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Immunity boosting for travel
My son is about to join a volunteer programme in America for six week. The last time he went to a third world country, he fell sick with a respiratory infection. Is there anything he can take this time to protect him and boost his immunity for the trip?
The remedy I recommend he travels with is New Chapter’s Host Defence, which combines two of the medicinal Asian mushrooms, reishi and cordyceps which are used, specifically, to support respiration and the immune system.
These herbs are also adaptogenic, which means they can bolster the body’s natural defences to better resist stress, and help increase overall stamina and endurance, which would be a welcome additional benefit to someone whose immune system has already taken a battering from a previous infection.
Preliminary studies suggest cordyceps, for instance, which is a fungus parasite that lives on caterpillars in the high mountain regions of China, (giving rise to its common name of caterpillar fungus) supports immunity by increasing both the number of T-helper cells to better resist infection and by increasing levels of Natural Killer Cells which do what their name suggests. This mushroom is reported to also help prolong the active life of the immune system’s lymphocytes, which form the body’s first line of defence against infection.
Host Defence is an American-made supplement (available by mail order from Victoria Health on 0800-413596) which would also be useful to anyone suffering from chronic bronchial complaints, and anyone worried about succumbing to winter coughs and colds.