Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
RSV-Respiratory Syncytial Virus Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND Cold and flu season may be a common topic of conversation however there is another virus that is a hot topic at this time of year. That is RSV. What even is RSV? Why is it important to …
Cold and Flu Season is Here
Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
If you have noticed that it seems like everyone around you, you are coughing or sneezing it’s not just your imagination! Cold and flu season has arrived. What can you do to boost your immunity? Well, there’s plenty of nutrients that can help boost your immune system. It’s a lot to cover so let’s get into it, shall we?
How do you know if you have a cold or the flu? Well, the best way to tell the difference is by doing a review of your symptoms. Please see the chart below for a side-by-side comparison of cold symptoms and flu symptoms. (4)
In addition to the symptoms that you may experience there is also a difference in how quickly your symptoms appear. In general, the flu becomes symptomatic very fast. A cold typically has a slower onset of symptoms. So, what does this mean in practicality? With the flu you may feel fine on Monday but by Tuesday night you feel absolutely miserable! In contrast a cold will typically take longer for you to begin to show symptoms. (1)
The severity of the symptoms experienced is also usually different between a cold and the flu. In general, the flu will have more severe symptoms than a cold. Some people describe the flu as a “cold on steroids”. (1)
What exactly are the risk factors for developing a cold or the flu? While cold weather won’t give you a cold or the flu in my clinical experience it can affect your body’s ability to fight the viruses that do cause these illness. Other risk factors for developing a cold include age, for example infants, young kids and elderly folks are at a higher risk of a cold. Those with a compromised immune system as well as those that smoke are also at a higher risk of catching a cold. Of course, exposure is key since you can’t get a cold if you aren’t exposed to the virus! (2) In contrast what are the risk factors for the flu? Just like with a cold age also increases your risk. Having a compromised immune system also increases your risk. Certain chronic illnesses such as asthma or even diabetes can increase flu risk. Just like with a cold being exposed is important since you can’t get the flu if you don’t come in contact with the virus! Lastly, being obese, on aspirin therapy or being of certain ethnicities can all increase the risk of complications of the flu. (3)
So just what can you do to ward off a cold or the flu?
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Holidays and Immune Health Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND While the holidays are often times of fun, exciting travel and a time to reconnect with family and friends they can also be a time when we are exposed to different pathogens or germs than we are …
INTRODUCING PROBIOTIC HX IMMUNE~GUT AND IMMUNE SUPPORT By: Allie Might, FMC, INHC, ATT We all know about the benefits of a probiotic. Whether you know about it through a healthcare or wellness provider or from commercials and advertisements, it’s rather familiar to us all. …
Immunity Hx
Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
I wanted to do my product highlight on what I consider to be the cornerstone of immune heath. In fact Immune is in its very name, Immunity Hx! Immunity Hx is a combination of vitamin C, vitamin D3 and Zinc! Immunity Hx has 500 mg of vitamin C, 2000 IUs (50mcg) of vitamin D3 and 30mg of zinc. Each of these nutrients has numerous studies showing how they can benefit our immunity.
Let’s start with vitamin C. Vitamin C is called an essential nutrient because it is a key nutrient for different pathways in our body yet our body is unable to make it. In other words we must get vitamin c in either our diet or in supplement form. In fact in western populations studies have found that vitamin c deficiency is common and in fact is the fourth leading nutrient deficiency in the US. Vitamin C deficiency may be caused by poor diet, drug or tobacco use, alcohol use, various chronic disease and even by pollution. There are four aspects of our immune system that are positively affected by vitamin C. These are the epithelial barriers, phagocytes, lymphocytes and inflammatory mediators. Please see the attached Table for all the ways vitamin c affects these parts of the immune system. (1)
Table 1
Role of vitamin C in immune defense.
| Immune System | Function of Vitamin C | Refs. |
| Epithelial barriers | Enhances collagen synthesis and stabilization | [30,31,32,33,34,35] |
| Protects against ROS-induced damage 1 | [36,37,38,39,40] | |
| Enhances keratinocyte differentiation and lipid synthesis | [41,42,43,44,45] | |
| Enhances fibroblast proliferation and migration | [46,47] | |
| Shortens time to wound healing in patients | [48,49] | |
| Phagocytes (neutrophils, macrophages) | Acts as an antioxidant/electron donor | [50,51,52,53] |
| Enhances motility/chemotaxis | [54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63] | |
| Enhances phagocytosis and ROS generation | [64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71] | |
| Enhances microbial killing | [54,55,57,58,70,72] | |
| Facilitates apoptosis and clearance | [71,73,74] | |
| Decreases necrosis/NETosis | [73,75] | |
| B- and T-lymphocytes | Enhances differentiation and proliferation | [62,63,76,77,78,79,80,81,82] |
| Enhances antibody levels | [78,83,84,85] | |
| Inflammatory mediators | Modulates cytokine production | [75,77,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94] |
| Decreases histamine levels | [56,61,95,96,97,98,99,100,101] |
1 ROS, reactive oxygen species; NET, neutrophil extracellular trap. Note that many of these studies comprised marginal or deficient vitamin C status at baseline. Supplementation in situations of adequate vitamin C status may not have comparable effects.
Vitamin C has been found in studies to help fight different viral infections. (2) Other studies have found that vitamin C can cut the length of a cold in half. Additionally other studies have found vitamin C can help to prevent pneumonia. Studies have even found that vitamin C can help with tetanus. (3)
The next nutrient in Immunity Hx is vitamin D3. While most people think of D3 as just being for bone health there really is much more that D3 does for our health. Studies have indicated that having low vitamin D can increase the risk of infections. Vitamin D3 is interesting because unlike vitamin C it can be made by the body. (4) However, in my clinical experience reading over blood work I have found many people to have lower than optimum D levels that would suggest they would benefit from a D3 supplement. A number of studies have found an association between low levels of D3 and higher rates of infections such as the flu, vaginosis and HIV. (4) In one study vitamin D supplementation was found to decrease rates of seasonal influenza in school children. (5) Studies looking how vitamin D3 works have found that vitamin D3 is able to stimulate antimicrobial genes to activate. Thus vitamin D works to stimulate antimicrobial proteins and helps the body to fight off infections. (6) Overall vitamin D is an important supplement for our overall immunity. (4)
The last nutrient in Immunity Hx is zinc. Several studies have found that using zinc within 24 hours of catching a cold can decrease the length and severity of the cold symptoms. (7) Zinc like vitamin C is considered to be an essential nutrient for our health. Zinc deficiency like vitamin C is more common than we would expect and in fact it appears that as many as up to 2 billion people in the developing world may have a zinc deficiency. (8) Zinc deficiency has been found to affect multiple parts of the immune system. When zinc is deficient there’s parts of the immune system that are comprised and we become vulnerable to disease. (9) Overall studies have concluded that zinc is essential for our immune system to work to prevent illness. (1)
Overall the studies on vitamins C, D and zinc have one major thing to say. And that is these nutrients are all important for building our immune system and thus they all help us fight pathogens. Personally I like the Immunity Hx because it contains all 3 important nutrients in 1 supplement!
Our next blog will be something you may have heard of, Asthma!
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