Effects of immunity boosting shots

At present, the "immunity-boosting injections" often mentioned in the market only cover the immune regulation needs under specific indications. They have no universal effect on healthy people in preventing diseases and improving physical fitness. Blind injections may bring health risks.

The "immunity-boosting injection" we often refer to is actually a big basket, and everything is put into it: there are regular immune-modulating preparations that have been used clinically for decades, such as thymosin, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin polysaccharide nucleic acid, and intravenous human immunoglobulin (also commonly known as globulin). There are also many concept peptide preparations promoted by medical beauty and health care institutions, and there are even many three-no products that have not received national drug approval. The effects are very different and cannot be generalized.

When I was volunteering at a community health service center last month, I met 62-year-old Aunt Zhang. She held up a short video on her mobile phone and insisted that the doctor prescribe a "boost injection." She said that her old sister had not caught a cold all winter after the injection, and she wanted to arrange it too. The doctor reviewed the physical examination report she had just done and found that the immunoglobulin and T-cell subgroup indicators were all within the normal range. He refused on the spot and kept talking to her for almost 20 minutes: If you really want to prevent colds, it is better to get a flu vaccine. It is much more reliable than this. Why spend so much money on it?

Of course, this does not mean that this type of preparation is completely IQ tax. Its useful scenarios are actually very clear. At the peak of COVID-19 last year, I accompanied a friend to the Department of Infectious Diseases to find his mentor. The director had thirty or forty notes on his desk requesting the prescription of C-globin. He sorted them out according to priority: "Only patients who have inflammatory storms after entering the ICU, have immune deficiencies such as leukemia/AIDS, or whose immunity has fallen below the safety line after radiotherapy and chemotherapy can really save their lives with C-globin. Ordinary young people come here to prescribe C-ball when their fever reaches 38 degrees. I advised them all to go back." ”If you think about it, G-globulin is a blood product after all. Even if the screening technology is very mature now, there is still a very low probability of encountering pathogenic infection during the window period. Healthy people will have their own immune cells "lazy" if they take it. Long-term use may even inhibit the synthesis of their own immune globulin, which is not worth the gain.

There is also a lot of controversy in the academic community regarding its applicable boundaries. I know a senior sister who practices preventive medicine who conducted a small sample survey last year. She gave 200 Internet practitioners who had more than 6 colds a year and often stayed up late at night to give a small dose of thymusfacin according to the course of treatment. After six months of follow-up, nearly 60% of the subjects indeed said that they had fewer colds and recovered faster. However, she also repeatedly emphasized that this result is currently not supported by large-scale evidence-based evidence, and the subjects have adjusted their schedules during the same period. If they still stay up until three or four o'clock every day, no matter how many injections they take, it will be useless, so it cannot be regarded as a routine clinical recommendation.

In fact, immunity is very much like your home's security door: with normal use, regular wiping of the hinges and a little oil on the hinges, you can firmly block thieves. If your door is already strong and the lock is easy to use, you have to add an extra ten-pound lock. It will be difficult to open and close the door, and you may even break the keyhole. Only when the door is knocked loose or the lock is broken, that is, when there is a real problem of immune deficiency or low immunity, can you find a professional doctor to evaluate whether to use these preparations to "reinforce", which can be considered to be on the cutting edge.

Nowadays, many people say that after taking the booster shot, there is no need to get vaccinated. This is purely confusing the concept. Vaccines induce the body to produce targeted antibodies, which is equivalent to installing a face recognition system on your door that is specifically designed to target certain types of thieves. It is not the same thing as this broad-spectrum immune regulation. You still need to get flu vaccines and pneumonia vaccines, and no one can replace them.

Yesterday, a friend who works in operations came to me and said that he had been working overtime every day to meet KPIs in the recent quarter, and he often caught colds and sore throats. He asked me if I wanted to take a shot to make up for it. My suggestion is to check the immune indicators first. If it really falls below the safety line, then ask a doctor to evaluate whether to use it. If the indicators are normal, it is better to save the thousands of dollars spent on injections to get a fitness card, go to bed half an hour earlier every day, eat two more eggs and drink a glass of milk. It is better than anything else. After all, there is never a permanent good thing about immunity, right?