Strengthen Your Body’s Immune Defense…

Age, stress, and poor nutrition can sap our immune system of its effectiveness. We believe that everyone should take action to bolster their immune systems. This includes reducing negative psychological stress; following a physician-approved, moderate, long-term exercise program; and following a diet as well as consuming nutrients that have been shown to enhance immune response and promote health.

Probiotics Boost Immunity

In recent years the enormous importance of the gastrointestinal tract in modulating the immune system has been increasingly recognized. Not only does more than 70% of the human immune system reside in the gut, but the intestinal immune system produces more antibodies than the rest of the body put together. As a result, gastrointestinal secretions are as rich as breast milk in health-supporting and disease-preventing factors.

Probiotics can restore and rebalance your gut microbiome, strengthening its ability to interact with your immune system in many ways. These friendly bacteria stimulate healthy immune surveillance, boosting populations of cells that seek out and destroy infecting organisms and cancers.

The Importance of Vitamin C in Promoting Immune Function

Few people realize the importance of having ample supplies of water-soluble vitamin C in their body.

All major immune system cell lines function at their peak with ample vitamin C supplies. With inadequate intake or plasma levels, those cells are less able to detect, track, and kill invading organisms or precancerous cells. That means that vitamin C depletion can leave one vulnerable to dangerous infections.

New studies are helping to confirm that vitamin C supplementation can reduce duration and severity of the most prevalent respiratory infection, the common cold, and makes it less likely one will catch a cold in the first place.

Given the health risks associated with adults who develop pneumonia after a cold, prevention with adequate vitamin C (1,000 mg and higher daily doses) looks more promising. This dose, greater than what can fit into most multi-nutrient formulas, will assure you are obtaining sufficient vitamin C to emulate studies documenting improved immune function, protection against the common cold, and other age-related disorders.

Zinc Helps to Fight Off Cold & Flu

A number of published studies show that if zinc lozenges are taken within 24 hours of the onset of common cold symptoms, the severity and duration of cold miseries are significantly diminished.

Rhinoviruses are the medical term to define viruses that cause the common cold. Rhinoviruses attach to cell receptor sites in sinus and throat tissues, become lodged in nose-throat cells, and then replicate out of control. By binding to the same cell receptor sites as do cold viruses, zinc inhibits the ability of rhinoviruses to take hold in the body.

Clinical trial data support the value of zinc in reducing the duration and severity of symptoms of the common cold when administered within 24 hours of the onset of common cold symptoms.

*Adapted from articles from US Life Extension website