Immune Boosting 4 Better Health – What supplements do we recommend?

Many or our patients, colleagues and loved ones have reached out to us to inquire about “ways to reduce their chances” of becoming seriously ill with the corona virus which causes COVID19.

Since this virus is a novel virus (meaning it is new and research on it’s replication and activation in human bodies is evolving daily), we are unable to offer definitive recommendations specific for COVID19. However, it is our passion to inspire ways for keeping your immune system in its best shape as a best defense against viruses.

When our body has an ‘invader’ our immune system produces Cytokines.  These proteins signal the body to ‘start fighting’ (a good thing most of the time).  This ‘fight’ automatically upregulates inflammation in the body and is the primary underlying ‘driver’ for symptoms and how well the body adapts to the ‘invader’.  This is what we call an ‘upregulated immune system’. Depending on how strong the immune system is, and what else might be ‘distracting’ it (poor diet, lack of sleep, stress) decides the level of a ‘burden’ a virus becomes on the immune system.  While there may not be definitive research available yet specific to COVID19, there is a plethory of science backing the following methods to reduce inflammation:

• Optimize Quality Sleep – Aim at 7-8h of good quality sleep. Sleep is where our immune system gets it’s energy to function optimally, it is when we detox, cortisol drops (ie: rest and digest) and when our pancreas rests to lower insulin.
• Concious Eating – eat the rainbow, whole foods, less sugar, processed carbs, focus on less boxes, bags, cans)
  • If eating packaged food – read nutrition label for sugar/serving and look at ingredients. Can you read them? Do you know what they’re made of? Avoid dyes, Trans fats, HFCS and sugar substitutes a much as possible
  • For some removal of gluten or dairy can drastically reduce inflammation (top 2 Food sensitivities)
  • The amount we eat is a major factor of inflammation as well. Overeating increases the immune response. This increased immune response causes the body to generate excessive inflammation, which may lead to a number of chronic diseases and less ‘response’ for viruses and bacteria
  • Optimize healthy proteins – try to reduce inflammatory cooking techniques
  • Keep sugar intake to less than 20g/day – read nutrition labels
    • Reducing/removal of high glycemic foods
      • Grains
      • Dairy
      • Desserts, candies, cookies, syrups, etc
      • Often sugar is hiding in our daily beverages
• Reducing Stress as much as possible – Stress aka ‘fight/flight’ puts us in ‘sympathetic’ nervous system response which automatically reduces immune system function
  • SHUT OFF TV (and reduce reading articles/watching posts on social media about things you can not control
  • If needed reach out for Mental health support – reach out and be honest with loved ones, practitioner, counselors – don’t wait!
  • Think “Frozen” and “Let it go!”
    • Exercise – walk – hike – yoga can be helpful. Exercising is a great stress release for many, but too much can also add to the ‘sympathetic’ nervous system response of fight/flight/freeze which often reduces the immune system’s power
    • Qigong
    • Tapping (EFT)
    • Meditation and yoga-nidra
    • Reading fiction, romance, travel, hobby books
    • Watching comedies
• Optimize digestion and gut function -Your gut health and your immune system are intricately linked.  Everyone should have at least one bowel movement every day. If there is constipation, diarrhea, heartburn and/or bloating work on correcting this (or reach out to a practitioner to support you).

Are there supplements that help to boost the body’s immune system?   At this time, there are no specific vaccines or uniformly successful treatments for COVID-19. However, emerging research on several specific botanical and nutraceutical agents is promising which can optimize the immune system’s ability to adapt and support the body during any virus.   These are listed below. As always, we recommend you run any supplementation by your medical practitioner.

As always, we recommend high quality supplements and caution anyone from ordering supplements from unknown sources online.  For ease of ordering we have set up all of these supplements in a “Viral Support” category on our Fullscript account.     Juice plus can be ordered directly from Juice Plus .  Contact our office should you want to have access to these high quality safe nutraceuticals.   Email us with questions or concerns at Info@4Betterhealthmedicine.com or call us at 508-625-1807.