Boost your immune system (or not!)

[TZ]

Today we're going to point our skeptical eye at one of the most popular marketing gimmicks from the past few years: the sales of products and services with the claim that they will "boost your immune system". It sounds simple and desirable. Who wouldn't want a superpowered immune system capable of fighting off anything from a cold to cancer? Is such an ability really something you can buy in a bottle?

It's an easy claim to sell to people, because it's so clear and seems to make such obvious logical sense. The stronger your immune system, the greater its ability to fight disease. It sounds like it should be just like building muscle: A stronger bodybuilder can lift heavier weights, and a boosted immune system can fight off stronger diseases. Doesn't that sound right?

It may, but it's a completely invalid analogy. A healthy immune system is more accurately represented by a balanced teeter totter. If your immune system is compromised or otherwise weakened, one side of the teeter totter sags, and your body becomes more easily susceptible to infection. Conversely, if your immune system is overactive, the other side of the teeter totter sags, and the immune system attacks your own healthy tissues. This is what we call an autoimmune disease. Conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis are all autoimmune diseases caused by "boosted", or overactive, immune systems. You're at your healthiest when the teeter totter of your immune system is balanced right in the center; neither too weak, nor too strong.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4227
I assume that most of the regulars here probably know this, but on the off chance of lurking immuno-knowledge deficient people I'll post this. Almost all OTC cold preventors ARE a waste of money and at this time of year, I think its kinda a handy thing to be reminded of. It also irritates me, all the people who will make disdainful comments about the well established flu vaccine but will go out and buy this quackery, which btw, is possibly and even BIGGER money maker than Big Pharma, because its EVERYWHERE.

BTW, anyone feeling bored feel free to post this in health..;)

[SheilaT]

1. The immune system responds very

well to appropriate challenges. You get a disease, recover, and generally won't get it again. With things like colds and influenza, you can get a different version, but you won't get the same one again.

Vaccines work on the principle of challenging your immune system with a form of the disease so that you build up the immunity without getting desperately ill, or worse yet dying.

It also helps to eat well so that you take in a wide variety of nutrients, which help your immune system respond appropriately to challenges.

Then there's the genetic factor, which we don't have a lot of control over.

What I've noticed over the years is that those who are most dedicated to taking supplements, or that some one food is magic, are those who get sick a lot. Or perceive themselves as absolutely needing the magic supplement or food and therefore everyone else should take it also.

[Warpy]

2. One of the biggest vitamin C wooheads I ever knew

was its discoverer, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi. Every single room in his house had a kilogram jar of the powder and he would bend the ear of anyone and everyone in his presence at great length about its miraculous properties in disease prevention. It's good he died in 1986 because a lot of the hard data disproving all of that started to come in shortly afterward.

I never had the heart to tell him that the only time I'd ever taken a 500 mg tablet of the stuff, it had put me into the hospital with an overdose, not something you'd expect from a panacea for the entire human race.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Szent-Gy%C3%B6rgyi

In any case, I assiduously avoid anything labeled as an immune system booster on the extremely remote chance it would work. That's the last thing we lupies need.

[Deep13]

3. I've fallen prey to Big Soap.

I wash my hands a lot at work to avoid getting a cold.

[SheilaT]

4. Another good way to boost the immune system

is to get enough sleep.

I'm convinced that among the reasons I'm as healthy as I am is that I've spent much of my life getting plenty of shut-eye.