Why Beta Glucan Should Be Part of Your Immune System Arsenal – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 268
beta glucan
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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Algae, those plant-like green velvet blankets on the surface of ponds and lakes, holds a vault’s worth of nutrition. One of these algae, called Euglena gracilis, supplies and insoluble fiber that stimulates our immune system whenever we need it. This ingredient is called Beta-1.3-Glucan and it’s very well researched. I’m going to refer to it as Beta Glucan for the rest of the episode.
Some Beta Glucans are water-soluble. You find these in cereals, like oats. Those specific Beta Glucans lower our cholesterol, but the Beta Glucan from this algae called Euglena is insoluble. It stimulates the immune system when you need it and the amount you need to take is very tiny. It fits easily into one of those smaller, easy-to-swallow vegetable capsules. Additionally, Beta-1.3-Glucan has GRAS certification from our Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so the American FDA said this is safe for us to use.†
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Euglena is golden-green. It’s really not a plant, although it performs photosynthesis, and it’s really not an animal, although it can move about. It’s a little bit of each. The type of Beta Glucan found in Euglena is an insoluble fiber, in other words you can’t digest it, and it’s found in little pouches, so it’s easy to separate and concentrate. Euglena does not have a cell wall, so it’s also very easy for you to digest and absorb.†
Beta Glucans and the immune system
How does the Beta Glucan in Euglena help with the immune system? It actually interacts with our immune cells in our innate immune system. The innate immune system is the early part of the immune system. Very young people depend on their innate immune system, the immune system they’re kind of born with and develop very early on in life. It’s nonspecific and tackles all infections. It’s mainly composed of a cell called the neutrophil, but also a macrophage and dendritic cells. The dendritic cells kind of control the situation here. Macrophages are these huge cells that are phagocytes, which basically means they gobble up toxins, cellular waste debris, bacteria and viruses and literally dissolve them. The neutrophils travel about and they’re about 90% of our white blood cells.†
Let’s take COVID-19, for instance. When a young person gets it, that early part of the immune system is very effective and very active. It destroys the virus before it hurts the child. That’s why many children do quite well with the COVID-19 infection.†
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But what about older people? Once you hit your mid-20s, about age 25, that first part of the immune system starts to fade because you’ve already encountered the same viruses winter after winter, summer after summer, and you’ve built up specific antibodies to those viruses, so you don’t rely as much on your innate immune system. Now you’re looking at the adaptive immune system, which is the B-cells that have antibodies on them, the T-cells that direct the immune system and the natural killer cells that are kind of the bridge between the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The Beta Glucan interacts with the early part of the immune system and it primes them to fight viruses and other infections.†
Tune into the full podcast episode for research about the important functions of Beta Glucans.
Beta-1.3-Glucan from Euglena supports optimal immune system function. It boosts the function of key immune cells that fight viruses early on. It’s an antioxidant and it promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in our intestines, which is good because that’s also important for our immune system function.†
My recommendation for Beta Glucan is to take one capsule every morning, about a half an hour before breakfast if I was surrounded by sick people. Some people might want to take it all winter long if they’re in constant touch with other people. You can find Beta Glucan in our new Beta Immunity Hx formula.†
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