings that could go in either path. And there are studies to show that people with certain autoimmune diseases do have increased risk for certain types of cancer. So then we also know that there's this connection that if you have one, kind of makes you more susceptible for the other as well. So we're not gonna deep dive into that, at least not on today's episode, but just to know that there is definitely a connection there. Okay. So one thing that I want to point out is that research has confirmed over the last couple of decades that many cancers do arise from sites of infection, from sites of inflammation, even from sites of chronic irritation. And I would say, even just empirically, okay, in my own practice of, you know, a small subset of the people on this planet, I have seen this where people have had an injury and then cancer happened to grow at the site of that injury, you know, just as an example. So I do think there is even just some empirical truth in this that I've seen in my own practice, but research is also confirming that this is an issue. The reason we think why this is this is happening is because when there is a site of, let's just use the injury as an example, even though there's other things that could be causing inflammation, but let's say it's a site of an injury, particularly an injury that didn't heal well. Okay. And it's still a problem. Maybe it's still bothering the person. So it's creating a condition of chronic inflammation, even if it's just like in that site. Okay. The chronic inflammation is influencing the immune cells because what happens is immune cells are being called over to try to help manage the inflammation. And as they're doing their job the best they can, they're producing highly reactive molecules as a byproduct. Okay. The longer that's happening, the more those highly reactive molecules have a chance to damage the DNA. So it's the longer the inflammation hangs out, the more likely there's going to be problems in the neighboring cells. Another study showed, and I'm actually going to quote this just to make sure I say it correctly, because I think it's really important, that researchers from MIT also found that when inflammation occurred, so here's the difference between like periodically versus chronic, okay? When inflammation occurred periodically in short bursts, like you might see, you know, in the case of an acute injury, let's say that gets resolved, there was not any evidence of this DNA damage or cell mutation. But when the inflammation bouts occurred within a few days of each other, so even if it wasn't just like all the time 24-7, but within a few days of each other, let's say what could happen in chronic inflammation, there was a significant increase in cell mutations. Okay. These mutated cells continue to divide and grow until eventually a tumor is formed. So that is a big piece of the puzzle. When we think about what could be burdening the immune system and then putting us more at risk for cancer, we definitely have to look at some of these potentially chronic sources of infection, inflammation, irritation. Right. I want to give you a few other examples too, as it relates to both inflammation and infection. So here are some examples of just when, you know, very specific conditions of infection or inflammation have shown an increased risk for specific cancers. So first let's just start in the gut. Irritable bowel diseases like colitis, like Crohn's, have been shown to have increased risk for colon cancer. That doesn't mean everybody who has Crohn's is going to get colon cancer, but it had there has a link shown, but puts you at an increased risk for that, particularly if you have other genetic factors that might make you more susceptible. In the liver, hepatitis, chronic hepatitis has been shown to increase liver cancer risk. A pancreatitis has been shown to increase pancreatic cancer risk. Now, chronic gastritis, which is an irritation in the stomach, plus, so now we're going to move into the infection piece, plus H. pylori overgrowth has also been shown to increase stomach cancer risk. Human papillomos, right, HPV has been linked to increased risk for ovarian, cervical, anal cancers, head and neck cancers, Epstein Bar virus has been shown to be linked to have an increased risk for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. So we know we kind of see this over and over, these connections between infection, chronic, okay, keep that in mind, chronic infection, chronic inflammation, and then increased risk for cancer. Now, a side note here, I would say, just to kind of keep this in your periphery as well, when we think about what else could be causing chronic irritation in the body, I would also think about foods. Because if you potentially have food sensitivities, food intolerances, food allergies that you're not aware of or you're not avoiding those foods, that is going to be a source of chronic irritation or inflammation in the gut, which could then lead to the rest of the body, right? Gluten is a really good one. People who have celiac disease, for example, but don't know it, undiagnosed celiac disease can put them at increased risk for cancer. So I would just, you know, again, when we're considering all the factors, some of these things we have control over, a lot of these things I'd say we have control over, some of them we don't. But the more we understand the physiology behind it, the more we can actually do something about it, right? The more it empowers us. And honestly, as I dove into all of this and learned about this over the years, it is not lost on me that when I think about my father's progression to cancer, which I've shared on here before, it's really clear his immune system didn't work well for many years. He had an autoimmune disease, he had rheumatoid arthritis that started, I believe, in his 30s. He later, when he had his recurrence and we did more deep dive functional testing, we learned that he had chronic infection with Epstein Bar virus. So he had high Epstein-bar virus antibodies. You know, we don't know exactly when that started, but the doctors suspect that could have even happened before the autoimmune disease. That may have been the initial kind of burden on the immune system, led to rheumatoid arthritis. He also had other inflammatory conditions like diabetes, like heart disease, like there was, you know, signs of inflammation all over his body. Another thing we learned is that he had chronic parasites. Again, we didn't know this until we did deep dive testing. But ultimately, non-Hodgkin lymphoma developed in his body, right? He also had glyphosate burden, so toxic burden, right? You can see how all these layer in. Now, if he had only had one of those things, maybe that wouldn't have been enough for it to turn into cancer, right? It's hard to say. We can't predict these things exactly, but it definitely helps us understand the progression and what we need to be looking for to try to intervene and stop that progression. I hope that makes sense to you. Remember, these podcast episodes are not about fear, right? I don't want to share any of this to make you paranoid or scared or worried. It's really just about awareness. It's like the more we understand all these factors, the more we can begin to shift these things in our own lives. And even just changing one of the things we talked about today could really help your immune system, right? As I always say, it does not have to be 100% perfect for you to receive the benefit, right? Even just shifting one or two things could start to make a difference. So, in summary, for today, it's really about identifying what factors might be influencing the function of your immune system, right? So you can do a self-assessment. You can think about all those pieces we just talked about, your diet, your lifestyle, your stress, your sleep, your emotions, right? If you know of any infections, if you know of inflammation, or you suspect it, could we do additional testing to maybe identify some of these things? We could also do additional blood testing to take a look at your immune counts, like how robust is your immune system? Or is it a bit low, right? Is it weakened? Is it depleted? Is there autoimmunity? All of these things, all this information is gonna be helpful when you're putting together your game plan to help restore your wellness, to optimize your health. All of this information is gonna be helpful. Then, next after that, would be to take steps to remove or change or shift what you can, what you have control over, right? As well as bringing in more of the things that are going to nourish and support the immune system. We're gonna talk about that piece more on the next solo episode later in the month. But first, I want to invite you next week. We are going to be, I'm gonna be with a guest, Dr. Jennifer Ashby. She is a doctor of East Asian medicine and she is also a licensed clinical acupuncturist and herbalist. She's a brilliant provider and just a brilliant person in general. I know you're gonna enjoy that conversation, but what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about how you can enhance immune function. So, again, some of the reasons why it might be imbalanced, plus more emphasis on how to enhance function from an East Asian medicine perspective. And then the week after that, we'll kind of dive back into the Western, like we talked about today. But I am a believer of trying to, you know, really bridge the best of all philosophies and everything that we have available to us. So I know you're gonna get so much interesting information from Jennifer's episode next week. And the last thing I want to say is that, like I mentioned in the very beginning, enhancing your immune function, your immune surveillance is one of the priorities that we have inside of our coaching programs. There's a lot of things we do and support people with, but that is one of the main ones because the truth is, this is your number one defense, right? And if it is weak, if it is imbalanced, if it is not functioning properly, that it's gonna put you at a deficit when it comes to cancer. So if you'd like to learn more about how we do this, we have a three-step system of how we enhance immune function. I actually do have a free video below that you can watch if that's interesting to you. Of course, you can always reach out to us too if you're looking for some more personalized guidance or support. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I hope that was an interesting conversation for you and maybe gave you a few new things to think about or some ahas. If you are enjoying the content we're covering here at the Groundroot Podcast, please help us spread the word, share, subscribe, leave a review. We're still such a small podcast, and I really appreciate your support and helping this information get into the ears of as many people as possible. I can't do it all by myself. So I really appreciate you sharing it. And I wish you such a beautiful day. I look forward to connecting with you again on next week's episode. Bye for now.