Immunity boosting medicine

Look no further. All the products on the market that claim to be able to quickly and comprehensively enhance immunity under the banner of "immunity-boosting drugs" are essentially IQ taxes - there is currently no clinically proven drug in the world that can universally improve the immunity of healthy people.

Last week, when I was helping organize the free clinic files at the community health service center, I met a 62-year-old Aunt Zhang. She spent more than 2,000 yuan last winter to buy a certain brand of "immune active peptides". It was advertised that taking it for three months could "return immunity to 30-year-old status", prevent colds and viruses, and inhibit tumors. However, after taking it for three months to catch the spring flu, she was the first to have a fever of 39 degrees. She took a blood test to check immunoglobulin and T cell subgroups. All indicators were within the normal range, which meant that all the money was wasted.

In fact, in the clinical context of Western medicine, "improving immunity" itself is a false proposition. The immune system is about balance, not stronger, the better - if the activity is too low, it will be easily invaded by viruses and bacteria, but if the activity is too high, it will treat your own normal tissues as foreign objects and attack them, inducing autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Thymosin and gamma globulin, which are often regarded as "immune miracle drugs" on the market, are all prescription therapeutic drugs. The former is used for tumor patients with severely compromised immunity after radiotherapy and chemotherapy and people with congenital immune deficiency, while the latter is used to rescue severe infections and autoimmune diseases. Not only is it useless for patients with sexual seizures, but it is not beneficial for healthy people to use it blindly. A few years ago, I met a young girl who privately took thymosin to prevent the new coronavirus. Not only did she break out with acne on her face, she suffered from insomnia for almost half a month. It was because the foreign immune preparations disrupted her own immune homeostasis.

When talking about this, some people will definitely ask, can those strengthening herbs in traditional medicine finally regulate immunity? This has to be viewed dialectically. There has never been a term for "improving immunity" in Chinese medicine. The corresponding conditioning logic is called "strengthening the body and eliminating evil". The core is to bring an imbalanced body state back on track. For example, people with qi deficiency often break out in sweats, feel tired after walking even two steps, and catch colds every time the season changes. Using medicinal herbs such as astragalus, Codonopsis pilosula, and Ganoderma lucidum can indeed improve the condition and reduce the frequency of illness. However, if you have a damp-heat constitution, usually have mouth sores, dry stools, and are afraid of getting acne, then taking these warm and tonic medicinal herbs will simply add fuel to the fire. Last year, my aunt followed the trend and bought Xiaosanqian's Ganoderma spore powder. After taking it for half a month, I had nosebleeds every day, and it was cured within two days of stopping. It's not that the medicine is bad at all, it's just that it's useless if it doesn't treat the symptoms.

The nutrition community takes a more pragmatic approach to the issue. Nowadays, many vitamin C, zinc, and probiotic supplements are labeled as "improving immunity," but the actual research conclusion is that supplementation of these nutrients can only play a role in regulating immunity when your body is deficient. For example, for people who do not eat fresh fruits and vegetables at all and whose vitamin C intake is seriously insufficient, supplementing with 100 mg of vitamin C every day can indeed shorten the duration of a cold. However, if you usually eat one pound of vegetables and half a pound of fruits every day, and then take a large dose of vitamin C supplements, apart from the possibility of diarrhea, there will be basically no additional benefits. As for probiotics, currently only a few specific strains have been proven to be helpful for specific immune-related problems such as allergic rhinitis and intestinal infections in children. It is not possible to just buy probiotics and eat them to buff your immunity.

Speaking of which, I myself have been taken advantage of. At the end of 2022, when the government was released, I blindly bought more than 300 yuan of "immunoglobulin tablets" when I couldn't get any medicine. Later, I read the clinical literature and realized that immunoglobulin is essentially protein. When eaten in the stomach, it is decomposed into amino acids by proteases. It cannot fully enter the bloodstream to play its role. It is no different from the two eggs I ate in the morning. Now I think about it and I still find it funny.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no relevant research progress at all. There are indeed many teams around the world working on regulating drugs for immune aging, mainly targeting the elderly population over 65 years old. After all, the immune function of the elderly naturally declines, and they are a high-risk group for influenza, pneumonia, and tumors. However, most of these drugs are still in the clinical trial stage and are at least 3-5 years away from being officially launched. Moreover, they are only targeted at the specific needs of the elderly group, and it is impossible to "enhance immunity" for healthy people of all ages.

When it comes to reliable ways to adjust your immune status, my experience that I have been adhering to for almost three years is, don’t look for any magic medicine, sleep enough for 7 hours a day, go out for a walk of 5 to 6 kilometers three or four days a week, and eat more high-quality proteins such as eggs, milk, fish and shrimp, which are more effective than any supplement. During the flu epidemic at the end of last year, half of the people in our office were sick and took leave. I met with them every day and didn't get infected. The immune indicators in the physical examination at the end of the year were all within the normal range, so I didn't waste any money.

To put it bluntly, your immune system is like a watchdog you raise. If you feed it on time and take regular walks, it can help you keep an eye on foreign pathogens. If you feed it random supplements, it will either lie down and be too lazy to move every day, or it will be too excited and bite your own furniture. Is there any special medicine that can turn it into a magical dog just by eating it?