Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Melatonin is commonly known as the sleep hormone, but did you know that it’s also important for immune functions, fat burning and more? Learn more about why it’s important to have sufficient levels of melatonin from Amanda Williams, MD, MPH.
Chronic inflammation can wreak havoc on the body, so what can you do to help? Turn to powerful nutrients such as Vitamin D, resveratrol and more to help with inflammaging.
COVID-19
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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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!
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Jerry Hickey, Ph.:
[00:00:40] There is an indisputable relationship between Vitamin D and our immune system. Lacking Vitamin D, such as on a blood test, increases the risk of severe infection, but also increases your risk of having an autoimmune disease where your own immune system is attacking your body, which is a very dangerous situation. And now Vitamin D strengthens a number of immune cells. It’s involved with controlling these cells also. For instance, converting monocytes to macrophages. Very important. These are part of the uneducated part of the immune system that will attack any foreign invader. Monocytes travel to a site and develop into these very big cells. They’re called phagocytic cells called macrophages. Phagocytic means they literally consume and digest bacteria and viruses. But you get these type of cells, for instance, in your liver to clean out your blood because your blood goes, gets filtered through your liver. So Vitamin D is needed for macrophage functions. Neutrophils, they’re dominant white blood cells, they’re not educated. They attack whatever they’re pointed at. Dendritic cells, they kind of connect the entire immune system. T lymphocytes. That’s really important. T lymphocytes are involved with the formation of antibodies. T cells have a memory for particular infections. For instance, if you had COVID-19 three years ago, if somebody sneezed on you or coughed on you with COVID-19 today, you’d have some memory T cells, which would very quickly alert the immune system and have it create new antibodies. Antibodies fit COVID-19 or any infection like a glove fitting perfectly on a hand. T cells go in and shred infections and cancer cells, but T cells also control the immune system. So Vitamin D is involved with all of these cells and B cells. B cells are where a lot of your antibodies are created on B cells.† [00:02:50]
[00:02:52] Now, Vitamin D also raises anti-inflammatory cytokines and reduces the level of inflammatory cytokines. That really came to light with COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19. That’s the name of the infection, not the name of the virus. And up front, back in 2020, many people were developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. The virus would invade their lungs and trigger inflammation. There would be backlash from our immune system, and our immune system would fill the lungs with inflammatory cytokines like interleukin six and interleukin four, and this was destroying people’s lungs. This was a major cause of death up front, early on in people with COVID-19. So Vitamin D raises anti-inflammatory cytokines to protect tissues like the brain and the lungs and the heart and the kidneys, etc., such as interleukin 10, and lowers the level of inflammatory, dangerous cytokines so they don’t destroy us. Because our immune system is such a powerful army, it could literally destroy us very quickly. So you need this control.† [00:04:05]
[00:04:06] Vitamin D… This is very important. It can actually be activated by our own immune cells. There’s receptor sites for Vitamin D on almost all of our immune cells. That just shows how important Vitamin D is for the immune system that all of the immune cells practically require Vitamin D activity. But Vitamin D can also be activated by immune cells, which is very interesting. At one time, we thought only the kidneys could activate Vitamin D. Now we know there’s other tissues in the human body that can activate Vitamin D, so this really hits the ball out of the ballpark in the last inning of the World Series, a super homerun. In fact, the grand slam, showing how important Vitamin D is for the immune system.† [00:04:54]
[00:04:55] Also, it’s involved with preventing acute respiratory distress syndrome. Acute respiratory distress syndrome is when the lung gets so inflamed that it’s filling with fluid and you can’t breathe. These are the people that early on were put on oxygen and they were put into intensive care units, they were put on oxygen and ventilators and the ventilators were blowing out their lungs because the SARS-CoV-2 inflamed and damaged the lungs so much that when they put the pressure of the ventilator on the lungs, it just finished off destroying the lungs.† [00:05:25]
[00:05:27] So this is… There’s a lot of new data on Vitamin D and COVID-19. So welcome to my episode, An Update on Vitamin D and COVID-19. Hi, my name is Jerry Hickey. I’m a nutritional pharmacist. I’m also the Senior Scientific Officer over here at InViteⓇ Health. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcast episodes, or you could just visit invitehealth.com/podcast. You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @invitehealth. And all of the information on today’s episode is linked at the episode description.† [00:06:00]
[00:06:01] So I want to get into these studies. They’re very interesting. This was recently published information from IU International University of Applied Sciences. It’s published in the journal Nutrients. They’re in Germany. The IU International University of Applied Sciences is in Germany, and they used computers, artificial intelligence to find data on COVID-19 and Vitamin D related to mortality. And here’s what they found… That there was a strong correlation between the severity of a COVID-19 infection and the level of Vitamin D in your blood, the level of Vitamin D in your blood. This was based on one huge population study and seven clinical studies. Increased levels of Vitamin D3 seem to strongly, powerfully reduce the risk of mortality from COVID-19. And when they did the algorithm, that’s a mathematical model, hypothetically, if you got your blood level of Vitamin D above 50, there should be no mortality. So the higher the level of Vitamin D in your blood up to 50, over 50 there was no additional benefit, the lower your risk of severe infection, such as winding up in the intensive care unit of a hospital on oxygen, etc. and the lower your risk of dying. So they said that they’re recommending, these researchers, getting your blood level of Vitamin D above 50 to prevent and also to treat outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2, you know, COVID-19, but also to prevent the emergence of new variants.† [00:08:05]
[00:08:08] Now this is the Epidemiology Center, Durham VA Health Care Center. So they’re quantifying, they’re collating all this research and intelligence. They were working with the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy, Harvard Medical School, Duke University, Duke Cancer Institute and Signify Health in Dallas. They published their findings in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Cool journal. They’re looking at over 26,000 American veterans, 26,508 American veterans who were diagnosed positive for SARS-CoV-2, so COVID-19. Giving them high doses of Vitamin D cut their risk of dying from COVID-19. The higher the dosage, to a point, the lower their risk of dying in the hospital.† [00:09:03]
[00:09:06] Now they’re giving people with COVID-19 that’s infecting their lungs, etc., corticosteroids such as hydrocortisone, which could be called hydro cortef or prednisone or medrol dose pack. And they found that compared to patients on corticosteroids, giving patients Vitamin D, high doses, cut their risk of dying by 70%. That’s compared to corticosteroids. That’s not saying corticosteroids weren’t saving people. It’s just Vitamin D was more effective. And they found that in hospitalized patients, adding Vitamin D to a corticosteroid such as prednisone or medrol or hydrocortisone further cut the risk of dying by 49%. That’s actually quite amazing. Get on your Vitamin D. My blood level of Vitamin D currently is about 49, so that’s perfect. I mean, 49, 50, not really any difference.† [00:10:08]
STEROID DRUGS DEPLETE THESE NUTRIENTS, PART 1 – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 471. Listen Now>>
[00:10:09] So this is the Journal of General Internal Medicine. It’s the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, the Department of Medicine and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, Colorado, and various VA health care centers. It’s published right now, January 2020. So it’s a very, very recent. All of this data is very, very current, very, very recent data. These are patients and the Veterans Administration health care system. They’re in the facilities. They have severe acute respiratory distress syndrome COVID-19. These people are in trouble. It’s hurting their lungs. They then tested their blood for their Vitamin D level, and they followed them for up to two months because not all of them made it to the two month point. Giving the patients Vitamin D… There was a dose response, a strong correlation. So what does that mean? That means giving a little was helpful, giving more was even more helpful and giving a lot was even better. The higher the dose of Vitamin D, the lower the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 and the lower the risk of dying from COVID-19. In fact, it cut the risk of dying from COVID-19 basically by 50%.† [00:11:32]
[00:11:37] So Vitamin D is safe, it’s not expensive. I don’t know why the government and all these healthcare agencies are not telling the general public to take some Vitamin D right now. They’re probably worried that people’ll overdo it because people have a tendency to do that. I would, I would get a hold of about 3000 units of Vitamin D3. Now, the research shows that Vitamin D3 is superior to Vitamin D2 for humans. It lasts in our body longer. It works better. It’s more effective. I would get about 3000 units of Vitamin D3, and for the first three days or so, I’d take about 9000 units. I’d take about three tablets or capsules, whatever it might be in, a day with food for about three days, and then I’d cut it down to 3000 units every day with food, because the research shows that taking Vitamin D every day is much more effective than getting one huge dosage once a week or once a month. So take the Vitamin D3 3000 units daily. Get your blood tested. A blood level between like 45 and 75 is beautiful. You don’t need higher than 75.† [00:12:56]
[00:12:59] So I want to thank you for listening to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast today. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or just go to invitehealth.com/podcast. Please leave us a review and please subscribe. I guess if you liked us, you’ll subscribe. In any event, you can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms @invitehealth. Hope to see you next time in another episode of InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Thank you so much for listening! Jerry Hickey signing off.† [00:12:59]
*Exit music*
With flu season upon us, Senior Scientific Officer Jerry Hickey, Ph. revisits the topic of green tea’s benefits for our immunity. Tune in to hear him discuss the powerful constituents in green tea, as well as their abilities to help protect the body from infections such as COVID-19.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, immunity has been on everyone’s mind. But how much do you know about the immune system? Learn about the basics of how your body defends itself from pathogens and invaders in this episode of the InVite Health Podcast.
immune health immune health
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
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: We’re in a time where everyone has concerns about immune health and I want to discuss a little bit about how the brain plays a role into this and why it’s very important that we don’t ignore that. When it comes to different nutrients that can help to enhance the way our brain is functioning and supporting our immune defenses, there’s one product in particular that I do want to really zero in on today and highlight just why it’s so incredibly beneficial for so many areas within the way in which the brain is working each and every single day.†
I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH and let’s get right to it. The immune system with our Cognition HxⓇ formulation. This is a comprehensive nutrient blend. It has our phospholipid in it, so it has phosphatidylserine. We’re getting the acetyl-l-carnitine, so once again, we think about crossing that blood-brain barrier, having that acetyl group, allows for that amino acid carnitine easier transport into the brain to generate up that cellular energy. We’ve got ginkgo biloba in this. We have huperzine in this and we have NADH.†
ENHANCED MEMORY SUPPORT WITH COGNITION HX® – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 293. Listen Now>>
We know that NADH is one of those areas in research right now where scientists just can’t get enough. This is coming from the B-vitamin niacin. What we know about NADH is that this allows for a significant ability to boost up our energy production. It also helps to facilitate a better recycling of our natural antioxidants, things like Ubiquinol. So we now see that nicotinamide adenine, which is NADH, this is just kind of that area of research right now where we just keep learning more and more.†
I think it’s important that people understand that when we think about energy and mental alertness that something as simple as a Vitamin B3 derivative, this NADH, is playing such a critical role in how our body is maintaining this cellular capability to fend off immunosenescence. I know sometimes we think, immune system is one, brain health is another… No, we have to be able to draw that correlation and that link once again.†
Having that ginkgo biloba in there, this we know is definitely one of those areas where, because of its powerful antioxidant components that are contained within ginkgo, that this is what really potentiates, once again, much of that support when we think about our immune defenses. Being able to heighten the body’s ability to fend off oxidative stress, even if you were taking ginkgo just for that purpose alone, we know that we’re getting that immune system support. But we also recognize that the ginkgo is really helping to support healthy circulation, maintaining the normal function and tone of the blood vessels, so all of these things that we know that, through the aging process, can start to take a hit.†
And this is why, when we think about ginkgo biloba, it goes far beyond that of just for memory and for circulation. We now recognize that ginkgo has been studied to support gut health and they’ve actually done studies looking at how ginkgo could target peptic ulcers that were brought on by H. pylori. The way that it was actually working was through the enhancement of superoxide dismutase. Once again, kind of going back and drawing upon those endogenous antioxidants and how this can help to heighten up the body’s ability for rapid repair and targeting these harmful things such as bacteria.†
We have seen ginkgo over the last few years, too, being shown to have antiviral properties and they actually looked at anti-influenza activity of ginkgo. This was in the Journal of Natural Medicine. This was roughly about a decade ago, looking once again at how ginkgo can help the immune system fend off influenza. The way in which it’s doing this is through its antioxidant ability, but also through this finite ability to work or communicate with the immune cells to be able to rid the body of the influenza. Once again, we always think about viruses, how can we stop their replication? It appears that ginkgo does a lovely job at doing this.†
So, back to the Cognition HxⓇ. We know that we have all of these power nutrients that have been studied independently for their ability to really support good cognition as we get older. We have that phospholipid, the phosphatidylserine in there, to maintain the structural integrity of the brain when we think about that atrophy, that shrinking of the brain. We know that we need those key fats to maintain that structure. Then we know that we need to be able to increase energy production. We know that we need to be able to fend off oxidative stress. We know that we need nutrients that are going to allow for proper cellular communication between those brain cells. And that’s what these individual nutrients have been studied for.†
So when you combine them all together, the Cognition HxⓇ is this very comprehensive way to optimize your brain’s overall ability to make energy, the metabolism of the brain, the activity, the true functionality of the brain, but at the same time, we’re also supporting the immune system when we think about immunosenescence. Immunosenescence is a real thing and it is something that we definitely don’t want to ignore or take for granted. So we want to do what we can as far as healthy diet, exercise, taking in the nutrients that we know can support our brain, our heart, our immune system and this is why the Cognition HxⓇ is really just incredibly comprehensive because while its name implies cognition for cognitive function, we’re certainly yielding those benefits throughout the entire body when we’re using this formulation. And this is why I wanted to discuss it today because each one of those nutrients within this formulation are so incredibly powerful in their own right and the science behind how those individual nutrients are working, from the ginkgo, from the NADH, looking at the acetyl-l-carnitine, looking at, obviously, the phosphatidylserine. So we know that this is a powerhouse when it comes to brain health, but we now recognize it to be so much more than just for optimizing the health of our little neurons in our brain. We can certainly gain that benefit when it comes to really enhancing the immune defenses, even within the brain, as well as throughout the body.†
So that is all that I have for you for today. I want to thank you so much for tuning into 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 us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @invitehealth and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.†
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