Simple Tips to Boost Your Immune System
It seems like everyone is getting sick this time of year. From the common cold to flu, RSV, and COVID, illness seems to be rampant. Since the pandemic, we all know how to wash our hands (and how to hoard toilet paper - that’s for another blog), but that isn’t always enough. Fortunately, the body’s immune system is powerful. If you know how to support it, you can decrease your risk of contracting infections and shorten the duration of any illness you catch.
I hope to give you and your family some science-backed tips to boost your immune systems that you might not have considered. Here’s what works - and what doesn’t - from lifestyle factors to supplements. The nice part is that you can use them to help your kiddos stay healthy as well.
Sleep
It’s well known that most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night and that most children need between 10 and 14 hours. Sleep is important not only for alertness, energy mood, weight loss, cardiovascular health (I could go on), but also for immunity. Studies have shown that people who don’t get enough quality sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus. This is because certain proteins called cytokines are released from the immune system during deep (non-REM) sleep, and these help fight infection. If and when we do get sick, it’s important that we get enough sleep because sleep (especially deep sleep) lowers our metabolism and frees up energy for our bodies to mount a strong immune response. So sticking to a consistent sleep schedule and ensuring adequate periods of sleep is one of the best things you can do to stay healthy this season.
Avoid antibiotics unless absolutely necessary
Antibiotics are prescribed more than 154 million times a year, but the CDC estimates that at least 30% of antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary. This matters because antibiotics don’t just go to the source of an infection, they go all over the body. When antibiotics get into your gut, they can kill off your protective bacteria that help boost the body’s natural defenses. Since 70% of the immune system is located in our gut, we need as many good gut bacteria as we can get to ensure that our immune system is strong. (Yes, believe it or not, there is such thing as good bacteria. If you don’t believe me, read this blog.) I’m not saying that antibiotics are bad, they just come with risks, as do all medications. So make sure you and/or your child truly needs that prescription. Antibiotics for a virus, for instance, are completely ineffective.
Get outside
We all know that time outdoors reduces our exposure to airborne viruses, but another benefit is the production of vitamin D, which bolsters our immune system. Sunlight exposure allows the skin to convert the inactive form of vitamin D to the active form, which boost our immune system’s production of cells and proteins that fight infection. Our vitamin D levels are lowest in the winter months when we get the least amount of sunlight exposure, and vitamin D deficiency has been linked to respiratory infections. In fact, children who have low levels of vitamin D are more likely to get respiratory infections, whereas kids exposed to the most sunlight have fewer colds.
Indeed, researchers in Japan followed 340 school-aged children during the winter months. Half of the children received 1200 IU vitamin D and the other half did not. Rates of influenza A in the vitamin D group were 40% lower than in the group who didn’t take any supplementation.
Low vitamin D levels have also been shown to increase the risk and severity of COVID in adults, with the most severely deficient patients having more severe illness. In an Israeli study published in the journal PLOS ONE, patients with vitamin D deficiency were 14 times more likely to have a severe or critical case of COVID than those with adequate levels. Unfortunately, vitamin D administration does not appear to treat COVID and respiratory infections when administered after the illness has taken hold.
Bottom line? Get outside in the sunlight! It’s also a good idea to get your vitamin D levels checked to make sure that you’re not deficient. If your sun exposure is limited, a supplement of 1000-2000 IU of vitamin D3 (the active form) per day is a reasonable place to start. Don’t overdo it, though, as vitamin D can be toxic in high doses.
Eat more greens
Green leafy vegetables are crucial to supporting our immune system through a process called methylation. This is where the body adds a “methyl” chemical group onto a gene or enzyme to change its function. One of the jobs of methylation is to regulate the main cell types of our immune system. Disruption in methylation can cause either autoimmunity (where your body attacks its own cells) or immunodeficiency (where your immune system has a hard time fighting off infections).
To best help your body fight infection, the best foods are green leafy vegetables that are rich in folate and B vitamins. Some methylation superstars include dark leafy greens (kale, broccoli, cabbage), asparagus, avocado, garlic, onions, beans, legumes, and beets. Supplementing your diet with a multivitamin that includes folate, B6, and B12 can also help support your immune system.
Exercise
Regular moderate-intensity exercise has been shown to benefit your immune system. This is because when you exercise, your heart rate increases, which promotes the circulation of the cells that fight infection. Exercise also increases your body temperature similar to a fever, and it helps you sleep better, which also allows your immune system to function at its best.
So if moderate exercise helps immunity, more must be better, right? Wrong. Frequent high-intensity exercise, such as marathon training, can actually suppress your immune system and increase your susceptibility to disease. This is thought to be due to the overall increase in stress hormones from overexercising, which signals your body to focus on physical recovery rather than fighting an infection. So try not to overdo it on your high-intensity exercise this season, and ensure adequate periods of recovery if you do.
Supplements: Myth vs. Fact
Vitamin C
Mostly myth. Despite our obsession with vitamin C and cold prevention, the research actually doesn’t show much of a benefit. Researchers reviewed 60 years of data and showed that taking vitamin C after a cold starts doesn’t make the cold any shorter or less severe. Even taking vitamin C every day didn’t reduce the number of colds a person got, but it did shorten the cold’s duration just slightly, by about 8%. The bottom line? Don’t waste your time taking vitamin C once your symptoms start. But if you take vitamin C every day, you might shorten your cold symptoms by a day or two.
Echinacea
Possible fact? Echinacea is an herb from the daisy family that has been touted to prevent and treat the common cold. The actual research data, however, is mixed at best. Most studies showed that echinacea didn’t prevent cold symptoms. There is some weak evidence that it could stimulate the immune system and shorten cold symptoms, but the results haven’t been stellar. So taking echinacea for cold relief probably won’t hurt you, but it might not help as much as you’d like.
Zinc
Fact. Researchers have been studying the effect of zinc for treating the common cold since a 1984 trial found that it was effective at reducing cold symptoms. Since then it’s been into and out of favor, as subsequent trials found that it was no better than a placebo. But a 2011 Cochrane review of multiple studies found that zinc had a small to moderate effect on reducing the duration of cold symptoms in adults. In two other prevention trials in children, kids 6 ½ to 10 years old took one 10-15 mg zinc sulfate tablet 6 days a week for 5-7 months, and this did slightly reduce the incidence of colds per season.
As a result of all the pooled data, there seems to be convincing evidence that taking zinc soon after the onset of your cold symptoms can reduce the severity and duration of colds. However, since there isn’t good evidence about safety information in children, there isn’t a strong enough recommendation that you should give your kids daily zinc tablets if they are feeling well. The most common side effects were bad taste and nausea, so you should take zinc with food, and all of these studies were done in healthy people under 65 years old, so there isn’t enough information to recommend zinc for people who may have chronic diseases. There also isn’t clear information about which dose is best. So granted it’s a bit nebulous, but over-the-counter zinc may still be your best supplement to take if you feel like you’re coming down with a cold.
I hope this helps you stay healthy this season! Let me know in the comments if you have any feedback or questions!