Immunity-Boosting Supplements, Vitamins, and Minerals
4 Essential Vitamins and Minerals to Boost Your Immune System This Year
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Cold and flu season always has us restocking our vitamin C supplies, but post-pandemic immune health has become particularly important.
If you're looking into vitamins, minerals, and supplements to boost your immune system, go for it — but remember to do your research first. "For these kinds of questions, the gold standard of truth is the randomised controlled trial," said John Mafi, MD, MDH, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "While it's complicated to directly measure immune system strength, a good marker for it is how often or how long you get colds and flu viruses."
Ahead, we've rounded up a few of the vitamins and supplements that have proven benefits to your immune system so you can stock up.
—Additional reporting by Maggie Ryan
Vitamin D
What it does: Vitamin D is special in that it's formed in the skin in reaction to direct sunlight. Although its primary function is aiding in bone and muscle strength, it also fights stress and anxiety, as well as benefits the immune system. When we get ill, vitamin D supports the body's production of an antimicrobial peptide called cathelicidin, which aids in stopping the development of harmful bacteria, microbes, and viruses. It also regulates the function of important antibody T-cells. According to a review of randomised controlled studies, "vitamin D supplementation reduced risk of the common cold and flu," Dr. Mafi explained. "Patients who are vitamin D-deficient received the greatest benefit."
Where to find it: Vitamin D is absorbed straight from the sun, so upping your body's intake can be as easy as getting more sun, as well as taking cod liver oil, eating fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, or consuming vitamin D-rich drinks like MOJU's Vitamin D shots which includes 20ug of Vitamin D3 from seaweed in each bottle.
Probiotics
What they do: Probiotics are predominantly known for keeping our guts healthy and regulating our digestive system, but one of their added benefits is immune health. Our gut walls make up 70 percent to 80 percent of our immune system, which means their overall health lessens the immune system's chances of being compromised. "Probiotics can reduce the risk of colds compared to placebo," Dr. Mafi told POPSUGAR.
Where to find them: Yoghurt, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir are all good sources of probiotics.
Zinc
What it does: Zinc lozenges "can shorten the duration of the common cold" when taken early into infection, Dr. Mafi said, though he noted some uncertainty in the data. Other doctors have pointed out that you should be careful taking zinc due to its potential side effects (which can include nausea, especially when taken on an empty stomach, and diarrhoea) and avoid zinc intranasal sprays, which can cause irreversible loss of smell. When taken properly, though, zinc does support immune health: when a pathogen enters your bloodstream, zinc enters the affected cell and stops the infection from escalating at its normal rate and putting a strain on your immune system.
Where to find it: Great sources of zinc are varied and include spinach, beef, prawns, kidney beans, and flax seeds. Most immune-related studies on zinc focus on syrups and lozenges.
Vitamin C
What it does: This vitamin enhances your body's B-lymphocyte production and stops the deterioration of T-lymphocyte cells, which are both important antibody cells that are responsible for detecting and fighting pathogens. Vitamin C gets a lot of good press for its effect on colds, but Dr. Mafi pointed out that its effect is actually weaker than you might think. It has been shown to reduce the duration of colds when taken regularly and can be helpful if your immune system is down due to brief, severe physical exertion, he said, but a review notes that vitamin C has failed to reduce cold incidence in the general population. Even with that in mind, authors concluded that vitamin C consistently effects the duration and severity of colds in supplementation studies, making it "worthwhile for common cold patients to test on an individual basis."
Where to find it: Citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruits, and lemons contain high amounts of vitamin C. Other ways of upping your vitamin C include taking supplements or eating more green veggies like broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts.
