Nutrients That Support A Healthy Immune System
Do check out Dr J's recommendations for general immune system support (especially during this COVID-19 pandemic here!
In Making Sense Of Our Immune System, I do highlight the main problems that our immune system faces as its functionality declines based on poor sustained lifestyle habits that we are subscribing to.
In that article, I also do highlight what aspects of can go wrong with our immune systems without us realising it, even as we seek to support our immune systems during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Our sleeping, our stress management, our exercise and our diets are crucial.
The easiest thing to change up, as always, is our diet.
Hence, people do look at zinc or Vitamin C as common "immune boosters".
But there are so many more nutrients that can impact our immune system function at higher levels.
Some of these nutrients will deal with the inflammation response at its root. Getting the inflammation response correctly conditioned is necessary for ensuring a healthy tug-of-war between pro- and anti-inflammatory signalling pathways within the body.
We do have to understand that inflammation is an immune system response that is necessary to direct the immune cells to a breach, so that they will be able to defend the breach and eliminate all necessary invaders. It isn't about killing the inflammation response completely. Suboptimal lifestyle choices, though, will promote the inflammation response and cause it to become dysregulated, and that is what we want to be avoiding.
We do need to understand that there are 2 major signalling pathways in the body that regulate the inflammatory signalling process. The nuclear respiratory factor 2 (nrf2) is anti-inflammatory and signals the production of more glutathione antioxidants from within each cell (The Curious Case Of The NRF2 Pathway In The Body).
The anti-inflammatory nrf2 pathway is involved in a tug-of-war with the pro-inflammatory nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. A balance of these 2 pathways will regulate the inflammatory response in the body more adequately.
Nutrients That Support A Healthy Immune System Function
1. A blend of the nutrients alpha lipoic acid, resveratrol, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), olive fruit extract, rutin, quercetin, and hesperetin was found in this patent to support the production of endogenous glutathione within our cells by upregulating nrf2 activity.
2. Omega-3 fatty acids, namely eicospentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) aid in reducing the activity of the pro-inflammatory nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. NF-κB is the major pathway that regulates the intensity of the inflammation signal in the body. The nrf2 pathway helps to balance out any overshoot that is coming from NF-κB, and these two pathways are in a constant tug-of-war battle for maintaining the inflammatory signal.
3. According to a Healthline article, "magnesium and zinc may boost your immune system and reduce inflammation. While inflammation is a normal immune response, chronic levels of it can damage your health and promote illnesses like cancer and heart disease. "
4. Vitamin C is an exogenous antioxidant that is thought to "influence several important aspects of neutrophil function: migration in response to inflammatory mediators (chemotaxis), phagocytosis and killing of microbes, and apoptosis and clearance by macrophages." In doing so, it supports the elimination of foreign invaders from our body. However, it can be easily regenerated by glutathione or alpha lipoic acid:
Hence, upregulating the nrf2 pathway for it to operate at a higher level consistently is more desirable.
5. The immune system cells in our body express immunoglobulin A (IgA), an antibody that lines our mucous membranes. IgA is responsible for tagging any virus-infected cells so that they can be programmed to commit suicide via autophagy before they multiply. Certain probiotics strains help to support IgA production.
Bearing that in mind, here are some supplement products that Dr J recommends for supporting one's immune system functions during this COVID-19 pandemic period, and even for general health as a safeguard against flu season and hay fever.
A product list comprising these ingredients can be found here:
Disclaimer: this product list is an affiliate link and I may receive commissions for any purchases made via this list.
Why this brand, though? It’s one of the few supplement brands out there that can meet label accuracy (basically what you see on the label is what you get in the tablet) and bioavailability (basically, how much of what goes into your mouth gets absorbed into your gut?), and this has been verified by third party lab testers as well. You’re getting what you pay for — no additional contaminants and no shortchanging at all. I do cover the concept of label accuracy in greater detail at Dietary Supplements — How Does One Choose a Good Brand for Consumption?
I’ve been using that set of action items for 2 years. Way before COVID-19 became a scare. I don’t even fear COVID-19 — a part of me actually wants to push the limits and see if my immune system can respond to virus-infected droplets seamlessly, but nah. Maybe not. A further description of this action set can be found in these Instagram story highlights.