Staying Healthy During COVID by Supporting Your Immune System

Supporting your body, staying healthy.

It’s never been more important to support your body’s immune system by giving it the tools it needs to keep you healthy. One way to super-boost the immune system is ensuring it has the proper nutrients to run efficiently. A great way to make that happen is eating foods dense in certain vitamins and minerals. Who doesn’t love to eat?! 

Why listen to me?

We are affiliated with one of the most innovative age-management medical practices in the country, called Cenegenics. I love the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure “. It’s like so many things in life- you don’t want have to react if you have the solution to something in hand.

After listening to our staff physician, Dr. Earl Eye, and doing some research myself, I thought I’d share what I know about ways to supercharge your immunity. I hope that it will help anyone who is worried or anxious about their health and what they can do to stay healthy.

This is what I found:

Vitamin D, EpiCor and Zinc are three supplements your body uses to boost its immune function. I’m going to explain the three and give examples of how to incorporated them into your diet.

Vitamin D (the “sunshine vitamin”)

• Vitamin D is actually a hormone, rather than a vitamin.
• People with darker skin need more sun to produce Vitamin D. Darker skin has more melanin in it, something that can inhibit the production of Vitamin D.
• Age can also impact the absorption of vitamin D as you get older as the skin becomes less efficient (this is why it’s important to supplement to maintain your levels).
• Geographical locations and the seasons can have impact on the production of vitamin D in your body. The closer you live to the equator, you will have higher levels of vitamin D. The further you get from the equator equates to less production of the vitamin.

 

How to find Vitamin D in food?

Good sources of Vitamin D – tuna, mackerel, oysters, shrimp, sardines and anchovies are all high in vitamin D.

(Three ounces of canned tuna contains approximately 50% of your daily Vitamin D requirement. Concern has been raised about mercury in levels tuna and other seafood.

Mushrooms are high in Vitamin D. If you can purchase wild mushrooms from your supermarket, they are a healthier alternative to commercially farmed. Note that mushrooms that are organically grown and treated with UV light have the greatest levels of Vitamin D.

Eggs are a wonderful source of vitamin D. Free range and pasture fed chickens are a great source of Vitamin D.

Additionally, in today’s fast paced world, large manufacturers add vitamins and minerals to our food- something of which we may not be aware. Here is an abbreviated link to what the FDA rules and guidelines, with reference to fortified food. The most obvious place you will see the term ‘fortified with’ is on your milk, where it will say clearly on the container “fortified with Vitamin D.” Cereal and breads are other common products that are fortified.

 

The majority of Vitamin D supplements are from animal sources, however there are vegan plant derived vitamin D supplements available. For those of you who may be vegan, D2 and D3 supplements are available in stores and health food shops. If you’re concerned you may not be getting enough vitamin D from your diet, supplements can act as a reliable and consistent source. These come in two forms:

• Vitamin D2: typically harvested from yeast or mushrooms exposed to UV rays
• Vitamin D3: usually derived from fish oil or sheep’s wool, with vegan forms more recently developed from lichen.

There are Vegan supplements that comes highly recommended by friends who swear by them. 

 

EpiCor  

Epicor is derived from yeast and helps with the production of antibodies in your mouth and nose, primarily. It helps to trap invading bacteria so they pass through the body before causing an infection.

Epicor was discovered back in the 1980’s in a unique way. Factory workers a a brewing plant were never sick.

 

After some research, I found that the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry implied that Epicor showed signs that were beneficial to your gut and immune health. Ultimately, another step in the right direction, helping your body fight off COVID.

 

EpiCor is NOT just yeast; it’s so much more!

Yeast is used to help make EpiCor, much like other fermented food products. However, grains after fermentation turn into beer, and grapes after fermentation turn into wine. Similarly, EpiCor is no longer just yeast after fermentation. After the fermentation and drying process, the yeasts are no longer alive or active, and what’s left is a metabolite-rich, postbiotic ingredient, EpiCor.

Before I go any further, and without trying to get too scientific or having the pretense that I am in the medical field myself, I wanted to share what I know that might help you prepare yourself and family to strengthen your bodies to help fight off COVID, giving your body the tools it needs to be successful. 

Zinc is another vitamin that helps to support your immune system. Zinc helps reduce inflammation and lowers the risk of some age-related diseases.

The following are good sources of Zinc:

Pumpkin Seeds, grass-fed beef, chickpea’s, cocoa powder, cashews, kefir, mushrooms, spinach, oatmeal and eggs are just a few. For those who perfer a supliment, the Enhanced Zinc Lozenge from Life Extension

Links and Recipes

One interesting spaghetti/lentil combo meat sauce from Ballymaloe Cookery School, has a very organic approach to cooking.

Tante Marie’s in San Francisco is another school which is a resource for clean food recipes.

• Get creative, add mushrooms and spinach to the meat sauce, substitute lentils with canned chickpeas, or make it vegetarian and use lentil spaghetti or black bean fettuccine.
• Lentil Bolognese with Ballymaloe Smoked Bacon Pasta Sauce
• Grilled Sweet Peppers With Anchovies and Garlic

I personally use back bean/sesame fettucine – its delicious. Try substituting it instead of regular pasta for a higher protein meal. We have it with grilled chicken, roasted squash, peppers and onions topped with a sprinkle of goat’s cheese or fetta if you don’t have goat’s cheese.

Another good pasta alternative is red lentil pasta. You have to make sure that you follow the cooking instruction’s exactly for this pasta. It makes a wonderful cold pasta salad with tuna, olives, cold roasted veggie’s……enjoy!