Don’t Let a Cold Get You Down: Try These Immunity Hacks
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This is Open Mind. Today we're diving into the incredible world of polyphenols. What are those? Well, they're nature's powerhouse when it comes to supporting our immune system and our overall health. Now these mighty compounds are found in abundance in plant foods and they do so much more than just nourish our bodies, right? They help us feed our good gut bacteria, they reduce inflammation, they strengthen our immune defenses, and they make us more resilient to illness, meaning we don't get sick.

Polyphenols work their magic in lots of fascinating ways. They act as kind of mild stressors and they trigger our body to ramp up their defense mechanisms. This process is known as hormesis. It's basically a stress that doesn't kill you but makes you stronger. And this makes ourselves stronger and better equipped to handle oxidative stress and inflammation and lots of other challenges. So by incorporating polyphenol-rich foods in our diet, we're essentially giving our bodies a mini workout

and keeps us healthy and protected against chronic diseases. In this episode, we're going to explore some of the best sources of polyphenols like green tea and yes, my friends, dark chocolate and citrus fruits and how they can help you stay ahead of the cold and flu season, which is coming up soon to

to a station near you. Now, whether it's boosting your immune system or improving your gut health, polyphenols are just an essential part of any health-focused diet. So let's jump in and discover how you can eat your medicine and give your body the support it needs to thrive. Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, and welcome to Health Hacks. ♪

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Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. Ever wanted to ask me your health and wellness questions directly? Well, here's your chance. I have an exciting exclusive event coming up that you could be part of as a thank you for being a loyalist center to Health Hacks. On Wednesday, December 4th, I'm hosting a live digital experience called the Diet Wars, and I want you to join me. I'll be chatting with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, a board-certified family doc,

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6 p.m. Pacific and head over to moment.co forward slash Mark Hyman to get your tickets. I can't wait to see you there. Let's get started by talking about how to eat your medicine. This is hack number one and using polyphenols to do this. So let's start by diving into one of nature's most powerful immune supporting agents.

polyphenols. Now, what are those? Polyphenols are a type of phytochemical, phyto means plant, chemical means chemical, or phytonutrient. And these are found in our diet if we're eating an abundance of whole, real plant foods. They're definitely not in ultra-processed food at all, which is a real problem, and partly why we're so sick. Not just the bad stuff, but not enough of the good stuff. So this is the good stuff, my folks. Not only do these polyphenols provide a trove of benefits for health and for longevity,

but they also support our immunity and our gut health, which is so important for our immune system because they feed our good gut bugs. They're literally fuel for your intestinal microbiome. And if you don't feed your inner garden right and you don't tend it right, it's not gonna be nice to you. It's gonna cause all kinds of issues from chronic disease and many other things, all connected to inflammation. So polyphenols reduce inflammation and they also are beneficial for modulating our immune system.

All right, so what is the impact of polyphenols on immunity? Well, there's over 8,000 polyphenolic compounds that have identified to date. Now, many more phytochemicals, but these are just the polyphenolic compounds. Now, these are a diverse group of bioactive phytochemicals that have been extensively studied

for their antioxidant and their anti-inflammatory properties. They modulate immune cells and they turn on our anti-inflammatory pathways, which then helps reduce inflammation, which is the scourge of everybody as far as chronic disease and acute disease. They combat oxidative stress, which leads to rusting and aging, and they protect against all sorts of chronic diseases. So how do they do this? Is this really kind of cool idea called phytohormesis. Now, hormesis is...

This stress that doesn't kill you, that makes you stronger. It's a process where a low dose of a potentially harmful thing like exercise or your strength training and ripping muscle fibers actually stimulates a positive beneficial adaptive response like building new muscle. Same thing with cold therapy or cryotherapy or saunas. There's a whole bunch of different hormetic therapies. I talked about these in my book, Young Forever, and they're a key part of longevity. But what's interesting is that these phytochemicals

are tiny little stress molecules because they're the plant's defense systems. They're not there for us. I mean, obviously the plant didn't create these for us, but we've adapted with them to use them in our bodies to activate healing responses. It's really amazing.

So it's like a little stress that makes them stronger and it's very powerful. So these polyphenols, which are actually the plant's defense mechanisms, make them a little sort of stressful in our body. They create a little bit of a stress response, but that activates in response our healing system. And it's super important to remember because these polyphenols are rich in

plant foods, but they're richer in wild foods. They're richer in foods that are grown regeneratively and then organic and then conventional. So it's sort of hierarchy because we basically have bred these out of our modern diet, literally by breeding for starch and for yield and for drought resistance and for, you know, transportability and shelf stability, but not for nutrition. So we have a real issue of nutrition security here. Uh,

Food security is not having enough food to eat, but nutrition security is having enough nutrients to eat, and we are definitely not having those. And I think of these polyphenols as conditionally essential nutrients. We're not seeing deficiency diseases like scurvy or rickets if you don't have them, but over the long term, if you don't have them, they actually accelerate all of our aging processes, and by using them, they activate our longevity pathways and switches to help us live a long, healthy life. All right, so what happens when we consume them?

Our bodies respond by ramping up our own defense mechanisms. They increase the production of our own antioxidant enzymes. They enhance our detoxification pathways. They boost our immune system. They help our mitochondria. They help repair DNA. They're doing all kinds of amazing things.

that help us live longer and healthier. They basically trigger a mini workout for your cells, making them more resilient to stress and damage. Now, one of the key benefits of this hormetic response, this hormesis I'm talking about, is the reduction of free radicals or oxidative stress. You know what that is. It's rusting. It's when your apple turns brown in the air or your face wrinkles from the sun, right? These are all oxidative stress reactions.

And polyphenols can directly reduce oxidative stress by fighting off damage that's caused by these free radicals. So when you incorporate a polyphenol-rich set of foods into your diet, you can mitigate this damage to your cells and the harmful pro-inflammatory disease-causing effects that come with it. So it's really powerful to include these because they sort of are, you're working with your body to activate healing systems.

So when you do this, when you activate and enhance your body's antioxidant defense systems, these polyphenols actually protect our cells from the things that cause rapid aging and disease, inflammation and oxidative stress. Now, what about gut health? Now, until recently, we thought, oh, you need

prebiotics, which is fiber, and you need probiotics, which is true, but recent discoveries have made it really clear that polyphenols are essential for creating a healthy gut microbiome.

And why do you need a healthy gut microbiome? Because it regulates everything in your body. There's probably a third to a half of all your blood metabolites that come from your gut. They interact with all your biological systems and abnormalities in your gut microbiome, meaning having bad gut bugs by not eating enough of the right foods and too much of the wrong foods and not having enough polyphenols

linked to everything from heart disease to cancer to diabetes to dementia to autism, autoimmune disease to asthma to fibromyalgia to chronic fatigue syndrome. And the list goes on and on and on, even aging itself. So polyphenols are kind of newly understood to have a huge role in the microbiome. And they help support our microbiome by basically feeding and growing the good gut bugs, which produce anti-inflammatory metabolites,

And also, it's for other compounds we call postbiotics. Now, what are postbiotics? Well, you've heard of prebiotics. You've heard of probiotics. Postbiotics are basically compounds that are made by the bacteria in your gut that have a role in our physiology and our biology in a good way.

that makes us healthier. And these are really beneficial. They're quite amazing. That's why I said about a third to half of all the things floating around in your blood, all the molecules floating around in your blood, come from the gut bacteria. Now, postbiotics support

something called the innate immune system as well as the adaptive immune system. These are our two immune systems that help fight off infection. Now, it's super important to keep these good gut bugs around and keep them happy because they strengthen the gut barrier, which prevents a leaky gut, which causes a lot of inflammation, and that leads to a healthier, stronger, more robust immune system. Why is this important? Why is protecting your gut barrier important? About 60% to 70% of your immune system is

is in your gut. Why? Because that's where your body comes into contact with a lot of foreign stuff and your immune system is supposed to help you identify and fight off foreign stuff like bugs or weird proteins or food,

proteins, things that leak into your system. The more polyphenols you consume, the stronger and more resilient your immune system. And many studies have shown that there's an inverse relationship between viral infection and polyphenol-rich diets. Meaning, if you're eating a lot of colorful fruits and vegetables, you're less likely to get a virus and get sick from it. Not bad, just from eating a bunch of good food.

Now let's talk about a few foods that you can start including in your diet that will help protect you against the cold and flu foods and foods that contain these compounds. The first is a category of compounds called catechins. Catechins are powerful polyphenols that are found in green tea and that have shown to have significant benefit to reduce the incidence of influenza and the common cold symptoms. Now catechins are also abundant in dark chocolate,

apples, gooseberries, grapeseeds, kiwis, strawberries, red wine, although I wouldn't use that, beer also, I wouldn't use that, chocolate, cocoa, all that is a source of some of these catechins, although green tea is one of the highest sources. And they have a lot of benefits, right? These catechins are anti-cancer compounds,

They fight obesity, they're anti-diabetic compounds, they're anti-inflammatory, they're detoxifying compounds, they're antiviral, and they have a role in preventing colds and flus, and that's really important. In fact, research shows that regular consumption of green tea catechins, either by drinking green tea or taking it as a supplement,

or gargling with green tea, I've never done that, but it sounds interesting, that's been linked to a decrease in the flu. So just drinking green tea or taking green tea supplements or just gargling with it lowers your risk of getting the flu as quickly

great. By the way, I never get the flu shot for many reasons, but I think if your immune system's healthy and your vitamin D levels are up and you're eating a healthy diet, you're really not going to get the flu or it's going to be very mild. Obviously, if you're chronically ill, you're sick, or some other reason you might need a flu vaccine, that's fine. But for most of us, I think it's overkill. And then basically when you drink green tea, it's been linked to a reduced incidence of influenza infection and cold symptoms. So

When you're looking to beat that seasonal cold, just have a cup of green tea or better yet, have a piece of dark chocolate. That's my favorite. Now, these are great and delicious source of catechins and they're simple and effective ways to support your immune system.

Another really important polyphenol is called quercetin. Now, you've probably heard me talk about this in longevity talks I've done or in podcasts. It's really important. It's very high in Himalayan tartary buckwheat, which I love. I use Himalayan tartary buckwheat sprout powder every day. You can get it from Big Bold Health. And it's a...

Very potent flavonoid that has remarkable antiviral properties. And it gained a lot of attention recently for being effective against infections like COVID-19. And it's found in a variety of whole foods, including apples, berries, brassicas like the broccoli family, capers, grapes, onions, shallots, green tea, cranberries, blueberries, dark cherries, olive oil, parsley, sage,

and even honey. So all of these contain quercetin, some in higher amounts than others, but I think the highest source is Himalayan tartar buckwheat. And you can use it as capsules, as sprout powder, as flour, and make great buckwheat pancakes. In fact, there's a recipe in my book, Young Forever, the Young Forever Cookbook, using Himalayan tartar buckwheat as a way to get delicious sprout powder.

Now, you can also take it as a supplement, as I mentioned, and my favorite is HTB Rejuvenate from Big Bold Health. Just make sure you're getting a good source of it. I think that's really my favorite source because it has lots of other phytochemicals too and other polyphenols. Now, we're going to talk more about this in a little bit, but quercetin is known well for its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and antioxidant properties. And

It's been studied extensively for this and even was actually studied in a trial to reverse biological age and was effective in just reversing biological age. Now, the most notable example of this antiviral effect is COVID-19. It was making headlines throughout the pandemic for its strong antiviral properties. It exhibits these antiviral activity by doing a few things.

It blocks the virus's entry into your cells. It inhibits viral enzyme activity, so it can't do what it's supposed to do. It reduces the viral load, the overall load of the virus, which relates to how severely ill you are. And it reduces inflammation. And there's lots of research to support this. A small-scale randomized controlled trial, which is the highest level of evidence, found that 500 milligrams of quercetin three times a week

for one week, followed by 500 milligrams two times a day for another week. And those who tested positive for COVID-19 led to a whole bunch of benefits, like improved inflammatory biomarkers and faster clearance of the COVID virus. In the Quercetin group, 68% tested negative at one week versus 24% in the control group.

54% had earlier resolution of acute symptoms at one week versus 24% in the control. That's very impressive. Another clinical trial with about 152 COVID-19 patients found that quercetin supplementation, about 1,000 milligrams a day for a month, led to reduced hospitalization rate, which is amazing, shorter length of hospital stays, decreased need for non-invasive oxygen, and

lower progression to intensive care. So you basically prevented you from going to intensive care and reduce death. Now just think about this for a moment, folks. There's no good drugs that can do this. The vaccine may help with this, although there are a lot of issues with the vaccine.

But think about these benefits from taking a simple, harmless nutritional supplement or including foods that have this in them every single day. It's really that effective. These are not trivial effects. These are really powerful effects. Rutin is another polyphenol. It's the third polyphenol I want to talk about. It's a powerhouse polyphenol found in a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables.

like apple peels, black tea, asparagus, buckwheat, and I particularly like the Himalayan tartary buckwheat I mentioned. It's probably the highest source of rutin. Onions, green tea, figs, most citrus foods like grapefruit, lemon, limes, apples, cranberries. And as I mentioned, this Himalayan tartary buckwheat is a polyphenol-rich superfood. It's uniquely rich in quercetin and rutin,

And it's known for its immune rejuvenation properties, which strengthens immunity. It boosts your cellular health. It boosts your energy, your focus, and your clarity. In fact, exciting new research from my mentor, Dr. Jeffrey Bland, and his friends at Big Bold Health,

show they can even help lower the age of your immune cells. So it's basically versus your immunological age, which is important because that's how we age is through inflammation. Now, rutin has anti-inflammatory properties, anti-carcinogenic properties. It's neuroprotective, cardioprotective. It has antifungal properties and antiviral properties. All that makes it extremely effective

and Versal is supporting overall health and longevity, and it's based on immune resilience. These are really amazing compounds that you can get as part of your diet and that will help you. Now, there's a whole other class called flavonoids, and many other polyphenols in this class exhibit immune-supporting properties and also have antiviral benefits. Now, there's a big class of these polyphenols called flavonoids. There are subclasses of these called flavanols, isoflavones,

Flavanones, flavanols, anthocyanins, which are just a few examples. Now, flavonoids have been shown to exhibit direct antiviral effects against respiratory viruses, including influenza, rhinovirus, which is also known as the common cold, and SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19.

Now, they enhance immune function by increasing the circulation and the activity of your immune cells, particularly antibodies and white blood cells. Pretty darn good, right? And these are really important, and they're found in a lot of foods you can eat. They also reduce the expression of what we call pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines are the immune messenger chemicals. And they work together with our gut microbes to enhance protection against infection.

And one amazing source of flavonoids is propolis, propolis, or propolis, or propolis, however you say it. It's a natural resin complex. It's made by honeybees with immune-supporting properties. It's antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory. It's basically what the hive uses to protect itself.

Now, you can take propolis as a supplement, as a liquid extract, or as a nasal spray. Beekeeper's Natural makes a great throat spray with propolis. It's really awesome for daily immune support. Now, there's other foods that belong to flavonoids, include blueberries, strawberries, blackberries.

Also apples, pears, lettuce, tomatoes, kale, soybeans, citrus fruits, and the list goes on. All right, well, let's talk about citrus fruits because they're also great in all sorts of properties. They're great in terms of their antioxidant properties. They have high levels of IVCC and flavonoids, and that helps protect your cells from oxidative stress.

Now, something to keep in mind is that the bioavailability of these flavonoids from fresh citrus fruits is up to two times higher than frozen fruit. So also the longer the fruit travels to get to you, the more nutrients it loses. So basically you want to eat the

Lemon, lime, orange, or grapefruit right off the tree if you can, or basically in season and not stored for weeks or months in warehouses. Industrial farming practices and processing really reduces the nutrient content and the polyphenol content really significantly.

And that's why it's important to eat seasonal, local, fresh fruits and veggies. Farmer's Market is a great place to find these in the summertime. I love the Farmer's Market. I pretty much only shop at the Farmer's Market when I can in the summer. Now, you can purchase frozen fruits because they are actually flash frozen at their peak ripeness, which is great and actually contains more phytochemicals than typically what you'll get sitting on the shelf in a grocery store.

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Now, studies show that when picked at peak ripeness in their flash frozen immediately, they actually retain more polyphenols in vitamin C than just regular stuff you can get that's not frozen. In addition to, obviously, the flavonoids in the citrus fruits, they're also high, as I mentioned, in vitamin C. Now, vitamin C supports the immune system by stimulating the production of white blood cells, which are really important for fighting infections.

It also enhances the function of something called phagocytes. These are cells that kind of engulf the bad bacteria and the viruses. And that's why many studies suggest that vitamin C can reduce the severity and the duration of common colds, sort of what Linus Pauling kind of came up with near the end of his life. He was ridiculed for it, but he's actually right. He was really the godfather of functional medicine. He wrote the first paper in Science

journal in 1969 called Orthomolecular Psychiatry about using nutrients to correct psychiatric disorders. And now we have departments of nutritional psychiatry, you know, I don't know how many years, 50 years later in major academic medical schools.

The combination of vitamin C and polyphenols in citrus fruits provides a synergistic effect in supporting immune function. Things like oranges, grapefruit, also strawberries, blackberries, red peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kiwis, also great whole food sources of vitamin C that you can put in your diet. Also, you can take vitamin C, right? You can just take vitamin C every day during cold and flu season or when you get your symptoms

Hopefully you don't get symptoms if you follow what I'm telling you, but really important to help you prevent illness. I like the Pure Encapsulations Ascorbic Acid or Liposomal Vitamin C for more rapid absorption. You can find in my online store on drhyman.com. You can see the link in the show notes as well.

Also, you want to eat your medicine, folks. You really want to eat your medicine. And I don't say this metaphorically as I talk about food. I want you to understand that food is the most powerful biological response modifier

that you interact with every day. It signals your biochemistry to do all sorts of things, and the nutrients in it play a huge role in your biology. So you need to eat your medicine. Another way to get medicine and food is zinc. Zinc is really important for immune function. It's another food first way to get your medicine and get lots of foods that get zinc in them. It's an essential mineral that supports the immune system and it fights off viral infection. It helps

stop viral replication or viruses just kind of breeding, I guess you'd call it. Some studies suggest it actually even helps reduce the duration and the severity of cold symptoms. So where do you get those? Well, grass-fed meat, pumpkin seeds are a great source, oysters, cashews, almonds, salmon, sardines,

are great food sources. You can take them in different forms as a supplement, lozenges, gels, capsules, or sprays. All that's really important. So that's hack one. Hack one was all the polyphenols and nutrients that you can use to help reduce your risk of getting sick during cold and flu season. Let's move on to hack number two. The next thing you're going to do to beat colds is to

hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. And I did that this morning. I had, I think it was a, God, probably a full two liters of water. I took a sauna, a cold plunge, and I just fill up a big couple liter bottle with electrolyte water and I drink that. So why do you need this hack number two, hydration? Well, hydration plays a crucial role in

in protecting you against cold and flu season by supporting the body's natural defense mechanisms and basically helps alleviate symptoms. So what does it do? Well, staying hydrated helps moisturize the mucous membranes in the nose and your throat, which helps trap and expel viruses. It prevents their spread within the body.

It helps with circulation, which allows your immune cells like white blood cells to move more freely through the body and get to the places where the infections are. And that's a good thing. It also helps deliver essential nutrients to cells, which supports your overall immune function. So we just need to stay hydrated. And we need to do it to help the body regulate its temperature more effectively when fighting a fever, to help thin the mucus in the nasal passages, making it easier for the body to clear out the viruses and reduce congestion.

It replenishes any fluids lost from fever, sweating, or running nose. And that's really important. And you got to prevent dehydration, which can worsen symptoms and slow the recovery. So it also supports the body's detox processes, right? It allows the kidneys to get rid of waste products and toxins. How do you maximize the protective benefits of hydration against cold and flu? Well, drink filtered water throughout the day, at least eight ounces of water and electrolytes a day.

opt for warm fluids like herbal teas or bone broth.

Avoid caffeinated and alcoholic beverages, which can contribute to dehydration. And consider supplementing with electrolytes. My favorite electrolyte supplement is Lyto, L-Y-T-E. I like the lemon flavor. This comes in powders. It comes in liquid, drops. There's lots of ways to get it. Well, the third health hack is sleep, right? Why is sleep important? Well, you know, it's a totally underestimated area of immune health.

It plays a crucial role in lots of ways in maintaining a healthy immune system and protecting against colds and flus. Now, during sleep, in the deep stages, our bodies work wonders by helping our body repair, heal, and fight any pathogens. And it does it by producing and releasing cytokines, which are essential for creating a strong immune response.

for managing inflammation and for controlling infections. Sleep is critical for regulating the body's inflammatory responses and also balancing the production of these pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines so your body stays in balance. Now, when we don't get enough sleep,

the balance is disrupted and that leads to inflammation that weakens the immune system. It just makes us more susceptible to infections. Sleep enhances the production of T cells and B cells, which are your lymphocytes or white blood cells, which are critical for fighting off infection and building immunity. Now, the perfect example of this is vaccine responsiveness.

Studies show that people who get adequate sleep after receiving a vaccine produced more antibodies, which basically enhances the vaccine's effectiveness. On the other hand, sleep deprivation can reduce antibody production, making the vaccine less effective and the body more susceptible to infections and long COVID.

So getting adequate sleep isn't just about feeling refreshed. It's vital for maintaining a healthy immune system, for boosting vaccine efficacy, and keeping inflammation in check. Really important. It also does a lot of other things. Sleep helps reduce your stress hormones, which are not good for getting sick, right? If you're not getting enough sleep, your body can reduce too much cortisol, which is the stress hormone,

And when your cortisol levels are high, that weakens your immune system. And we know this. When you can basically take people who are stressed or unstressed, you inject a cold virus into their nose, same virus, not everybody's going to get sick, just the people who report a high stress score. This is in published data. That's pretty impressive. Now, the spike in cortisol can suppress your immune system by reducing the production of important proteins called cytokines and that are good to help reduce inflammation. There's anti-inflammatory ones and inflammatory ones.

It also decreases the activity of your immune cells like natural killer cells and macrophages. So when you have high cortisol, you're basically, your immune system doesn't work, your white blood cells don't work. It's kind of a bummer. So prioritizing good restful sleep is going to help keep cortisol levels low, which in turn supports a stronger, more effective immune response. What else does sleep do? Well, it helps your gut health. It helps the microbiome, which also, as I mentioned, plays a huge role in immune function.

Now, the gut microbiome interacts with the immune system by influencing its ability to respond to pathogens. And sleep helps you maintain a healthy balance of gut bacteria. Now, when you have disruptions in sleep, it can lead to imbalances in the microbiome, which negatively impacts immune function.

Now, a healthy gut microbiome is essential for the production of something called short chain fatty acids or SCFAs. These are really important and these are produced by good gut bugs when you eat good food.

And they have anti-inflammatory properties. They have anti-cancer properties. They're immune boosting and they fight chronic disease. So basically sleep is the third health hack and has all these benefits that I mentioned. So the next and the fourth health hack is exercise. Now the next immunity hack to support your immune system and to be healthy

That cold going around is more of a preventive approach and an exercise plays a role in that. Now, how does this work? Well, exercise supports the immunity of your body by enhancing the activity of natural killer cells. They are like what they sound like. They go around and kill bugs and cancer and T cells, which are crucial cells.

for the body's defense against infections. It also enhances T cell function and immunity by getting rid of old senescent cells, these old zombie cells, which helps with longevity. It increases the number of circulating T cells and their activity, meaning you're in white blood cells.

and it makes them more readily available to kind of fight whatever bugs you're exposed to. Now, one fascinating way that exercise does this is by producing something called myokines, like cytokines, but these are signaling molecules released by contracting muscles, which play a role in this exercise-induced immune effect. So even your muscles are an immune organ. Isn't that crazy? For example, there's a cytokine called IL-15 or interleukin-15,

that promotes the survival of cytotoxic T cells. Cytotoxic T cells means exactly what it sounds like. They kill, cyto is cell, toxic means kill. So they kill bad cells, meaning bugs that you don't want. It also activates natural killer cells, which are the hunters and destroyers. They're like the special forces of your immune system, which go hunt out and destroy pathogens.

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Are you obsessed with cults? Then, oh goody, do I have a podcast recommendation for you. It's called Sounds Like a Cult, and it's a show about the modern-day cults we all follow. Think Les Jonestown and the Mansons, and more Disney adults, church camp, momfluencers, or people who are just obsessed with their Stanley Cup.

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Exercise also has great anti-inflammatory effects. And we know that chronic inflammation weakens the immune system. Exercise actually induces the production of these anti-inflammatory cytokines, and it reduces the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Now, this helps shift your whole immune system to an anti-inflammatory state.

in an anti-inflammatory environment of the body, which then supports your overall immune health. So it's just good all around. It also increases the production of a critical molecule, and you may not know this, but exercise increases the production of something called glutathione. This is our body's master antioxidant, master anti-inflammatory, and master detoxifier. I've written a lot about it. Basically helps neutralize free radicals and reduce oxidative stress.

Now, this protects our tissues from damage. It further supports immune function and it helps reduce inflammation. So it's all good. What else does exercise do? Well, it improves circulation, right? Physical exercise and activity enhances blood flow and circulation. It allows immune cells to move more efficiently throughout the body.

It increases their availability to detect and respond to infections quickly, so everything works better. Now, this enhanced circulation also aids in the removal of metabolic waste and toxins, which basically makes you more resilient.

And what about stress? Well, exercise is a great stress reducer. I know if I'm stressed and I go for a run or do some activity or use my body, it's sort of the stress goes away. The cortisol, the adrenaline goes away. And why? Well, think about it. If you're a zebra, you want a big jolt of cortisol to make you run fast and go really fast, but then you burn it off, right? You burn it off by exercise, by running from the tiger or the lion or whatever it is, right? So we don't do that. We just stew in our own stress juices and that makes us sick.

So exercise is a great way to discharge all those stress hormones. And I really encourage you to do it. And it also helps your immune function. Also, exercise helps sleep, right? Improves sleep quality and sleep pattern. It's really essential for immune function. It's really during deep sleep that the body produces and releases cytokines and proteins that are really necessary for fighting infections and reducing inflammation.

Studies have demonstrated that people who get at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night have a stronger immune response to infections. And that's great. What else does exercise do? Well, it helps maintain our aerobic capacity measured by something called VO2 max, a very important biomarker for over longevity and health.

And this is interesting. Research into this area shows that those who exercise regularly have a lower rate of respiratory infections during cold seasons because it just improves your overall metabolism and health. Specifically, exercise in this context is described as daily activity of moderate intensity, which is about 60 to 80% of your VO2 max. VO2 max is basically how much oxygen you consume per minute, the volume of O2, oxygen, so how many liters of oxygen

can you consume per minute per kilo of body weight? And you want to be at about 60 to 80% of your maximal amount. And that really has been associated with a decrease in upper respiratory tract infections by about 20 to 30% during cold and flu season.

Now, this protective effect of regular exercise on our immune system might be due to increased levels of something called IgA or immunoglobulin A. It's an antibody that's found in the respiratory tract. It's the first line of defense. Now, studies have shown that men and women who consistently engage in modern intensity exercise have significantly higher levels of salivary IgA compared to those who are sedentary. But it's important to note that very intense exercise or overtraining

can temporarily suppress immune function. Now there's evidence that an increased susceptibility to infection from overtraining can happen. So if you do too much exercise, it actually causes a suppressed immune system, like marathon runners, for example, or if you're just in gym all day, not a good thing. Now the relationship between exercise and immune function, it's kind of like a J-shaped curve. Moderate exercise tends to enhance immune function,

But a sedentary lifestyle and a very high intensity exercise can increase the risk of infection. So both being a couch potato and a marathon runner, definitely not good for you, okay? Furthermore, improvements in fitness, such as increases in VO2 max, also been linked to reduced incidence of colds, which is great. And just by exercising, you reduce your risk of infection. Now, I almost never get sick because I exercise, I take my vitamin T, I have all the polyphenols, I do the zinc, I do the Himalayan tarry buckwheat, I get enough sleep.

So I'm almost never getting sick. A fascinating study involved over 115 overweight and obese postmenopausal women showed that 45 minutes of modern intensity exercise five days a week for a year resulted in a three times lower risk of catching a cold compared to the control group who only participated in 45 minute stretching exercises once a week. That's pretty darn good. So basically 45 minutes of modern intensity five days a week, three

Three times lower risk of getting a cold. Not bad. The next hack is hack number five.

It's supplements. Okay, finally, let's talk about some key supplements that can help proactively support your immune system and prevent colds and flu, and some others you can take at the onset of exposure to decrease viral growth and reduce symptoms of infections. Well, these nutraceuticals and botanicals are essential allies in fighting your health. You can't not take them. They're not optional. Unless you're

Only eating wild food, only drinking pure clean water, sleep nine hours a night, have no exposure to environmental toxins, exercise regularly, and you live in a bubble basically, you don't need them. But everybody else needs vitamins because we just live in a toxic, nutritionally depleted world.

You just want to make sure you get high quality versions that are tested for quality, potency, purity. First up is a multivitamin. And it just sounds like a boring thing to take, but it actually works. And there's tons of data on how this uplevels your health and ensures your body gets the basic vitamins and minerals to fill any nutrient caps, supports all your daily biological functions, and keeps your immune system and everything just going smooth. The next up is omega-3 fatty acids. Um,

I like Omega-3 Rejuvenate from Big Bold Health. It takes two grams a day. This has powerful anti-inflammatory benefits. And then really important for your immune function is vitamin D3, which should be taken with also vitamin K2. A daily dose of about 5,000 is ideal. Some people need less, but 5,000 usually is well tolerated by most people, especially during the winter months. People say, oh, I don't need it during the summer, but you do unless you're a

you know, a surfer or a lifeguard, you probably need vitamin D in the summer. I think the only people I've ever seen with adequate vitamin D levels who don't take it are surfers or other lifeguards. Vitamin D is powerful anti-inflammatory.

It's critical for immune function and it decreases viral growth and reduces symptoms. In fact, having vitamin D level over 50 in COVID actually prevented you from death. There were zero deaths with anybody over a vitamin D of 50. And if your vitamin D was low, you're 70% more likely to end up in the hospital and in the ICU and die.

Another really important supplement is called NAC or N-acetylcysteine, about 600 to 900 milligrams a day or twice a day promotes the production of glutathione. I mentioned that. This potent antioxidant that supports immune function and reduces the severity of the flu. Also for quercetin and rutin, I like HTB Rejuvenate from Big Bolt Health.

two twice a day, you can just start with two a day, but two twice a day is the full dose. You can take the Himalayan tartar buckwheat sprout powder. I put that in my smoothie every morning. And this significantly decreases the bowel growth

It enhances the immune system and it reduces symptoms. Vitamin C is well known for its immune regulating properties. Taking one to three grams orally can boost your immune system. It decreases bowel growth and reduces symptoms. So pretty darn good. Zinc, also really important, has strong antiviral properties, doses about 30 to 60 milligrams.

It supports the immune system. As I mentioned, it decreases the viral growth, helps alleviate cold symptoms. And also green tea extract called EGCG, epigalactocatechin gallate, big blah, bitty, blah word. But anyway, it's just think of them as catechins. It's a huge immune supporter.

Four cups of green tea a day or 500 milligrams orally twice a day reduces inflammation, helps boost immune function, and targets many processes that interfere with COVID-19 replication and also viral replication.

So just putting all these into your regimen daily can be a huge win for the winter months. Some multivitamin, vitamin D, fish oil, N-acetylcysteine, and omega-3 fatty acids, and Himalayan tartary buckwheat, which has

course 10 and routine. These are all really, really important in terms of optimizing your health. You can add a little green tea extract in there as well, or just drink green tea. So if you incorporate these supplements into your daily routine, I can promise you it's going to provide a robust defense against infections and just enhance your overall health.

Now, if you're on lots of medications or have complex health history, you might want to check with your doctor before starting anything. But most of the time, they don't really know what they're talking about when it comes to supplements because they don't understand them. They don't learn about them. But you want to make sure you're just doing the right thing for your body and you can do your own homework and research. All right. As we wrap up today's episode, I hope you're inspired to take full advantage of the incredible benefits that polyphenols offer.

By incorporating these polyphenol rich foods in your daily routine like green tea, dark chocolate, not so hard, and a variety of colorful fruits and veggies, you're giving your body the tools it needs to stay strong and resilient and protected against illness. Remember, it's not just about eating for taste, although that's a great bonus, but also eating with intention to nourish your body and support your health in the long run. But here's a little fun fact.

Food that naturally tastes good, right? A summer peach that's so ripe and juicy and delicious. A strawberry picked right off a summer vine. A tomato, cherry tomato, ripe right off the August tomato vines. These are so flavorful. You don't need anything on them to just create an explosion of flavor. And why do they have that flavor? It's because they are full of phytochemicals. So actually,

Taste follows phytochemical richness. This is a major take home. And when a food tastes bland, it's 'cause it's got no phytochemicals in it. Now these small conscious choices make a huge difference and impact on your overall being, help you live longer, better, stay healthy. Just remember all the health hacks, the polyphenols, sleep, the exercise, the supplements, managing all those things can be really, really helpful. And I encourage you to just focus on those simple tips to actually get healthy.

And you will, I promise. Now, don't forget to rate, review, follow Health Hacks wherever you get your podcasts. Stay healthy, stay informed. I'll see you next Tuesday for another episode of Health Hacks. Ever wonder what the stars have to say about your favorite celebrities and yourself? Allie Luber is breaking it all down on her brand new show, Starstruck. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Just search Starstruck wherever you listen to podcasts.