Best supplement for boosting immune system?

AntM1564 said:
Vitamin C and Gut Health for me!
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These are absolute staples for me along with fish oil. Immunity is so complex and there are so many things that can have an impact, depending on the issues your immune system is facing - but those 3 things will have a huge impact. I would drop my multi vitamin before I dropped those 3.
 
Active Hexose Correlated Compound(AHCC) - Probably the most powerfull immune booster. Over 800 published studies and a first line of defense in Japanese hospitals. Very expensive.

Swanson Well-Core - A mix of Wellmune and Epicor. Both patented ingrediants with human studies. Much more affordable.
 
Ape McGrapes said:
Active Hexose Correlated Compound(AHCC) - Probably the most powerfull immune booster. Over 800 published studies and a first line of defense in Japanese hospitals. Very expensive.

Swanson Well-Core - A mix of Wellmune and Epicor. Both patented ingrediants with human studies. Much more affordable.
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AHCC isn't all that expensive, but it seems like it is fairly specific on it's effects and who should be using it- namely those with cancer. Not sure if I would take that just to help with immunity.
 
What about Vit D for those of us in cold weather states? Here in IL we didn't see the sun for about 2.5 weeks straight.
 
cubsfan815 said:
What about Vit D for those of us in cold weather states? Here in IL we didn't see the sun for about 2.5 weeks straight.
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Vitamin D absolutely and the mood benefits behind it too.

WawaCoffee said:
I've never tried Gut Health, but Vitamin C and fish oil are a staple for me.
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dsade and Evomuse make some of the best products on the market, but don't get enough recognition. Gut Health is easily one of the best products I have ever used. Since day 1 I have been a believer and will use it everyday in my staples. Digestion health is key for us, far less bloat, and much easier on a daily basis to digest the nutrients we put into our systems.
 
Haven't looked into the scientific validity, but Echinacea is supposed to boost the Immune system - but don't take it chronically, only during the sick season IIRC.
 
When I was running invictus my entire family got sick. For like days. It was a strep throat with the flu combo. I thought I was getting sick too but never did. It claims to boost your immune system and it sure did.
 
blueline438 said:
When I was running invictus my entire family got sick. For like days. It was a strep throat with the flu combo. I thought I was getting sick too but never did. It claims to boost your immune system and it sure did.
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High cortisol weakens immune system. So all cortisol lowering suppl help a little.
 
bosskardo said:
High cortisol weakens immune system. So all cortisol lowering suppl help a little.
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Geoff Roberts, of the Iron Mag Central BB Podcast, has Addison's Disease - he has to *take* Oral corticosteroids. Hydrocortisone, Prednisone or Cortisone Acetate. Ask him (or I mean listen to him) talk about how awesome low Cortisol is. Like Estrogen, you *want it* - in range. Cortisol rises and falls with the Circadian Rhythm and you wouldn't lose fat/build muscle without it (same with Estrogen). Unless you have blood/saliva tests to show it is above range, I wouldn't do much to try to purposely lower it - what if you're low normal already?
 
The_Old_Guy said:
Geoff Roberts, of the Iron Mag Central BB Podcast, has Addison's Disease - he has to *take* Oral corticosteroids. Hydrocortisone, Prednisone or Cortisone Acetate. Ask him (or I mean listen to him) talk about how awesome low Cortisol is. Like Estrogen, you *want it* - in range. Cortisol rises and falls with the Circadian Rhythm and you wouldn't lose fat/build muscle without it (same with Estrogen). Unless you have blood/saliva tests to show it is above range, I wouldn't do much to try to purposely lower it - what if you're low normal already?
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That is a good post. It's the same with all these guys touting crap to lower E2 without even knowing what their numbers are.
 
rascal14 said:
I thought Vitamin C was no good for immunity? Or just you already have a cold it won't help?
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If catch a cold it will help me recover faster but the trick is to take it daily. It guards me, since I visit each day 6 small classrooms of 30 kids that always some of them are sick and they sometimes sneeze at my face or my hand during lessons. I believe that I do carry most of the viruses with me as people at home get sick very often during teaching season, but luckily I don't
 
rascal14 said:
I thought Vitamin C was no good for immunity? Or just you already have a cold it won't help?
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MAIN RESULTS:
Twenty-nine trial comparisons involving 11,306 participants contributed to the meta-analysis on the risk ratio (RR) of developing a cold whilst taking vitamin C regularly over the study period. In the general community trials involving 10,708 participants, the pooled RR was 0.97 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94 to 1.00). Five trials involving a total of 598 marathon runners, skiers and soldiers on subarctic exercises yielded a pooled RR of 0.48 (95% CI 0.35 to 0.64).Thirty-one comparisons examined the effect of regular vitamin C on common cold duration (9745 episodes). In adults the duration of colds was reduced by 8% (3% to 12%) and in children by 14% (7% to 21%). In children, 1 to 2 g/day vitamin C shortened colds by 18%. The severity of colds was also reduced by regular vitamin C administration.Seven comparisons examined the effect of therapeutic vitamin C (3249 episodes). No consistent effect of vitamin C was seen on the duration or severity of colds in the therapeutic trials.The majority of included trials were randomised, double-blind trials. The exclusion of trials that were either not randomised or not double-blind had no effect on the conclusions.
AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the general population indicates that routine vitamin C supplementation is not justified, yet vitamin C may be useful for people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise. Regular supplementation trials have shown that vitamin C reduces the duration of colds, but this was not replicated in the few therapeutic trials that have been carried out. Nevertheless, given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration and severity of colds in the regular supplementation studies, and the low cost and safety, it may be worthwhile for common cold patients to test on an individual basis whether therapeutic vitamin C is beneficial for them. Further therapeutic RCTs are warranted.
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muscleupcrohn said:
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I'm drunk and already suck at reading anything scientific lol so that was like Chinese to me, so basically only benefits athletes and may or may not help colds? Which most people only have a cold for about a week so even the 8% reduction in adults would be about a half day?
 
The_Old_Guy said:
Geoff Roberts, of the Iron Mag Central BB Podcast, has Addison's Disease - he has to *take* Oral corticosteroids. Hydrocortisone, Prednisone or Cortisone Acetate. Ask him (or I mean listen to him) talk about how awesome low Cortisol is. Like Estrogen, you *want it* - in range. Cortisol rises and falls with the Circadian Rhythm and you wouldn't lose fat/build muscle without it (same with Estrogen). Unless you have blood/saliva tests to show it is above range, I wouldn't do much to try to purposely lower it - what if you're low normal already?
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Yeah, I get your point. I think ashwagandha would work here (cortisol lowering not too harsh and other health benefits) but taking other cortisol lowering supps for immune system might be too harsh (if cortisol isn't high).
Thou I think most peaople nowdays have cortisol a little on the higher side.
 
muscleupcrohn said:
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Yeah, this is a good meta-analysis, but this type of logic/study also has us believing that low fat diets are superior to our health because certain populations with better health happen to eat low fat diets.

Part of the issue with Vitamin C is the RDA. You can go a long time without vitamin C and only require low doses to avoid certain pathologies. Based on this reasoning, the RDA was set at 60 mg. This means that to the general population, 1-2 g/day seems like a huge dose. I mean, it's 33X the RDA! But even 2 grams, IMO, is a pretty small dose. I take 5-6g/day every day and I've arrived at this through personal trial. But even in that study, 1-2 g DID show a reduction in the duration of colds.

My personal trials go like this - In college I took large doses of vitamin C regularly and didn't get sick for a long period. Then I stopped and would get sick. Then I started, no more getting sick. I've gone through these cycles over YEARS and I've learned that it doesn't totally eliminate the possibility of me getting sick, but it dramatically reduces the number of colds I get over 2-3 year periods. Also, when I do start to get sick dramatically increase my dose - usually to around 50g/day - and I only recently started doing this, but it seems to work to be honest.

One example I have is a little over a year ago there was a REALLY bad cold going around. Everyone I knew got it. Both my parents and my gf got it. They all got it BEFORE me. I was the last one to get it, even though I was in contact with the sick individuals the most and have a job where I was constantly shaking hands with such individuals. Everyone else who got it was in bed at least 4 days and up to 7 days, and sick for a solid 2 weeks.

One day, in the afternoon, my head became congested and it was obvious I got it. I went home, started taking mega doses. I was sick until the next afternoon and never missed a day of work.

N=1 as opposed to that study you listed, granted - but this is science. It's easy enough for you to test out, and cheap. A KG of Vitamin C costs less than $30 and you can keep it on hand and next time you are around people with colds, just start taking a ton of it. Maybe I'm wrong. The more tests we have the better. But my personal experiments point in a different direction.

Also, Vitamin C has a HOST of health benefits beyond avoiding colds.

Finally, it's still a supplement/vitamin. Even the best antibiotics won't work against EVERY situation. You can still get sick. It's not a cure for everything.
 
HIT4ME said:
Yeah, this is a good meta-analysis, but this type of logic/study also has us believing that low fat diets are superior to our health because certain populations with better health happen to eat low fat diets.

Part of the issue with Vitamin C is the RDA. You can go a long time without vitamin C and only require low doses to avoid certain pathologies. Based on this reasoning, the RDA was set at 60 mg. This means that to the general population, 1-2 g/day seems like a huge dose. I mean, it's 33X the RDA! But even 2 grams, IMO, is a pretty small dose. I take 5-6g/day every day and I've arrived at this through personal trial. But even in that study, 1-2 g DID show a reduction in the duration of colds.

My personal trials go like this - In college I took large doses of vitamin C regularly and didn't get sick for a long period. Then I stopped and would get sick. Then I started, no more getting sick. I've gone through these cycles over YEARS and I've learned that it doesn't totally eliminate the possibility of me getting sick, but it dramatically reduces the number of colds I get over 2-3 year periods. Also, when I do start to get sick dramatically increase my dose - usually to around 50g/day - and I only recently started doing this, but it seems to work to be honest.

One example I have is a little over a year ago there was a REALLY bad cold going around. Everyone I knew got it. Both my parents and my gf got it. They all got it BEFORE me. I was the last one to get it, even though I was in contact with the sick individuals the most and have a job where I was constantly shaking hands with such individuals. Everyone else who got it was in bed at least 4 days and up to 7 days, and sick for a solid 2 weeks.

One day, in the afternoon, my head became congested and it was obvious I got it. I went home, started taking mega doses. I was sick until the next afternoon and never missed a day of work.

N=1 as opposed to that study you listed, granted - but this is science. It's easy enough for you to test out, and cheap. A KG of Vitamin C costs less than $30 and you can keep it on hand and next time you are around people with colds, just start taking a ton of it. Maybe I'm wrong. The more tests we have the better. But my personal experiments point in a different direction.

Also, Vitamin C has a HOST of health benefits beyond avoiding colds.

Finally, it's still a supplement/vitamin. Even the best antibiotics won't work against EVERY situation. You can still get sick. It's not a cure for everything.
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Yeah, with how cheap Vitamin C is, there's no reason not to take it I guess, and it does have other health benefits. The conclusion of the study didn't say that you shouldn't use it or that it's a waste though.
 
muscleupcrohn said:
Yeah, with how cheap Vitamin C is, there's no reason not to take it I guess, and it does have other health benefits. The conclusion of the study didn't say that you shouldn't use it or that it's a waste though.
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Yeah, it's a good study too - something to be aware of. Another factor here is...bowel tolerance. I take 5 g all the time so when I get sick and start taking 50 g/day, I can take 5-10g doses at a time and have almost not issues. Someone who isn't used to the substance will have issues if they suddenly start taking 50 g.

Also, I KNOW it sounds like dogma, broscience or outright craziness to be such a proponent of Vitamin C. I felt the same way, until I gave it a solid shot a few times.
 
HIT4ME said:
Yeah, it's a good study too - something to be aware of. Another factor here is...bowel tolerance. I take 5 g all the time so when I get sick and start taking 50 g/day, I can take 5-10g doses at a time and have almost not issues. Someone who isn't used to the substance will have issues if they suddenly start taking 50 g.

Also, I KNOW it sounds like dogma, broscience or outright craziness to be such a proponent of Vitamin C. I felt the same way, until I gave it a solid shot a few times.
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It's not like the research says it's useless, plus it's very cheap and very safe, so if it works for you, then by all means use it, regardless of what others think.
 
The_Old_Guy said:
Geoff Roberts, of the Iron Mag Central BB Podcast, has Addison's Disease - he has to *take* Oral corticosteroids. Hydrocortisone, Prednisone or Cortisone Acetate. Ask him (or I mean listen to him) talk about how awesome low Cortisol is. Like Estrogen, you *want it* - in range. Cortisol rises and falls with the Circadian Rhythm and you wouldn't lose fat/build muscle without it (same with Estrogen). Unless you have blood/saliva tests to show it is above range, I wouldn't do much to try to purposely lower it - what if you're low normal already?
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Thanks for posting this...I'm going to listen at the shop tomorrow.
 
dsade said:
Thanks for posting this...I'm going to listen at the shop tomorrow.
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It wasn't recent and there are like 10,000 episodes man ? I don't remember how long ago it was. He's also a Type 1 Diabetic among other things - really came up deuces metabolically - but that's why he's interesting to listen to
 
Abit confused with the pes multi...since it contains ashwagandha, when should it be taken? Also is 600mg the daily dose that ppl run
 
Zariph said:
Abit confused with the pes multi...since it contains ashwagandha, when should it be taken? Also is 600mg the daily dose that ppl run
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I'd probably take it at dinner. Unless you workout at night. Keep multis away from training
 
Zariph said:
Why keep multis away from training? Is this only pre or also post that is?
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COX-2 inhibition. Anything that may possess anti-inflammatory properties I'd keep away from workout. ~2 hours before and after. Potential to hamper recovery
 
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