Supplements that offer a winter immunity boost
Adding zinc, vitamin D and others to your diet this winter may have benefits, says infectious disease expert
IN THE NEWS: Staying healthy through the winter season means getting the flu vaccine, washing your hands and eating a healthy diet. That might also mean adding a few supplements that may offer immunity-boosting benefits.
UCI Health infectious disease expert Dr. Shruti Gohil shared a few that could help with VeryWell Health.
They include zinc, elderberry, echinacea and vitamin D, which she says supports the body’s innate immunity:
"These immune cells have vitamin D receptors that control the ability to make natural antimicrobial substances that can defend the body against germs. It also regulates the immune response to be effective but not excessive."
Gohil is a board-certified infectious disease expert, the associate medical director for UCI Health Epidemiology and Infection Prevention and an assistant professor at the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include hospital epidemiology, infection prevention, communicable disease transmission and multidrug-resistant organism infections.
Gohil has led INSPIRE, a series of national studies to assess patient risk for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and to prompt physicians to limit the use of extended-spectrum antibacterial drugs in real time. She is a member of The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society of the Healthcare Epidemiologists in America.
About UCI Health
UCI Health is one of California’s largest academic health systems and the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Established on July 1, 1976, UCI Health has grown into a 1,461-bed health system that includes UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Irvine, four Community Network hospitals and a growing network of ambulatory care centers across Orange and Los Angeles counties. As Orange County’s only academic health systems, UCI Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in the county, the region’s only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, American College of Emergency Physicians Gold Level 1 Geriatric Emergency Department and a nationally recognized regional burn center verified by the American Burn Association. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people across Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County through excellence in patient care, research and medical education. Follow UCI Health on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.