To best prepare for the spread of the coronavirus, having a good immune system is essential. Some specialists remain skeptical about the effect of supplements aimed at boosting our immunity.
- Some food supplements are presented as strengthening the immune defenses
- Many doctors remain very skeptical and recall that the best protections are hygiene measures and “barrier gestures”.
Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, a few good gestures are to be adopted to protect yourself well. The government has reported numerous “barrier gestures” to prevent any infection. In addition to these gestures, it would be possible to boost your immune system to better deal with the coronavirus… but this opinion is not shared by all doctors.
Vitamin D and zinc
Some dietary supplements are shown to help strengthen your immune system. “I prescribe vitamin D and zinc to correct deficiencies and today alone I filled free prescriptions for a hundred people to relieve overworked GPs”confides Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault, internist and director of research at the Inserm Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, to franceinfo. Vitamin D helps to fight against viruses and zinc to strengthen its antiviral defense. This complement can be adopted even without presence of deficiency, without however doing it in a prolonged way. “Doing a month-long course of a multivitamin supplement is not dangerous and may improve things a littleadvises the specialist. On condition of making periods of interruption so that the body functions spontaneously.”
Medicinal plants can also be taken. Some of these plants are “endowed with immunostimulating properties in the ENT and pulmonary spheres, such as the cypress-echinacea duo for young people and the cypress-astragalus duo for more fragile, sick individuals or those over 65 years old”explains Doctor Didier Chos, President of the European Institute of Dietetics and Micronutrition (IEDM), interviewed by The Parisian.
Skeptical experts
This finding is not shared by all specialists. “There is nothing that boosts our immune system. Neither plant, nor vitamin, nor anything. And besides, it is not necessary to strengthen it because it works very well naturally”, pushes François Boué, immunologist at the Antoine-Béclère hospital in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine). “There are no medications or dietary behaviors that can change anything about your immune system.abounds Professor Guy Gorochov, head of the cell and tissue immunology unit at Pitié-Salpêtrière, in Paris. As with the flu, it is not the virus that kills us but the immune responses that worsen and have a toxic effect on the patient that can create serious lesions..”
For them, the most effective is to follow simple hygiene measures. “The only effective measures are those just taken by the government, i.e. social distancing and common sense measures such as washing your hands, wearing a mask when you are affected, not coughing in the presence of third parties and, of course, not to be tested if you are not sick so as not to clog up the health services”lists Professor Gorochov.
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