10 Immune Boosting Supplements

Your body’s innate immune system is responsible for protecting you from harmful substances. Any germ, pathogen, or chemical that you interface with will turn on your body’s defenses to help keep you well and healthy. This system is comprised on various organs, cells, and proteins. (1)

Endogenous vs Exogenous

An important distinction to make when considering supplementation to best equip your immune system is to consider what your body is built to make naturally (endogenous), and what your body requires from outside sources (nutritional intake including supplements).

When you take compounds that your body is designed to make, supplementing with them will downregulate your body’s production of them. When you supplement with endogenous compounds like melatonin and vitamin D (instead of first optimizing your body’s rhythms to produce those), it’s suboptimal.

It’s best to optimize your body’s endogenous compounds through proper circadian rhythm, optimizing light environment, implementing chrononutrition. Then, for the immune-supportive compounds that are exogenous, you can look to the sources we mention below to help round out your regime.

Dr Jack Kruse explains this in further detail, “Today, those low in Vitamin D3 think taking an oral supplement is as good as being in the sun. Dermatologists also believe this. This is also not true - if you read the old research on Vitamin D. Bicknell and Prescott found in 1953 in their exhaustive research that “sunlight acting directly on the body should be the way in which Vitamin D is obtained”. They found in their research that the gut and body have have no power to regulate the amount of vitamin D it absorbs from food.” (2, 3, 16)

Also, “oral vitamin D supplementation has not been convincingly shown to prevent the above conditions; thus, serum 25(OH)D as an indicator of vitamin D status may be a proxy for and not a mediator of beneficial effects of sun exposure.” (12) That particular study looked at a range of different ailments ranging from neurodegenerative ailments, to heart health related ailments, to chronic illnessess, to metabolic dysregulation.

Too, there is literature revealing to us that for those individuals supplementing instead of adjusting your lifestyle, it “can disrupt their balance at the long term, which is crucial for the fine-tuning function of immune cells.” (7)

Also, Dr. Andrew Huberman brings light to the fact that the dosing of endogenous compounds such as melatonin often far surpass what is appropriate for the body to make - suggesting another reason to be clear on which supplements truly make sense to implement when you understand the biological lens. He’s on record discussing at Stanford University that we ought to “avoid taking exogenous melatonin.” (4)

Synthetic vs Food-Sourced

Keep in mind, many of these compounds, vitamins, and substances can be ingested via foods that are rich in them. When food-sources are not adequate for the dose you’re looking for, you can opt for a bioavailable, functional, whole food source of them.

However, best case scenario (and most effective) is to avoid synthetic vitamins and obtain the vitamin from the food isolate/extract itself. For instance, it’s better to ingest camu camu berry extract (rich in Vitamin C) than to ingest ascorbic acid, a synthetic form of vitamin C.

Studies also show that synthetic vitamins can actually act opposite to natural, food-based vitamins. Supplementing with synthetic vitamins can lead to symptoms of vitamin deficiency and have negative health effects for some. (8) Moreover, synthetic vitamins are often contaminated with potentially harmful fillers & residues. And to top it all off, they are shown to be less effective than food-sourced vitamins. (9, 10, 11, 14, 15)

Vitamin C

As we previously discussed, opting for the common, synthetic version of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is not optimal. “Among the fruits, camu camu demonstrated the highest vitamin C and total phenolics content and the highest DPPH scavenging activity.” (5)

Camu camu berry powder or extract is a great way to incorporate more vitamin C into your routine. (6) Acerola cherry and amla berry fruit are two other food sources of high vitamin C.

BrocElite

Our product BrocElite contains a bioavailable, stabilized, functional dose of a polyphenol called sulforaphane. Encouragingly, suforaphane has been shown as effective when pharmacological means fail.

Its antioxidant potency, phase II detoxifying enzyme, and and capacity to induce Nrf2 target genes are part of the reason sulforaphane has application in immune function. In other words, sulforaphane triggers an immune response by inducing the Nrf2 pathway, which elicits antioxidant and anti-inflammatory responses. (27)

Vitamin D

It is well documented that having the body brimming with vitamin D serves as an excellent & effective way to naturally boost your immune system. (13) As you’ve gathered by now, the best way to optimize your systemic vitamin D levels is to intentionally and harmoniously spend time in unobstructed sunlight.

Unsure of how long is best for your skin type? There’s a free app for smartphones called the D Minder app and it suggests durations for you to stay outside based on your location, local UV index, and your skin type. It even lets you enter your current vitamin D blood amount, if you’ve recently done blood work testing it. Knowing your current blood concentration is not required, though.

Milk Thistle

The healthy plant constituent in the herb milk thistle, silibinin (also commonly referred to as silybin), is shown to be an anti viral agent, reducing influenza virus replication. Milk thistle has also been shown to improve immunity, oxidative status, and physical performance. (17, 18)

Quercetin

Quercetin, a polyphenol present in a bioavailable, functional dose in our product QuercElite - is known for its antioxidant activity in free radical scavenging. It has anti-allergic properties, stimulates the immune system, elicits antiviral activity, inhibits histamine release, decreases pro-inflammatory cytokines, and offers many other immune-related benefits. (29)

Berberine

Berberine, a plant-derived polyphenol in the same category of beneficial plant compounds like sulforaphane and quercetin) can directly suppress pro‐inflammatory responses, and is shown to be immune supportive. Too, studies reveal that berberine has the potential to ameliorate inflammation in autoimmune conditions. (30)

You can ingest berberine in bioavailable, functional form in our product BerbElite. Like the other healthy plant polyphenols, berberine also offers other benefits like reduced blood glucose level, induces healthy apoptosis & ketosis, and improves energy output and metabolism. (31)

Green Tea (EGCG)

EGCG, or epigallocatechin-3-gallate is a polyphenol present in green tea, and it offers many benefits. Studies show that it blocks an early step in the influenzaviral life cycle (inhibiting internalization) & reduces replication once inside. (18, 19) Too, EGCG has been shown to improve molecular pathways involved with inflammation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and brain aging. (20, 21)

This powerful green tea aspect has also been demonstrated that “EGCG treatment with high doses of EGCG led to significant weight loss, reduced waist circumference, and a consistent decline in total cholesterol and LDL plasma levels without any side effects.” (20)

Mushroom Complex

Though every mushroom complex can vary, the general consensus is that mushroom complexes are antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiviral, immunomodulating, antidiabetic, etc. (22)

Functional mushrooms (sometimes referred to as medicinal mushrooms - though they do not cause a “trip”), are shown to be potent immunomodulators. Some to look for are reishi, chaga, hen of the wood, cordyceps, and shiitake. (28)

Garlic

Garlic is a potent plant that supports your body’s immune defenses. It contains numerous compounds that have beneficial potential. Garlic boosts the immune system by improving natural killer and γδ-T cell function and reduces the severity of cold and flu symptoms. (23) This study specifically looked at aged garlic as a remedy.

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)

NAC has been shown to improve oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and defend against pulmonary damage to the lungs. (24). Too, N-acetyl cysteine has been demonstrated to combat infections, as well. (25)

Vitamin A

Studies show that Vitamin A protects epithelium and mucus integrity in the body. It is known as an anti-inflammation vitamin because of its vital role in enhancing immune function. Too, Vitamin A plays regulatory roles in cellular immune responses and humoral immune processes. (26) A dense food-source of Vitamin A is beef liver, which can be taken in capsule form.

References:

10 Immune Boosting Supplements

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10 Immune Boosting Supplements

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