The plants contained in certain food supplements could weaken the immune system and prove to be dangerous in an epidemic period.
- Certain food supplements should not be consumed during the Covid-19 epidemic
- The plants that make up these supplements can disrupt the immune system
Certain plants contained in food supplements can disrupt the immune system by interfering in particular with the inflammatory defense mechanisms useful for fighting infections such as Covid-19, warns the National Agency for Food Safety, Environment and work (ANSES) in a communicated.
A group of experts formed
The plants in question contain “salicylic acid derivatives (analogues of aspirin), such as willow, meadowsweet, birch, poplar, goldenrod, polygalas but also plants containing other anti – inflammatory plants, such as harpagophytum, echinacea, turmeric, cat’s claw (also called vine of Peru), plants of the genera Boswellia and Commiphora (known for their oleoresin gums called ‘incense’ and ‘myrrh’ respectively).”
To study the repercussions of food supplements on the body’s natural defenses during an epidemic, ANSES set up an emergency collective expert group responsible for reviewing the most recent scientific data on “the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of plants and their ability to disrupt the immune response during infections.”
Although knowledge varies from plant to plant, “ANSES experts believe that they are all likely to disrupt the immune response and the beneficial inflammatory reaction developed by the body at the start of infections.”
The ANSES recommendations
As such, ANSES recommends:
– people consuming these food supplements for preventive purposes to immediately suspend the consumption of food supplements containing these plants as soon as the first symptoms of Covid-19 appear;
– people consuming these food supplements in the context of chronic inflammatory pathologies must discuss with their doctor the relevance of continuing or not their consumption.
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