Tag: immune system

New Data, Vitamin D & the Immune System. Invite Health Podcast, Episode 610

New Data, Vitamin D & the Immune System. Invite Health Podcast, Episode 610

Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. NEW DATA, VITAMIN D & THE IMMUNE SYSTEM, INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 610 Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph. *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro:[00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast where our degreed 

An Update on Vitamin C & the Immune System, Invite Health Podcast, Episode 606

An Update on Vitamin C & the Immune System, Invite Health Podcast, Episode 606

Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.  AN UPDATE ON VITAMIN C & THE IMMUNE SYSTEM, INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 606 Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph. *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where 

Is it a Cold? Invite Health Podcast, Episode 605

Is it a Cold? Invite Health Podcast, Episode 605


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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.

IS IT A COLD? INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 605

Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.

*Intro Music* 

InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast where our degreed health care professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InVite Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code podcast at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started.† [00:00:34]

*Intro Music*

Jerry Hickey, Ph: [00:00:40] Is it a cold? Is it something else? Colds are common. A typical healthy adult might suffer with up to four colds a year. It’s typical 2 to 4 colds a year. A kid? 6 to 8. But why suffer? In this episode, I will cover how to feel better safely. That’s important when you have a cold and perhaps how not to get one in the first place. And what can you do if you have a cold? How do you get over it faster? What is it? Where does it come from? How do you protect yourself? Well all this and more in my episode, is that a cold? Or I could call it How to Feel Better and Get Better from a cold. Hi, this is Jerry Hickey. I’m a nutritional pharmacist, licensed pharmacist. I love doing these podcast episodes for InVite Health. And by the way, you can find all of InViteⓇ Health Podcast for free wherever you listen to podcasts or just go to their website. Invitehealth.com/podcast. Please subscribe, they love that and leave a review because that’s very helpful. You can also find Invite on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InVite Health and all the information, the description of this podcast is load, is loaded up a new podcast description. So why are colds common in the winter? Is it because we’re inside grouped together? Actually, there seems to be a lot more to it than that. In fact, scientists just published brand new data today, December 6th, 2022, in the Journal of Allergies and Clinical Immunology, it’s brand new. Cold air weakens our immune systems, and it weakens especially our ability to fight off viruses. And this occurs especially in our nose. Now, that’s a problem because our nose is a major transit site for the entry of viruses that affect our respiratory tract. So cold air, even just a nine degree Fahrenheit drop in temperature, inhibits our immune system’s response to infections. Now, this is data from Harvard Medical School. And this nine degree Fahrenheit drop causes us to lose approximately 50% of our virus fighting activity in our nose. So one thing you could do, obviously, you could wear a good mask or a double mask or wear a scarf over your nose when you’re outside with people and it’s cold.† [00:03:16]

[00:03:18] So what is a cold? How do you help prevent it? How do you get over it fast? Or how do you recover faster? How do you treat it? Are there complications? Well, let’s tackle each one of these questions. Now, a common cold. The technical name is acute rhinitis. Acute means sudden, sudden onset rhinitis. Breakdown the word rhino is the nose, itis, inflammation of the nose. So it’s inflammation of the nose. That’s that’s a cold. It’s not in the throat. It’s not in the lungs. So it’s a virus that infects the upper respiratory tract. Now, the upper respiratory tract is from your voice box, which is your larynx, which is located at the top of your trachea, that’s your windpipe. So it’s from your larynx up to your nose, that’s your upper respiratory tract. So colds affect the upper respiratory tract. So obviously it’s a winter issue. I said the incidence before kids can have 4 to 8 colds a year. Healthy adults, 2 to 4 year. Now, what are the microbes involved? While they’re all viruses, there’s over 200 viruses involved from all these different families. So the number one group of viruses that can cause a cold are called rhino viruses. Viruses that affect the nose is over 100 serotypes, so 100 different viruses. That’s why it’s very hard to help prevent all colds, because there’s so many different viruses that can cause a cold. So 30 to 50% of all colds are caused by rhinoviruses.† [00:04:50]

ICYMI: IMMUNE SYSTEM, PART 1: THE BASICS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 491>>LISTEN NOW!

[00:04:51] Now, the second group is coronaviruses. I don’t mean COVID 19, that’s different. There’s four common coronaviruses in the United States. They cause 10 to 15% of all cases of the common cold. Then there’s the influenza virus, which is 5 to 15% of all cases. And a respiratory synctial virus, which is more common in children right now. 5% of all cases, now, what about a summer cold? Well, those are enteroviruses and coxsackievirus. Those are, those are summer colds. So how do you transmit a cold? Well, cold viruses are rarely in saliva. There were things in saliva, like myeloperoxidase, which can kill cold viruses. So only about 10% of all samples of saliva have the virus in the saliva. It’s really nasal discharge, the stuff in your nose. 90% of all colds are caused by nasal discharge. So it could be a sneeze. Now, I once read a study, sneezes can travel at 50 miles per hour for up to five feet, coughs or even worse, a cough can travel ten feet at 100 miles per hour. So how do you dodge that? You’re sitting in a bus, somebody coughs. How are you going to dodge that? Now, contaminated hands. Oh, that’s my dog. I’m sorry about that. Contaminated hands, this is called a fornight, for instance an infected person, somehow, they touch their mucous and then they touch furniture or a doorknob or something. The virus can last on furniture for up to 2 to 4 hours. So you don’t want to touch things when there’s someone infected, a lot of people in the winter and then rub your eyes, nose or mouth. In fact, you never want to rub your eyes, nose and mouth in the winter unless you can really wash your hands, because it’s a problem. Now, I don’t shake hands in the winter. I don’t like shaking hands anyway. You never know where someone else’s hand has been. They don’t know where my hand has been, I do a fist bump or preferably an elbow bump and by the way, sneeze at your elbow. People who cough and sneeze into your elbow, there’s this wonderful study from Paris, France, several years ago. People who coughed or sneezed into their elbow, the transmission of the flu or colds was dramatically less, dramatically less. And also, by the way, in that same study, this was a surprise.† [00:07:11]

[00:07:13] Drinking green tea greatly cut down on the incidence of colds and flu infections. So what increases your risk of catching a cold besides it being cold weather or rubbing your nose and eyes or touching a contaminated table? What increases your risk? Well, obviously, sick contacts. Like what’s the number one source of a sick contact? Children in daycare, they’re like little petri dishes. Alcohol, just one alcoholic drink per day in a woman weakens her immune system. For men, it’s two alcoholic drinks a day that’ll weaken your immune system right away. Lots of sugar. Sugar weakens your immune system for hours, so think about that the next time you want to add three or four teaspoons of sugar to your cup of coffee. Smoking, absolutely no doubt about it. Smoking is strongly connected with an increased risk of upper respiratory tract infections, a history of infections, or having breathing issues like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma. Psychological stress, stress greatly inhibits the immune system. When you’re stressed, you release stress hormones, cortisol type hormones from your adrenal glands, which are these little triangular glands that sit atop each kidney. This has many effects, but one of the effects is sabotaging your immune system. [00:08:33]

[00:08:35] There was a couple of studies like this. L-Theanine comes out of the tea plant. So they gave concentrated l-theanine to health care workers and green tea capsules and the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections in these health care workers greatly reduced. It was an American study. So L-Theanine and green tea. We’ll talk a little bit more about green tea in a little while. Lack of sleep and daytime fatigue definitely connected with an increased risk of developing an upper respiratory tract infection. One reason for this is melatonin. Melatonin is really important to the immune system. Your immune cells actually have receptor sites for melatonin. Melatonin is that nighttime hormone you release when it starts to get dark out to set you up for sleep, etc.. Melatonin has many benefits for bone, for sleep, obviously, but one of them is for the immune system. And if you’re not expressing melatonin, it’s not a good thing because the immune system will just be broken. Decreased physical activity, this is incredibly important. More important than we ever thought. Now, don’t overdo it. If you over exercise, it creates a lot of free radicals. Free radicals inflame the body and increase your risk of developing a cold because you’ll use up your vitamin C, as it’s the antidote to free radicals in the body. We use up to vitamin C at a very fast rate, and then a vitamin C isn’t around to feed the immune system and make it work properly. We’ll get into that. Next week I’ll do a podcast on vitamin C and vitamin D and perhaps zinc, because they’re so key to the immune system.† [00:10:13]

[00:10:14] So physical activity, without overdoing it is very important for your immune system. There’s a Dr. David Nieman at Appalachian State University now. His team followed a thousand adults down in the Carolinas for three months. The number one way to help prevent an upper respiratory tract infection was physical activity. Exercising 5 to 6 days a week, cut the risk of a cold and other upper respiratory tract infections by 43%. That’s almost an half. And even a 20 minute walk once a week was better for preventing an infection than no physical activity at all. It’s just better for the immune system. Physical activity is key for the immune system. Same study, eating fruit, lowered your risk of an upper respiratory tract infection. They found people who had fruit, good quality fruit like three times a day cut the risk of upper respiratory tract infections. It’s the flavonoids. Flavonoids are found in apples and oranges and blueberries and really high quality fruits like that.† [00:11:17]

[00:11:17] So let’s discuss green tea here. Green tea is concentrated with catechins that are powerful flavonoids that do a number of things with flu and cold viruses. Now, flu and cold viruses need enzymes like neuraminidase and hemagglutinin to infect you, to hold on to your mucous tissue, to invade the cell, to propagate and multiply and spread throughout the body. So they found that the catechins, the type of flavonoids specific in green tea, because not all flavonoids are as powerful as one another for inhibiting colds and other infections. The green tea catechins these specific flavonoids in green tea to egcg and egc, etc. They weaken the flu virus, a cold virus, by inhibiting the enzymes the viruses need to shed and infect you. But the green tea also stimulated Gaba Delta T-cell activity, which coordinates the immune systems’ ability to fight off an infection. Now back to how do you improve your resistance? Well, vitamin D, vitamin D does so many things. You need vitamin D for the immune system to function, but you also need vitamin D to protect yourself from the immune system. Like, for instance, people with COVID 19, they wound up with a bad situation in the lungs where they had a cytokine storm, a cytokine, an immune messenger called interleukin six, IL 6, built up in the lining of their lungs. This caused the lungs to get inflamed. The virus was also causing the lungs to get inflamed. As a result, they had a buildup of fluid and it became very difficult for these people to breathe and they could develop acute respiratory distress syndrome. So not only does vitamin D coordinate and activate the cells involved with immune system, but it helps prevent the immune system from damaging you during an infection. You want your vitamin D blood levels, it’s called 25 hydroxy vitamin D or, 25 hydroxy cholecalciferol. So you want it to be above 30, below 30, you’re in trouble. Zinc. Zinc does a host of things. In fact, they found that people who had the first symptoms of a cold, if they did a bunch of zinc lozenges equaling about 80 milligrams a day of zinc, they were able to a fight off the cold or b they got over too cold, much faster. Vitamin C is also required. It does so many things for the immune system. The immune system cannot function without vitamin C. You need vitamin C for CHEMOTAXIS, which is the ability of the immune cells like neutrophils to migrate to the side of the infection, which is your nose. And then you need vitamin C for the immune cells to release all of those weapons. They have to kill the virus. That’s called Chemotaxis excuse me, that’s called respiratory burst. And then you need vitamin C to protect yourself, immune system again, because the virus and the immune system release what we call free radicals that cause all kinds of symptoms and complications. And weigh you down, vitamin C is the antidote to that. It’s an antioxidant, it’s the antidote to free radicals. So vitamin C is important.† [00:14:17]

IMMUNE ADVICE FOR THE FALL MONTHS>>LISTEN NOW!

[00:14:18] A supplement called nucleotides, which has been shown to help people going for surgery and help people who are in acute situations, dangerous situations in hospitals and also the immune system in general. Nucleotides, a supplement that helps your immune system function better. My wife swears by it. I don’t think my immune system is like a tiger. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It’s certainly good to help prevent a cold or flu, but I don’t know if that means in the future I’m at higher risk of autoimmune diseases, but my immune system is very powerful and I tend to fight off colds very quickly or the flu. Also certain strains of probiotic bacteria like bifidobacterium animalis subspecies lactis get your immune system functioning much better within a week or two to fight off colds. Black elderberry, a whole bunch of studies on Black Elderberry helping people fight off colds and beta glucans, beta glucan can be found in yeasts, but they’re common in certain types of mushrooms and beta Glucan stimulate the immune system to fight off infections. There’s good data on that. We’ve been looking at that data for decades.† [00:15:23]

[00:15:27] Now, colds are in the nose and the symptoms, of course, would be a runny nose and sneezing. And you might have a cough, but it’s not a typical cough. It’s a cough because the mucus is running down the back of your throat. So you have post nasal drip. So it’s not usually accompanied by a fever, a cough because of a sore throat or a contaminated throat. There’s not usually a lot of fatigue with a cold. So if you have these symptoms, they help tell the difference between a cold and perhaps the flu or COVID 19. And colds have complications, that’s why it’s important to try to avoid them. For instance, if you already have a lung condition or you’re prone to infections like you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, colds can worsen it. They can make the symptoms more severe. Colds weaken the immune system and open you up for what we call a secondary infection, typically a bacterial infection such as acute otitis media. The doctor looks inside your ear and they see the tympanic membrane, meaning is all inflamed and red and bulging out. This means that you have an infection in the middle ear, so there’s swelling in there or pneumonia, it’s easier to develop bacterial pneumonia, which is very dangerous, in pneumonia, there’s an infection in the lining of the lungs and the alveoli. So it’s harder to breathe because it’s harder to get rid of carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen because there’s fluid lining the lungs. Sinusitis, you know, severe inflammation in the sinuses, which can cause terrible headaches. So you really don’t want a cold, cold symptoms typically in a healthy person or a self-limiting, they’re usually the worst in the first 1 to 3 days and they’re usually gone within seven days. But you can have a long lasting cough from post nasal drip that can last weeks after, the incubation time, how long it gets sick, how long it takes to get sick after somebody sneezes on you is typically 1 to 5 days. So what else helps a cold? Fluids. Fluids help thin your mucus and it’s easier to expel the mucus. Clear up the mucus. So I tell people, you know what, have green tea with lemon and honey. Lemon has flavonoids that have anti microbial activity. Honey is soothing and it has some nutrients in it, and green tea itself has antiviral. Green tea is also soothing because it has a little bit of l-theanine to calm you down and this helps your immune system function better. Rest for the immune system, rest is very important for the immune system function and sleep. Gargle with salt water. The Japanese health authorities recommend that people gargle with salt water twice a day, and studies show that this cuts down on the incidence of flu and colds by about 30%.† [00:18:30]

IMMUNE SYSTEM, PART 4: DIET AND SUPPLEMENTS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 494>>LISTEN NOW!

[00:18:32] Drinking green tea has been shown a human clinical trial to cut down the incidence of flu and cold, so in the winter, I’m brewing green tea two or three times a day for my wife and me. Now, also, drugs for colds can be an issue. Oh, by the way, gargling with the salt water, doesn’t seem to kill the virus, it seems to clear out the virus. So rinse your mouth with salt water. But now drugs for colds. Some of them have lots of alcohol, so that’s a problem. Alcohol suppresses the immune system and some people can’t have alcohol. Decongestants can be dangerous, they can increase your heart rate, your heart could be racing, they can increase your blood pressure. That could cause a spike in your blood pressure. And some people who are very prone to it, they could trigger a stroke and it makes sleeping rather impossible because they’re stimulants. Many of the decongestants are a molecule or two away from speed and instead, use normal saline nasal rinse a couple of times a day. Normal saline means the amount of salt in the water is the same as the amount of salt in your blood 0.9%. And this way it doesn’t irritate your nose. So those are my recommendations.† [00:19:42][

[00:19:45] I told some people who are older, get on a good probiotic to help prevent a cold. Probably a certain strains of probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosis, Lactobacillus plantarum, And especially bifidobacterium, any model subspecies lactos really helps the immune system function much better to require for cold season. Drink green tea throughout the day or take a good tincture or a capsule of green tea twice a day. All of these have been proven to lower the incidence of colds in American studies, not just Japanese studies and European studies. If you start to get sick, take nucleotides like three capsules twice a day for three or four days, it won’t hurt you. It’s it’s a tonic for the immune system. It gives the immune system instant energy. And by the way, every day get your vitamin D and your zinc and your vitamin C, all of these have ability to improve the immune system’s functions to fight off an infection. In any event, thanks for listening. You can find all of the invite podcast episode for free or whereever you listen to podcast or just go to Invitehealth.com/podcast. And please subscribe and leave a review. You can also find Invite on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at InVite Health. I want to thank you for listening today. Hope to see you next time. On another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Jerry Hickey signing off. Have a great day.† [00:19:45]

*Exit Music*

Don’t Let Parasites Creep You Out-Invite Health Podcast, Episode 594

Don’t Let Parasites Creep You Out-Invite Health Podcast, Episode 594

Subscribe Today! Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode. Hosted by Amanda Williams MD, MPH *Intro Music* InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed health care professionals are excited to offer you the most important 

Getting to Know Omega-3s – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 526

Getting to Know Omega-3s – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 526

Your body needs omega-3s to function properly, but most Americans are lacking these important fatty acids. Here’s why that’s a problem for immunity, brain health and more.

Getting to Know Zinc – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 516

Getting to Know Zinc – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 516

zinc

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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.

Getting to Know Zinc – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 516

Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH

*Intro music*

InVite Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InVite Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that InVite Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code PODCAST at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started!

*Intro music*

Amanda Williams, MPH:

[00:00:40] The human body comes naturally equipped with vitamins and minerals, and when we look at the second most abundant mineral in the body, this is zinc. Zinc is just behind iron when it comes to its total distribution found throughout our system. We certainly understand the importance of iron when it comes to the production of hemoglobin in the transport of oxygen. So when someone has low iron, this can lead to anemia, which can make people feel very fatigued or short of breath. So what happens if our second most abundant mineral happens to be on the low end, whether that be insufficient levels or deficient levels? That’s what I want to talk about today. I’m Amanda Williams, M.D., M.P.H., and let’s talk about zinc.† [00:01:24]

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[00:01:25] Zinc is really one of those overlooked minerals in our system because many times we just think about it in the setting of our immune system. And clearly we know that it is very, very important. If you have insufficient levels of zinc or deficient levels of zinc, we can see how this creates what is known as immunosenescence, or basically creating an environment to which the immune cells and the immune system in general begins to degrade or lose its strength. So we know that we need to have zinc. But what are some of the other things about zinc that you may not know? And that’s what I want to zero in on today. When it comes to the multiple functions of zinc in the body. And I want to make sure that I’m clear on this because zinc has a few different actions that we know what makes it so impactful throughout our entire body. When we understand that through the catalyzation of enzymes, so zinc is responsible for catalyzing over 100 different enzymes. But it’s not just limited to that because we can also recognize that we need zinc for more than 2000 different transcription factors when we’re looking at gene expression, meaning every day functions in the body are heavily reliant on zinc. So now we can see, OK, if we don’t have enough zinc, this can definitely impact not just our immune system, but we can start to see the spiraling effect.† [00:03:03]

[00:03:04] So let me walk through just the key basic functions of zinc. We know that when it comes to at the cellular level, we can categorize zinc into three different sections. One is its catalytic properties, one in terms of structural and the other for regulatory. So we know that there are so many different enzymes that depend on zinc for that ability to catalyze. I said over 100 different enzymes. So in the absence of adequate zinc, we are now going to have a problem for those enzymes to be able to do what they need to do. Big problem. Now let’s think about the structural role. We understand that zinc helps and aids in the folding of certain proteins in the body. We can see its impact when it comes to different receptors that our hormones attach to, so we can think of thyroid hormone. We can look at our sex hormones, we can look at our adrenal hormones, and now we can see why low levels of zinc have been implicated in a underactive thyroid because without adequate zinc, the thyroid hormone itself is going to struggle. So it’s really absolutely fascinating when we take a simple mineral and then we start to really expand that out and say, “Oh my goodness, we have to have zinc for this, for, for gene regulation and for enzymatic expression and for these regulatory roles.”†[00:04:49]

[00:04:50] So if we don’t have zinc, how is it that we can help at that cellular level for nerve transmission, for that hormonal influence, even when we think about metabolic syndrome and enhancing insulin sensitivity? Zinc, yes, plays a role into this as well. We can see the true impact of zinc when we think about those hormonal health. When you look at men and prostate health, they’ve been able to correlate how low levels of zinc have been detected in prostate cancer cells. So if the prostate cancer cells do not have adequate zinc, that means they can continue to thrive. Because remember, zinc is helping the healthy cells with their replication, whereas the cancer cells are not using that. So it’s really very profound the amount of data and the amount of science that is out there when it comes to how zinc works in the body.† [00:05:56]

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[00:05:56] And we can look at clear indications of zinc deficiency. And this is not as common as it once used to be. There used to be a lot of issues just because of malnutrition. And so you would see the worldwide prevalence of zinc deficiency was much more common many years ago. Now it’s not as common, however we can, we still see great rates or great prevalence of zinc insufficiency, and this can be problematic if we have inflammation. Inflammation in the intestines, for example. So we can look at things like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, the different inflammatory bowel diseases that we know impact many people. We can certainly see how those who are following more of a vegetarian diet may need a greater intake of zinc. So it’s possible that you can have a zinc insufficiency, which can now lead to problems with pathways, enzymes, hormones. And this is why I want to talk about it outside of just thinking of it for the common cold and for our immune system. Now we know that when we’re looking at different micronutrient deficiencies and easily a good 10, 15% of the population certainly is not obtaining enough just from dietary intake alone, which once again can lead to issues with our vision health, with our cardiovascular health, with our neurological health and obviously with our immune system health. So it’s not something that we want to overlook. Interestingly, they, they’ve been able to connect those dots and see how the inadequate exposure to zinc in our diet, creating these deficiencies or insufficiencies, have been linked to age-related macular degeneration. Interesting, right? Because many times when we think about zinc, like I said, we stay in that lane of immune system, but we now can start to expand that out and say, “Wait. Zinc is dealing with the structural, the functional.”† [00:08:13]

[00:08:15] And of course, looking at the catalytic component to zinc. And that’s where it’s really very interesting, the fact that it is required for these enzymes. And if we don’t have adequate amounts, how problematic that actually becomes for us when we’re looking at eye health and age-related macular degeneration, we can see that the zinc is found in very high concentrations within our retina. And so if we have inadequate zinc throughout our lifetime, and we have this continued steady decline of zinc within the retina, this can be a exacerbator to the development of age-related macular degeneration. We certainly see the linkage between blood glucose and glycation that occurs in the body in the setting of type two diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Certainly, we know that zinc plays a role in the action of insulin coming from the B cells. So we think about the pancreatic B cells and the secretion of insulin. We know that zinc definitely is playing this key, an important role. When we think about our mood, when I said neurological but thinking about brain health, we can certainly now link the inadequate intake of zinc with issues such as depression and anxiety. So it’s an area that we want to make sure that you’re getting an exposure to, that you’re not getting too much, you know, too much of zinc, you don’t necessarily need more than probably 50mg of zinc per day between, you know, the different nutrients that you’re taking from your multivitamin. Plus, if you have an add on zinc formulation.† [00:10:07]

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[00:10:09] But you definitely want to make sure that you do not ignore zinc, because at the end of the day, we want to be able to fend off oxidative stress, and we know that zinc is a unique mineral in the fact that it has antioxidant properties. We understand that zinc is this key co-factor when it comes to the way that our body heals a wound healing. So anyone that’s going in to have a procedure, I always say, make sure you’re taking your zinc and your Vitamin C. This is really very important. At the very least, we want to be taking a multivitamin that has a chelated zinc in it, so if you’re looking at our Core Multivitamin, the Men’s, the Women’s or the Performance Multi. You can also look at adding additional zinc via doing the Zinc Picolinate. Or you can also do the Immunity HxⓇ, which is going to yield you that zinc exposure as well, because remember, zinc is responsible for all of these different functions and different enzyme reactions in those biochemical pathways. So when we think about the regulation of protein and DNA synthesis and our thyroid function and bone health and our immune system and fending off oxidative stress, so whether we’re having concerns with cardiovascular health, thyroid health, neurological, vision health, we definitely want to make sure that we do not overlook the second most abundant mineral in the body, which is zinc.† [00:11:42]

[00:11:43] So thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting invitehealth.com/podcast. Now do make sure that you subscribe and you leave a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:11:43]

*Exit music*