Many people in the world right now are wondering how to boost your immune system, and which are the best immune boosters that you can consume in your diet. The answer is vitamin C! Vitamin C is one of the most effective ways to boost your immune system naturally, plus it’s inexpensive, tasty and accessible.

As a New York based health coach, I help my clients improve their health holistically, which encompasses helping them to boost their immune system to avoid getting sick during flu season.

What is vitamin C?

Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Antioxidants are compounds that fight free radical damage, oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, which all cause a weakened immune system, cellular and DNA damage and increase your risk of developing disease. In fact, scientists believe that high levels of inflammation and free radical damage are the precursor to all diseases, as shown in a 2009 study that examined their relationship with cancer.

To understand how antioxidants work in the body to support the immune system, here’s an analogy: free radicals are the rebellious fighters trying to take down the state (your body), antioxidants are the state’s army, protecting the ‘state’ from being overthrown. When the state is overthrown and the free radical army is in charge, dangerous things occur, like chronic diseases, premature aging, cognitive dysfunction and frequent infections. When you pump your body full of antioxidants, you are - in effect - supplying the army with weapons to win the battle. Antioxidants are those weapons, to help your body fight pathogens and DNA damage, to keep you healthy for life.

During flu season, people are getting sick left right and center. Why? Because infectious pathogens are being spread, and those being affected do not have strong enough immune systems to fight the pathogen without them getting sick. The strength of your immune system depends in part on what nutrients your body has access to - antioxidants like vitamin C being one of those.

Vitamin C specifically is a super nutrient for the immune system due to its role in white blood cell production. White blood cells help to protect the body against infections, so long as they are created in high enough concentrations, and are easily transported around the body and functioning correctly. Vitamin plays a key role in each necessary function of effective white blood cells - production, transportation and functionality. This can be shown in research, a study published in Clinical Nutrition in 2005 found that supplementing with vitamin C helped to decrease healing time of ulcers, highlighting its importance in immune health.

Another study found that vitamin C was able to enhance differentiation and proliferation of B and T cells - cells that play a role in tumor development and tissue damage. This was due to the gene regulating effects of vitamin C, which boosts the immune system and reduces susceptibility to infection and illness.

Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins, so make sure you’re getting enough of it, to protect against the flu this season!

Recipe: Vitamin C immune boosting elixir

Whenever I start to feel under the weather I rustle up this immune boosting elixir and I really believe it revives me back to health very quickly! So if you’re coming down with a case of the winter flu, it’s time to give this a try!

What you will need: