How do I boost my immune system when I'm pregnant?!

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You're pregnant, now is NOT a good time to be overdosing on needless vitamins and kooky advice from internet pretend doctors like chicago mike.

There's many fake treatments out there, many are contaminated as alt med has few if any quality controls. Do not risk damage to your unborn child, stick with a healthy diet full of fresh food and you'll be fine.

Jae, you can't boost your immune system - it's a meaningless statement, invented as a sales gimmick. The immune system is just that; a system. It’s not a single entity but an extremely complex series of interactions on many levels. It's made up of special cells, proteins, tissues, and organs, and is not something you can just ‘boost’.

In any case, boosting would be bad – for example if you have a cold the symptoms are due to your immune response to the virus. Would you really want to boost that response and get increased fever, mucus, congestion and sneezing? Or produce an inflammatory response which can lead to things like heart attacks?

The best you can do is just look after yourself with a proper diet and lifestyle; you cannot improve your health beyond its optimal baseline. One thing however you can boost when pregnant is your nutrition intake: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2…

The term "boosting the immune system" is used by alt med to sell products. It's an intentionally vague, yet alluring claim. In actuality, it's an impossibility, and not something you'd want. Just think about what your immune system does when you're fighting off an infection. You get a fever, swelling, muscle pain, runny nose, etc. It's a give and take type of system, that when thrown out of balance would be very dangerous.

You cannot boost your immune system, that's just nonsense from alt med woo peddlers. Even if you could, it wouldn't be a good thing. When your immune system is over active it causes problems such as swelling or lupus. Auto-immune disorders are not desirable, they can even be fatal. Don't bother wasting money on an impossible goal that would only bring disaster if it was actually possible.

There are a couple of safe steps that you can take to boost your immune system. The following are all supplements that are usually available at any local health food store or grocery store.

1. Vitamin C
2. Vitamin D
3. Vitamin A (as Beta-Caretene)

The important thing to note is that all three are vitamins and needed by the body. You have higher needs for vitamins now since your body will divert most of the food, vitamins, and other essential nutrients to the baby. So if you are not getting enough vitamins then naturally your body will have less material to work with to defend itself.

Vitamin C is probably the best and safest supplement that you can take. It is water-soluble which means that any excess taken will simply be excreted by the body. You could easily take 1000 mg with each meal for a total of 3000 mg a day.

Vitamin D is extremely important not only for yourself, but for your child as well. Vitamin D is made from exposure to the sun. It is found in small amounts in fish, milk, etc. but it is essential to supplement if you are pregnant. You can have your vitamin D levels checked by your doctor but you want to be probably at 50 ng/mL or higher. Vitamin D can impact a child in a whole host of ways, and since the safety margin is so high doesn't it make sense to error on the side of safety?

Finally vitamin A is another safe way to safely boost your immune system. In this case, it is important that you take beta-carotene as opposed to retinol. Your body can convert beta-carotene into retinol (vitamin A). Doctors advise against taking more than 5000 iu of retinol a day since it has the potential for side effects. Beta carotene is very safe and is of no risk to you or your child. Thankfully food sources are abundant and you have many choices ranging from carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, etc. If you are not a big fan of vegetables you can always supplement with beta-carotene.

So what else can you do? Take a good prenatal vitamin is a good first step. Your diet will be a crucial factor of course and it should be high in protein and low in sugar. The good news is that the goods that are high in protein are usually high in iron which is another crucial nutrient needed for pregnancy.

1 Vitamin C http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/…
2 Vitamin D http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newslette…
3 Vitamin A as Beta Caretene http://www.vitamins-supplements.org/beta…
Other Links
Vitamin D & Pregnancy http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newslette…
More Vitamin D http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newslette…