COVID-19: How to boost your immune system during these troubling times
With fears of this ever-changing pandemic, everyone is eager to know the best things they can be doing to boost their immune system. This is a question a lot of my clients ask me. There is so much uncertainty and fear around this virus. However, seek certainty in the knowledge that often the simplest things in life are the most effective. In this blog article, we’ll look at the effects nutrition has on the function of our immune system.
Eat a balanced diet… here’s why?
We have all heard we should eat a balanced diet full of fruits and vegetables, but it turns out that might be even more important when it comes to making sure your immune system functions at its full potential. In this article, they explain how vitamin A, D, E, C, B6, B12, iron, zinc, selenium and folic acid are key to boosting your immune system. In layman terms, when we eat a balanced diet full of diverse foods, we absorb micronutrients that have shown to vastly improve our natural immunity. The authors, Elmafa & Meyer (2019), explore the various ways in which these micronutrients can assist your immune system. One key way is adequate iron and zinc intake to boost T-Helper 1 cells.
WAIT! What are T-Helper cells?
T-Helper cells serve as our immune system’s first line of defence and come in several different varieties. Each offers slightly different protective effects in the body against various pathogens including viruses. For example; T-Helper cells assist our B cells, which make antibodies to identify threats and mark them for later destruction. The premise upon why vaccines work. In plain english, these little T-Helper cell guys serve as our most important line of our defence against viruses!
I’m sure by this point I’m boring the crap out of you right?
Hahahahaha................................ STICK WITH ME!
What does this all mean?
Well, an increase of T-Helper 1 cell activation in our bodies has shown to have a protective effect on reducing the severity of COVID-19 (Gil-Etayo et al., 2021). In other words, get enough iron and zinc from foods like lentils, tofu, tempeh, spinach, or hemp seeds often enough, and you are in a better position to protect yourself if you do get COVID-19.
Furthermore, in some cases nutritional supplementation may be necessary to avoid vitamin or mineral deficiencies. It’s essential you always seek the assistance of a qualified health practitioner before beginning any supplementation!
Miracle mineral power: Our body’s defence system against oxidation
However, ensuring you eat enough iron and zinc rich foods isn’t the whole picture. A little known mineral called Selenium also plays a vital role when it comes to replenishing our body’s most powerful antioxidant molecule: Glutathione.
Glutathione is essential to mitigating the effects of free radicals (that can cause inflammation and harm to your body), especially those that result from most viral infections.
COVID-19, it seems, is no exception, as most fatal cases are glutathione deficient (Elmafa & Meyer, 2019). This is due to the fact that glutathione inhibits several mechanisms that are vital for the virus to replicate itself (Sanguinetti, 2016).
In short, here’s my four tips for boosting your immune system:
get enough iron and zinc from foods like lentils, tofu, tempeh, spinach, or hemp seeds every day
eat enough foods that are rich in the amino acids glutamine, glycine and particularly cysteine as they are essential to naturally boosting your body’s stores of glutathione.
Alternatively, a great source of cysteine comes from the supplement known as N-Acetyl-Cysteine or NAC and should definitely be worth your consideration as it has a substantiated protective effect on respiratory symptoms, especially in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or [COPD] (Sanguinetti, 2016).
Get adequate selenium in your diet, for instance from a small handful of brazil nuts.
Now what?
Given all this information it’s important to note that these are just some examples of nutrients that share key roles in protection against viruses becoming fatal.
Bottom line, we really must try to give ourselves the best nutrition possible!
The best way to do that is to eat a well balanced diet full of lots of different coloured fruits, vegetables and protein so that our immune system gets supercharged!
If you wish to get a personalised health and fitness plan to boost your immune system and get you as fit and healthy as you can be at this time, despite having minimal fitness equipment a home.
Until next time,
Sincerely yours,
Brock ‘The Badger’ Dagellis
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Extra reading for anyone interested:
The roles of T Helper cells and lymphocyte activation= https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26827/
Reference List
Elmadfa, I., & Meyer, A. L. (2019). The Role of the Status of Selected Micronutrients in Shaping the Immune Function. Endocrine, Metabolic & Immune Disorders - Drug Targets, 19(8), 1100–1115. https://doi.org/10.2174/1871530319666190529101816
Gil-Etayo, F. J., Suàrez-Fernández, P., Cabrera-Marante, O., Arroyo, D., Garcinuño, S., Naranjo, L., … Serrano, A. (2021). T-Helper Cell Subset Response Is a Determining Factor in COVID-19 Progression. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 11, 79. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.624483
Sanguinetti, C. M. (2016). N-acetylcysteine in COPD: why, how, and when? Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/S40248-016-0039-2
