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, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The 1,461-bed system comprises its main campus UCI Health — Orange, its flagship hospital, the UCI Health — Irvine acute care hospital and medical campus, four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and a network of ambulatory care centers across the region. UCI Health — Orange provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to the only Orange County-based National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).