EXTEND THE OLIVE BRANCH TO YOUR IMMUNE CELLS

 

Take one to two capfuls of high-quality olive leaf extract daily (such as Barlean’s Olive Leaf Complex)

Olive leaf complex can help prevent the spread of viruses and may stimulate immune cells. It also eats up free radicals and fights oxidative damage.

One of the active ingredients in oleuropein, is a substance called elenolic acid. Research shows that Elenolic acid has an uncanny ability to inhibit the growth of viruses. And one form of elenolic acid, calcium elenolate, fights not only viruses but bacteria and parasitic agents as well, studies show.

According to Privitera, olive leaf extract directly penetrates infected cells and stops viral replication. And Privitera is not the only health expert who has taken note of the amazing antimicrobial properties of olive leaf extract. Compounds of olive leaf extract can ‘’directly penetrate infected cells and inhibit further microbial reproduction. Olive leaf extract may also directly stimulate the formation of immune systems cells that combat various types of microbes.

PROBIOTICS: GOOD FOR THE GUT:

If you’ve never heard of  probiotics or you’re not entirely sure what they are, let me introduce you, as they play an important role in immunity.

Your gastrointestinal tract (i.e., your gut) basically functions as a barrier against stuff that doesn’t belong, stuff (like microbes) that comes from microorganism and food. In this sense, it’s like a ‘’second skin’’, only an internal one. The gut functions by providing a colony of live bacteria that have many functions, such as helping you digest and absorb important nutrients, helping maintain a balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory chemicals in the body (cytokines).

The gut is like a garden, and like any garden it has both weeds and flowers. The weeds are the bad bacteria, such as Candida albicans, or yeast, which, when they overgrow, can create all kinds of problems in the body. The flowers are the good guys-healthy bacteria that produce your guts, help you digest food, and improve immunity. Those ‘’good guy’’ bacteria we call probiotics.

‘’Probiotics are involved in controlling the inflammation of the intestinal system by promoting defense mechanisms and preventing bad microbes from growing there.’’

One of the most famous probiotics is Lactobacillus acidophilus, a strain often found in yogurt with live cultures referred to on the label) but there are many other strains of probiotics as well. The point is that those healthy bacteria are a powerful weapon in the fight to improve immunity, resist infection and disease and extend life.

MIXED ANTIOXIDANTS:

No matter how well you design your diet, you can still augment it with supplemental antioxidant.

Vitamin C, for example, though it may not necessarily prevent colds, definitely shortens their duration. It also increases antibodies, phagocytosis (the ability of the PacMen to eat up the bad guys), and chemotaxis (the speed with which white blood cells get to the infection or injury site).

‘’The concentration of vitamin C in immune cells is twenty to a hundred times higher than in the rest of the blood .’’ People who take vitamin C supplements see a measurable increase in NK activity within twenty-four hours.’’

Selenium, one of the most important micro minerals on the planet, is associated with higher rates of survival in AIDS patients and lower rates of cancer in general. Selenium acts like ‘’birth control’’ for the hepatitis C virus. It’s important stuff!