immune system – Impakt Health

The Ultimate Guide to Vitamin D

Written by Josh on August 13, 2020. Posted in Age Management, Athletic Performance, Exercise, Immune & Body Defense, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Stress & Anxiety, Weight Management. Leave a Comment

When you take a hard look at the list of potential benefits vitamin D can provide, you might quickly realize they are really just a perfect example of the powers of genetic expression.

Nearly all of the power that vitamin D wields comes from its ability to influence what is known as the expression of your DNA. This influence over how your genes are expressed comes from the choices you make (or don’t make) in the realms of nutrition, training, and lifestyle. Being protective of your vitamin D status should be near the top of your health priority list – along with getting enough quality sleep, adequate movement, and nutrition as a whole. You might be wondering why vitamin D deserves to be mentioned with three major pillars of health and wellness. To understand vitamin D’s VIP status, it’s best to start with the importance of micronutrients altogether – there are roughly 40 of them on the essentials list. All of which we must get from our diet in order to survive, let alone thrive. After that we can shift the focus of our conversation to vitamin D in particular and highlight some fascinating research that illuminates just how important it is. There will also be some clues on how to determine if you may be at risk for a deficiency, and how to bring your levels up to what is known as the “sweet spot” for long term health.

The importance of micronutrients in general cannot be overemphasized, and vitamin D is one that should be given an even higher priority than most in your nutrition plan.

What Are Micronutrients?

Collectively, micronutrients are a family of roughly 40 vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and amino acids that we require for stuff in our body to work properly.

Nearly every biochemical process (there are a lot) within us requires some sort of micronutrient to function optimally. We may not feel a deficiency right away, in fact many people live years with suboptimal levels of many micronutrients. Our modern diets tend to be devoid of most micronutrients, although it is possible to get everything you need from whole foods – if you work hard enough at it. Another factor limiting our nutrient intake is the fact that certain classes of micronutrients are more readily absorbed by humans than others.

Vitamins for instance, are divided into water-soluble and fat-soluble varieties. Those that are fat-soluble require fat to be eaten with them in order to be absorbed effectively.

This is just an example of one potential reason why Americans are generally suffering from an insidious depletion of most micronutrients – even if they are getting all their fruits and veggies. For example, in the United States…

70% of the population does not get enough vitamin D.
60% is missing out on adequate levels of vitamin E (a group of compounds that are extremely effective antioxidants).
45% of the population in the US does not get enough magnesium (required for energy production, DNA repair, and so much more).
35% of the population grossly under-consuming vitamin K.
30% of the population is not getting enough vitamin A.

Each of these missing micronutrients has countless roles to play throughout the human body, and when you are not getting enough of one, your body uses whatever you do have for tasks that are required for immediate survival. Long-term tasks such as DNA repair, that will take years to develop into dysfunction, are placed on the back-burner – a phenomenon known as the “triage effect”.

Benefits of Vitamin D

So what is that makes vitamin D so special among this list of these already important building blocks of health we call micronutrients?

Vitamin D is so important, that we’re able to make it from the sun’s UVB rays. Once created from UVB rays, it is converted to what is known as vitamin D3 (if supplementing, you should be getting it already in D3 form). Once in D3 form, it is converted by the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D. From there it is converted once more in the kidneys to what is known as the active form or 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D (this is what they test the levels of in your blood). Once in this form, vitamin D is able to do its work all around the body as a steroid hormone. Steroid hormones have the ability to regulate the expression of genes within our DNA – essentially turning them on or off. Flipping this switch results in various downstream effects controlled by that particular gene.

Another profound effect that inadequate vitamin D levels can have on our body and mind is through production of a key neurotransmitter called serotonin. Vitamin D can be thought of as a rate limiter for serotonin production in the body. It acts as a cofactor for the enzyme known as tryptophan hydroxylase. This enzyme is required for the production of serotonin thus, vitamin D is required for you to produce enough serotonin for normal cognitive function.

Serotonin production isn’t the only function of vitamin D that may convince you to prioritize supplementation to maintain adequate levels within your blood. Vitamin D levels have also been directly correlated with modulation of the aging process.

Vitamin D has been shown to slow shortening of your telomeres, one of our closest markers of actual biological aging. Telomeres are the little caps at the end of strands of DNA which protect it from damage and subsequent mutations. On average, the older we get, the shorter our telomeres become. In one study involving thousands of female twins, those with the lowest levels of vitamin D also had the shortest telomeres. Another important finding of this study was that more is not better with vitamin D. Those in the study that had the highest vitamin D levels (exceeding the suggested range of 40 to 60 ng/ml) also had markedly shorter telomeres. This is why it’s important to fall within the vitamin D “sweet spot” of 40 to 60 ng/ml. There are countless more reasons why it’s crucial to try and hit this sweet spot for vitamin D – inadequate levels have been linked to

Reduced cognitive function
Increased inflammation
DNA damage
Increased risk of cancer
Lower levels of nerve growth factor
Greater risk for all cause mortality.

Vitamin D Deficiency

You may be asking how you might be able to determine if you are deficient in vitamin D.

Currently, the gold standard of determining if you are deficient in vitamin D is a blood test – preferably done before beginning supplementation to determine your baseline levels. If you do not have access to a blood test, there are a few risk factors that may help you determine if you are susceptible to a D deficiency. Those that are especially at risk of deficiency include overweight individuals (because D is a fat soluble vitamin, it will be absorbed and essentially held hostage by fat cells), as well as the advanced age population (the older we get the less D we are able to make from the sun). Also at risk are people living in more northern latitudes (especially during the winter when sun exposure is limited), and people with a darker complexion (the skin pigment melanin acts as a natural sun block). Once you have determined whether or not you may be deficient, or if you are seeking to optimize your current levels, there are a variety of ways in which you can increase your vitamin D.

How to Get Your Vitamin D Levels Up

Current mainstream recommendations for daily vitamin D intake seem to be extremely low. Research has shown that taking 4,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day was enough to bring deficient individuals up to a level sufficient for normal physiological function. Notice that this number is far above the RDA laid out by the government, so please don’t be shy and go get your levels monitored by a medical professional. When choosing a supplement, opt for the D3 version rather than the D2 version whenever possible. This is because the D2 version is not as easily converted by most people to the active form of vitamin D within the body. Sun exposure is also a fantastic way to raise vitamin D levels within the body – provided you live in a location that receives adequate UVB radiation, and you are exposed to the sun for sufficient amount of time.

Unfortunately there aren’t many foods that have significant amounts of vitamin D other than some fish, algae, mushrooms, and fortified food products. That is why we typically recommend an oral supplement. For those individuals that have difficulty remembering to take vitamins or supplements in general, intramuscular vitamin D3 injections have been shown to significantly raise levels in deficient adults for up to 12 weeks, negating the need for daily supplementation during that time.

Vitamin D is no doubt an especially important micronutrient that has sadly not been given enough attention. At least 70% of the US population could greatly benefit from increasing their vitamin D levels via supplementation or whole food nutrition. Many micronutrient deficiencies can go years without being discovered, don’t let the 1000+ genes regulated by vitamin D be ignored!

Super Immunity

Written by Josh on August 13, 2020. Posted in Immune & Body Defense, Lifestyle. Leave a Comment

There is so much that the average person can do on a daily basis to help (or at least not hurt) their immune system’s ability to function.

Besides being incredibly important for overall health, eating a diet full of whole foods that are brimming with micronutrients is especially important if you want to ensure you are enabling the never ending pile of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep you healthy and happy. These micronutrients that we speak so highly of, are becoming increasingly scarce in the average American’s diet and there are real, measurable consequences if you burn through your supplies. While full-blown micronutrient deficiencies are relatively rare in countries like the United States (researchers report that 31% of the population is deficient in at least one micronutrient), individuals experiencing micronutrient inadequacies is another story.

Investigations have suggested that a significant portion of the population isn’t getting enough Vitamin D (come on now, it’s usually free!), more than 80% of us don’t get enough of the heavy-hitter Vitamin E, and almost 40% can be considered low on Vitamin C intake – each of these are pretty crucial to proper immune function, by the way. It is safe to say that there is at least a chance that you are unknowingly included in one of these stats, or you’re somewhere in the crowds of others that are lacking in any one of many other micronutrients that are often absent from the average person’s diet. This is exactly why a winning strategy includes lifestyle changes that are reinforced with supplementation either orally, intravenously, transdermally, sublingually, or any other effective way to get your levels back up to normal and support the countless processes that are occurring at any given second within us.

If you haven’t been accruing enough of some of the key materials needed to maintain a dynamic, resilient, and overall healthy immune system, supplementation is an effective means to jump start the process of helping you avoid further depleting your stores. That is why our Super Immune IV therapy includes specific micronutrients, antioxidants, and other components to enable your body to develop and maintain a robust immune system that acts swiftly, intelligently, and appropriately – all characteristics needed for optimal health and longevity. Our immune IV therapy harnesses the functions and capabilities of ingredients like:

Tri-amino (Arginine, Citrulline, Ornithine)
B-Complex vitamins
L-Lysine
Calcium
Magnesium
Vitamin C
Trace Minerals
Zinc
Glutathione
Sodium Bicarbonate

Each of these can help you develop your defenses against foreign invaders, disease, and dysfunction. Each ingredient has a unique purpose and function to fulfill, starting with arguably one of the most important minerals for immune function – zinc.

Zinc

Keeping the right balance of zinc in your body is absolutely imperative for the proper functioning of your immune system.

Unfortunately, a zinc deficiency/inadequacy is rather common, affecting up to an estimated 2 billion people worldwide. According to a research article published in the journal Nutrients, zinc has both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, it is involved in the intracellular communication going on within certain immune cells, and your body requires it to defend itself against pathogens. These same researchers from the Institute of Immunology in Germany went so far as to declare that zinc should be considered a “gatekeeper for the immune system” and they determined that there are clear benefits to zinc supplementation if you have a malfunctioning immune system.

B12 (methylcobalamin)

By now everyone should have heard about the importance of B12 for the complex process of energy production, making and maintaining healthy blood, and supporting nerve health – but those aren’t the specific benefits we are currently interested in.

Vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin is a naturally occurring form of B12) also plays a crucial role in the functioning of the immune system. Experiencing a B12 deficiency can result in a decreased number of lymphocytes (immune cells), and especially natural killer cells which are instrumental in our defense against viral infections. B12 is used for so many different roles by the body, and the estimated 40% of the population who are deficient in this vitamin will inevitably experience some degree of dysfunction in their physiology eventually.

B-complex Vitamins (B1,B2,B3,B5,B6,Methyl-B12)

B Vitamins play countless roles throughout your entire body.

Besides just facilitating cellular energy production, these B vitamins are required to repair DNA, create some hormones and neurotransmitters, and a whole lot else. Not getting enough of one or all of this class of vitamins can drop you into a state of chronic fatigue, anemia, or even compromise your immune system depending upon which one of the individual nutrients you are missing and how badly they are lacking.

Lysine

Lysine is an essential amino acid that is an absolute must for proper growth, the production of valuable proteins, and has other side jobs all around the body.

Interestingly, lysine is able to have profound antiviral effects by blocking arginine activity and having enough of this amino on board is also crucial for keeping up the production of hormones, enzymes, and antibodies.

Magnesium

Magnesium is used for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body – so even simply based on that fact it is safe to say that it is pretty important.

Magnesium also works to help maintain normal muscle and nerve function, facilitates energy creation and usage at the cellular level, and on top of all that it supports a healthy immune system. This awesome mineral is also involved in both the adaptive immune response (focused on responseding to specific invaders), and the innate immune response (doesn’t discriminate). Magnesium is just absolutely critical for surviving everyday life, let alone creating an optimal immune system.

Trace Minerals (Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Chromium, Selenium)

These trace minerals are used by your body to create hundreds of enzymes, enable many biochemical reactions, and do a bunch more behind the scenes. Trace (meaning you only need them in small amounts) doesn’t at all mean they aren’t important. If you are low on copper for example, you are going to be at an increased risk of infection because of a decreased ability to respond by cells that create antibodies. Low on iron? You can bet your immune cells will have difficulty spreading out and just as much difficulty killing off invaders.

Vitamin C

In many ways Vitamin C actually does live up to some of the hype, and it definitely has the ability to make a significant impact on immune function – good and bad.

In fact, Vitamin C contributes to your immune defense on various levels. From supporting our epithelial barrier (skin) to enhancing the immune response to pathogens, C is widely considered to be a key regulator of immune function, cellular growth, and proliferation. If you are chronically stressed, sick, or just under-nourished, it is highly likely you will be burning through your C stores incredibly fast. Fortunately, intravenous Vitamin C has been consistently proven to be especially effective at saturating your body with this crucial nutrient.

Glutathione

Here is another ingredient that should be expected in any protocol meant to support the immune system and improve overall health.

Glutathione is an absolute expert at preventing cellular damage and eliminating all kinds of reactive molecules. The intricate and ever-changing balance that is struck within our body’s between endogenous (made within us) antioxidants like glutathione, and pro-inflammatory molecules is part of what regulates the innate immune response, according to a review published in the journal International Journal of General Medicine. Not only does glutathione play a primary role in managing this balance, but there are many pathological conditions directly associated with a deficiency in this anti-oxidizing, free-radical scavenging, and detox-ifying compound.

Tri-amino (Arginine, Citrulline, Ornithine)

Some amino acids are more important than others, and in this context, these three are among the most important.

Arginine and it’s precursor citrulline are vital for the initiation of the immune response, and maintaining levels of arginine is considered to be vital while experiencing profound inflammation and sepsis. Ornithine, in a similar fashion, has been consistently linked by research to expedite wound healing and facilitate recovery.

Sodium Bicarbonate

Regular old baking soda is used to fight heartburn, squelch UTIs, and boost exercise performance (but it can also cause some real GI distress), along with quite a few other little-known purposes. It is also often called upon to neutralize certain poisons once they’ve been ingested and it is incredibly effective at helping your body rid itself of some select toxins. Strange, that the little box of powder we all have in our fridge is one of the most effective tools for enhancing exercise performance and reducing acidity in the blood.

Unfortunately, pounding back a glass full baking soda to improve your workouts will likely bring some intense GI discomfort – not the case with an IV, however.

The Bottom Line

There is a lot that goes into developing and maintaining a thriving and balanced immune system, and nutrition is just one aspect of a solid wellness plan.

At Ikon Health, we offer our Super Immune IV to improve potential nutritional shortfalls by focusing on some key vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. If you are lacking in any of these key nutrients, your immune system will be placed at a major disadvantage and the degree to which it will impact you as a unique individual isn’t always known. Supporting your immune system goes beyond just filling up any holes, it can also mean kicking it up a notch. With some nutrients, like Vitamin C, higher dosages have been shown to have increased benefits, in some situations. Our immune system is always working (especially at night) and it needs certain resources more than others – the Super Immune IV focuses entirely on those resources.

Incorporating IV therapy can be part of an effective wellness plan that includes plenty of sleep, movement, stress management tactics, and of course…whole food nutrition.

Meet…Your Immune System

Written by Josh on August 12, 2020. Posted in Immune & Body Defense. Leave a Comment

Most people seem to conceptualize their immune system as some sort of abstract defense against invaders that cause things like the cold or the even-more-dreaded flu.

Others know it as the root of their afflictions like hashimoto’s or any number of increasingly common autoimmune conditions. Any one-sided and simplistic perception of the immune system as a sort of rigid barrier that can’t be purposefully and beneficially influenced is a fundamentally false one – there is a lot that we can do to both support our immune system and to sabotage it. Building a solid immune system isn’t extremely complicated, but it can take quite a bit of work and require lifestyle changes. No single factor is going to make our break the force shield that we like to call our immune system, but we can definitely provide the entire network of organs, specialized cells, chemical messengers, and more with some support to help it work as well as it possibly can.

To help drag the concept of our immune system from the abstract to the more practical, we should start by quickly covering some basics of the immune system to begin painting a picture of it as the dynamic and malleable entity that it truly is. After that, stay tuned for some ways to support your overall immune system function like getting enough sleep and eating some key nutrients, as well as a few major sources of friction that many people are creating unnecessarily in their lives. Your immune system is incredibly complex, and its capabilities and limitations are dependent on far too many variables to cover today, but what we want to focus on are practical strategies that you can begin incorporating into your life today to start developing your immune system into an intelligent and precise fighting machine. There is no way that we can fully thank our immune system for protecting us from infection by unfriendly bacteria or viruses, or for zapping cancer cells before they can spread – the most we can do is support it along the way!

What is the Immune System?

They say knowledge is power, and becoming aware of some of what makes up your immune system is extremely helpful in understanding exactly how, and why you can support it in the fight against all kinds of would-be invaders.

Although a complete and thorough description of the components and functions of the immune system is far beyond the scope of this article, there are some helpful distinctions that can illustrate just how complex it is. First, your immune system can be broken down into a few major parts: the innate immune system, which is composed of things like skin, cells of the GI tract, eyelashes, and other obvious physical barriers as well as more subtle built-in mechanisms like inflammation, gastric acid, and various other cellular responses. Then you have your adaptive immune system which is what seeks out specific pathogens, eliminates them, and creates a lasting memory of them in case you encounter them in the future. This side of your immune system is made up of many different specialized cells that all work together – a classic example of how this works would be your response and subsequent immunity created when vaccinated.

Arguably the most important component of the human immune system, and one that is extremely influenceable, is the lymphatic system.

Your lymphatic fluid is what circulates vital immune components known as white blood cells, as well as functioning to allow the body to eliminate toxins, waste, and other unwanted materials. There is definitely a major design flaw with this system though, in that it does not get directly pumped like your blood does – bodily movement and muscular contractions are what pushes your lymph around. This is just one of the many reasons why exercise is absolutely crucial to optimal immune function, as we will discuss later. As you can see, your immune system is composed of many parts that all work together to protect you from cancer, bacteria, viruses, and much more. Unfortunately, there are many common lifestyle habits and practices that are utterly opposed to optimal, or even effective immune function.

What Can Kill Immune Function

Knowingly or unknowingly, many Americans stomp down their immune system function like a schoolyard bully on a daily basis. Less-than-healthy habits such as not sleeping enough and eating carelessly can damper the capabilities of your immune system to protect you from any number of unwanted experiences. By essentially tying your immune system’s hands behind it’s back, you are going to be setting yourself up for failure. Some of the factors that may suppress immune system function include:

Not getting enough sleep or having an otherwise disrupted circadian rhythm.
Lack of movement/exercise (resistance training is especially beneficial for overall health).
Diet lacking in micronutrients (our immune system needs certain vitamins/minerals to function properly).
Chronic stress or other unmanaged cognitive/psychological dysfunction.

Fortunately, most of what you can do to support your immune system comes down to avoiding these major sources of friction as much as possible, as well as generally living a health-focused lifestyle. There is an overabundance of research indicating that you do in fact have profound influence over your body’s ability to ward off disease and dysfunction.

The Importance of Sleep

Arguably the most important thing that you can do to support your immune system is to get enough quality sleep.

Our immune cells have a day/night cycle just like the rest of our physiology, which results in the immune system being highly active (from a circadian biology perspective) during the rest and recovery time provided by nightly sleep. Because of that fact, the activity of certain immune cells varies immensely between day and night. Basically, if you aren’t sleeping enough, you can bet your immune system isn’t firing on all cylinders.

In a fascinating study investigating the effect of sleep deprivation on immune function, it was found that not getting enough sleep will negatively impact your immunity on many levels and to varying degrees. Further research has found that sleep restriction causes:

chronic low-grade inflammation
decreased natural killer (NK) cell activity
hormonal dysregulation
and eventually, immunodeficiency

None of these are favorable for optimal immune function. Slow-wave sleep is especially important to the health of our immune system, and mechanisms that allow your body to identify pathogens or other invading cells is especially enhanced during this part of the sleep cycle. If you are already getting between 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night, and you wake up feeling rested each day, the next most important factor to focus on to support immune health is ensuring you are getting adequate nutrition from your daily diet.

Nutrition

By now we likely don’t need to remind you just how complex your immune system is.

There are countless variables that can impact this system, and nutrition is definitely one of the major ones. Many of the cells, enzymes, chemical messengers, and hormones that work away for your immune system require certain micro- and macronutrients for them to function properly. What this means is that ensuring you get enough vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fats, and amino acids (in particular those that are essential to immune function) is one of the best strategies for supporting your overall health and resilience to disease.

Some of the more important nutrients for immune system function include:

vitamins A, C, D, B2, B6, B9, and B12
iron
selenium
zinc.

Poor nutrition can clearly compromise immune function and increase infection risk as well as the likelihood of severe infections. Luckily, you can absolutely improve immune function by patching up any holes in your diet, or with added supplementation if needed. Here are just a few of the major micronutrients that can deeply impact the capabilities of your immune system:

Vitamin D: Vitamin D levels are notoriously low in America, and it is no surprise that D can have an enormous impact on your immune health – both good and bad. Low levels of Vitamin D are especially detrimental to immune function due to the fact that it binds to, or interacts in some way with many immune cells such as B cells, T cells, and antigen presenting cells (APCs). This powerful vitamin/hormone has the ability to modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses, and should likely be taken by everyone on a daily basis depending upon a variety of factors. Ikon Wellness clients can Buy Vitamin D injections online through our telewellness platform.
Zinc: Zinc is a heavy-hitting mineral that is crucial for immune function and depletion of this key nutrient has been associated with many adverse events. For example, zinc deficiency can enhance atrophy (shrinking) of the thymus, decrease immune cell number and activity, and increase oxidative stress and inflammation by altering production of cytokines. As a result, your ability to fight off infections is dramatically reduced.
Vitamin C: Although it might sound obvious, Vitamin C is actually rather important for immune function. During infection, disease, or even chronic, the rate at which you produce reactive oxygen species is increased. This boost in ROS production further depletes vitamin C stores, requiring you to get even more than usual from diet or supplementation. Vitamin C is also crucial for modulating the inflammatory process, and has other roles within the immune system.

We typically recommend getting as much of your nutrition from whole food sources as possible. However, supplementation has absolutely been proven effective at boosting immune function if you are deficient in any of these key micronutrients. It is important that you keep in mind though, that adding in supplements likely won’t make much of a difference at all if you are not managing the other major sources of friction that can reduce immune function. Chronically elevated stress levels for example, are notoriously good at throwing a major wrench in things.

Chronic Stress

Reducing your level of overall stress is one of the most impactful things you can do to positively influence the ability of your immune system to protect you from invaders and dysfunction.

Normal, acute increases in the sympathetic (fight or flight) stress response undoubtedly has the ability to cause potentially beneficial changes in immune function (like activation of detoxification pathways from exercise, heat stress, or caloric restriction). Once any stressful experience becomes overwhelming or too frequent however, all kinds of dysfunction can emerge. The infamous stress hormone cortisol is actually a potent antioxidant that is required to make certain the immune system or inflammatory response is appropriate and under control. If cortisol is chronically elevated, as it is with unmanaged stress levels, your body (more importantly some kinds of immune cells) become desensitized and down-regulate their receptors for it. This is just one example of the physiological adaptations that can occur due to chronic stress and how they may limit your immune system capacity. Other psycho-social factors such as social isolation and depression have also been shown to negatively impact immune function.

decreases in Nf-kB activity (pro-inflammatory molecule)
an increase in telomerase activity (DNA protective enzyme)
a decrease in levels of C-reactive protein (marker of inflammation)
an overall increase in many parameters of cell-mediated immunity.

These findings were not the first to suggest that reducing overall stress can aid in immune function. It is hardly controversial to suggest that having a positive mindset is an incredibly important factor to sway the outcome of various disease-states in a more favorable direction. One of the final pillars in developing a robust immune system is consistent movement and (hopefully) exercise.

Exercise and Immune Health

Exercise, and in particular resistance training, has the ability to positively impact your immune system on many levels.

At minimum, some form of movement is required for the circulation of lymph fluid (your lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump, instead it relies on your physical movement and contracting muscles). In contrast, too much exercise can result in overtraining which can be just as bad as not exercising at all – if you are wanting to stay healthy. This is why resistance training that is appropriate (for you), and the resulting increase in lean body mass, is likely your best route for improving immune function. Unsurprisingly, increases in lean body mass has been shown to result in more favorable outcomes from all kinds of health problems – in fact, the importance of utilizing muscle mass as a new vital sign is becoming increasingly obvious.

Scarily, the expected and preventable decrease in lean body mass (sarcopenia) that comes hand-in-hand with the aging process can result in:

increased risk of infection
slower wound healing
increased risk of pneumonia
enhanced risk of osteoporosis and fractures
many more undesirable effects.

But that doesn’t mean that you absolutely have to start lifting weights in order to boost your immune system – simply moving more throughout the day can increase the circulation of your lymphatic fluid and result in more robust defense capabilities. Combining relatively frequent resistance training with a good amount of daily low-level movement (get off the couch!) will ensure that you are getting the best of both worlds.

Last Word on Immune Health

No single factor alone will completely make or break your immune system, but consistently getting enough sleep, exercising, eating the right food, and managing stress are all crucial aspects to ensure your immune system isn’t going into a fight that it is rigged to lose.

Thymosin Alpha-1 – The Immune Health Breakthrough

Written by Josh on March 25, 2020. Posted in Immune & Body Defense. Leave a Comment

In order for our immune system to fully protect us, it needs to be able to maintain balance. Too strong or too weak of an immune response can manifest any manner of disease and dysfunction. How this internal balance is struck involves an incredibly complex network of organs, cells, hormones, growth factors, minerals, amino acids, neurotransmitters, vitamins, and antioxidants, along countless other teammates that together form the barrier between you and the outside world. This intricate system relies upon you to support it by getting enough sleep, reducing stress, eating a diet that is actually full of nutrients, and by building your resilience through exercise.

Thymosin Alpha is an Option

If you are already living a healthy lifestyle, and you’re seeking to further enhance how your immune system can function, you may want to consider a clinically proven tool from the fascinating field of peptides: the biological response modifier (BRM) thymosin ɑ1 or TA1. Peptides are fundamentally changing the way we can approach chronic disease, hormonal insufficiencies, cognitive disorders, infections, and even the root causes of aging. By using highly specific substances like peptides which are created naturally in the body, we are able to avoid the unwanted side effects that are the major drawback to modern pharmaceuticals. TA1 seems to be an especially effective peptide that has shown promise through testing in both animals and in humans, as well as the lab and in the clinic, and has been shown to have less side effects than placebo in some research.

Thymosin Alpha-1 is a peptide, derived from a protein found in human thymus glands called prothymosin alpha. Consisting of 28 amino acids, TA1 was originally isolated from thymus tissue way back in the 1970’s and its potential for modulating the immune system, inhibiting cancer growth, calming autoimmune disorders, controlling infectious disease, and much more has been studied extensively ever since. Currently, TA1 seems to be painfully underutilized in a healthcare system that concentrates on treating symptoms rather than their root cause. This allopathic or symptoms-focused approach to “healing” is approaching an eventual shift in the public’s paradigm that will call for more individualized approaches to treating and eliminating chronic disease by utilizing tools such as peptides and other modalities. TA1 opens many doors for supporting and improving immune function by acting on immune cells, modulating inflammation, influencing genetic expression and transcription factors, and so much more. All this sounds very technical, but in reality TA1 was discovered due to research investigating a very obvious avenue to approach for immune system enhancement.

What is Thymosin ɑ1 and How Does it Work?

If you can remember back to your high school anatomy days, you likely recall that the thymus gland is essential for both immune and endocrine function – more specifically for the development, maturation, and education of T cells who are our little immune warriors and crucial for our ability to adapt to and overcome specific pathogens. If any of this jogs your memory, you are also probably aware of the fact that, after puberty, your thymus gland begins to atrophy or wither away in a process known as involution. Although the T cells that your once-robust thymus produced still remain effective, the actual gland itself becomes but a shell of what it once was – in fact, it was once considered to be a vestigial organ in adults, although it does still remain somewhat active throughout life.

Thymosin Alpha-1 Research

Research in animals that were missing a thymus gland found that reintroducing thymosin fraction 5 (TF5, the origin of TA1) was able to enhance immune function. Thus, the next logical step would be to isolate the active section or functional component of TF5 of this protein (a.k.a the peptide fragment: TA1) and begin testing. As the research progressed, scientists began to identify the mechanisms by which TA1 can impact overall immune function, some of the potential benefits for individuals suffering from things like cancer and hepatitis, how it might prevent the escalation of infection, and much more.

How Does it Work?

To understand how TA1 can influence the immune system, it is important to understand some of the key players that regulate immunity. These include cytokines, chemokines, thymosins, growth factors, and various endogenous antioxidants and other compounds. Each of these unique compounds are dubbed “biological response modifiers” (BRMs) due to their ability to either enhance or inhibit immune system function – depending upon what is required at any given time. In many cases, the use of TA1 or another BRM has been proven extremely effective in combination with conventional therapies and may increase the efficacy of treatment, decrease mortality, and lower morbidity when compared to any single treatment alone. In addition to modulating the immune system, TA1 can influence both the central nervous system and endocrine system, a rather unique ability even in the fascinating realm of peptides. TA1 may also be able to enhance immune system function by:

Increasing the maturation of T cells.
Boosting the overall rate of immune cells.
Stimulating NK (natural killer) cells – crucial for the elimination of viruses and viral-infected cells.
Managing cytokine/chemokine levels to ensure an appropriate immune response.
Directly depressing viral replication.
Modulating genes involved with immune function.
Facilitating differentiation of toll-like receptors (these guys sense pathogens and initiate an immune response).
Increasing the expression of class I MHC (this major histocompatibility complex is on the surface of cells to signal to the immune system they have been invaded by a virus).
Amplifying cytokine receptors.
Enhancing the activation of dendritic cells.

This broad list of mechanisms, and a complete lack of side effects is only part of the reason that TA1 is such an incredibly promising addition to standard treatments for autoimmune disorders, infections, viral disease, cancer, and more.

What Has Been Proven Thus Far?

Research has consistently proven TA1 to be effective at improving immune response and stopping the progression of many viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. Although a lot of the current research has been done in animal models (funding for peptides is relatively scarce), TA1 has been FDA approved since 1985 (it’s the active ingredient in brand name Zadaxin) and it is commonly used in 35 countries for the treatment of multiple forms of hepatitis and cancer. What seems to be precisely a ton of preclinical and clinical trials (a PubMed search yields over 700 studies) have investigated TA1 and a significant number of them have deemed this awesome peptide effective at treating other human viral diseases besides just hepatitis including those caused by cytomegalovirus, influenza, and various other disease states owed to microbes. TA1 may also increase the ability of immune-compromised individuals to respond favorably to vaccinations.

One of the even more intriguing effects of TA1 however, involves its ability to vastly improve the outcome of individuals suffering from sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock. According to the Sepsis Alliance, sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals. This reign may hopefully end someday, as research is showing that combining TA1 with some more conventional antimicrobial strategies may be the key to making death from sepsis a far less likely occurrence. One study published in the Chinese Journal of Critical Care found that by adding the TA1 peptide to a standard sepsis treatment, survivability was improved significantly (86% vs. 58%) compared to the standard treatment only group. Not only that, but the TA1 group spent significantly less time on mechanical ventilation. Similar findings were reported by another study that consisted of 342 patients – basically, TA1 has plenty of research behind it that all points to the same conclusion: thymosin ɑ1 can increase our odds of overcoming the downhill slide that is the progression from infection to septic shock and death. Dig into the non-sepsis related research and you will find that TA1 has been utilized as part of the successful treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), AIDS, pneumonia, and as we already mentioned, hepatitis and different forms of cancer. TA1 is able to have such profound effects because it helps to maintain the fundamental balance that is required for optimal immune function. It not only increases the effectiveness of your immune cells, but it also acts directly on target cells – making them more visible to the immune system.

Bottom Line on Thymosin ɑ1

The burgeoning field of peptides is only beginning to become more widely accepted, as it becomes more understood. Thymosin ɑ1 stands out so much that the co-founder and vice president of Tailor Made Compounding (one of only a few compounding pharmacies that has the ability to create actually effective peptides) considers it to be one of his favorite peptides, and there are a lot of peptides. He has utilized it to help patients with certain kinds of herpes, Lyme disease, at the onset of flus and colds, autoimmune issues, and for general anti-aging purposes as well the obvious indications like hepatitis, as a vaccine adjuvant, and for some forms of cancer. It is genuinely difficult to find another intervention that has the ability to so positively impact your immune function and overall health. TA1 will almost certainly be part of most people’s health and wellness protocols in the future, as well as part of standard care for seriously deadly issues like sepsis, cancer, and more. Ikon Health is thankful to be able to offer Thymosin to our customers and clients as an incredibly effective and safe means to enhance immune system function, and generally improve health. Although we have already preached this, it is important to note that TA1 won’t be effective at supporting immunity unless you are also taking care of (at least most) of the fundamentals for immune health:

Get enough good sleep.
Stay active/lift weights.
Manage chronic stress.
Eat food that actually supports physiological function.

The Ultimate Guide to Immune Health

Written by Josh on March 25, 2020. Posted in Age Management, Immune & Body Defense. Leave a Comment

The Importance of Sleep

Arguably the most important thing that you can do to support your immune system is to get enough quality sleep. Our immune cells have a day/night cycle just like the rest of our physiology, which results in the immune system being highly active (from a circadian biology perspective) during the rest and recovery time provided by nightly sleep. Because of that fact, the activity of certain immune cells varies immensely between day and night. Basically, if you aren’t sleeping enough, you can bet your immune system isn’t firing on all cylinders. In a fascinating study investigating the effect of sleep deprivation on immune function it was found that not getting enough sleep will negatively impact your immunity on many levels and to varying degrees. Other research has found that sleep restriction causes chronic low-grade inflammation, decreased natural killer (NK) cell activity, hormonal dysregulation, and eventually results in immunodeficiency, none of which are favorable for optimal immune function. Slow-wave sleep is especially important to the health of our immune system, and mechanisms that allow your body to identify pathogens or other invading cells is especially enhanced during this part of the sleep cycle.

We highly encourage that you follow some of the tips below to try and get some quality sleep in order to support immune system function. If you are already getting between 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night, and you wake up feeling rested each day, the next most important factor to focus on to support immune health is ensuring you are getting adequate nutrition from your daily diet.

Top Tips For Good Sleep:

Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday to firmly establish your circadian rhythm.
Limit light exposure from screens or overhead lighting for a few hours before bed. Blue light blocking glasses can be extremely helpful if screen time is unavoidable.
Create an entirely dark environment in your bedroom. Any and all sources of light have the potential to disrupt normal sleep patterns.
If you can, soak up some sun in the morning to aid in establishing your circadian rhythm.
Try to finish eating at least 2 hours before bed as the process of digestion can be disruptive to proper sleep.
Keep your bedroom cool to support normal sleep. Research shows that around 65℉ is a great place to start.

To see a complete list of immune boosting services, learn more by clicking the link below.

Good Nutrition

By now we likely don’t need to remind you just how complex your immune system is. There are countless variables that can impact the system, and nutrition is definitely one of the major ones. Many of the cells, enzymes, chemical messengers, and hormones that work away for your immune system require certain micronutrients for them to function properly. What this means is that ensuring you get enough vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fats, and amino acids – in particular those that are essential to immune function, is one of the best strategies for supporting your overall health and resilience to disease. Some of the more important nutrients for immune system function include vitamins A, C, D, B2, B6, B9, and B12, as well as iron, selenium, and zinc. Poor nutrition can clearly compromise immune function and increase infection risk. Luckily, you can absolutely improve immune function by patching up any holes in your diet, or with added supplementation if needed. Here are just a few of the major micronutrients that can deeply impact the capabilities of your immune system:

Vitamin D: Vitamin D levels are notoriously low in America and it is no surprise that D can largely impact your immune health. Low levels of Vitamin D are especially detrimental to immune function due to the fact that it binds to or otherwise interacts with many immune cells such as B cells, T cells, and antigen presenting cells (APCs). This powerful vitamin/hormone has the ability to modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses, and should likely be taken by everyone on a daily basis depending upon a variety of factors.

Zinc: Zinc is a heavy-hitting mineral that is crucial for immune function and depletion of this key nutrient has been associated with many adverse events. For example, zinc deficiency can enhance atrophy (shrinking) of the thymus, decrease immune cell number and activity, and increase oxidative stress and inflammation by altering production of cytokines. As a result, your ability to fight off infections is dramatically reduced.

Vitamin C: Although it might sound obvious, Vitamin C is actually rather important for immune function. During infection, disease, or even chronic, the rate at which you produce reactive oxygen species is increased. This boost in ROS production further depletes vitamin C stores, requiring you to get even more than usual from diet or supplementation. Vitamin C is also crucial for modulating the inflammatory process, and has other roles within the immune system.

Top Tips For Nutritional Intake:

Incorporate a wide variety of vegetables (and some fruit) into your daily nutrition plan. Opt for nutritional powerhouses like cruciferous veggies (broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, etc.), berries (especially blueberries), leafy greens, and any others that you enjoy.
Seafood options such as oysters, crab, and lobster, as well as some other meats and various beans are all solid sources of zinc – an absolutely crucial mineral for immune function, as you now know.
Avoid heavily processed and packaged foods as much as possible as they are typically devoid of nutrients like fiber, protein, and micronutrients.
Get some sun exposure each day (around 20 minutes), to make some free Vitamin D (or supplement if needed).
Add in specific supplements to fill any voids that may exist. Do so strategically however, as more is not always better, especially when it comes to supplementation.
If possible, get your micronutrient levels tested by your doctor or at home (Everlywell is an excellent brand of at home tests).
One option for individuals who want a powerful boost of some of these immune fortifying nutrients, is with nutrient injections. Ikon offers a special nutrient injection that includes Vitamin C, Zinc, and Glutathione. Also, we can provide Vitamin D injections.

Stress Management

Reducing your level of overall stress is one of the most impactful things you can do to positively influence the ability of your immune system to protect you from invaders and dysfunction. Normal, acute increases in the sympathetic (fight or flight) stress response undoubtedly has the ability to cause potentially beneficial changes in immune function (like activation of detoxification pathways from exercise, heat stress, or caloric restriction). Once any stressful experience becomes overwhelming or too frequent however, all kinds of dysfunction can emerge. The infamous stress hormone cortisol is actually a potent antioxidant that is required to make sure the immune system or inflammatory response is appropriate and under control. If cortisol is chronically elevated, as it is with unmanaged stress levels, your body (more importantly some kinds of immune cells) become desensitized and down-regulate their receptors for it. This is just one example of the physiological adaptations that can occur due to chronic stress and how they may limit your immune system capacity. Other psychological factors such as social isolation and depression have also been shown to negatively impact immune function.

To begin controlling your stress levels, a meditation practice has been proven effective time and time again. Interestingly, not only has meditation been proven to reduce stress in peer-reviewed research, it has been directly associated with increased immune function. In a meta-analysis looking at many randomized controlled trials (totaling 160 subjects) it was found that many markers of immune health were vastly improved by simply engaging in a mindfulness meditation practice. Researchers observed a decrease in Nf-kB activity (pro-inflammatory molecule), an increase in telomerase activity (DNA protective enzyme), and a decrease in levels of C-reactive protein (marker of inflammation), and an overall increase in many parameters of cell-mediated immunity. These findings were not the first to suggest that reducing overall stress can aid in immune function. It is hardly controversial to suggest that having a positive mindset is an incredibly important factor to sway the outcome of various disease-states in a more favorable direction. One of the final pillars in developing a robust immune system is consistent movement and (hopefully) exercise.

Top Tips for Managing Stress:

Find a breathwork practice that you like. Start with just a few minutes each day focusing on consciously belly breathing. Tying this practice to already established patterns will make the process much easier. For example, each time you get in your car, your bed, or before each meal would be excellent opportunities to take some deep breaths and work on creating new patterns.
Try a meditative practice. Guided meditations are a great place to start, what matters is that you practice!
Take a walk with no phone, podcast, music, or any other form of stimulation – your brain may need a break! Bonus points: get out in nature!

Exercise For Immune Health

Exercise, and in particular resistance training, has the ability to positively impact your immune system on many levels. At minimum, some form of movement is required for the circulation of lymph fluid (your lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump, instead it relies on your physical movement). In contrast, too much exercise can result in overtraining which can be just as bad as not exercising at all – if you are wanting to stay healthy. This is why resistance training that is appropriate (for you), and the resulting increase in lean body mass, is likely your best route for improving immune function. Unsurprisingly, increases in lean body mass has been shown to result in more favorable outcomes from all kinds of health problems – in fact, the importance of utilizing muscle mass as a new vital sign is becoming increasingly obvious. Scarily, the expected and preventable decrease in lean body mass (sarcopenia) that comes hand-in-hand with the aging process results in an increased risk of infection, slower wound healing, increased risk of pneumonia, enhanced risk of osteoporosis, fractures, and many more undesirable effects. But that doesn’t mean that you absolutely have to start lifting weights in order to boost your immune system – simply moving more throughout the day can increase the circulation of your lymphatic fluid and result in more robust defense capabilities. Combining relatively frequent resistance training with a good amount of daily low-level movement (get off the couch!) will ensure that you are getting the best of both worlds.

Top Tips for Exercise:

Stay active throughout the day. If you have one, use a step tracker to ensure you are moving enough.
Exercise, but don’t train too hard. Excessively pushing yourself can be just as bad as not exercising at all.
Focus on appropriate resistance exercise to build lean body mass.
Reduce cardio training if needed.
Ikon offers online training through our own special app. Our programs allow clients to get special exercise guidance for at-home training, or at the gym.

Last Word on Immune Health

Our immune system is always working, day and night. And the things that we do, or don’t do, can have profound implications on its ability to protect us from potential invaders. It is up to each of us to make sure that the habits and practices we implement in our daily lives are going to support this defense system in the fight against unwanted bacteria, viruses, cancerous cells, parasites, funguses, and more. No single factor will completely make or break your immune system, but consistently getting enough sleep, exercising, eating the right food, and managing stress are all crucial aspects to ensure your immune system isn’t going into a fight that it is rigged to lose.

Services to Boost your Immune System

While we recommend that clients adopt healthy habits to help bolster their immune system, one of the more powerful Immune Boosting agents that Ikon offers is called Thymosin Alpha. Thymosin Alpha is a peptide that is produced by the thymus gland, and it has antibacterial and antifungal properties. Thymosin Alpha can also help fight chronic viral diseases, support those who have autoimmune disorders, suppress infection and tumor growth, and help control inflammation with chronic diseases. Thymosin Alpha injections can be prescribed to help clients further strengthen their immune defense.

Immune Boosting Services

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