Joel Fuhrman - Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Bodys Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free

Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

SUPER IMMUNITY: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Bodys Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free. Copyright 2011 by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

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This book contains advice and information relating to health care. It is not intended to
replace medical advice and should be used to supplement rather than replace regular
care by your doctor. It is recommended that you seek your physicians advice before
embarking on any medical program or treatment. All efforts have been made to assure
the accuracy of the information contained in this book as of the date of publication.
The publisher and the author disclaim liability for any medical outcomes that
may occur as a result of applying the methods suggested in this book.

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FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-06-208063-9

EPub Edition AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9780062080653

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Dedicated to my wife, Lisa, whose encouragement and love

have enabled me to pursue my dreams.

It just dawned on me that two and a half years ago I began the wonderful journey with you to get my health back, and I did not just lose one hundred pounds; I havent had a virus, cold, or flu bug since. Considering that for over thirty years straight I would get a nasty case of bronchitis every winter and Id cough like crazy for six weeks, this freedom truly is wonderfulin more ways than just preventing obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Emily Boller

S uper Immunity can be best defined as the bodys immune system working to its fullest potential. Modern science has advanced to the point where we have evidence that the right raw materials and nutritional factors can double or triple the protective power of the immune system. If you learn to fill every cell receptor lock with the right nutrient key and meet the demands of each cell, the bodys defenses take on superhero qualitiesand you will hardly ever get sick again. More important, this change from average immunity to Super Immunity can save your life.

Emily Boller, July 2008.

June 2009.

The fact is that Super Immunity is needed now, more than ever. In the United States, adults can expect to catch a cold two to four times a year, and children can expect to get six to ten colds annually. All of these colds sap about $40 billion from the U.S. economy in direct and indirect costs. On top of that, getting sick is no fun. Influenza, for example, can result in a prolonged and serious illness. With health authorities warnings about the potential of new flu epidemics and the global spread of viral illnesses, it is vital that we keep our immune system strong and know the steps to take to protect ourselves and our families. In someone without a well-functioning immune system, a mild infection can hang on for weeks; worse yet, it can develop serious consequences such as heart damage or nerve paralysis, or it can blossom into a difficult-to-treat bacterial infection such as a life-threatening pneumonia.

Our immune system also protects us from developing cancer. The same white blood cells and other immune system components that are utilized to fight infection are also used to recognize our own human cells as they become abnormal and to remove them before they can evolve into a tumor or cancer.

The immune system is like an angel watching over our lives and protecting us from the risks around us. With Super Immunity you can have a healthier, happier life with more comfort and productivity. Super Immunity can also enable you to push the envelope of human longevity, because it puts a force field of protection around the body, radically reducing the risk of annoying minor infections, serious major infections, and even cancers.

Today we are exposed to more dangerous infections from around the world than ever before. We are routinely in airports and jets crowded with world travelers who have come in contact with exotic and newly created microbes, and we are in schools and hospitals with bacteria circulating that have developed antibiotic resistance. Scientists suggest that environmental, social, and nutritional changes have helped trigger an unprecedented explosion of infection: more than thirty-five new infectious diseases have burst upon the world in the past thirty years. The U.S. death rate from infectious diseases is now double what it was in 1980, up to 170,000 annually. With two billion people traveling by air each year, the potential for serious viral illnesses looms even larger in our future.

Once a disease takes hold these days, it tends to be globalized quickly by travel and trade. The West Nile virus, for example, is thought to have reached New York from its traditional home in the Middle East on an infected bird carried by a ship or a plane. Within six weeks after SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) first appeared in November 2002, it had spread worldwide, carried by unsuspecting travelers. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 8,000 people were infected with this severe viral illness, and about 800 eventually died during the outbreak. This will certainly not be the last viral illness to travel from one region of the globe to another, spreading rapidly to highly populated areas, but it set a record for speed of continent-to-continent transmission.

In addition to the increased risk of dangerous infections circling the globe, we have another modern epidemic affecting a large segment of our population: cancer. The lifetime probability of being diagnosed with an invasive cancer is 44 percent for men and 37 percent for women. However, because of the earlier median age of diagnosis for breast cancer compared with other major cancers, women have a slightly higher probability of developing cancer before the age of sixty. Currently, one in four deaths in the United States is due to cancer. The statistical trend for women looks bleak: breast cancer, almost unheard of a hundred years ago, now affects one in eight women over their lifetime, with signs that this may increase in the next few decades.

Together, we can turn these statistical trends around. Research from the field of nutritional medicine has shown us that there is a clear way to improve and sustain our health and fight off illness in all its forms.