Vitamin and Mineral Supplements for Boosting Your Immune System

Providing adequate nutrition for your immune system to utilize is one of the primary ways you can help it to boost its disease-fighting powers. Immune boosting nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, work in a variety of ways to strengthen your body's defenses. They help to increase the number of white cells in the body, and help these cells to fight sickness and disease more effectively. Immune boosters can also aid in helping your body to eliminate various substances which slow the body down.

Following are four of the most highly-recommended vitamins and minerals which can help you to reduce the number of days missed from work and school due to illness.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is at the top of the list of immune boosting nutrients for a number of reasons. There has been more research regarding the immune-boosting effects of Vitamin C than any other vitamin, mineral, or nutrient. Vitamin C supplements are cheap to produce, and they are also readily available in a variety of widely-available fruits and vegetables.

Vitamin C helps to increase the body's production of infection-fighting white blood cells and to increase the level of interferon, an antibody which coats the surface of cells, preventing viruses from entering. Vitamin C also helps to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing the level of HDL, or good cholesterol, while at the same time rreducing blood pressure and disrupting the process which causes fat to be converted into plaque in blood vessels.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an important antioxidant and immune system booster which doesn't get as much attention as vitamin C, yet it is still highly important.

Vitamin E aids in the stimulation of the production of natural killer cells - the cells which search out and destroy germs and cancer cells. Vitamin E also stimulates the production of B-cells, the immune system cells which create antibodies that kill bacteria. Vitamin E supplementation may also fight the reduction in the immune system's response commonly seen in the elderly. Vitamin E has been connected to lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease. In the Harvard School of Public Health study of 87,000 nurses, vitamin E was found to reduce the risk of heart attacks by 50%.

Zinc

Zinc is a valuable mineral which stimulates the production of white blood cells which fight infection, and also helps them to fight more aggressively. Zinc also increases the number of killer cells which help fight cancer and stimulates white cells to release more antibodies. Zinc has also been found to reduce the growth rate of cancer.

Zinc helps to create larger numbers of T-cells, which fight infections, particularly in the elderly, who can often be zinc deficient, and whose immune systems can often be weak from age.

For babies and children, some evidence has shown that zinc supplements may reduce the number of acute respiratory infections, but this is not proven. The best source of zinc for babies and children is cereal fortified with zinc.

Selenium

Selenium serves to increase the number of natural killer cells in the body and also helps to create cancer-fighting cells. The best dietary sources of selenium are sea food (red snapper, tuna fish, lobster, shrimp), whole grains, brown rice, eggs, cottage cheese, chicken (white meat), sunflower seeds, and garlic.