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Top 5 Immune Boosting Supplements
Top 5 Immune Boosting Supplements
By Emilina Lomas - BSc, MSc, A.Nutr. & REPS
Clinically Trained Nutritionist | Certified Personal Trainer
Emilina is a clinically trained nutritionist and personal trainer turned health and fitness writer. She has worked with top health and wellness brands including the National Football League (NFL), Muscle & Strength and Breaking Muscle.
By Emilina Lomas
BSc, MSc, A.Nutr. & REPS
Clinically Trained Nutritionist | Certified Personal Trainer
Emilina is a clinically trained nutritionist and personal trainer turned health and fitness writer. She has worked with top health and wellness brands including the National Football League (NFL), Muscle & Strength and Breaking Muscle.
2020 has been the year of coronavirus. ‘How to boost your immune system’ has become the number one trending question of the year and for good reason. Immune health is more important than ever. A healthy immune system is able to effectively fight off harmful pathogens to protect you from infection and disease. But many people are still stuck wondering the best way to boost the immune system.
If that’s you, this article will break it down for you - what the immune system is, how it works and how you can naturally boost your immune system. Thanks for being here today, let’s get started!
2020 has been the year of coronavirus. ‘How to boost your immune system’ has become the number one trending question of the year and for good reason. Immune health is more important than ever. A healthy immune system is able to effectively fight off harmful pathogens to protect you from infection and disease. But many people are still stuck wondering the best way to boost the immune system.
If that’s you, this article will break it down for you - what the immune system is, how it works and how you can naturally boost your immune system. Thanks for being here today, let’s get started!
A Definition Of The Immune System
A Definition Of The Immune System
To start at the beginning, it’s important to understand the basic definition of the immune system. The immune system consists of a number of organs, tissues, cells and chemicals that work together to fight pathogens that cause infectious disease. When bacteria or viruses spread from person to person, they invade your body, which prompts an immune response.
To start at the beginning, it’s important to understand the basic definition of the immune system. The immune system consists of a number of organs, tissues, cells and chemicals that work together to fight pathogens that cause infectious disease. When bacteria or viruses spread from person to person, they invade your body, which prompts an immune response.
What Is The Function Of The Immune System?
What Is The Function Of The Immune System?
Your immune system is your body’s army. When your body detects the presence of antigens (foreign substances), the immune system ramps up efforts to fight off the germs, to rid your body of any possibility of disease.
The immune system works by triggering the production of antibodies, also known as immunoglobulins. It produces these antibodies by activating T and B lymphocytes, immune cells found in lymph nodes and the spleen.
B lymphocytes produce antibodies that attach to the antigen, to make it easier for immune cells to destroy it. T lymphocytes attack the foreign invader directly, and help modulate the immune response by releasing cytokines. This is to help your immune system differentiate between your own healthy cells and the foreign cells. In the case of autoimmune diseases, your body can’t differentiate between these two - the immune system attacks itself - harming your healthy cells.
Once B cells and T cells have been created for a specific antigen, your immune system remembers how to fight the virus in the case that you are infected again. This often prevents you from getting sick from the same thing twice, for example with chickenpox.
Your immune system is your body’s army. When your body detects the presence of antigens (foreign substances), the immune system ramps up efforts to fight off the germs, to rid your body of any possibility of disease.
The immune system works by triggering the production of antibodies, also known as immunoglobulins. It produces these antibodies by activating T and B lymphocytes, immune cells found in lymph nodes and the spleen.
B lymphocytes produce antibodies that attach to the antigen, to make it easier for immune cells to destroy it. T lymphocytes attack the foreign invader directly, and help modulate the immune response by releasing cytokines. This is to help your immune system differentiate between your own healthy cells and the foreign cells. In the case of autoimmune diseases, your body can’t differentiate between these two - the immune system attacks itself - harming your healthy cells.
Once B cells and T cells have been created for a specific antigen, your immune system remembers how to fight the virus in the case that you are infected again. This often prevents you from getting sick from the same thing twice, for example with chickenpox.
What Is The Function Of The Immune System?
What Is The Function Of The Immune System?
Now that you know the basics of immune health, you may be wondering why it’s so important to focus on boosting your immune system, because surely your body is equipped to innately do the job? Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
If your immune health is good, you can effectively fight off illness. However, if your immune system is compromised, you may not be able to effectively rid your body of germs and so will get sick, often for longer or more severely. That’s why it is absolutely essential to protect and strengthen your immune system.
Now that you know the basics of immune health, you may be wondering why it’s so important to focus on boosting your immune system, because surely your body is equipped to innately do the job? Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
If your immune health is good, you can effectively fight off illness. However, if your immune system is compromised, you may not be able to effectively rid your body of germs and so will get sick, often for longer or more severely. That’s why it is absolutely essential to protect and strengthen your immune system.
The Top 5 Factors That Suppress Immune Function
The Top 5 Factors That Suppress Immune Function
Your immune system can be compromised for a number of reasons, including:
1. Alcohol
When you drink alcohol, you impair the function of immune cells. Alcohol triggers inflammation in the gut, destroying the healthy gut bacteria that are essential for immune function. When immune cell function is impaired, you are more likely to develop a serious reaction to an infection and it can exacerbate.
2. Sleep Deprived
Sleep is vital for all functions in the body - particularly for immune health. A study found that proper sleep (at least seven hours per night of high quality sleep), improves T cells - a type of immune cell. T cells fight against pathogens like virus-infected cells. This is partially because when we are sleep deprived, stress hormones and inflammation increase in the body which inhibit immune cell function.
2. Sleep Deprived
Sleep is vital for all functions in the body - particularly for immune health. A study found that proper sleep (at least seven hours per night of high quality sleep), improves T cells - a type of immune cell. T cells fight against pathogens like virus-infected cells. This is partially because when we are sleep deprived, stress hormones and inflammation increase in the body which inhibit immune cell function.
3. Stress
When you are stressed, your hormones change - causing increases in cortisol and adrenaline, amongst others. When these hormones remain elevated, immune function decreases and your body’s ability to fight infection decreases. This is why chronically stressed people statistically have more infections like the common cold or viruses.
4. Certain Diseases
Research shows that certain diseases inhibit immune function, these include: obesity, type II diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis and more. If you are currently experiencing one of these diseases, it is particularly important for you to make dietary and lifestyle adjustments to protect your immune system. You can do this by exercising, eating healthy and taking supplements.
5. Vitamin Deficiency
92 percent of the US population has a vitamin deficiency. Vitamin deficiencies are associated with increased autoimmunity and an increased susceptibility to infection, according to a 2012 study. This is because many vitamins are involved in modulating a number of immune processes, like lymphocyte activation and proliferation, helping to differentiate between antigens and healthy cells, producing antibodies and regulating the immune response.
How To Boost Your Immune System Naturally
How To Boost Your Immune System Naturally
Based on the above factors that suppress immune function, it’s possible to create a health and wellness plan to boost immune function naturally. This may include:
● Sleeping 8 hours a night
● Managing stress by meditating daily
● Avoiding alcohol
● Exercising regularly
● Eating a balanced and varied wholefood diet
● Taking immune boosting supplements
For the remainder of the article, we’re going to focus on the top 5 immune boosting supplements to take and the evidence that supports them. Let’s get into them.
Based on the above factors that suppress immune function, it’s possible to create a health and wellness plan to boost immune function naturally. This may include:
● Sleeping 8 hours a night
● Managing stress by meditating daily
● Avoiding alcohol
● Exercising regularly
● Eating a balanced and varied wholefood diet
● Taking immune boosting supplements
For the remainder of the article, we’re going to focus on the top 5 immune boosting supplements to take and the evidence that supports them. Let’s get into them.
Top 5 Immune Boosting Supplements
Top 5 Immune Boosting Supplements
1. Vitamin D3
Vitamin D is the most common vitamin deficiency in the US today, with an estimated 42 percent of all US adults deficient in total, a figure that increases to 90 percent amongst people of color in the US. Vitamin D3 is the most bioavailable dietary form of this vitamin, sourced from animal foods.
We make vitamin D from the sun, but you’d need 30 minutes a day of direct sun exposure, which is why it’s so important to take a supplement, based on the high rates of deficiency. In short - if you do not live in a climate with 365 days of sun AND spend 30 minutes outside, skin-exposed, each day, you are most likely deficient.
Vitamin D is actually a hormone, protecting from free radical damage, regulating immune response and reducing inflammation. Research shows that people with higher vitamin D levels are less likely to have a chronic disease, showing that vitamin D plays a key role in the development of disease.
Studies show a link between vitamin D deficiency and respiratory infections, like covid-19. A study that examined more than 25 unique studies conducted on vitamin D supplementation to prevent colds and flu. The researchers discovered that taking a vitamin D supplement is an effective way to prevent sickness. In fact, those with vitamin D deficiencies prior to their clinical trial experienced a 50 percent reduction in their risk of infection.
2. Zinc
A 2008 study published in Molecular Medicine examined the role of zinc in immune function. The researchers found that people with the lowest zinc levels had “severe immune dysfunctions”. Zinc is an essential cofactor of more than 300 enzymes, so without it, many immune functions are limited or impaired. For example, research shows zinc plays a role in cytokine production, responsible for modulating the immune response, and leukocytes, that are responsible for fighting foreign invaders.
A 2019 study found that when a group of hospitalized children suffering from acute respiratory infections were given a zinc supplement, they spent on average two days less in hospital, compared to a placebo group.
3. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Antioxidants are compounds that fight free radical damage, oxidative stress and inflammation in the body - all factors that impair immune function. Antioxidants are like your body’s weapons to fight antigens and free radicals, working in combination with antibodies to rid your body of illness.
Moreover, vitamin C is a super nutrient for the immune system due to its role in white blood cell (leukocytes) production, that helps to protect the body against infections, so long as they are created in high enough concentrations, and are easily transported around the body and functioning correctly.
A study published in Clinical Nutrition in 2005 found that supplementing with vitamin C helped to decrease healing time of ulcers, highlighting how effective vitamin C is at proliferating and transporting leukocytes around the body to repair and heal, key markers of immune function.
3. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Antioxidants are compounds that fight free radical damage, oxidative stress and inflammation in the body - all factors that impair immune function. Antioxidants are like your body’s weapons to fight antigens and free radicals, working in combination with antibodies to rid your body of illness.
Moreover, vitamin C is a super nutrient for the immune system due to its role in white blood cell (leukocytes) production, that helps to protect the body against infections, so long as they are created in high enough concentrations, and are easily transported around the body and functioning correctly.
A study published in Clinical Nutrition in 2005 found that supplementing with vitamin C helped to decrease healing time of ulcers, highlighting how effective vitamin C is at proliferating and transporting leukocytes around the body to repair and heal, key markers of immune function.
4. Medicinal Mushrooms
Medicinal mushrooms, including lion’s mane, reishi, chaga, shiitake, maitake and cordyceps, are mushrooms with therapeutic value, especially for immune function. While they do not necessarily boost the immune system, they work in unison with the immune response to support its function. One of the major ways they do this is by immune modulation.
For example, lion’s mane, a common mushroom, has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that support immune function. It also increases the production of nerve growth factor, which is neuroprotective.
Another study found that reishi effectively activated immune effector cells, which helped to suppress cancer cells and autoimmune diseases. Another study found that it helped to suppress the cell proliferation of harmful bacteria.
4. Medicinal Mushrooms
Medicinal mushrooms, including lion’s mane, reishi, chaga, shiitake, maitake and cordyceps, are mushrooms with therapeutic value, especially for immune function. While they do not necessarily boost the immune system, they work in unison with the immune response to support its function. One of the major ways they do this is by immune modulation.
For example, lion’s mane, a common mushroom, has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that support immune function. It also increases the production of nerve growth factor, which is neuroprotective.
Another study found that reishi effectively activated immune effector cells, which helped to suppress cancer cells and autoimmune diseases. Another study found that it helped to suppress the cell proliferation of harmful bacteria.
5. Elderberries
Elderberry is an antioxidant that has been shown in research to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, support heart health and prevent cold and flu. A randomized clinical trial found that elderberry extract supplements shortened the duration of the flu by four days as compared to a placebo. When used in conjunction with the other supplements, elderberry boosts antioxidant concentration, which benefits your immune system.
We hoped this has helped give you an insight into how your immune system works, what suppresses immune function and the top 5 supplements to take to boost your immune system to avoid getting sick. These supplements are backed by science and the most effective investment you can make to stay healthy now and forever.