Fight Common Colds, the Flu, and COVID with Immune Boosters

It is becoming increasingly clear that people who are not metabolically healthy (i.e., overweight, obese, diabetes, vascular disease) are more likely to suffer complications if they become infected with a virus or bacteria. This is equivalent to 1 out of 3 Americans (children included) who have a high inflammatory load, particularly of the blood vessels, with suboptimal delivery of oxygen to the cells. They are more prone to acute illnesses associated with the development of a serious heart condition that requires treatment in an intensive care unit.

One of the biggest reasons for the increased health risk is the global spread of ultra-processed food and sedentary lifestyles.  Sadly, many people don’t realize that they can prevent chronic diseases through everyday choices linked to diet, quality sleep, stress management, and being physically active.

We can all start changing our risk profile today by creating a newfound health baseline.  Below are tips to help all ages make healthy choices for building greater resilience to tackle future infections.

Keep Your Nasal Passages Moist

Keep your nasal passages moist to avoid that stuffed-up feeling:

  • Use a humidifier in your bedroom.  Add three to five drops of an essential oil (i.e., lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus, or peppermint) to the water to prevent bacteria and mold overgrowth. Keep the humidifier clean by washing it with Hydrogen Peroxide every three days.    

  • Do a saline nasal irrigation morning and night. You can either use a Neti Pot, Ocean nasal spray, or a homemade saline solution. For the home-made solution, mix 1 cup of boiled water with ¼ teaspoon of salt, and ⅛ teaspoon of baking soda thoroughly.

  • Apply Vicks VapoRub to the nostrils after the saline nasal rinse.  

Prevention is Better Than a Cure

Prevent the onslaught of a cold with these hygiene tips:

  • Wash your hands after using the bathroom, before preparing and eating food, and whenever you are changing a diaper or caring for someone who is sick.

  • Avoid antibacterial soap. Regular soap (i.e., Castille soap) works just fine.

Immune Boosters in Your Diet

Adjust your diet to incorporate these immune boosting foods:

  • Eat warm, cooked, whole foods throughout the day.  Either steam or sauté your food in oil and avoid boiling food.

  • Food Is Medicine: Eat a a variety of fresh foods which consist of 80% vegetables (lots of leafy greens), 10% legumes and 10% ancient whole grains. This diet is rich in nutrients, antioxidants, and vitamins — essential for destroying free radicals, cutting down on inflammation, and boosting the immune system. When produce is processed, it has lost all of its nutritious value. For example, when you have a fruit-flavored granola bar, breakfast cereal, microwaved or frozen vegetable pasta dish, it will hurt your immune system and increase risk of metabolic diseases and obesity. 

  • Snack on fresh fruit, plain pre-soaked seeds (i.e., flax, pumpkin, and chia), and nuts (i.e., almonds and walnuts).

  • Stay hydrated! Aim to drink filtered water equal to half a person’s body weight in ounces (80 lb child = 40 oz or 5 cups) as their daily target. Water is important to every organ system in the body since it makes up 90% of every cell. Be sure to increase your daily water target for exercising more and being outside on warm days. Drink warm water when you wake up in the morning. To accelerate hydration, add lemon, ginger, and ½ teaspoon of the spice turmeric to the water, and sip it all day long.

  • Add Mushrooms to your meals:  Mushrooms are an amazing superfood, providing us with vitamin D3, among other things. Experiment with a variety of mushrooms to see which ones your kids and you like. Add thin mushroom slices to soups, stir fry, or just sauté them as a side dish. 

  • Cook With Vegetable Broth (not bone, chicken, or beef broth):  It is just like having vegetable tea without exposing  yourself to high concentrations of heavy metals (i.e., arsenic) in animal bone based broths. Drink it first thing in the morning.  Use vegetable broths in your cooking. 

Avoid Foods That Hurt the Immune System

As much as the right foods in your diet are good for your immune system, certain foods can be harmful to it. Adjust your diet to cut out these foods:

  • Avoid animal protein like eggs, poultry, red meat, fish, and dairy products (i.e., milk, cheese, ice cream, sour cream, and cream cheese).

  • Avoid caffeinated beverages (i.e., coffee, black tea, chai, soda, and energy drinks)

  • Avoid fruit juices, soda, Vitamin Water, Gatorade, and alcohol.  

  • Avoid Simple Sugars, Artificial Sweeteners, and Processed Food: Blood tests routinely show evidence of diminished immunity within 30 minutes of eating simple sugars (like glucose, refined sugar, and fructose), and results in a 50% reduction in your white blood cells’ abilities to kill germs. Conversely, keeping blood sugar levels steady has been shown to enhance immunity.

  • Avoid processed, pre-packaged, and frozen foods, as well as products containing refined sugar and flour (i.e., baked goods, sweets, granola bars, chips, candy, dry cereal, protein bars, and crackers).

  • Limit fried foods to less than once a week.

  • Limit your intake of wheat-based products such as bread and pasta, as well as foods like white rice and white potatoes.

Immune Boosting Habits

Certain practices can boost immunity to help you fight off a cold:

  • Try to get at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night.  Keep the same sleep schedule every day.

  • Exercise for at least thirty minutes every day.

  • Get outside for at least thirty minutes every day.

If All Else Fails – Take Supplements

Supplements are an excellent way to help boost your immune system. There are many immune booster supplements to choose from, but here is a list that will make it easier for you to decide:

  • Take a refrigerated non-dairy based probiotic once or twice a day for four months. When choosing a probiotic, look for these bacterial ingredients:

    • Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG: 10 billion organisms

    • Lactobaccillus reuteri: 100 million organisms

    • Saccharomyces boulardii: 200 -250 mg

    • Bifidobacterium infantis: 100 million organisms

  • Take a multivitamin containing 1,000 IU of Vitamin D, 15-20 mg of Zinc, and 1,000mg of Vitamin C. Crush the vitamin and place into a fresh cup of leafy green vegetable juice every morning.

  • Take Vitamin D3 5,000 IU each day.

  • Take a complex B every day.

  • Take Melatonin 0.5 mg to 1 mg two hours before bedtime.

  • Take Elderberry — dark violet, almost black-appearing stone fruits that grow in clusters in temperate to subtropical regions of the earth. Their rich color is due to anthocyanins—a class of phenolic compounds. Among flavonoids, anthocyanins are highly concentrated in elderberries and are thought to be the active constituents of the fruit (Mikulic-Petkovsek et al., 2015). Elderberries also contain a host of vitamins (A, B1, B2, B6, B9, C, and E), minerals (potassium, calcium, and magnesium), trace elements (copper, zinc, and iron), and phytochemicals (carotenoids, phytosterols, and polyphenols) (Tiralongo, Wee, & Lea, 2016).

    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, Tiralongo and colleagues (2016) investigated whether or not a standardized elderberry extract could provide beneficial effects on respiratory and mental health. 

    In this study, black elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.; Haschberg variety from the Steiermark region in Austria) was chosen because it was previously found to demonstrate antimicrobial activity against human respiratory pathogens (gram-positive bacteria of Streptococcus pyogenes, groups C and G Streptococci, and gram-negative bacterium Branhamella catarrhalis), and be an inhibitor of the propagation of human pathogenic influenza viruses (Krawitz et al., 2011). 

    The exact extract was produced by Iprona AG, Lana (BZ), Italy (under the brand name BerryPharma), and contained 300mg of elderberry extract:  22% polyphenols (quercetin and its glycosides, rutin), 15% anthocyanins (cyanidin and pelargonidin glycosides), 150mg of rice flour, and several mineral, trace elements, and vitamins. Further research is needed to assess the range of elderberry's effect on cold duration and severity and mental health proposed benefits.

    One of the distinctions of the Tiralongo et al. study that conducted an RCT of a standardized, proprietary preparation of elderberry is that the researchers took the time not only to standardize the dose (300mg of elderberry per dose) but also to standardize the polyphenol and anthocyanin content (22% and 15%, respectively). 

    This does not necessarily mean that a different preparation of 300mg of elderberry extract does not contain anthocyanins and polyphenols or would not be as effective, but it does suggest that using the proprietary product would give the consumer a lab-verified and researched dose of anthocyanins and polyphenols that was shown to have a documented, statistically significant clinical effect.

    Treatment with elderberry fruit extracts is very well-tolerated.

     

Integrative Healthcare Solutions

If you struggle to get a handle on your immune system – or any other ailment for that matter – visit Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. for a new way to understand the root cause of any medical problem. You will instantly feel welcomed in her presence while she patiently and persistently gets to the bottom of your health issues. With her exceptional care and guidance you will quickly see an improvement in your overall health.

References

Gray, A. M., Abdel-Wahab, Y. H., & Flatt, P. R. (2000). The traditional plant treatment, Sambucus nigra (elder), exhibits insulin-like and insulin-releasing actions in vitro. The Journal of nutrition, 130(1), 15-20. Retrieved from: https://uws.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mdc&AN=10613759&site=eds-live&scope=site

Krawitz, C., Mraheil, M. A., Stein, M., Imirzalioglu, C., Domann, E., Pleschka, S., & Hain, T. (2011). Inhibitory activity of a standardized elderberry liquid extract against clinically-relevant human respiratory bacterial pathogens and influenza A and B viruses. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 11(1), 16. Retrieved from: https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6882-11-16

Mahmoudi, M., Ebrahimzadeh, M. A., Dooshan, A., Arimi, A., Ghasemi, N., & Fathiazad, F. (2014). Antidepressant activities of Sambucus ebulus and Sambucus nigra. European review for medical and pharmacological sciences, 18(22), 3350-3353. Retrieved from: www.europeanreview.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/3350-3353.pdf

Mikulic-Petkovsek, M., Ivancic, A., Todorovic, B., Veberic, R., & Stampar, F. (2015). Fruit phenolic composition of different elderberry species and hybrids. Journal of food science, 80(10), C2180-C2190. Retrieved from: https://uws.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mdc&AN=26409176&site=eds-live&scope=site

Rauš, K., Pleschka, S., Klein, P., Schoop, R., & Fisher, P. (2015). Effect of an Echinacea-based hot drink versus oseltamivir in influenza treatment: a randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, multicenter, noninferiority clinical trial. Current Therapeutic Research, 77, 66-72. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011393X15000053

Roxas, M., & Jurenka, J. (2007). Colds and influenza: a review of diagnosis and conventional, botanical, and nutritional considerations. Alternative Medicine Review, 12(1). Retrieved from: https://uws.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.163199250&site=eds-live&scope=site

Zakay-Rones, Z., Thom, E., Wollan, T., & Wadstein, J. (2004). Randomized study of the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry extract in the treatment of influenza A and B virus infections. Journal of International Medical Research, 32(2), 132-140. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147323000403200205

Zakay-Rones, Z., Varsano, N., Zlotnik, M., Manor, O., Regev, L., Schlesinger, M., & Mumcuoglu, M. (1995). Inhibition of several strains of influenza virus in vitro and reduction of symptoms by an elderberry extract (Sambucus nigra L.) during an outbreak of influenza B Panama. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 1(4), 361-369. Retrieved from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Inhibition-of-several-strains-of-influenza-virus-in-Zakay-Rones-Varsano/20459f1db0c5903844884c23e3dcee8f409c962f 

AUTHOR

Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. is one of U.S.'s top leading integrative functional medical physicians and the founder of SF Advanced Health. She combines the best in Eastern and Western Medicine to understand the root causes of diseases and provide patients with personalized treatment plans that quickly deliver effective results. Dr. Bhandari specializes in cell function to understand how the whole body works. Dr. Bhandari received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1997 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 2001 from West Virginia University. She the completed her Family Medicine residency in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts and joined a family medicine practice in 2005 which was eventually nationally recognized as San Francisco’s 1st patient-centered medical home. To learn more, go to www.sfadvancedhealth.com.

BlogPayal Bhandaricolds, flu, immune boosters, COVID