The Most Important Immunity Booster

I have a gut feeling that something in my gut is telling me that boosting my immunity depends on my gut feeling. This little riddle unlocks what is crucial to our immune system.

Our minds affect our gut, and our gut affects our mind, so it is very important to ensure that we focus our health on the gut and mind axis. Harvard Health state it as follows:

“The brain has a direct effect on the stomach and intestines. For example, the very thought of eating can release the stomach’s juices before food gets there. This connection goes both ways. A troubled intestine can signal the brain, just as a troubled brain can signal the gut. Therefore, a person’s stomach or intestinal distress can be the cause or the product of anxiety, stress, or depression. That’s because the brain and the gastrointestinal (GI) system are intimately connected.”

Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-gut-brain-connection

I have spent many years in the food and pharmaceutical industries throughout my working life. I have been responsible for many very successful product launches and some not so successful. ‘You can’t win ’em all’ as they say.

I am always searching the literature for new ingredients and ‘actives’ to enhance health, and have always believed the cliche ‘food is our medicine.’

There is a step prior to adding nutrients and ‘actives’ to products that relate to our bodies. Before we even get to discussing nutrients, it is more important to discuss bioavailability of those nutrients.

Bioavailability means and I quote:

“The proportion of a drug or other substance which enters the circulation when introduced into the body and so can have an active effect.”

Source: Dictionary Box on Google.

This means, are the nutrients available to the body to perform their function? This is probably the key to everything for nutrition and health and immunity.

How does our body use nutrients? Well, first, our body has to absorb the nutrients. It is no good having all these wonderful nutrients or supplements without our bodies actually absorbing them.

Absorption is key and key to absorption is the microbiome, our healthy gut environment that allows our bodies to benefit from the nutrients and supplements we take in.

The microbiome is an ecosystem of bacteria. Yeats and other microscopic organisms that live in the gut and they help with the regulation and production of small molecules that help us remain healthy.

Key to a healthy gut for nutrient absorption are short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which are produced as a by-product of certain gut actions of digestion of certain food types.

They have shown one particular type of SCFA to have a positive effect on the gut lining and it helps by stopping harmful toxins and substances from entering the bloodstream.

This SCFA also regulates several genes involved in inflammation and immune response. This SCFA also has been shown to promote the absorption of antioxidants and the all important immune booster Vitamin D.

One of the most important nutrients which is a by-product of microbiome action is the short-chain fatty acid known as butyrate.

I quote. “Not only did males with the highest levels of active vitamin D in their blood have the greatest microbiome diversity, but also their gut harboured more friendly bacterial species that produce butyrate”

Source :https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/gut-bacteria-and-vitamin-d-what-is-the-link#Osteoporosis-study

How do we get more butyrate produced in our body to help us with absorbing nutrients like the immune boosting vitamin D.

We know that vitamin D is crucial to our immunity, but we need to take a step back and ensure we can absorb that important nutrient among others, without the first step of getting our microbiome right, we can swallow all the supplements we like, all that will happen is we will have what I would call ‘expensive pees’. Because we won’t absorb all of those expensive nutrients.

Sources of butyrate are:

Citrus, onions, garlic, barley, oats, rye, bran, whole grains, apples, mushrooms, berries.