The Role of Nutrition in Immune Function
Posted by Jackson Peos
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
The immune system is comprised of organs and cells whose role is to protect you from infections such as bacteria and viruses. The main parts of the immune system are the lymphatic system, white blood cells, bone marrow, the spleen, and the thymus (Delves & Roitt, 2000).
Our immune system can be divided into two parts: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system provides a general, non-specific defence against germs. The adaptive immune system, on the other hand, will fight against specific germs that the body has already encountered and adapted to (Hoebe, Janssen & Beutler, 2004).
In addition to defending against infections, the immune system has two other key roles. The immune system recognizes and manages any harmful substances you encounter from the environment around you, and it also fights against disease-causing changes in the body (Delves & Roitt, 2000).
The immune system jumps into action when the body becomes infected. Firstly, white blood cells identify the infectious agent, and they produce antibodies to fight the infection. This first step sets off a cascade of immune system functions in the fight against infection. The antibodies recognize and attach to antigens to destroy them with the help of T cells, which also signal other cells like phagocytes (Parken & Cohen, 2001).
The adaptive immune system also ‘remembers’ each infection and keeps a record in a special type of white blood cell called a memory cell. With these memory cells, the body can more easily and quickly recognize and fight an infection it has previously fought.
It is well-known that your lifestyle can affect your immune system function. This includes how healthy your diet is, how much regular exercise you do, your age, the amount of psychological stress you are under, and many other factors.
Some of the simplest and easiest ways to boost your immune system are to eat an adequate amount of fruits and vegetables and to get enough restorative sleep to ensure you are recovering from bouts of stress.
A healthy and varied diet will provide you with the micronutrients you need to support your immune function. This means a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables. You can read more on the role of nutrition in immune function from our Nutritional Science Advisor here:
Getting adequate sleep is VITAL to maintaining your strong immune system. A lack of sleep has a detrimental effect on your immune system response even in the short term. Unfortunately, long term, or chronic, sleep deprivation can have even worse effects on your immunity, and these could be longer-lasting. Planning to get adequate sleep is particularly important as society becomes busier and busier, dropping the average hours of sleep significantly over the last few decades.
Sleep is not only important to boosting your immune system and decreasing your likelihood of getting infections but also in recovery when you do have an infection (Bryant, Trinder & Curtis, 2004). Think of sleep as one of the easiest tools to help your body recover.
If you have trouble relaxing at the end of the day, I highly recommend supplementing with Ashwagandha or Valerian. Ashwagandha has been used for thousands of years in traditional Indian home medicine called Ayurveda (Kaushik et. al., 2017). Recently, studies have identified that key extract of the ashwagandha plant and shown that it reduces the incidence of non-restorative sleep, thereby improving overall sleep quality (Deshpande et. al., 2020). Valerian is traditionally used in Western herbal medicine to support healthy sleeping patterns, reduce restless sleep and promote healthy sleep patterns.
Regular exercise is a huge contributor to good health and the strengthening of the immune system. The concern here is that exercise can be a double-edged sword when it comes to your immune system and its function. The good news is that regular, moderate bouts of exercise will reduce the likelihood of infections compared to no exercise. The not so good news is that long bouts of intense exercise (like hard 1.5-2hr sessions) can cause a temporary decrease in parts of your immune system function.
Additionally, cumulative longer bouts of intense exercise (for example, when you are over-reaching) can prolong this temporary decrease in parts of your immune system function. More good news though; these decreases in immune system function are only minor when the immune system is otherwise functioning well (Gleeson, Nieman & Pederson, 2004). The downside is a small price to pay for the many benefits of exercise.
Probiotic supplements are great for supporting some components of the immune system (Lomax & Calder, 2009; Madsen, 2006). Additionally, probiotics may benefit you in a fatigued state from training to enhance the immune response (Nichols, 2007).
Probiotics also promote improved gut health which you can read more about here:
My go-to supplements to boost immunity are Bulk Nutrients Green Fusion and Red Fusion. These two supplements can be taken separately or paired for a massive immune system boost:
Let’s sum up the key points for you to boost your immune system function:
Meet Mason! He's on the Marketing Team here at Bulk Nutrients and is an amateur basketball player who loves the game.
He's tried many supplements to help him on the court and in general health.
Posted by Jackson Peos
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Posted by Ryan Bevan
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Posted by Mason Brezinscak
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
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