| I hope you are well and still washing those hands meticulously. It’s been a busy few days. Not least in keeping up with the COVID-19 updates. It looks like we will have an enforced shut down soon in the UK, to reduce the spread of the virus through the community. Dark days ahead. I wanted to bring some light into the gloom by letting you know there are still a number of things we can do individually to support our immune systems to reduce the likelihood of infections, I’ve mentioned colostrum already. This increases surface immunity of mucus membranes. Another way to ramp up mucosal immunity is by ensuring you have a healthy microbiome. The best way to do that is eat lots of rainbow coloured foods. The more diverse your diet the more diverse your microbiome. Fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kefir can support diverse bacteria and yeasts. The research on specific strains of microbes is less clear but there have been a number of studies showing that Saccharomyces Boulardii, a yeast, improves surface immunity. This is an easily available supplement in good health food stores. The variant I use, as it also contains a blend of minerals and plant extracts that support immunity, is the Antioxidant and Immunity Support. This is an exceptionally convenient way to get a probiotic fermentate called Epicor. Read on as Epicor has an interesting story behind it. A young farm boy in rural America discovered fermented food stuffs meant that the cattle he cared for thrived. This excited him so much that when he was older, he went on to build a factory to produce these fermented feeds. The company thrived because farmers found that that their animals did too. In the 1990s, it was observed, workers in the factory in Cedar Rapid Mills were not getting sick so having fewer visits to the doctor and taking fewer sick days. Further research showed the difference was marked even between office workers and factory floor workers in the plant. Great news for the workers and company as a whole. This led to a huge amount of interest in the fermentate and further research leading to the isolation of Epicor. This fermentate of a closely related cousin of S. Boulardii was shown to increase salivary IgA and mucosal immunity. It also increased the number of Natural Killer cells in the mucosa. What do these killer cells kill? Virus infected cells. So definitely something I’m stocking up on. You can too here. S. Boulardii, colostrum and vitamins are easily available on the net. Obviously I have an interest in the sales of Immunity Boost especially if it comes through my site but that’s a straight up declaration of interest – take it or leave it that’s your call. I’ve put the last two missives from me on my website incase you need to refer to it. Next up I’ll talk about minerals and vitamins that can help keep you and your family safe in these interesting times. |
Hallo, always great to see other people through the hole world in my searching, I really appreciate the time it should have taken to put together this awesome article. Cheers Lanette Christian Dachia