Number of words: 2,110<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSpanish Influenza \u2013 what it is and how it should be treated,\u201d read the reassuringly factual headline to an advert for Vick\u2019s VapoRub back in 1918. The text beneath included nuggets of wisdom such as \u201cstay quiet\u201d and \u201ctake a laxative\u201d. Oh, and to apply their ointment liberally, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 1918 flu pandemic was the most lethal in recorded history, infecting up to 500 million people (a quarter of the world\u2019s population at the time) and killing tens of millions worldwide. But with crisis comes opportunity, and the \u2013 sometimes literal \u2013 snake oil salesmen were out in force. Vick\u2019s VapoRub had stiff competition from a panoply of crackpot remedies, including Miller\u2019s Antiseptic Snake Oil, Dr Bell\u2019s Pine Tar Honey, Schenck\u2019s Mandrake Pills, Dr Jones\u2019s Liniment, Hill\u2019s Cascara Quinine Bromide, and A. Wulfing & Co\u2019s famous mint lozenges. Their adverts made regular appearances in the newspapers, where they starred alongside increasingly alarming headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast-forward to 2020, and not much has changed. Though the Covid-19 pandemic is separated from the Spanish flu by over a century of scientific discoveries, there are still plenty of questionable medicinal concoctions and folk remedies floating around. This time, the theme is \u201cboosting\u201d the immune system. Of the rumours currently circulating on social media, one of the more bizarre is the idea that you can raise your white blood cell count by masturbating more. And as always, nutritional advice abounds. This time, we\u2019re being encouraged to seek out foods rich in antioxidants and vitamin C (back in 1918, the public were told to eat more onions), while pseudoscientists are peddling trendy products such as kombucha and probiotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s no such thing as boosted immunity<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, the idea that pills, trendy superfoods or wellness habits can provide a shortcut to a healthy immune system is a myth. In fact, the concept of \u201cboosting\u201d your immune system doesn\u2019t hold any scientific meaning whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are three different components to immunity,\u201d says Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. \u201cThere\u2019s things like skin, the airways and the mucus membranes that are there to begin with, and they provide a barrier to infection. But once the virus gets past these defences, then you have to induce the \u2018innate\u2019 immune response.\u201d This consists of chemicals and cells which can rapidly raise the alert and begin fighting off any intruder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen that is not enough, then we kick in the adaptive immune system,\u201d she says. This involves cells and proteins \u2013 antibodies \u2013 which take a few days or weeks to emerge. Importantly, the adaptive immune system can only target particular pathogens. \u201cSo, for example, a T-cell specific to Covid-19 will not respond to influenza or bacterial pathogens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most infections will trigger adaptive immunity eventually. But there’s another way to get it going, and that’s vaccination: exposing the body to live or dead microbes, or parts of them, can help the body to identify the real deal when it comes along. The concept of \u201cboosting\u201d a person\u2019s immune system would, presumably, involve making these responses more active, or stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In actuality, you wouldn\u2019t want to do this. Take the symptoms of a cold \u2013 body aches, a fever, brain fog, copious amounts of snot and phlegm. Most of these problems aren\u2019t actually caused by the virus itself. Instead, they\u2019re triggered by your own body, on purpose: they\u2019re part of the innate immune response. In this case, the mucus helps to flush out the pathogen, the fever helps to make your body an uncomfortably hot environment in which it\u2019s harder for it to replicate, and the aches and general malaise are by-products of the inflammatory chemicals that course through your veins, telling immune cells what to do and where to go. (These symptoms also help signal to your brain that it\u2019s time to slow down and let your body recover).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mucus and chemical signals are part of inflammation, which is the bedrock of a healthy immune response. But the process is exhausting, so you wouldn\u2019t want to have it turned up to 11 all the time. And most viruses, including Covid-19, will trigger it anyway. If kombucha, green tea or any of the various \u201cimmune-boosting\u201d concoctions on the market really had any impact, they wouldn\u2019t give you a healthful glow: they\u2019d give you a runny nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making the other aspect of immunity \u2013 the adaptive immune system \u2013 generally more active could also be extremely unpleasant. For example, allergies occur when overzealous immune cells learn to treat innocuous foreign bodies, such as pollen, as though they are harmful. Each time they find the offending substance, they switch on the innate immune response too \u2013 cue lots of sneezing, itchy eyes and general fatigue. Again, this is probably not what the people championing these remedies have in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s give those saying you can \u201cboost\u201d your immune system the benefit of the doubt and assume they mean that certain products can improve the immune response in a useful way \u2013 rather than literally \u201cboost\u201d it. \u201cThe problem is that many of these claims have no grounding in evidence,\u201d Iwasaki says. So what are they based on \u2013 and is there anything that can help?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re healthy, forget supplements \u2013 except vitamin D<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many multivitamins claim to provide \u201cimmune support\u201d or to help \u201cmaintain healthy immune function\u201d. But as BBC Future reported in 2016, vitamin supplements generally don\u2019t work in already healthy people \u2013 and some may even be harmful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take vitamin C. The health effects of this antioxidant have been steeped in mythology ever since the two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling became obsessed with its ability to fight the common cold. After studying the vitamin for years, eventually he started taking 18,000 mg per day \u2013 around 300 times the current recommended daily amount. However, there is little evidence to support vitamin C\u2019s mighty reputation for helping us to fight off colds and other respiratory infections. A 2013 review by Cochrane \u2013 an organisation renowned for its unbiased research \u2013 found that in adults \u201ctrials of high doses of vitamin C administered therapeutically, starting after the onset of symptoms, showed no consistent effect on the duration or severity of common cold symptoms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, many experts consider the vitamin C market to be a bit of a racket, as most people in the developed world get enough from their diets already. Though scurvy is thought to have killed two million sailors and pirates between the 15th and 18th Centuries, the numbers now are far lower. For example, just 128 people in England were hospitalised with the disease between 2016 and 2017. On the other hand, high doses of this vitamin can lead to kidney stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the developed world, most people get enough vitamins from their diets (unless they are restricted \u2013 vegans, for example, are more likely to have certain deficiencies). However, there is one exception \u2013 vitamin D. Iwasaki explains that taking this supplement wouldn\u2019t be a bad idea. Several studies have linked low vitamin D levels to a higher risk of respiratory infections, and more severe symptoms when they develop. They\u2019ve also been implicated in the development of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. In fact, many immune cells can actively recognise vitamin D, and it\u2019s thought to play an important role in both the innate and acquired immune response \u2013 though exactly how remains a mystery. But crucially \u2013 and unusually \u2013 vitamin D deficiencies are endemic in many countries, even wealthy ones. As of 2012, it was estimated that about a billion people worldwide weren\u2019t getting enough. And with more and more people urged to stay indoors, it\u2019s easy to see how even less sunlight exposure could lead to more deficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, masturbation won\u2019t help either<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, this form of sexual activity was held in deep suspicion by Western medicine. After an 18th Century doctor claimed that the loss of one ounce of semen (28 millilitres) had the same effect on the body as losing 40 ounces (1.18 litres) of blood, masturbation was blamed for all kinds of health problems for hundreds of years, from blindness to neurosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the tables have turned, and recent research has shown that it can come with some surprising health benefits. In men, for example, it\u2019s thought to help keep sperm healthy and may reduce a person\u2019s risk of developing prostate cancer. Alas, any claims that masturbation can improve your immunity or protect you from Covid-19 are overblown. It\u2019s true that one study found that men had higher white blood cell counts when they were sexually aroused, and during orgasm. However, there is no evidence that this translates into protection from infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is one way that the practice might protect you \u2013 by keeping away from other people. On Twitter, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently reminded their followers that, in the age of Covid-19, \u201cyou are your safest sex partner\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no need to stock up on antioxidant pills<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The question of whether antioxidants can help is slightly more complicated. As part of the inflammatory response, white blood cells release toxic oxygen compounds. These are something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they can kill bacteria and viruses and stop them from being able to make more copies of themselves. On the other, they can damage healthy cells, leading to cancer and ageing \u2013 and wearing out the immune system. To stop this from happening, the body relies on antioxidants. These help to control those unruly oxygen compounds and keep our cells safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we get some of our reserves of these compounds from our diets. Brightly coloured fruits, vegetables and spices tend to contain the most, because antioxidants are often pigmented: they give carrots, blueberries, aubergines, red kale, turmeric, and strawberries their hues. There\u2019s currently a trial in the works to test if giving people with Covid-19 antioxidant supplements might help their recovery. However, the trial is just one of hundreds looking into potential treatments for Covid-19. And despite decades of research, not a single placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed study on humans has ever shown that high doses of antioxidants can \u201cboost\u201d the immune system, or treat or prevent viral infections in humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probiotics may help\u2026 or they may not<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you believe the wellness experts and homeopaths, kombucha is much more than a sweet, fizzy drink made from fermented tea. The internet is teeming with outrageous claims about the product, including that it can treat cancer and even Aids (it can\u2019t). Now some websites are suggesting that it can help to stop you getting Covid-19 (and it probably can\u2019t). Like probiotics, kombucha contains live microorganisms. However, no studies have ever confirmed whether the drink has these in high enough concentrations to be considered one \u2013 and there is currently no evidence that kombucha specifically can treat or prevent any illnesses whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The picture is less clear for probiotics in general. There is currently no evidence that any kind of probiotic can protect you from Covid-19. One 2015 review found that probiotics \u2013 beneficial microorganisms which are concentrated in foods, drinks, or pills \u2013 significantly reduced the number of upper respiratory tract infections that people got and made them less severe. They also slightly reduced the use of antibiotics and led to fewer school absences. The authors concluded that they might be better than placebo treatments, but pointed out that the quality of the available evidence was low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (You can find out more about what we do and don\u2019t know about gut health, as well as how to eat your way to a healthy gut by checking out BBC Future\u2019s series on gut bacteria from last year. We found that it\u2019s true that gut bacteria are important \u2013 but that taking probiotics is unlikely to help you much, and that the best way forward is to simply eat a varied diet.) Importantly, there is currently no evidence that any kind of probiotic can protect you from Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what has been proven to work?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Iwasaki says most of these myths are relatively innocuous \u2013 but the danger is that falling for them will give you a false sense of security. \u201cOne thing I do warn against is when people feel like they’re protected. They shouldn’t feel empowered to go out there and, you know, start having parties,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wellness products aside, there are some approaches you can take to help support your immune system. They aren\u2019t especially sexy, and you won\u2019t see many wellness influencers selling them in a bottle. They are, however, proven to work \u2013 and they don\u2019t require shelling out your hard-earned cash: get enough sleep, exercise, eat a balanced diet, and try not to be stressed. Failing that, there is one sure-fire way to improve your immunity to certain pathogens: vaccination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpted from <\/em>https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20200408-covid-19-can-boosting-your-immune-system-protect-you<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"