With his previous book It’s the microbiota, idiot!the doctor Sari Arponen managed to make readers aware of the importance of caring for the microbiota and discover, along the way, numerous habits to balance it. To date, more than 50,000 readers have had it in their hands. And what is your secret to sweeping a medical book? Treat these issues in a close, entertaining and even fun way. Now fight back with The immune system finally comes out of the closet (Alienta Editorial, 2022), a book that wants to value the importance of something as forgotten as the immune system and provide us, once once more, with different strategies to take care of it and achieve a longer and more lasting life.
There has been a lot of talk regarding the immune system due to the pandemic, why before it did we have it so forgotten or was it a great unknown to most?Perhaps because many people did not know – and it is not yet common knowledge – that we can actually carry out many actions in our daily lives to balance the immune system. Many people wanted to “raise the defenses”, with some kind of miracle remedy, without further ado.
You say it yourself in the title: “the immune system comes out of the closet”. Why is it so important that once and for all take center stage?The immune system is altered in practically all the diseases or disorders that we can think of, even in some situations that a priori may be something that does not seem to be related. For example, cardiovascular diseases or obesity are related to low-grade chronic inflammation, which is a very common imbalance.
The immune system plays an important role in healing injuries and fractures or recognizing malignant cells
Thanks in part to Covid-19, we now know that the immune system protects us from infections, but what other important and more unknown roles does it carry out?For example, the healing of injuries such as sprains or bone fractures requires the immune system. In addition, the immune system has to recognize the cells of our body as its own. Or, if those own cells become malignant, you must kill them so that cancer does not appear. It is also important that you know how to distinguish what comes from outside and is not harmful, such as the nutrients we eat. And of course, everything related to what we might call maintenance and cleaning tasks is essential, for example at the brain level.
Sari Arponen
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Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and Doctor of Biomedical Sciences
Graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Murcia and Doctor in Biomedical Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, she specialized in Internal Medicine at the Hospital Universitario de La Princesa in Madrid. She has a master’s degree in Infectious Diseases and another in HIV, a three-year postgraduate degree in Clinical Psychoneuroimmunology from the Pontifical University of Salamanca and another master’s degree in Genomic and Precision Nutrition.
After almost twenty years of clinical experience in Spanish public health, Dr. Sari Arponen, also a university professor, is currently dedicated to training and dissemination in the field of microbiota and lifestyle medicine. In addition, she is the co-founder of Slow Medicine Revolution, a health and lifestyle outreach platform centered on a successful podcast of the same name, and the author of ‘She’s the Microbiota, you idiot!’
What consequences can it have for our health not treating and caring for the immune system as it deserves?That it becomes unbalanced and that health problems such as autoimmune diseases appear, in which the immune system attacks structures of the body itself. An example is autoimmune thyroiditis. On other occasions, the excess of anomalous activation is once morest external elements, such as pollen or some food: this would be the allergy. If the tasks of immunosurveillance and cancer editing are not carried out properly, a tumor can appear. On the other hand, injuries may not heal well or become chronic, like that typical painful shoulder that lasts for months or years. And of course, cardiovascular, digestive or neurodegenerative diseases are associated with imbalances in the immune system.
Cardiovascular, digestive or neurodegenerative diseases are associated with imbalances in the immune system
How do we dedicate ourselves to sabotaging our immune system without realizing it? What actions of our daily life are the ones that harm you the most?The same thing that harms our microbiota is also not good for our immune system. Ultra-processed products, a sedentary lifestyle, tobacco, alcohol, pollution of all kinds (such as air pollution, heavy metals or microplastics everywhere), chronic stress – including psychosocial stress -, lack of rest, absence of contact with nature… all of these are factors of our lifestyle that make us sick. And of course, an unbalanced microbiota also alters our immune system.
Food plays a very important role. He points out in the book that in 2017 some eleven million deaths were due to improper nutrition. In the age of awareness, how do we remain so unaware of what we eat?On the one hand, there are people who are very aware and others who may not have all the information. On the other hand, the truth is that there is a lot of misinformation regarding it. There is still a tendency to recommend eating an excess of refined carbohydrates that most people do not tolerate adequately because they do not need to eat as much energy, rather empty of micronutrients. There are still people who believe that eating 5-6 times a day for an adult is something convenient, which is not the case, except perhaps for some very specific exceptions. And the consumption of ultra-processed foods is still too frequent, when they do not have any beneficial effect on our health. In general, there are still many people who eat too much and not enough quality. It is true that socioeconomic factors also play an important role here, especially now that the shopping basket is becoming more expensive at times.
Socioeconomic factors play an important role in poor nutrition, especially now that the shopping basket is becoming more expensive at times
One of the most important parts of the book is the one dedicated to us learning to “hack our immune system”. Without wishing to gut it, what are the basic steps to face the big change?If we know what makes us sick, we can also figure out how to take care of ourselves. Health begins in the market and the kitchen, continues in the countryside, the beach and the forest, and is completed in the bedroom. The consultation of professionals in dentistry, nutrition, psychology and physical activity is a wonderful complement if what we need is extra professional help to get ready, but the basis of what we need to do is what I tell in the book . If everyone applied 50-80% of the recommendations that many health promoters make, we would all be healthier in general.
If everyone applied 50-80% of the recommendations that we health popularizers make, we would be healthier
his previous book It’s the microbiota, idiot! It has been a best seller. What do you think has been the secret of your success? And what do you expect from this new installment?I find it difficult to say this myself. People who have read the microbiota book tell me that it is entertaining and well understood. Many even tell me it’s fun. There are people who write to me or go to the presentations of the new book and tell me that it has changed their lives. I feel a lot of gratitude for being able to help the people who read me. This new book has – in addition to a lot of written information – 32 augmented reality videos to expand the information, and those who have read it are telling me that they liked it even more than the previous one. My goal is for people to truly empower themselves in their health and to see that we can do a lot to improve our quality of life and that health is a path for life.
