What kinds of foods and supplements can we consume to boost our immune systems?
Nicolle Martin: Eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet, [and] at least seven servings of fruits and vegetables each day. [Be sure to] include green, leafy vegetables in your diet [and] avoid processed food.
Take vitamin C every day. The best form … is liposomal vitamin C. Liposomes deliver more vitamin C into your body’s circulation, compared to traditional supplements. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and is necessary for the growth and repair of all bodily tissues.
Take a B complex vitamin each day. The B vitamins are for stress, and they are the building blocks of a healthy body. They help with energy levels, brain function and cell health.
Juicing or drinking fresh, cold-pressed vegetable and fruit juices are excellent ways to boost your immune system. Cold-pressed juices are exposed to minimal heat and air, so they’re able to hold onto more vitamins, minerals and enzymes present in the whole fruit. If you don’t have access to cold-pressed juice, you can make fresh juice using any juicer or blender and still reap the benefits. Avoid juice with added sugars and preservatives.
RW: Research vitamin D, an immune booster. Research zinc. Zinc is supposed to prevent viral replication, and years ago before COVID-19 came out, people recommended echinacea and zinc. That’s supposed to reduce the viral symptoms from five to seven days, to three to five days.
Is it true that the virus can live in our nostrils, which is supposedly one of the cooler places in our bodies? That it thrives in cold temperatures, and heat can kill it?
RW: What it is about the eyes, the nose and the mouth is that they have thin mucous membranes on our skin. There’s a covering on our skin called keratin that makes that skin thick, and the only way a virus or bacteria can penetrate that, in most cases, is if there’s a cut in the skin or break in the skin. We have very, very thin membranes on the coverings of our eyes and our nose and our throat. So it’s not that it thrives in that area, but that’s a point of entry for it, but based on what I’ve been hearing and seeing about the hot liquids, there is no research that shows hot liquids kill the virus. But the points of entry are the eyes, mouth and nose.
Story by N. Ali Early
Dr. Nicolle Martin (Photo provided)
Dr. Rani G. Whitfield (Photo credit: Sean Griffin)
