Vitamins C & D for Immune Support
Maintaining a strong immune system is one of the keys to good health. A strong immune system can create a barrier that stops germs from entering your body. If something breaks through this barrier, a healthy immune system can quickly respond and destroy it.
How can you strengthen your immune system? Start by making sure it has the nutrients it needs to function properly. Research shows that both vitamin C and vitamin D can help your immune system fight illnesses. Here’s how a vitamin boost can provide immune support.
How Vitamin C Can Strengthen Immunity
Your body relies on vitamin C to launch an effective immune response to injuries, illnesses, and infections. Vitamin C plays many important roles in your body’s immune response.
First, vitamin C activates key enzymes that are involved in the production of collagen, which is a protein found in your skin and connective tissue. By stimulating the production of collagen, vitamin C helps your body quickly repair tissue and heal wounds.
Vitamin C also triggers the production of several types of white blood cells, including neutrophils, lymphocytes, and phagocytes. Each of these types of white blood cells serves a different purpose in your body’s immune response. For example, neutrophils attack viruses and bacteria that enter your body, whereas lymphocytes produce antibodies so your body remembers how to fight off the same illness in the future. By increasing the production of these white blood cells, vitamin C ensures your body has the tools it needs to strengthen cellular protection.
That’s not all vitamin C can do. Because it is an antioxidant, vitamin C has the power to stop free radicals from damaging your cells, DNA, and tissues. By neutralizing free radicals, vitamin C can prevent or delay the development of hundreds of different health conditions, including heart disease and cancer.
How Vitamin D Can Strengthen Immunity
Vitamin D, which is nicknamed the “sunshine vitamin,” can also improve your immune function. Research shows that vitamin D can activate T cells, which are white blood cells that are responsible for directing your body’s immune response and destroying unfamiliar pathogens. By activating these cells, vitamin D helps your body launch an effective immune response against bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders.
Researchers have also found that vitamin D can increase antimicrobial peptides, which are molecules with antibiotic and antiviral properties. Increasing the presence of these peptides can protect your body from bacterial and viral infections.
Studies show that vitamin D can prevent your immune system from overreacting, too. An overactive immune system can attack and damage healthy tissue. By moderating your immune response, vitamin D prevents your immune system from doing more harm than good.
How to Give Your Immune System a Vitamin Boost
Make sure your body is getting the vitamin C and D that it needs by following these tips:
- Get some sun. Your body naturally produces vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight. Use this chart to determine how much time you should spend in the sun to maintain healthy vitamin D levels.
- Start your morning with a MANTRA Labs RISE wellness drink. This drink powder contains 100% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin C.
- Eat foods that are rich in vitamin C, including citrus fruit, cantaloupe, broccoli, kiwi, and bell peppers.
- Incorporate foods with high levels of vitamin D into your diet, including salmon, eggs, mushrooms, and foods fortified with vitamin D. If you are vegan or mostly plant-based it is important to pay close attention to your vitamin D levels as mushrooms are the only non-fortified plant-based food with known high levels of vitamin D.
You should be able to get all of the majority of vitamins you need to stay healthy simply by eating a well-rounded, whole food (heavy on vegetables, fruits, legume and complex carbs and healthy fats) nutritious diet.