5 Ways to Boost Your Immunity

In times of uncertainty, we want to reassure our patients that we will always be here for you as a support and educational resource. Asking smart questions right now could be an excellent way to benefit you and your family . Instead of worrying about how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) could adversely affect you, ask instead, how you can be part of the solution. A great question to start with is: How can I help "flatten the curve" of this pandemic? 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has laid out their strategy. They are encouraging people to wash their hands more and practice social distancing to help to reduce the number of severe cases that could overwhelm hospitals. But what isn't being discussed—and I feel it could be equally as vital—is how we can start boosting people's immune system today. 

Support the Immune System With Hormone Optimization 

At Precision Medicine and Wellness by Elizabeth Bagan, APRN, we know that keeping a patient's hormone levels optimized can help keep their immune system running normally. As we optimize our hormones, many crucial functions of the body are supported. Everything from how we sleep to how our bodies respond to foreign invaders can continue to function correctly when our hormones are optimized—giving us a better chance to remain healthy no matter what comes our way!

Balanced hormones:

1. Encourage a Healthy Nights Sleep 

As part of that process of hormone optimization, you are helping improve sleep, which has been shown in studies to strengthen the immune system. 

2. Help Reduce Stress 

With people quarantined to their homes, depression will be accelerated during the coming weeks and months. Hormone optimization using the BioTE Method can help reduce anxiety and decrease the severity of depression, thereby improving immune function. 

3. Promote a Healthy Thyroid 

Thyroid optimization is an integral part of the BioTE Method. It has been reported in multiple studies that optimizing our active thyroid levels improves our neutrophils and lymphocytes, including our natural killer cells, which help destroy the viral particles. (Frontiers Endocrinology 04 June 2019) 

4. Support a Healthy Immune Response 

Once our innate immunity has attacked a virus, we need to consider what happens next as our adaptive immunity is called into action. As is true with most of the cells in our body, T3 is an essential thyroid hormone in promoting the maturation of our adaptive immune cells. These cells, once mature, promote pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-6, IL-12, and TGFB1. This adaptive response favors the development of cytotoxic T cells, which further modulates our immune system's response to targeting and killing viruses. 

5. Additional Support With Nutraceuticals 

You can also help support your immune system by utilizing the BioTE nutraceuticals. 

BioTE® IODINE+ 

Zinc—one of the ingredients in IODINE+—has been shown to reduce the severity of respiratory illness. Zinc may improve the integrity of respiratory cells by protecting them from inflammation and infection. (Molecular Physiology 2006;290:433-441) 

BioTE® ADK 5 &10 

Vitamin D is essential in maintaining the innate and adaptive immune responses. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) If you have a deficiency in vitamin D, you will have an increase in susceptibility to infection. Although the mechanism is not clearly established, vitamin D is known to have anti-viral effects. In 2017, a large prospective trial showed taking vitamin D can reduce the odds of developing respiratory infections by approximately 42%. (BMJ 2017;356:6583) 

BioTE® PROBIOTICS 

We all know that our gastrointestinal tract is important to our overall immune system health. Probiotics, as recommended in the BioTE Method, can help improve a person's health by up-regulating their immune function. There are clinical trials that have shown probiotics reducing acute respiratory infections—many of which are caused by viruses. (Cochrane.org) 

So, what can we do to help "flatten the curve" on Coronavirus? The answer is simple—be optimized or maintain your health and the ones you love. 

Be well. 

Elizabeth