Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Vitamin D literally unites your immune system, helping it work in a more balanced way and making it very important during cough and cold season and in the protection of your lungs.
A new report published in the Irish Medical Journal reports that Vitamin D supplements may aid in the resistance of respiratory infections, such as the coronavirus or limit the severity of the illness in those infected, according to researchers.
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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Many people with the COVID-19 virus will have a mild infection, will recover and be fine. This is because their immune system is working quite well. Now, before antibiotics were discovered and developed, factors that influenced our immune system were extensively researched. After all, there were no antibiotics to fall back on. So, important factors for you to consider for your immune system that we’ve known for a very long time are vitamins A, C and D along with the minerals Zinc and Magnesium. Now, these are not the only factors – there are also fish oils – but these are of critical importance.
But today, because Spring officially has started recently, many people will be very low in Vitamin D. So today, we will focus on Vitamin D, lung health and overall respiratory health.
What is Vitamin D?
Of all of the nutrients I mentioned before, called host factors which are things you can take that help make your immune system more responsive. Probably the most critical factor right now is Vitamin D. Vitamin D is normally created by an interaction between the sun and the cholesterol in your skin. Because your skin is covered up and there is not enough sun in the winter – unless you’ve been supplementing with Vitamin D – your Vitamin D levels could be critically low.
A recent report from MedPage Infectious Disease that goes out to medical professionals discussed Vitamin D and the Coronavirus. A study from 2017 published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) – a review of 17 human clinical trials by doctors at Queen Mary Hospital in London and Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York and other academic research institutions – included 11,321 people between the age of infant to 95 years of age. Vitamin D was shown to reduce the risk of developing an acute respiratory tract infection (sudden and violent). It worked between if participants took it daily or weekly versus a massive dose from your doctor. A lower, more consistent dose was shown to work best.
In my research, you want your Vitamin D level over 50; the best level to help lower lung risks is between 50 and 80. This is the sweet spot for Vitamin D.
Researchers from the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the University of Birmingham in the UK noted that low vitamin D levels are related to developing sepsis and even mortality in patients. Previous research has also reported this finding. Sepsis is when you have an infection that triggers a powerful reaction from your immune system – a cytokine storm. Your body basically goes into shock; your organs shut down, you could go into coma. In their more recent study, researchers found that if you lack Vitamin D, it is ubiquitous with patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. This research shows that you need it for your lung health.
Vitamin D and Lung Health Benefits
Vitamin D helps maintain tight junctions in your lungs, so it’s harder for a virus to insert itself in there. It is needed by your immune cells to release their powerful weapons and to kill viruses and bacteria. But you also need this vitamin to defend yourself from the immune system.
Your immune system is very powerful and complex. When there is an infection, it has to do two things appropriately. It has to point itself at the infecting organism, identifying it and killing it. Then it has to mount a strong enough attack on the virus or bacteria to kill it, but not strong enough to hurt you. The communicators in your immune system are called Cytokines; chemicals that the immune cells release to communicate with other parts of the immune system. Some cytokines raise the level of attack – pro-inflammatory cytokines – and others calm your immune system down, called anti-inflammatory cytokines.
What is happening when dealing with this Coronavirus, is similar to what you see in sepsis and ebola. If your immune system is strong, the more delicate parts of the immune system can go in and wipe out the virus and you will be okay. But for people with health conditions – older people with conditions especially – their immune system is not working well. If they are lacking vitamin D, they are in trouble. Because the immune system is not working well. This is stuck in the upper respiratory tract and becoming viral pneumonia. This is getting into the lungs and it starts to damage, inflame and kill lung cells.
This triggers a violent counter-reaction from your immune system; there is a massive release of these very powerful communicators that trigger inflammation. If you have more questions about Vitamin D, your respiratory health or COVID-19, email our degreed healthcare professionals at [email protected] today.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
According to The Council for Responsible Nutrition UK, the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus could increase the potential for deficiencies in key nutrients, supporting the immune system.
In Episode 2 of Living A Healthy Life with Diabetes, Amanda Williams, MPH breaks down the difference between prediabetes and metabolic syndrome. Plus, essential nutrients to help counteract the impact of the SAD diet.
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Drink green tea and swallow Vitamin D and you have a better chance of not getting a cold or flu infection this winter. Today, I am going to discuss how to improve the odds of not getting sick this winter and what you can do nutritionally for your immune system. Let’s get started.
What Happens When You Get The Flu
When someone has the flu and they sneeze, that sneeze can travel at a 100 miles an hour for ten feet; try and duck this in a packed train or room. Coughs travel at 50 miles an hour for about 5 feet; lots of luck ducking that one also. When the virus hits you, it uses enzymes to latch onto your cells, enter them, and then multiply leading to that typical week-long infection. The enzymes are viral and allow the infection to attach to the mucus membranes in your nose, mouth, and the tear ducts of the eyes. The virus is then able to enter and exit your cells; this is how the flu infects you.
The virus also uses polymerase acidic proteins to increase in number. Drugs have been developed to block these viral enzymes, including Relenza and Tamiflu in the 1990s and Xofluza in 2018.
Flu viruses are developing resistance to the earlier drugs but, interestingly, not to the ingredients in Green Tea which can help protect you by inhibiting all three families of viral enzymes.†
Studies on Green Tea and Immunity
Many different studies show that green tea weakens the flu virus by inhibiting the enzymes the virus uses to infect us. Additionally, according to a study from the University of Florida at Gainesville, Green tea also stimulates a particular type of immune cell called a gamma-delta T cell which helps govern the ability of your immune system to fight viruses. The research shows that Green Tea also stimulates the release of interferon-gamma, further helping contain viruses.†
The flu shot stimulates the production of antibodies specific to the flu which help kill it, while green tea weakens it directly, so this is a good combination for many.†
Key Studies
Results of a study published in the Journal of Nutrition from the University of Shizouka School of Pharmacy showed drinking Green Tea six times a week decreased a diagnosis of the flu by a pediatrician by 40%. Drinking Green Tea multiple times a day cut the risk by 46%.
In a separate study of healthcare professionals by the same pharmacy school, taking a green tea capsule along with it’s component L-Theanine lowered the risk of the flu by 75%.
Research from the University of Florida shows that taking a concentrated Green Tea capsule two times daily throughout the flu season strongly cut the incidence of the flu. However, if a person did get sick, the infection was much milder, and lasted for a much shorter amount of days.
Green Tea has even been shown to protect the elderly. Elderly people have a weaker immune system and the classic flu shot works less effectively in them. In a study of 124 elderly residents of a nursing home – all of whom received a flu shot – gargling with green tea cut the risk of developing the flu versus placebo.
Other Nutrients for Protection
Green Tea isn’t the only source of protection from the flu; Vitamin D can help also if you are initially low on it.
Vitamin D blood levels drop over the fall and winter months and a study from the University of Colorado that included 19,000 adults and children shows that having a low level of Vitamin D increases your risk of developing the flu by 40%. It was much worse for subjects with respiratory diseases such as asthma; these people had 5 times a higher risk of catching the flu.†
For a healthy immune system, you should aim at getting your blood level of Vitamin D over 35.
Other nutritional aids to help curb winter time infections include;
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
