Vitamin deficiencies can weaken your immune system. Boosting the levels through diet or supplements can help boost your immunity
Feeling under the weather? Worried about catching a bug the next time one begins to make its way through your family and friends?
Post-pandemic, many people are realizing that their immune system could do with a boost.
Our immune system is our first line of defense against the viruses and bacteria we encounter every day, so it pays to make sure yours is fighting fit, and one of the key ways to maintain immune health is by supplementing with immune-boosting vitamins and nutrients.
Approximately 30% of the United States population is at risk for at least one vitamin deficiency, meaning that our bodies lack the essential nutrients needed to keep our immune system strong.
However, we can give our immune system a helping hand by adopting a supplement routine designed to strengthen it — and the good news is that there are five easy-to-find vitamins perfect for the job.
Vitamin C Fruit and Vegetable Sources
Vitamin C isn’t just to prevent scurvy; it is also important for a healthy immune system.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin with a wide variety of benefits, but one of its main functions is supporting a healthy immune system. Our bodies cannot make vitamin C on their own, so it’s necessary to obtain it through diet or supplements.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C fights illness and disease and helps grow and repair tissue. It’s also important for healing wounds and maintaining healthy bones, teeth, and skin. It’s involved in many of the body’s most essential functions, so it’s no surprise that it also performs an important task in immune health.
Vitamin C supports the immune system by protecting against pathogens and bacteria and helps white blood cells function more efficiently, helping the skin form a stronger barrier against the big nasties of the outside world. It’s also been shown to potentially reduce the severity of the common cold!
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is important for immune health. You can get it from supplements or food, such as beef liver, poultry, salmon, chickpeas, bananas, and dark leafy greens.
Vitamin B6
As one of the eight B vitamins, vitamin B6 is essential for cell metabolism and the continued function of your red blood cells. But it also helps your body maintain a healthy immune system.
Vitamin B6 levels have been shown to be low in older adults with poor immune response, and it’s no surprise — vitamin B6 assists more than 100 enzymes in the body to perform essential functions.
Research suggests that supplementation of vitamin B6 can strengthen the immune system, but that’s not all: this little vitamin comes with plenty of other health benefits. Along with strengthening your immune system, vitamin B6 can fight depression, help with premenstrual syndrome, and fight cognitive decline.
Dietary Sources of Vitamin E
Vitamin E is reportedly very effective at boosting your immune system.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E’s star has grown in recent years as research discovers more about the benefits of this fat-soluble nutrient.
Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that’s essential for keeping the immune system strong and healthy. In fact, vitamin E has been called one of the most effective nutrients when it comes to boosting the immune system.
Along with boosting the immune system, vitamin E keeps skin and eyes healthy and also has powerful antioxidant qualities. As an antioxidant, vitamin E fights free radicals — unstable atoms that can damage cells, causing illness and premature aging.
With free radicals contributing to many chronic health problems, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, it’s well worth adding vitamin E to your diet to fight them off.
But vitamin E’s main function is supporting the growth of T cells — one of two primary types of cells in the body that fight infection. Vitamin E has been shown to increase the amount of T cells in the body, creating an overall stronger immune system and lowering the risk of infection.
