Immune Support for Cold, Flu, and Virus

Your immune system works proactively as a host defense in which the body uses barriers and chemical agents to fight against pathogens which can be viruses, bacteria, or other infectious agents. The immune system requires nutrients to aid in the ability to kill off pathogens as well as remove the debris from the body and the body functions optimally when it supports this immune process with diet, lifestyle, and targeted nutritional supplementation.

Supporting the gut, ensuring a robust microbiome, regulating stress, and enhancing nutrient status are all functional ways to support your body and provide the best environment to combat any pathogen. Below will include logic and lifestyle on all these elements but for ease of reference I am including a tight immune protocol here:

Immune supporting protocol:

Multidefense 1 twice daily with food *choose Multidefense with iron if menstruating female or anemic

Herbal Immune 1-2 daily without food (increase to 3/day if actively ill)

Bio-C Plus 1 at breakfast, 1 at lunch (increase to 4-6/day if actively ill)

Rebuild Spectrum Probiotic 1 at bed (increase to 1 at rise + 1 at bed if actively ill)

Restore Baseline Probioitc 1 at bed (increase to 1 at rise + 1 at bed if actively ill)

Vitamin D Balanced Blend 1 at breakfast (may require additional dosage if levels are not at 50+ ng/mL)

Grassfed Whey protein 1 scoop 3-4x/wk for immunoglobulin boost (may increase to 1 scoop/day if actively ill)

For Ear, Nose, Throat and Respiratory:

Thin out mucous and phlegm, remove from body to prevent getting into lungs!

Clear liquids + Bone broth to move mucus and phlegm
Physically remove the mucus and snot with blowing nose or nasal aspirator
Keep nasal passages moist and clean with saline + xylitol spray (such as XClear) or steam in shower with essential oils
Consider Cellular Antiox and Elderberry Plus to support inflammation and respiratory health
Herbal Ginger Syrup is a delicious, soothing syrup for sore throat, cough, and immune support
Garlic Mullein drops for ENT support and to prevent or treat early ear infection
Ditch the coffee and go for tea, shown to enhance immune response
Move the body for lymphatic support
Consider fasting to aid in immune response
Remove dairy from diet until mucus resolves

Consider layering in:

Cellular Antiox 1-2 twice daily without food for support on upper respiratory health and immune cell function

Beberine Boost 1-2 twice daily with food for added antiviral and antimicrobial support

Targeted Strength Probiotic to replace Restore Baseline if already on a higher dose probiotic and needing active gut support

Support your Immune System and Save with my Immune Support Bundle!

Protect your gut lining!

Your immune system resides predominantly in the GALT (gut associated lymphatic tissue) that lines your intestines. This plays an important role in storing the immune cell fighters both T cells and B cells which are essential in the attack of pathogens. During times of immune stress it is important to limit dietary irritants and inflammatory foods which could reduce GALT function or create damage.

Avoidance goal: refined sugar, gluten, corn, and alcohol can all be gut irritants. Use this time to brush up on some clean whole food based recipes that are ideally produce and protein rich while limited in grains and free of refined processed ingredients.

Abundance goal: Using bone broth in family soups and stews, to sip on, or cook veggies in is a great way to support the immune system and reduce reactivity to foods protecting your GALT actually supporting the tissue of your gut lining. See more content on how bone broth heals and my best chicken bone broth recipe here. If bone broth doesn’t sound do-able, I use pasture-raised gelatin in many recipes in The Anti-Anxiety Diet Cookbook such as avocado pudding and even in my low carb chocolate chip cookes providing a gut boost.

Supplement support: L-glutamine serves as both a fuel source and a building block for gut cells aiding to ensure a healthy tissue lining. GI Lining support combines a potent dosage of L-glutamine along with aloe and DGL to aid in coating and protecting damaged tissue, reducing inflammation and ulceration as well as serving to provide a slow delivery of fuel for repair.

GI Immune Builder provides immunoglobulins to prime the gut in response to bacteria, virus, and aid in reducing reactivity to foods. This product works hand in hand with GI Lining Support which supports gut lining integrity, whereas the GI Immune Builder ensures the gut has the tools to respond to any foreign invaders appropriately.

Fuel your gut microbiome with probiotic-rich foods!

Our microbiome is impacted by the exposure to virus and bacteria and can be hit by respiratory (via nose, mouth-throat) and digestive tract from consumption of pathogens. Your microbiome is over 3 pounds of your body by weight and its composition can be favorable working in a symbiotic state or unfavorable in a dysbiotic state.

Supporting symbiosis with consumption of live-active cultures will enhance nutrient absorption, digestive function, mood stability, and will favorably impact our immune system by modulating our innate immune response and up regulating the army of immune system fighters at a time of need!

Avoidance goal: washing your hands and practicing good hygiene on your personal devices and surfaces is still good, but don’t oversterilize the microbiome via antibacterial sprays and be aware of the impact of antibiotics avoiding frequent use.

Abundance goal: aim for a probiotic food source daily including kraut, kimchi, pickles, kombucha, miso, keifer, and yogurt. If dealing with phlegm or mucous, you may consider only dairy-free sources which is especially important for toddlers with risk for ear infections.

Supplement support: to ensure a symbiotic and immune supporting environment, take a quality probiotic supplement providing 15-100 billion CFU per capsule with ID guarantee strains. You can start with my Restore: Baseline Probiotic which I use in a probiotic challenge in my clinic to determine the state of your microbiome.

Rebuild Spectrum Probiotic: Beyond the daily probiotic, Restore Baseline mentioned above, Rebuild Spectrum is essential post antibiotics and to rev up your immune system when under stress or exposure. I always have a bottle in the house. If on antibiotics, start right away 1 at bed, then take 1 at rise and 1 at bed for 30 days post-antibiotic.

Practice intermittent fasting and keep sugar out!

If you know my passion for the ketogenic diet and use of healthy fats and ample protein to support a low-glycemic nutrition approach for mood stability and optimal health in all ages, this may not come as a surprise. Beyond the negative impact of blood sugar elevation on your mood and cognitive health, when you consume sugary refined processed foods, your immune system shuts down.

This study looked at the phagocytic function of neutrophils when exposed to glucose and carbohydrates. It discovered that when immune system white blood cells (neutrophils) are exposed to sugar in the body, they reduce their ability to destroy or eat up and excrete (phagocytic) harmful bacteria in the body. Also interesting, they found that fasting for 36 or 60 hours greatly enhanced the phagocytosis of the immune system so the white blood cells were more able to attack and destroy bacteria when fasted. Intermittent fasting can aid in optimizing your immune system’s ability to surveillance.

Avoidance goal: Remove processed refined froods from the home. Keep carbohydrate intake limited and consider nutritional ketosis. This is not the time to stress eat! Practice fasting of at least 16/8 structure and consider a bone broth fast to really enhance immune support. For children, I don’t recommend fasting but I do recommend structured eating with 4 hour breaks vs. chronic grazing. To learn about intermittent fasting and reduction of sugar to support optimal metabolism for body composition change, mood stability, and immune support, check out my 12-week Food-as-Medicine Ketosis program.

Power up on protein and produce!

Protein is vital to fight viral and bacterial infections. Immune system powerhouses such as antibodies and immune system cells rely on protein. Too little protein in the diet may lead to symptoms of weakness, fatigue, apathy, and tissue breakdown, sarcopenia may be one reason connected to why elderly are most impacted and at risk. Protein also promotes satiety to reduce cravings. Select red meat and darker cuts of poultry for more zinc, a mineral that is important in immune health.

Vegetables, greens, herbs, seasonings, and moderate amounts of fruits provide phytocompounds that can aid in reduction of virus replication while enhancing antioxidant capacity in your body! These choices also provide support for hormone regulation and detoxification while contributing volume to aid in satiety at meal time with low calorie and blood sugar impact.

Abundance goal: Within your eating window ensure you are getting protein at minimum 2 meals daily this includes beef, chicken, pork, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, and grassfed whey. Aim for 5 cups of vegetables daily and incorporate herbs, seasonings, and spices in all your meals!

Supplement support:

Quality Multivitamin this is key! Look for one with chelated minerals and methylated B’s such as my MultiAvail Kids, Multidefense, and MultiAvail Mama! Ensuring you have a solid foundation of immune nutrients such as zinc, B-vitamins, selenium, A, E, K to name a few, will be the best way to support your body’s needs.

Vitamin D a baseline of 2k-5k IU for adults daily. 800-2000 IU is appropriate for toddlers and children in cold/flu season, always talk to your pediatrician. When supplementing with vitamin D, it is important to take a formula with K1 and K2 as seen in my Vitamin D Balanced Blend to reduce risk of calcification of soft tissues or kidney stone formation while providing another important immune nutrient. For children and babies or for flexible dosing, consider the Liquid Vitamin D Balanced Blend.

Vitamin C can be consumed in the diet with healthy intake of berries, citrus, greens, but when under the weather or at immune risk, 1-3g can be added to boost immune health as a supplement in addition to diet. Bio-C Plus, is a formula that is whole food derived and contains bioflavinoids such as hespiratin and quercetin can aid further in reducing seasonal allergies and inflammation. Vitamin C is now being used as an intervention in treatment of intensive respiratory conditions and virus.

Putting it all together with food-as-medicine:

In my most recent book The Anti-Anxiety Diet Cookbook, I provide delicious recipes to aid in mellowing your mood and supporting a healthy mind. This resource would be a great tool at this time as it incorporates many recipes with bone broth (including a Bone Broth 5 Ways table), gelatin, grassfed meats, wild caught fish, and colorful produce highlighted with fresh herbs, seasonings, and spices. To get you started here are some free recipes from my blog that can further aid in immune support:

We showcase how we make our favorite bone broth for sipping, Turmeric Lime Coconut Bone Broth in this video!

Lifestyle Recommendations:

Get plenty of rest. The body needs its strength to fight a virus.
Drink plenty of purified filtered water in order to stay hydrated.
Take a hot shower to clear nasal passage; use nasal irrigation if necessary. Keep your nasal passages moistened when looking to prevent respiratory conditions or cope with mucous and phlegm. I use Xclear nasal spray.
Avoid stressors and upsetting situations or encounters which could prolong healing time. Focus on gratitude and positive perspective so your body is at its best in a parasympathetic state.
Do gentle movements to encourage lymph flow including walking, stretching, and yoga.
Use essential oils in a diffuser that aid in respiratory health and provide antimicrobial, antiviral support such as Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Tea Tree, and Thieves oil blend