Dr. Daniel Amen walks through a practical immune-boosting checklist: vitamin D (he takes 7,000 IU daily, aiming for 50-100 ng/mL), prebiotic foods like kimchi and garlic since 60% of immunity lives in the gut, zinc and liposomal vitamin C, seven hours of sleep minimum, and comedy to lift immune markers.
Questions this video answers
7,000 international units (IU) per day.
Normal: 30–100 ng/mL; Dr. Amen prefers patients between 50–100 ng/mL and keeps his about 80 ng/mL.
60%.
20 milligrams per day.
2,000 milligrams per day (liposomal vitamin C recommended).
Chapters
What, What I'm actually giving you is a shopping list. A shopping list so that you can be at your peak state. Given we're in the midst of a pandemic.
You make sure your vitamin D level is middle range to high range normal. Every day I take 7,000 international units of vitamin D. Now, for everybody, it's different, depending on the amount of sunshine you get, depending on how dark your skin is. People with darker skin actually need more sunlight to get a healthy vitamin D level.
Vitamin D and vitamin D3, is there a difference?
Yes. Only take vitamin D3. And I recommend everybody if they can get your level tested. Normal is between 30 and 100. I like my patients between 50 and 100, and I keep mine about 80. And it's just a simple thing to do that reminds you to do the other things. 60% of your immunity is in your gut. So it means what you eat really matters, which means feeding prebiotic foods. So think of foods with fiber. Think of kimchi and sauerkraut, which is my favorite.
In our last conversation, doctor, you mentioned garlic, onion and mushrooms.
They help to boost immunity and they're part of really excellent prebiotic foods. So prebiotics are basically foods that feed the probiotics and mushrooms. There are a number of different kinds of mushrooms that help boost immunity. Zinc is absolutely critical, and there is a large deficit in zinc in the population. And so 20 milligrams a day during this time I think is essential. It really helps your immune system fight off viruses. Vitamin C is so important. We often have a deficiency because of the lack of fruits and vegetables people eat a day. 90% of the population does not have 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. I see the minimum required to get the nutrition. You need that vitamin C, especially liposomal vitamin C, because it is better absorbed if you're going to take a supplement.
And how do we get liposomal vitamin.
C so you can get it as a supplement? There's a number of companies that make it, and I recommend during this time, 2,000 milligrams a day of vitamin C because it'll really strengthen your immune system. You really can't take too much. You'll just get rid of what you don't use.
So what you're learning here is, with accurate precision from one of the top medical minds in the United States, exactly what supplements you should be taking, exactly what you should be adding to your diet.
So get this statistic. Soldiers who got seven hours of sleep were 98% accurate on the range. Those who got only six hours of sleep were only 50% accurate on the range. Those that got five hours of sleep were 35% accurate on the range. Those have got four hours of sleep, not uncommon, were only 50, 15% accurate on the range. So when it comes to decision making and turning your immunity on, making sleep a priority is critical.
So what are some of the tips that you can give us to boost our sleep?
Magnesium. I'm a huge fan. Magnesium, melatonin, 5 HTP, GABA, theanine. Really great research behind those supplements is sleep. But ultimately sleep, like brain health, is three things. You have to care about it, avoid anything that hurts it, and then do things that help it. And then I'm a huge fan of hypnosis for sleep.
You spoke about watching comedy movies. Let's speak about that before we wrap.
Up programming your brain with happy thoughts, hopeful thoughts, funny thoughts. There's actually research out of the University of California, Irvine, that watching comedies can enhance your immune system markers. And one of my favorite books of all time, it's called the Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins, who is a very famous magazine editor. And he had an autoimmune disorder called ankylosing spondylitis where his immune system was attacking his spine and all the medications didn't work. He locked himself in a room for 500 hours with comedy and found at the end of that time his autoimmune disorder was dramatically better. And over the next year, it went away. So what goes in your mind matters to how your body functions, especially your immunity. Thank you. Vishak. What a great joy to be with you again.
Absolutely. What a great joy to learn from your brilliant brain again.
