Welcome to The Rise – your weekly dose of circadian sunshine, decentralised health wisdom, and actionable tips to help you live healthier, stronger, and more empowered.

In the last 12 months, the 7,000+ people in this tribe have been reading something the other 99% of health newsletters won’t cover — the science your GP hasn’t read. Here’s what’s in this week’s issue and why it matters:

• Your immune system has a strong opinions about breakfast. Here’s the science behind why it matters.
• The eight nutrients your immune system cannot build without
• What a fever actually is, why your body engineers one, and what you should (and shouldn’t) do about it.
• Eight science-backed ways to go into winter (or any time of year) with your defences up. Plus a peek at what I make in my kitchen every year when the cold sets in.

Have suggestions or something you’d love to see covered here? Help me better serve this vibrant community of health rebels and send me your feedback here.

Much love and sunshine, ☀️

Sandy xx

Issue #120 • 17 May, 2026

🌅 Rise Report

Your Immune System Would Like To Order Breakfast

An April 2026 study published in Nature by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cancer Center found that eating a meal, within the last six hours, dramatically upgrades your immune system’s T cell performance.

Lead researcher Greg Delgoffe found that post-meal your immune fighting T cells had more efficient mitochondria, greater glucose uptake, and a significantly stronger ability to divide and form immune memory. The mechanism? Fat particles called chylomicrons, released into your bloodstream after eating, activate mTOR, a master growth switch inside T cells that signals them to gear up and get ready. In a fasted state, that switch sits largely off. Fed? It’s lit up.

The team also found that CAR-T cell cancer therapies were more effective when collected from donors who had eaten beforehand.

Now, before you panic about overnight fasting and start setting your alarm for 3am, here’s the nuance that makes this story so beautifully circadian. Your body expects the overnight fast. You’re asleep, you’re not out in the world, your immune cells can afford to stand down. The problem isn’t fasting at night. It’s extending that fast into the day and taking your overnight window from 10+ hours, to now you’re on public transport, in the office, touching door handles, breathing shared air and you still haven’t had breakfast. That’s when your T cells are understaffed right when they need to be ready.

Eat with the light. Fast with the dark. Break your fast with breakfast the moment you step out into the world, because that’s exactly when threats show up.

The takeaway? Unlike Gremlins, who are cheekily high-maintenance about when and what they’re fed, your T cells have exactly one rule: don’t skip breakfast. Make it protein and healthy fats packed, and they’ll show up ready for whatever winter throws at you.

Your Immune System Needs Eight Things Found On Your Plate

We know nutrients and a healthy diet matter. But a review just published in Frontiers in Nutrition in April 2026 by the University of Southampton makes the case with rare precision: eight specific micronutrients aren’t just helpful for your immunity, they’re structural.

The eight: vitamins A, C, D, E, the full B-group, and the minerals zinc, selenium, iron, and copper. Each plays a distinct role — vitamin A maintains the mucosal barriers that stop pathogens before your immune system even needs to act; zinc governs immune cell development and the resolution of inflammation; selenium protects immune cells from the oxidative damage they generate while fighting hard.

Role of micronutrients in immune function

And before you stand up to grab the bottle of multi vitamin pills, consider this: food doesn’t deliver these nutrients in isolation. It delivers them inside a biological matrix. Vitamin C in capsicum arrives with bioflavonoids. Zinc in oysters arrives alongside copper in roughly the ratio your body expects. Iron in red meat comes with haem and co-factors that make it dramatically more bioavailable and as for eggs, they’re a nutritional powerhouse conveniently packaged in one neat little compact size. Nature has done a marvellous job at packaging our food in healthy ways our body can use it best. Not everything in life can be found in a pill.

The takeaway? Your plate delivers these eight nutrients in the biological framework your body was actually built for. Start there.

🤓 Smarty Pants

Fever: Are you feeling warm, or is it just me?

Quick show of hands…how many of you reach for the Panadol the moment the thermometer nudges past 37.3°C (99.1°F)? I’m not surprised.

It’s what we’ve been told a hundred times over, and most people do it without thinking. And why would you question it? Your trusted GP is probably the person you heard it from first. But that reflex, however loving and well-intentioned, may be working against one of your body’s oldest and most sophisticated immune strategies this whole time. So let’s actually talk about what a fever is, why your body engineers one, and what’s really happening when it does.

A Fever Is The Feature

A fever is not a glitch. It is a feature – one so fundamental to survival it has been conserved across virtually every vertebrate species for approximately 600 million years. And here’s the key thing most people don’t know: a fever is a regulated rise in your body’s internal thermostat and a deliberate reset of your temperature set point. This is completely different from hyperthermia, where temperature spirals out of control. A fever is your body turning the dial up on purpose.

Your Body’s Master Fever Plan

Here’s how it works. When a pathogen enters the body, the immune system releases signalling molecules called pyrogens. These travel to the hypothalamus, the region of your brain that acts as the body’s thermostat, and instruct it to raise the set point. Your body then works hard to reach that new temperature: you shiver, blood vessels constrict, you feel cold even as your core heats up. That’s not you getting sicker. That’s your body executing a well thought out plan.

And the plan is so clever. At 38–40°C (100.4–104°F), viruses and bacteria struggle to replicate, they’re optimised for the cooler temperatures of a healthy host, and they don’t adapt well to the heat during a bout of fever. Meanwhile, your immune cells become more active and mobile, white blood cells patrol your bloodstream faster, and your body quietly lowers circulating levels of iron and zinc, essentially starving pathogens of the minerals they need to thrive. Your fatigue and reduced appetite? Also intentional. Your body is pulling energy away from everything non-essential and directing it entirely toward the fight.

Fevers signal that hostile actors are making your body their home — and that you’re putting up a fight.

A perspective published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in January 2026 proposed that some antiviral genes may have actually evolved to function optimally at fever temperatures, meaning that by suppressing the fever, we may inadvertently switch off the very genes the immune response needed most. And when the threat is defeated? The fever breaks. On its own. That’s our perfect design kicking in again.

When Fever Suppression Makes Things Worse

There’s also a bigger picture here that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime. A 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society found that suppressing flu fevers with medication doesn’t just affect the person taking it, it affects everyone around them.

When symptoms are dampened, people feel well enough to head back to work, to the shops, to social catch-ups  – and they take the virus with them. The researchers calculated that fever suppression during flu season meaningfully increases transmission rates at a population level. In other words, the Panadol that gets you back on your feet faster may be someone else’s problem by Wednesday.

What To Do When Fever Strikes

Scientists are still working out exactly when to treat fever and when to leave it alone. But a reasonable middle ground, suggested by researchers in this space (and I’d agree), is giving a mild fever 24 to 48 hours to do its job before intervening. Rest, fluids, warmth, and genuine permission to be unwell for a day or two. Not forever. Just long enough for your immune system to do its thing and finish what it started.

So, the next time the sweat sets in and the shivering takes hold, before you reach for the medicine cabinet, take a moment to appreciate what’s actually happening. Your immune system is executing a strategy that’s been refined over millions of years, specifically to protect you. That deserves at least a little respect.

The decentralised wisdom? A mild fever is like your most trusted friend offering to take the heaviest thing you’re carrying. You wouldn’t tie their hands behind their back. Worth remembering next time the thermometer climbs.

Now…Nurse Sandy needs a moment. A mild fever in an otherwise healthy adult or child (38–39°C) is generally a sign your immune system is doing exactly what it should. Rest, fluids, warmth, and patience are called for. But fevers above 40°C, or fever in an infant under three months, or fever accompanied by stiff neck, confusion, severe rash, difficulty breathing, or persistent vomiting, or a fever where a child is visibly uncomfortable, those are medical situations. Please seek care and medical advice. The rebel and the nurse can coexist. I promise. 

☀️ Sandy’s Sunshine 

Eight Research-Backed Ways to Sharpen Your Immune System Before Winter Hits

Winter is knocking on Australia’s door. And hoping for the best is not a strategy. Regardless of what time of year it is, the good news  is this: your immune system is extraordinary. Refined since creation, we simply need to go back to some basics and stop getting in the way of it.

Here are eight evidence-backed levers you can start pulling today:

1. Sleep consistently, not just long enough:

It’s not just the hours, it’s the regularity. A 2026 study confirmed that fragmented, inconsistent sleep is directly linked to increased infection risk. Your immune system runs on a circadian schedule. Feed it chaos and it performs accordingly.

2. Move daily, but don’t hammer it:

Moderate exercise improves immune function, enhances antibody response, and reduces systemic inflammation. Overtraining suppresses immunity. More is not always more, especially in winter.

3. Fix your vitamin D:

A January 2026 study linked severe vitamin D deficiency to a 33% higher risk of hospitalisation for respiratory infections. Australian Summers are your time to build your Winter vitamin D reserves. And in the absence of the sun in Winter, the cold becomes your friend.

4. Use heat strategically:

A 2026 Finnish study confirmed a single 30-minute sauna session temporarily surges white blood cells into circulation, your frontline immune defender. No sauna? A hot bath also delivers a thermal stress.

5. Eat your immune system’s actual fuel:

Covered in the Rise Report this week, but worth repeating here. Vitamins A, C, D, E, B-group, zinc, selenium, iron, and copper aren’t supplements first. They’re nutrients, best delivered inside the biological matrix of whole food.

6. Respect your circadian timing:

A 2025 review confirmed circadian clocks directly regulate T and B cell development and adaptive immune function. Inconsistent meal timing, artificial light at night, irregular sleep,  these don’t just make you tired – they impair the architecture of your immune response.

7. Manage stress:

Chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated, your body in low-grade fight-or-flight, and your inflammatory pathways permanently switched on. In a nutshell, stress and chronic inflammation impairs your immunity. It’s measurable and the fixes are simpler than you’d think: nature, movement, social connection, hobbies, meditation, breathwork, prayer, gardening. You know what calms you down.

8. The boring stuff works:

Honey, lemon, ginger, warm fluids, chicken soups, broths, saline rinses, gargling, rest, hydration. As unfancy as these may be, evidence shows they work. Sometimes it’s the old fashioned stuff that works the best.

Your immune system has been fighting winter for longer than medicine has existed. Give it what it needs. Feed it, rest it, move it, and trust it. It knows the way so give it what it needs, and trust it to do what it was designed to do.

Need an immune boosting tonic? My fire cider recipe is legendary. And it’s my go to – especially during the cooler months when coughs and bugs are flying around.
I’ll be sharing my full secret recipe in the Rise Circle soon.

Not a paid member yet? This is a great week to fix that.

🔢 Number Crunch

916,307: The number of adults whose data in 2026 showed that chronic sleep disruption raises your infection risk by 70%. Sleep is not a lifestyle preference or optional extra. It is your immune system’s night shift.

“The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well.”— Hippocrates