What is the Difference Between Immune Boosting and Antiviral?

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what it means to call something “antiviral.”

Just because something is immune-boosting does NOT mean it kills viruses.

In fact, you can’t actually kill a virus. They’re not alive.

There are 7 Characteristics of Life, and viruses only meet 6 of them.

Yeah… that’s why they’re a little tougher to deal with than bacterial infections, which can be killed because bacteria are, well, alive.

So, I wanted to talk a bit about a few key nutrients & adaptogens you can use that are immune boosting AND a few that are specifically proven to deactivate viruses.

Let’s dive in.

Immune-boosting Nutrients & Adaptogens

When something is described as immune- (or immunity-) boosting on this website, I’m talking about how it enhances the body’s ability to stay healthy & fight disease in some way.

That being said, a few nutrients that are heavily researched & proven to help enhance the body’s immune system are:

Vitamin C

This is a powerhouse that most people probably already know about, but it’s a good thing to go over nonetheless.

Vitamin C has been shown to:

Enhance the epithelial (skin) cells’ ability to guard against disease entry
Encourages apoptosis (cell death) of low-functioning cells (1)
Contain anti-cancer properties & contribute to faster treatment in chemotherapy patients (2)
Increase activity of natural killer cells (3)

…just looking through the PubMed articles from the last few years is overwhelming.

What’s more is that there have been some incredible new small-group and case studies involving high-dose vitamin C supplementation (10-20g) in COVID-19 patients, with great results.

For clarity, 10-20g of vitamin C is 10-20 packets of Emergen-C… AKA 10,000 - 20,000x the recommended daily amount of the vitamin.

While that sounds dangerous, it’s important to remember that vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that the body will excrete efficiently if there’s an excess.

But clearly, the effects of the excess while it’s in the body are strong enough to do some damage to disease.

Anyway, these vitamin C studies on Coronavirus patients have shown that after receiving those high-dose treatments, their recovery time is an average of 5 days faster than other cases.

That’s pretty damn rad.

Vitamin D

Ahh, yes. I like to call this the “happy vitamin” because it’s easiest to obtain through sunlight. Or eating organ meat, but I feel like that makes people less happy.

Anyway, some of the latest research on vitamin D has show its efficacy in:

Anti-inflammation
Cell autophagy / apoptosis (death) during a stress response (4)
Regulation of calcium & phosphorus levels in the body, leading to balanced immunity (5)
Activation of modulation of innate and adaptive immune system (6)

So basically, vitamin D is extremely effective in decreasing inflammation in the body.

This in itself makes it a huge contributor to the immune system. But it doesn’t stop there.

Vitamin D also helps carry out the process of apoptosis in cells that are no longer serving the body, causing a “cleaning” effect. This allows the body to create new, fully-functional cells in their place.

Further studies have shown that vitamin D’s regulation of calcium and phosphorus make it a prime way to avoid chronic illness and keep the body in better shape to avoid acute disease.

Lastly, vitamin D is a modulator for the body’s two immune systems (innate & adaptive). This means it helps to regulate the use of BOTH the “baseline” (innate) immune system and how it grows over time (adaptive).

Both are necessary to maintaining health and vitamin D is a key factor in keeping them working properly.

Reishi Mushroom

Let’s get into those adaptogens for a bit!

Reishi is a mushroom used for many things, but the main ones are stress relief and immunity.

The research on mushrooms in general is VERY new, so a lot of the evidence-based studies are just starting to appear in the common literature from the past few years.

A 2019 study, which analyzed a blend of 3 different supposedly-healing mushrooms (reishi, shiitake, and maitake) concluded that each of them assisted human macrophages in the cancer-fighting process.

Translated to English, macrophages are large white blood cells that are stationary in areas of the body that need healing. This means that the mushroom blend in this study helped the macrophages target tumors in cancer cells more effectively than the macrophages could do on their own. (6)

Another randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study analyzed the health effects of yogurt seeded with β-glucans (beta-glucans) from reishi on children.

The children in the study who received the yogurt with the β-glucans in it had significantly higher lymphocyte (white blood cell) count than those who did not eat the seeded yogurt. (7)

A key component that all of these studies I’ve seen seem to be focusing on is the β-glucans that various mushrooms contain. These seem to be the piece of the mushroom puzzle that makes them so helpful to the immune system.

The other common thread is that, if this does keep turning out to be a health-boosting plant, it seems to be on the immune system strengthening side of things.

Ashwaganda

I thought ashwagandha was a mushroom for a long time. It is not.

Ashwagandha is a plant, and the roots are harvested for their medicinal properties in a range of uses. A few of those include:

Reduction of stress / adrenal healing (9)
Cancerous tumor fighting properties (8)
Testosterone boosting (and therefore muscle building)
Reduction of oxidative stress on the cells (10)

Personally, this root has been a game changer for me in my natural PCOS healing journey.

Its benefits to reducing stress, both at the adrenals and the oxidative / cellular levels are impressive and inherently immunity boosters.

In addition to reducing unnecessary / excess stress so that the body can place immune attacks where they need to go (i.e. to viruses / bacteria that are harmful), ashwagandha is also antimicrobial (11).

This means it supports the body by allowing it to use its immune system more effectively AND can do some of the work itself against harmful bacteria and microbes. However, the virus-fighting aspects of ashwagandha don’t seem to be supported at this time in the literature.

Elderberry

Elderberry is an interesting one, and the last item I put under the “general immunity” part of this lilst because that’s the side that’s been researched far more.

However, new research is emerging that suggests that it is an extremely antiviral nutrient to consume, at least in the case of a few different flu strands (14).

Elderberry is a plant that grows berries that are high in both antioxidants and vitamins.

Both the berries and the flowers can be harvested to make the “syrup” that you see most commonly in supplements or medicines.

One of the main reasons elderberry extract is treated as immune-boosting is because of the antioxidant properties.

Numerous studies (15, 16) show that the antioxidants in elderberry help to lower oxidative stress, a key marker in how inflamed the body is.

When there’s less oxidative stress lingering in the body, there is basically less pollution inside your cells.

This analogy is great, because oxidation is quite literally the byproduct of cells metabolizing calories for energy.

Your cells break down the food you eat, a series of chemical reactions occur, and there’s a bunch of leftover molecules of water and carbon dioxide as a byproduct.

So, by consuming compounds that are higher in anti-oxidants, you’re literally throwing some cleaners into your cells to make sure those byproducts don’t stick around and slow things down.

That takes your immune system’s attention away from clearing those byproducts out and allows it to focus on the real threats to your health: foreign pathogens & bacteria.

Antiviral nutrients & adaptogens

Now, let’s look at some research regarding specifically antiviral pieces of nutrition.

This means that these compounds have been proven effective specifically in the fight against viruses. That means they actually deactivate or severely threaten the spread of a viral infection.

And that is GREAT news for us!

Lysine

Okay, this one is one of my favorites.

Lysine is an essential amino acid that is also extremely antiviral.

According to the Journal of Experimental Medicine (12), the methylation of lysine promotes our body’s innate viral immunity.

That means when lysine is broken down in the body, it provides our immune system with more “fuel” to power itself in the fight against viral infection.

Lysine has also been proven to be antibacterial and anti-inflammatory (13).

In some of my past articles, I’ve hypothesized that if something is anti-inflammatory, it’s very likely to be an immunity booster regardless of whether a study denotes that as a direct benefit.

This is because the less stress (AKA inflammation) in our bodies, the better we will be able to fight off actual threats that might enter into our systems.

If the body is too busy fighting off “red flags” of inflammation, it’s easier to get sick when something legitimately threatening comes in.

Lysine is one of my favorite things to talk about because increasing this nutrient in my diet has helped me a TON with decreasing acne, another sign of inflammation.

Glycine

Another amino acid that doesn’t get enough attention is glycine.

Personally, I didn’t know this one was also credited with antiviral properties, but my first dive into research on this one brought up how it’s already proven extremely effective on other outbreaks we’ve seen before.

I’m talking about the H1N1 influenza, AKA the “Swine Flu.” (17)

Glycine has been shown to target the RNA of specific viruses - AKA the way viruses are able to replicate and spread themselves (18).

This is HUGE news, because antiviral vaccines are only one of two types:

Live attenuated vaccines
Inactivated vaccines (AKA: RNA inhibiting vaccines)

Yes, I’m extrapolating a little bit here - but what if we were supplementing to kill the viruses’ RNA replicating abilities without injecting ourselves with the virus?

Cool research opportunities for glycine in the years ahead, I’m sure.

Zinc

Okay, I saved my favorite for last and I know you think this is probably the dorkiest compound to pick as my “favorite” on this list.

And you’re probably going to think that what I’m about to say is sci-fi fantasy, but I promise there’s research behind it (19).

But basically, when a cell in your body is attacked by a virus, it sends out a signal to the neighboring cells that it’s been “infiltrated.”

The messenger proteins that are sent out of the infected cell to its neighbors are called interferons (cool!)

How are these interferons activated?

By using zinc.

And, once the zinc is used to activate the interferon proteins, the neighboring cells can interpret the warning and produce antiviral cofactors to help prevent the spread of the virus to them.

This can’t save the initial host cell of the virus, but it can prevent replication by essentially blocking the virus from entering any other cells nearby.

I think I got a little too excited to learn about this.

Zinc has long been touted as antiviral, but now we know at least one of the specific ways as to how it works.

Anyway…zinc lozenges (like those sore throat drops you had as a kid, but not full of shitty fillers) are a great way to reduce length of sickness, especially sore throat sicknesses.

There are also pure zinc tablets you can take to just keep higher doses in your system.

For those, I would just recommend not being on them all the time.

The safe upper limit of zinc is about 40mg per day, and many supplements sell 20-30mg tablets.

You won’t dangerously overdose if you take the right amount of supplements at the right time, but I wouldn’t be on them every day, all the time.

All of this being said, zinc is extremely antiviral and it’s a good thing to have on hand if a sickness is going around or if you start to feel under the weather.

A final word on immunity & virus fighting tactics

After all of this, I hope you take away that there are a few key patterns among all of these nutrients:

What you eat & supplement with DOES matter. The things we consume help or hinder our body’s function. If you’re looking to stay healthy, support your body with the good stuff.
If you choose to get these nutrients from supplementation, don’t screw up your chances of properly metabolizing them by eating crappy food. They’re called “supplements” because they are supposed to SUPPLEMENT an ALREADY-HEALTHY diet.
Eating a colorful diet full of healthy plants & protein sources is key to getting each of these things into your system without needing to supplement.
Get outside!! Vitamin D was one of the most potent nutrients on here and you don’t even need to buy anything to enjoy producing your own.
On the flip side of supplementing: even if you’re eating a 100% perfect & nutrient-dense diet, never think of yourself as “not needing to supplement.” It is much wiser to check your blood work regularly, and then supplement where needed if it turns out the diet just isn’t doing it for you. It’s okay, go attach your ego to something more worthwhile.

So…I think that’s it. For now, at least.

If you have more questions about this topic, throw them in the comments below. Let’s talk about it.

Until then…make sure to prevent disease and viruses using some of these tools. They’re natural and proven to work.

Stay well.

Sources

(1) Carr, A. C., Maggini, S. (2017). Vitamin C and immune function. Nutrients. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9111211

(2) Magrí, A. et. al. (2020, February 26). High-dose vitamin C enhances cancer immunotherapy. Science Translational Medicine. doi: 1126/scitranslmed.aay8707

(3) Jafari, D. et. al. (2019, July 19). Vitamin C and the immune system. Nutrition and Immunity. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16073-9_5

(4) Chirumbolo, S. et. al. (2017. May). The role of vitamin D in the immune system as a pro-survival molecule. Clinical Therapeutics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2017.03.021

(5) Sassi, F., Tamone, C., D’Amelio, P. (2018, 24 September). Vitamin D: nutrient, hormone, immunomodulator. Nutrients. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10111656

(6) Mallard, B. et. al. (2019). Synergistic immuno-modulatory activity in human macrophages of a medicinal mushroom formulation consisting of reishi, shiitake and maitake. Plos One. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224740

(7) Duque Henao, S.L. et. al. (2018). Randomized clinical trial for the evaluation of immune modulation by yogurt enriched with β-Glucans from Lingzhi or Reishi medicinal mushroom, ganoderma lucidum (agaricomycetes), in children from Medellin, Colombia. International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. doi: 10.1615/IntJMedMushrooms.2018026986

(8) McNeal, S. et. al. (2017). Ovarian tumor-associated BRP78 induces immunosuppression and withaferin A (ashwagandha) enhances anti-tumor activity. Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium, doi: 10.1158/1557-3265.OVCASYMP16-NTOC-100

(9) Lopresti, A. et. al. (2019). An investigation into the stress-relieving and pharmacological actions of an ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract. Medicine. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000017186

(10) Juturu, V. et. al. (2016). M-A-T (Mucuna, ashwagandha and Tribulus) enhances testosterone and reduces oxidative stress, In Vivo model. The FASEB Journal. Retrieved from: https://www.fasebj.org/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.404.4

(11) Khanchandani, N. et. al. (2019). Antibacterial and antifungal activity of ashwagandha (Withania somifera L.): a review. Journal of Drug Delivery & Therapeutics. doi: https://doi.org/10.22270/jddt.v9i5-s.3573

(12) Wang, C. et. al. (2017). The methyltransferase NSD3 promotes antiviral innate immunity via direct lysine methylation of IRF3. Journal of Experimentall Medicine. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20170856

(13) Ghosh, C. et. al. (2017). I-lysine based lipidated biphenyls as agents with anti-biofilm and anti-inflammatory properties that also inhibit intracellular bacteria. Chemical Communications. doi: https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CC04206J

(14) Petric, D. (n.d.). Antiviral properties of elderberry. Academia.edu. Retrieved from: https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/62503378/Antiviral_properties_of_Elderberry20200327-38643-qr7ay6.pdf?1585337224=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DAntiviral_properties_of_Elderberry.pdf&Expires=1605567921&Signature=VYt0YziM-E6~euI~VIQq2CB6Tvssui6JK0QktUJop2G1qarAicmJ9N6SUhzOtEj8g6yEF3GZrN8ZDLnK2GS5kXEzbO8ZHattgJMNAAtwgd1EdeEb2jKc7vF5ZC5Q-naC6hBO10oGtQJhrKHig00iIn~lJ5hW00uySB087BO6ZYcDyAo92iK4bAlkZHbho~gqizmzam9r~KloXbhndimLfviq~GTcSFVhNK6tJfFA9Ylo0onKgUHdmo-M2OJFIMikZMmD4WAJX9JhhCuBruIDfVqGA92U5Xqek~G5oZ5K1eeXyZB-fjAfLPduGLnXVYYkOowppAJLzgJm4X90WEY-sg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA

(15) Zielińska-Wasielica, J. et. al. (July 11, 2019). Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) fruit extract alleviates oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and inflammation in hypertrophied 3T3-L1 adipocytes and activated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Development of Food Chemistry, Natural Products, and Nutrition Research. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods8080326

(16) Neves, D. et. al. (May 2019). A new insight on elderberry anthocyanins bioactivity: modulation of mitochondrial redox chain functionality and cell redox state. Journal of Functional Foods. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2019.03.019

(17) Kumar, R. et. al. (April1, 2016). Antiviral effect of glycine coated iron oxide nanoparticles iron against H1N1 influenza A virus. International Society for Infectious Diseases. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2016.02.622

(18) Ramesh, S. et. al. (December 2017). Expression dynamics of glycine max (L.) Merrill microRNAs (miRNAs) and their targets during Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) infection. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmpp.2017.05.001

(19) Li, M. et. al. (January 6, 2017). TRIM25 enhances the antiviral action of Zinc-Finger Antiviral Protein (ZAP). PLOS Pathogens. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006145

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