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"Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Phaedrus - 11-17-2019
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A science enthusiast
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Minimalist - 11-17-2019
Carlin nails it.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Dānu - 11-17-2019
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - GenesisNemesis - 11-17-2019
Is it not the case that eating "healthy" foods is good for the immune system, though? Where's the line drawn?
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Dom - 11-17-2019
(11-17-2019, 05:14 PM)GenesisNemesis Wrote: Is it not the case that eating "healthy" foods is good for the immune system, though? Where's the line drawn?
Common sense tells you that all foods that have been consumed for a few hundred years by humans are likely a good thing to eat. Our bodies are made for it. But eating huge amounts of any one specific food for prolonged periods of time will cause too much of something and too little of something else in our bodies and disturb the balance of things.
Take away: eat everything our bodies have evolved to eat, in moderation.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Tres Leches - 11-17-2019
(11-17-2019, 03:13 AM)Phaedrus Wrote:
A science enthusiast
I think your meme about "boosting the immune system" boils down to semantics and is a tad simplistic.
It's possible for your body to be more vulnerable to sickness if you're under high levels of stress, chronically sleep deprived or eating Kit Kat bars every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Eating garbage every day leads to inflammation in the body which has a terrible effect on the immune system. Adjusting those variables can have a positive effect on your body.
However, I'm also skeptical about magical elixirs in the form of juice diets or those mega-dose vitamin pills that supposedly cure colds (I think one is called Emergen-C). I sorta roll my eyes when people talk about running to the store to buy those things when they have a sore throat but I guess someone is making boatloads of money off that.
-Teresa
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Dancefortwo - 11-17-2019
You can have a compromised immune system because of illnesses. Even mental illness and depression can lower one's immune system. There might be a limit to how immune the body can, but maybe not. Scientists have found that puting the body into a slight starvation mode stimulates the AMPK activators which controls disease. The body fights starvation by activating chemicals and these activators fight disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4855276/
Calorie restriction also deactivates Sirt1 and I can't remember exactly what it does but it's good to deactivate it.
I think I have that right. 
Anyway it does something to restrict cancer or something like that. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/23411 The problem is, who wants to live their life half starving all the time. Now where'd my husband put those cookies. 
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - GenesisNemesis - 11-17-2019
(11-17-2019, 05:36 PM)Tres Leches Wrote:
However, I'm also skeptical about magical elixirs in the form of juice diets or those mega-dose vitamin pills that supposedly cure colds (I think one is called Emergen-C). I sorta roll my eyes when people talk about running to the store to buy those things when they have a sore throat but I guess someone is making boatloads of money off that.
-Teresa
There's growing evidence that vitamin pills are basically useless. Both my mother and my brother keep taking them, though.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Tres Leches - 11-17-2019
(11-17-2019, 05:48 PM)GenesisNemesis Wrote:(11-17-2019, 05:36 PM)Tres Leches Wrote:
However, I'm also skeptical about magical elixirs in the form of juice diets or those mega-dose vitamin pills that supposedly cure colds (I think one is called Emergen-C). I sorta roll my eyes when people talk about running to the store to buy those things when they have a sore throat but I guess someone is making boatloads of money off that.
-Teresa
There's growing evidence that vitamin pills are basically useless. Both my mother and my brother keep taking them, though.
We Americans love our pills, even over-the-counter pills that don't have much, if any, science to back them up. I sometimes wonder if people believe they can just fix an unhealthy lifestyle by popping a pill.
It's too bad healthy foods are so expensive in the US. The rubbish is cheap and good food is expensive. It should be the other way around.
I wonder also if that has anything to do with people buying a bottle of vitamins instead of laying out money for expensive food.
-Teresa
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - skyking - 11-17-2019
I think that the idea you can slap a magic bandaid on your immune system is false and just another case of selling something people want to hear. You can eat good foods without going nuts in the organic side of the supermarket, so it does not cost that much to eat right. It's just super convenient to eat poorly and compromise on your health.
EDIT:
A great example is vitamin C and peppers. Red, green, yellow, mini sweets are all loaded with C. Like crazy amounts !
It is another one of many ways to get your C, no need to buy "florida orange juice" TM
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - grympy - 11-17-2019
(11-17-2019, 06:05 PM)skyking Wrote: I think that the idea you can slap a magic bandaid on your immune system is false and just another case of selling something people want to hear. You can eat good foods without going nuts in the organic side of the supermarket, so it does not cost that much to eat right. It's just super convenient to eat poorly and compromise on your health.
EDIT:
A great example is vitamin C and peppers. Red, green, yellow, mini sweets are all loaded with C. Like crazy amounts !
It is another one of many ways to get your C, no need to buy "florida orange juice" TM
A glass of most fruit juices (except tomato) contain as much sugar as a glass of coke. Better to eat a pice of the fruit.
Capsicum (bell pepper) is one of my staple vegetables, along with onions, /spring onions/garlic, broccoli, bok choy , spinach, carrots , spuds and pumpkin.. (depending on season) Slowly learning more about Chinese vegetables which are plentiful and cheap here.
Usually, taking vitamin supplements gives you very expensive urine. I take ONE on advice from my physician; vitamin D. A lot of people my age don't get enough sun.
Those bloody alternative medicine quacks are dangerous; people can die following their advice .
Just over 2 years ago. I had a good mate. He was my age. He believed in alternative medicine. Ever since taking cayene pepper, which he swore cured his Crohn's disease . He was forever buying quack medicines he found advertised on line, ( Quoth he: "AND it cures cancer!" ) and had a large collection of videos from those criminals . I watched several with him .Each time; "mate, those are scams, the bloke's a crook"
He didn't like doctors. Over a period of a couple of months, he complained of being tired all the time. I nagged him, and he finally went to the doctor and had some blood tests. The GP rang him at home, telling him to go the Hospital NOW. He went. My friend died of leukemia 8 days later.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - skyking - 11-17-2019
Then you are getting all the "C" you need
Sorry about your mate.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - grympy - 11-17-2019
(11-17-2019, 10:14 PM)skyking Wrote: Then you are getting all the "C" you need
Sorry about your mate.
Thanks.
I know I'm getting enough Vitamin C. A lot of the vegetables are for fibre.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Dānu - 11-18-2019
I take vitamins and calcium primarily because I donate plasma twice a week, and that might affect my immune system, and seems to knock my electrolytes off. Otherwise I'd just take vitamin D.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - brunumb - 11-18-2019
(11-17-2019, 10:07 PM)grympy Wrote: Usually, taking vitamin supplements gives you very expensive urine.
I didn't realise there was a market for urine.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - grympy - 11-18-2019
(11-18-2019, 12:18 AM)brunumb Wrote:(11-17-2019, 10:07 PM)grympy Wrote: Usually, taking vitamin supplements gives you very expensive urine.
I didn't realise there was a market for urine.
There ain't. I guess you could make your own Ammonia bleach, like the Romans did, for bleaching laundry. . You just put into into a drum or some other container and let it ripen until it smell s of ammonia instead of urine. You might save up to $10 a year.
I think it might probably kill weeds too.. 
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - julep - 11-18-2019
(11-18-2019, 12:05 AM)Dānu Wrote: I take vitamins and calcium primarily because I donate plasma twice a week, and that might affect my immune system, and seems to knock my electrolytes off. Otherwise I'd just take vitamin D.
Just curious: why do you donate that often? Is there an extra need in your area?
I would imagine that if you are donating a lot, you would need to make sure you aren’t depleting your reserves.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Thumpalumpacus - 11-18-2019
I stopped eating preprocessed foods, more or less, about 20 years ago. I'll still use canned tomato sauce for marinara or canned beans in my chili (yes, I'm that sort of Texan), but everything else is fresh-cut on my board. It works for me.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Dānu - 11-18-2019
(11-18-2019, 12:41 AM)julep Wrote:(11-18-2019, 12:05 AM)Dānu Wrote: I take vitamins and calcium primarily because I donate plasma twice a week, and that might affect my immune system, and seems to knock my electrolytes off. Otherwise I'd just take vitamin D.
Just curious: why do you donate that often? Is there an extra need in your area?
I would imagine that if you are donating a lot, you would need to make sure you aren’t depleting your reserves.
The first donation each week doesn't pay much. The premium is on the second donation each week.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Chas - 11-18-2019
(11-18-2019, 02:57 AM)Dānu Wrote:(11-18-2019, 12:41 AM)julep Wrote:(11-18-2019, 12:05 AM)Dānu Wrote: I take vitamins and calcium primarily because I donate plasma twice a week, and that might affect my immune system, and seems to knock my electrolytes off. Otherwise I'd just take vitamin D.
Just curious: why do you donate that often? Is there an extra need in your area?
I would imagine that if you are donating a lot, you would need to make sure you aren’t depleting your reserves.
The first donation each week doesn't pay much. The premium is on the second donation each week.
Why not just do the second one?
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - SYZ - 11-18-2019
Australia needs stricter, better-regulated food laws to protect consumers from the many misleading health claims
made about so-called "super foods".
False labelling hides the truth about superfoods.
We like to think we're armed with the best possible information, yet compared with regulations in the European
Union, Australia's food regulation system may struggle to manage misleading or false health claims that have the
potential to distort our choices.
Using acai berry products as our case study, we examined the health statements made on various products and
how these stacked up. Of the 38 acai products we recently identified in the Australian marketplace, almost all
referred to the large concentration of antioxidants in the acai berry and made various health claims about the
antioxidants and various other scientific-sounding substances (such as polyphenols and anthocyanins) in the berry.
About a third of the products claimed that acai berries could help with serious diseases like cancer or heart disease,
and a third claimed that consuming acai berry products would help with anti-ageing... the European Union food
regulator has since 2010 rejected all 149 claims submitted to it by food businesses that claimed a relationship
between foods that contain antioxidants and specific health effects in preventing diseases and ageing.
In the meantime it seems those claims on the superfood label may not be so super after all.
THIS is typical of the hundreds of ads for acai berries here in Australia, promoting all sorts of benefits—but
unsupported by any credible science. And note the AU$35 cost of a 10-day supply (@ 10g x2 per day). This is a
license to print money, and the sort of scam (one of a multitude) that Aussies need to shut down.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - LastPoet - 11-18-2019
People forget that some vitamins can cause problems in over quantities. Dunno if C is one of them, they talked about it in highschool, that was more than 20 years ago.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Thumpalumpacus - 11-19-2019
(11-18-2019, 01:25 PM)LastPoet Wrote: People forget that some vitamins can cause problems in over quantities. Dunno if C is one of them, they talked about it in highschool, that was more than 20 years ago.
Excess VitC is urinated out. Other vitamins in excess can lead to overdoses, VitK coming to mind right away.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Chas - 11-19-2019
Bottom line, boosting your immune system is pseudo-science; there is no evidence to support it, just anecdotes like those from the anti-vaxxer in the other thread.
RE: "Boosting" your immune system is a terrible idea - Mathilda - 11-19-2019
This is an issue for me because I suffer from an auto-immune disorder. On the one hand I want to make sure that my body has all the nutrients it needs because the healthier I am the better able my body is to repair the damage. But on the other hand I don't want to boost the immune system. What complicates things though is that the immune system can be compromised by not having all the nutrients it needs in order to function optimally and some food gets labelled as boosting the immune system when in fact it commonly just solves deficiencies in the typical western diet. But this is different from foods that actively boost the immune system by being pro-inflammatory and increasing the TH-1 response.