Can vitamins and frozen baths really reinforce the immune system?

I feel as if I had left the sanity along with the coat clothes in the locker room while I go to the shore of a reservoir in a swimsuit.

A brilliant colored chalk poster informs me that the water temperature today is 3.9 ºC. One of the usual customers tells me that this is not going to swim in cold water, but in “frost” water.

How have I get here?

Well, I have captivated the idea of ​​improving or reinforcing the immune system. My body has been an incessant torrent of colds and cough and an explosive belly.

Our immune system already does a fantastic job fighting viruses and other diseases. According to Professor John Trengoning, immunologist at Imperial College in London (United Kingdom), if he collected all the air he exhales for a minute, he would contain between 100 and 10,000 bacteria, 25,000 viruses and a single fungus.

“You breathe these things all the time, there is an swelth pathogenic mass (disease -cause organisms) in the air,” he says.

But there are many foods, supplements and activities that are promoted for their “immune reinforcement” properties. Is it possible to strengthen our protection?

Can a bath in cold water prevent nurse from?

That is why I see myself from the water and throwing myself into a chilling stroke.

The ice water is like fire in my skin and the only thing my brain can think is to reach the ponto without needing help from lifeguards.

However, studies have shown that the adrenaline blow of cold water floods the bloodstream of cells that fight infections.

White blood cells – which could produce antibodies or attack infected tissues – leave their usual place and go to patrol thinking that there could be an infection. Does this mean that I am more protected?

“In a few hours everything returns to normal,” says Professor Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh.

“There is no evidence that people who swim in cold waters have fewer colds or less infections.”

Regular exercise can rejuvenate the immune system

Regular exercise can rejuvenate the immune system

It may not be so tested, regular exercise can be very useful.

On average, adults were relying between two and three times a year, and the children between five and eight, says Dr. Margaret McCartney, a header doctor and an expert in evidence -based medicine expert from the University of St. Andrews (the United Kingdom ).

“However, people who do moderate exercise tend to suffer less viral infections,” he says.

There are conclusive clinical trials, but the data we have “point out in the direction that it is good for health … but not a miraculous cure,” according to Dr. McCartney.

Laboratory studies suggest that regular exercise can slow down the immune system. The body’s defenses decrease from the age of 20, but investigations on 80 -year -old cyclists suggest that they have the immune system of younger decades.

“I know that the essays have not been done with enough quality, but I will practice a lot of cycling,” he says.

And what about vitamins?

The first thing that comes to mind is vitamin C, either devouring a mountain of oranges or in the form of pills.

“For me it is a no,” says Dr. McCartney. A lack can harm the immune system, but for the vast majority it does not make much sense to take more. The same goes for multivitamins, which, according to the doctor, only produce “face urine”.

However, evidence around vitamin D are subject to heated debates instead of being a resounding. Vitamin D levels decrease in winter, since it occurs when our skin is exposed to sunlight.

“I think the tests point to possible benefits for people suffering from respiratory diseases and have a very low level of vitamin D,” says McCartney, but there is no “sufficient” evidence that it can be useful for everyone.

And while you think about what you could put in the purchase cart, the jury continues to deliberate on whether the prebiotics and probiotics that modify the good bacteria of the intestine also benefit immunity.

“I think it is a very important field of study, but we lack real world data that allow us to recommend it,” says Dr. McCartney.

He also states that equinacea, turmeric and ginger drinks will not reinforce the immune system.

Monitor the clock?

The abilities of the immune system are not constant throughout the day.

“Our immune system is more effective early in the morning, more or less when we wake up, it is still very effective during the first part of the day and later begins to decline,” says Professor Riley.

That is why the cold usually gets worse in the morning, since the symptoms are the result of an immune system for full performance.

The decline occurs “about four or five in the afternoon”, so it is possible that it is more protected if vaccinated or exposed to someone who counts in the morning.

As the immune system has this 24 -hour cycle, having “a regular daily rhythm” instead of a mixture of transochar and sleep a lot of the weekend “can help reinforce the immune system,” says Professor Riley.

Stop damaging your immune defenses!

While we think about strengthening our immune system, we must also remember that there are things that increase our vulnerability to infections.

One of the most important is smoking, since it directly damages the lungs and makes them a less effective barrier against viruses.

“If we imagine the lungs as a strainer, the tobacco opens holes in the strainer, so more viruses can happen,” explains Professor Trengoning.

Inflammation also increases throughout the organism. Inflammation is like a thermostat of the immune system and is a normal part of the organism’s reaction to an infection.

But “uncontrolled inflammation is bad for health,” since it alters the immune system and “can make the organism respond worse.”

Obesity is another factor that can increase susceptibility to infections, as well as its severity, by increasing inflammation of the organism.

“Both things can be difficult to stop or reverse, but they are probably the most modifiable,” says Dr. McCartney.

Disease if you can

Being constantly stressed raises the levels of cortisol hormone in the body.

However, cortisol reduces the immune system, which can increase infections.

According to Professor Trengoning, this can explain why being in nature, taking a walk, spending time with friends and even swimming in cold waters can have some beneficial effect.

“It is less stressed, with less cortisol, so the immune system is more prepared to perform its function,” he says.

Professor Riley adds: “There is no doubt that being happy, having a positive mood, has a very, very important effect on our bodily functions.”

Buy a salt water jet along the nose

Surely you have seen products in the store to spray the nostrils to the first cold symptom.

A report published in the magazine The Lancet It shows that they work.

Thousands of people were administered a salt water spray (saline solution) or one of gel. They could use it up to six times a day when they felt they were cold.

People who just made their daily lives without a nasal spray spent an average of eight sick days during the study.

Instead, those who used salt water (saline solution) or a gel spray spent only six days.

Dr. McCartney argues that a brand spray does not have to be better than a normal saline spray.

So, can the immune system really be reinforced?

If you are already doing everything usual to take care of your health -not smoking, eating healthy, exercising regularly -then your immune system is already in the “better possible conditions” to respond to an infection, says Professor Riley.

“Can you do something to reinforce it beyond being a normal and healthy person? There is no real evidence that you can,” he says.

“But there are things you can do to improve your immunity against specific individual infections, and that is vaccinating.”

And instead of spending money in the latest fashion of immune reinforcement, he suggests thinking about ways of not infected first, so “Be careful who you relate.”