The Best Easily Available Immune Boosters During The Pandemic
Our skin and mucous membranes are inhabited by a variety of microorganisms, and whether you become ill is determined by your immune system. With an immune system condition recently passing COVID, and a strange after COVID-like second round, I find it so important to do our best for our immunity, like never before. I am sharing some of the best immune enhancers you could use in these crucial times.
Our Immune System
The immune system is an interactive network of cells, organs, and proteins that protect your body from harmful viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Although our genetics and DNA are a given, besides maintaining a healthy lifestyle, boosting your immune system with tailored supplements is essential today. It is best discussed with a professional you trust, and one who can give you an in-depth analysis of the state of your body, measure, and follow up changes.
Many times we follow our gut or research findings on what’s best for us to take supplements. Not all of us can afford expensive specialists, and multiple tests to find what we should take. But if you go twice or three times to a specialist, I believe you could get a quite thorough picture of your body. Still, you would need to invest a bit more for tests like a detailed food allergy test, a detailed antibody test, and a detailed blood test if you do it privately.
Affordable, Detailed Tests Needed
Trouble is, since most of us don’t do detailed tests, we don’t always have an idea of the best matching supplements and quantities for us! And what our body can truly utilize to immunize us! As long as healthcare and our salaries don’t have a common ground, we will suffer more from illnesses, even though they will always be present. So the best thing one can do today, find out at least the basic supplements you could support your immune system with!
Immune Boosters You Could Use
You can use plants, herbs, vitamins, and minerals to prevent and control infections due to their antimicrobial and immune-boosting properties. However, caution should be exercised in strengthening the immune system: immune-boosting herbs containing essential oils are extremely effective! You mustn’t take them in higher doses than your body needs!
We often think we do the right amounts but this couldn’t be further from the truth, after my research. If you take herbs, it is best to consult with a professional on how to exactly take them. As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t take different strong herbs together for longer periods, only in repeated courses with breaks!! Here are several important immune boosters that are easily accessible to anyone:
Ribwort Plantain
Syrups available in pharmacies and shops in my country aren’t that useful in my experience. So instead of the bottled who-knows-what-inside version, try to strengthen your immune system with homeopathic ribwort, or perhaps even better, purchase it from a trusted herbalist. There’s an old genuine man who has some herbal tea shops where I live. He grew up cultivating herbs for their healing properties. Learned it from his ancestors.
He highly recommends sipping ribwort plantain tea made of fresh tea leaves that he sells in paper bags, that introduce the herb, its healing benefits, and exact advice on how to take it and for how long. This herb is one of the most important ones now with all the infections around, it helps to cleanse your lungs by getting rid of tough mucus I heard as no medicine does. Can be quite useful during a pandemic!
Beta-Glucans
A modern supplement which are soluble fibers from the cell walls of bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and plants. Known as good immune supporters, they can prevent infections by increasing useful chemicals. They may also lower the risk of heart disease as well as high cholesterol levels. Among other conditions, they are used for diabetes and eczema as well.
Echinacea
Research shows that one of the biggest benefits of echinacea is its positive effect on recurrent infections. A 2012 study found that it could play a major role in prevention after the people who took echinacea were less likely to get a common cold. A study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine showed significant immunomodulatory activity in echinacea.
Dozens of human studies have shown that echinacea stimulates the immune system, among other things, especially in acute upper respiratory infections. You could take it as a herbal capsule, drink it as tea, or it is also available in homeopathy, favored by many.
Elderberries
The elderberry berries and flowers have been used as medicine for thousands of years. Even Hippocrates, the father of medicine, knew that the plant was key to strengthening the immune system. Elderberry has been used to treat colds, flu, allergies, and inflammation. Studies have also shown that it can protect the immune system from colds and flu. What’s more, using elderberries in the first 48 hours after the onset of the disease, reduced the duration of influenza and relieved symptoms much earlier.
Colloidal Silver
In ancient times, silver was used to stop the spreading of diseases as a wide-spectrum antimicrobial agent. According to research in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, the colloid can significantly inhibit the growth of pathogens under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
You can use it against colds, viruses, and bacteria in small doses internally, or to cure wounds and infections on your skin. Beware, silver can be toxic in large quantities or if taken for long periods! You should , this supplement needs extra care!
Ginger
Since ancient times, ayurvedic medicine has relied on ginger’s immune-strengthening ability. Ginger can help prevent the accumulation of toxins in the organs due to its heating effect. Among its additional properties are that ginger can cleanse the lymphatic system, the network of tissues and organs that helps to get rid of toxins.
Ginger root and its essential oil can treat a wide range of diseases due to its beneficial immune support and anti-inflammatory effects. What’s more, ginger’s antimicrobial properties are useful in the treatment of infectious diseases.
Astragalus root
Astragalus is a larval host plant, multitudes of butterflies rest on it when it’s blooming. It has a very long history of strengthening the immune system and being used as a drug. Its root has been used as an adaptogen for millennia in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Adaptogenic plants harmonize how some endocrine glands and the immune system function.
According to the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, astragalus-based treatments have significantly reduced the toxicity of certain drugs (in chemotherapeutic treatments). Researchers concluded that the astragalus extract is beneficial for the immune system and protects the body, especially the digestive system from inflammation, also useful in cancer prevention.
Probiotics
Probiotics are useful bacteria that help digest nutrients, detoxify the colon, and support the immune system. They may be particularly needed if the balance of the intestinal flora is overwhelmed, following antibiotic treatments which can cause digestive disorders. At the end of the treatment, the useful bacterial strains can recapture their place in the digestive system and restore their normal functioning in your body.