What are some things to do or take to boost your immune system during the winter!

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Boosting the immune system is meaningless statement, a marketing gimmick invented to sell useless supplements. 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?

If you are run down or have not looking after yourself, your immune function can be improved, by healthy diet and lifestyle; but you cannot improve it past its optimal baseline.

See this comprehensive article:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=1…

To avoid colds and flu, maintain a healthy balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and veggies, get good exercise and rest, avoid crowds and sick people, wash your hands frequently and get your flu shot.

Ignore the anti-vaccination liars who troll this site.

The single most effective thing you can do is to take 5,000 iu of vitamin D3 a day in the winter.
Vaccines absolutely do NOT boost immunity. If you have a blood titre done to check for antibodies it will simply show proof of exposure, not immunity. Cochrane studies, which are the most comprehensive evaluations of flu vaccines show that they're a huge FLOP. It's a scandal that the media continues to hype this completely useless and potentially harmful practise. It's a great money maker for the manufacturers and that's about it.
Great info. and articles at Mercola.com and Natural News.
The other great immune system boost is taking a probiotic supplement. 80% of your immune system is in your gut. Antibiotic use will impair your immune system because it indisciminately kills off your good gut flora. Our bodies actually contain more "bacteria" than our "own" cells.

Hi Stoneman.

Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) play important roles in the immune system. Numerous scientific studies have shown that large numbers of people in western civilizations have inadequate intakes of many micronutrients because of the highly processed modern diet. Vitamin D and Vitamin C are well known examples. Vitamin D levels are often low in the winter time and Vitamin D deficiency is now considered to be an epidemic.

Vitamins B6, B12, Folate, C,D,E, and minerals such as zinc, iron, selenium and copper are major players in optimal immune function. Taking a quality multi-vitamin/mineral supplement daily (as recommended by the Journal of the American Medical Assocation in 2002) is a good way to support immune function. Additional supplementation of Vitamin D may be needed beyond what is available in a typical multi-vitamin supplement.

Additionally, maybe even more importantly, eating a healthy diet with 5 to 9 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, deep sea (cold water) fish, etc. is a vital first step in optimizing immune functions.

Here are a variety of current scientific papers that support my comments:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21184…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21184…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17922…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17726…

http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/ar10mar-11.pd…

Best wishes and good luck.

No, and even if you could it would be a very, very bad idea. How far do you want your immune system boosted? So far as to cause asthma, how about rejecting your heart and destroying it?

No, you cannot and should not faff with the immune system unless you have something seriously medically wrong with you.

Echinacea is effective in increasing immunity to colds. So is Vitamin D. Tanning beds are even more effective in boosting immunity than Vitamin D supplements are. Eat a balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. Avoid sugars and refined carbs, but whole grains are good for increasing immunity. A balanced diet should include every vitamin from natural sources - taking a vitamin C pill is not the same thing as eating an orange, the orange will do you more good.

vaccines are the only thing that actually makes your immune system more effective, get a flu shot.

other than that just make sure your eating right and not putting yourself in situations that increases your risk of viral infection, wash your hands regularly, keep sick people at a distance.

correct your nerve interference. most people that keep free of nerve interference report a decrease of colds or they cease altogether. see an hio method upper cervical specific chiropractor. studies have proven you are more, not less, likely to get the flu after taking a flu vaccine. in a recent outbreak of whooping cough in san diego, two thirds of the affected children had just been innoculated for it. vaccination is fraud.

Taking extra vitamin C and D is supposed to boost your immune system.