Which Supplements Support Our Immune System?

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US LLC which Supplements Support Our Immune System. This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. John from Facebook asks which supplements support our immune system. Well, turns out there's quite a lot that do and I'll be right back with that answer.

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There are a lot of supplements that can support our immune system. I'm going to really focus on the ones that are tough to get from food alone and then can move the biggest rocks. Those are vitamin C, vitamin D with K, zinc, vitamin A, quercetin, probiotics, elderberry and silver. But I'm also just going to give you a shout out, not go into these in detail. Ones to also consider are andrographis, medicinal mushrooms, beta glucan, astragalus, Gg or Geranol, geranol, curcumin and glutathione. All right, let's dive in with vitamin C. And of course you would have totally expected me to say that. 1. Vitamin C supports immune cell function and enhances their ability to protect against infection. It's been shown to reduce the duration and severity of upper respiratory infections. Plus it's a powerful antioxidant. Now, it's important here we don't make it in our bodies, so you will need to take it. You're not going to get enough from food. When you're really working on your immune system, you're going to want to have two grams a day. If you're sick, you'll want to go up higher to 5 grams or more a day. This is where getting IV vitamin C can be helpful. And remember, it's water soluble, so you want to take it daily and you'll want to take it in divided doses. If you try to take a high dose of vitamin C at once, you will probably end up in the bathroom. So divide it up throughout the day. Next, vitamin D. And I always say vitamin D with K because vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, helps you absorb calcium and K directs it to the right spots. But that's not all it does. That's what we think of it for. But really, vitamin D is essential for your immune system and can reduce the risk of respiratory. Respiratory, I can say it, infections. And many people are deficient in it, mainly because they're either avoiding the sun, they're wearing sunscreen, or they live in a seasonal area. And that's not good news because low vitamin D is associated with increased risk of respiratory infections. Also, vitamin D may enhance the effect of antiviral treatments. So I'm going to read a study. It was a 2019 study review of randomized control studies in over 11,000 people. And they found that supplementing with vitamin D significantly decreased the risk of respiratory infections in people deficient in this vitamin and lowered Infection risk in those with adequate vitamin D levels. So you probably asked next, what are adequate vitamin D levels? Well, I'm glad you asked. So ideally you're testing and that test is called 25 hydroxy vitamin D. And you want to hit between 50 to 80 ngs per milliliter. That's the goal. Depending on where you are there, your dosing is going to be somewhere between 2 to 10,000 IU's. Again, take with vitamin K1 and K2 and this, you'll be taking vitamin D3. Now, if I didn't have a test, in the absence of testing, I would take 5,000 IUs. And if you get sick, 50,000 IUs a day for the time that you are sick. So a week or two. All right, let's go to vitamin A which helps maintain the cell structure of skin, the respiratory tract and gut. And again, that's super important because remember that gut barrier creates the protective barrier against infection. Vitamin A is needed to make antibodies to neutralize the pathogens that cause infection. So you want to get about 5,000 IUs of vitamin A. Now here's a caveat because you'll see beta carotene and carotenoids used here. But if you've got any kind of thyroid issues, low thyroid function impairs your body's ability to convert that beta carotene to A. So really want to see you taking 5000ius of retin a a day. And if you're sick, if you have a respiratory infection, the recommendation is for Short term, take 150,000 IUs of vitamin A. But again, just like the vitamin D, that's a short term recommendation. While that viral infection is active zinc, zinc is needed for immune cell development. If you are deficient, your immune system can't function properly and you are at increased risk of infection and disease, including pneumonia. And deficiency is very common. Probably 30% of older adults are deficient. I used to do this zinc challenge test on my clients and it was the majority of them seemed to be deficient. Numerous studies reveal that zinc supplements may protect against respiratory tract infections. And what's more, supplementing with zinc may be beneficial for those who are already sick. In a 2019 study in 64 hospitalized children with acute lower respiratory tract infections. I can say it. I know I can. Taking 30 milligrams of zinc per day decreased the total duration of infection and the duration of the hospital stay by an average of two days compared with the placebo group. I mean, that's a big effect. So what should you be taking 25 to 50 milligrams a day. And if you're sick, during the time that you're sick, that short window, 100 milligrams a day, very important. Here, take this with food. Zinc on itself will make you nauseous. Do not do that. Next up, quercetin. So quercetin is an amazing antioxidant. It stimulates the immune system, inhibits histamine as an antiviral, and decreases pro inflammatory cytokines. Those are the little signaling molecules released by the immune system. And it helps transport zinc into the cells. Now, you can get this from red onions, from apples, but probably not enough. You're going to want thousand milligrams a day. If you're sick, you want to take 1,000 milligrams three times a day. Probiotics. All right, so a healthy gut is critical for a healthy immune system. It's critical for that immune system to be able to function optimally. 80% of your immune system is in the gut. And probiotics can help support healthy gut function and a balance gut gut microbiome. So probiotics may help give your immune system a boost and inhibit the growth of harmful gut bacteria. And some probiotics promote the production of antibodies. Plus probiotics may reduce the likelihood and duration of respiratory infections. Finally saying respiratory. Right. I just want to get some bonus points for that. Took a while. All right. Never said respiratory so much in my life than the past couple weeks. Wow. All right, let's talk about silver. So silver is really interesting. It's a mineral and it's safe and it's used in places where people have built up a resistance to antibiotics. It's a natural antibiotic, antifungal and antiviral and anti inflammatory inflammatory mineral. And in fact, a study published in the International Forum for Allergy and rhinology in 2015 found that silver can help with sinus infections. I'm actually using silver. Just if I get anything, I'll use a little bit in my nose and down my throat. So interesting one. And you can get a liquid and use it that way. Elderberry. Elderberry is a potent antibacterial and antiviral potential against bacterial pathogens, responsible for upper respiratory tract infections and strains of influenza virus. It enhances the immune system response and may help shorten the duration and severity of colds and symptoms of viral infections. All right, so as you can tell, that's a lot of stuff. And here's what I will tell you that I've been doing personally. So I generally travel a lot. I've been grounded lately. Right now as I'm recording this, we are in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. I was traveling starting at the beginning of the year. We already knew this was happening. So I was taking I have been on vitamin C, vitamin D with K, zinc, vitamin A, quercetin, probiotics, and then I've been taking kind of a multi that's got andrographis, elderberry, beta glucan, astragalus, and then I'm also taking GG and curcumin. But I also was all over the place. So I wanted to make sure my immune system was as supported as possible. And so if I was prioritizing here, my priorities would be vitamin C, vitamin D with K, zinc of vitamin A, quercetin and probiotics and then if we can add in the rest, awesome. All right, just want to keep you from total overwhelm, but I also want to keep you having a very supported immune system because it is so key and critical. Especially now. This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert Effort. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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