Summary of the content:
1. Importance of a Healthy Immune System for General Health
2. When is Micronutrient Supplementation Needed and How Is It Beneficial?
2.1. Some micronutrients directly involved in the immune response
3. Is Micronutrition Enough to Reestablish Homeostasis and Attain Balance in the Organism?
4. Micro-immunotherapy: The Key to Effective Supplementation
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Importance of a Healthy Immune System for General Health
To what extent does the correct functioning of our defence system, the immune system, depend on micronutrition and how does micro-immunotherapy enhance the effect of micronutrient supplementation?
The immune system is typically described as a shield. However, in complex organisms such as the human being, it is perhaps more appropriate to draw the definition from a less obvious but much more fundamental function: maintaining balance in the organism.
Certainly, the immune system actively defends the body against pathogens and potentially harmful agents, acting as a protective mechanism. Nevertheless, it also maintains tolerance to one’s own tissues, preventing autoimmune mechanisms and excessive reactions. As long as the immune system functions at its natural optimum, it is able to keep these responses in the right equilibrium, appropriately managing multiple factors that challenge the system.
However, sometimes, alterations in its regulation, whether genetically based or due to deficiencies, repeated exposure to factors such as:
Can jeopardise its functions and lead to diseases. The system might then need to be supported to return to homeostasis. Micro-immunotherapy and micronutrition are two approaches that work perfectly in synergy to regulate metabolic pathways and re-establish balance in the organism, thus contributing to long-term health. However, micronutrient supplementation alone does not suffice to readjust underlying immune imbalances.
Let’s see why health professionals combine micronutrition with micro-immunotherapy to improve the immune response in a sustainable and targeted way.
When is Micronutrient Supplementation Needed and How Is It Beneficial?
Some micronutrients directly involved in the immune response
Micronutrition is a medical concept related to nutrition, cell structure and function, which studies the impact of basic food components (minerals, trace elements, vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids, etc.) on organic balance based on research into the existing and proven links between nutrition, health and prevention.
It is known that immune cells, like all the cells that make up our body, use nutrients (sugars, proteins, lipids, etc.) as well as signals (cytokines, growth factors, etc.) that will affect their state of activation or differentiation, ensure or not their survival and/or promote certain functions. The environment in which the immune cells are found will therefore influence the functioning of the immune system itself.
Selection of micronutrients directly involved in the immune response:
- Vitamin A influences the activity of Natural Killer (NK) cells, and the production of interferon gamma (IFN-y).
- Vitamin B6 deficiency is associated with decreased lymphocyte and interleukin 2 production. Vitamin B12 is necessary for haematopoiesis.
- Vitamin D is necessary for T-lymphocyte differentiation and maturation, and thus plays an immunomodulatory role.
- Magnesium is closely related to the development of the innate and adaptive immune response.
- Iron is essential for macrophage activity, lymphocyte cytochrome synthesis, cell proliferation and DNA synthesis. Zinc is required for the synthesis of serum thymic factor (thymulin), which promotes differentiation of T-lymphocyte precursor cells.
- Copper is essential for the differentiation, maturation and activation of different types of immunocompetent cells, as well as for the secretion of cytokines with autocrine, paracrine and endocrine properties, thus exerting a proper host defence.
The greater or lesser presence of these micronutrients in the body is the factor that sets the boundary between health and disease. Micronutrition as applied in clinical practice aims at meeting the body’s micronutrient needs through a personalised diet, combined if necessary with micronutrient supplementation.
- It is important to first assess the pathophysiological and biochemical status involved in the patient’s condition.
- Then, a treatment strategy based on biomedical tools that respect cellular integrity and the internal environment can be implemented.
Diet, i.e. the “organic” route, is always the first option to compensate for nutritional deficiencies. Micronutrient supplementation is used only when dietary changes fail to restore adequate nutrient levels due to mal-absorption associated with i.e. leaky gut syndrome or because the metabolism and the immune system are worn down.
Is Micronutrition Enough to Reestablish Homeostasis and Attain Balance in the Organism?
To function optimally, the immune system needs “fuel” from nutrients and proper coordination. If it gets adequate and sufficient supply from diet, and this energy is harnessed in a coordinated and effective manner by the components of the immune system, homeostasis can be restored smoothly and health is maintained.
Micronutrition is aimed at ensuring the body gets adequate supply, whereas micro-immunotherapy transmits targeted messages to the immune system through specific compositions of immune messenger substances in low doses in order to restore or maintain a coordinated, efficient and balanced communication between immune cells.
Micro-immunotherapy: The Key to Effective Micronutrient Supplementation
Micro-immunotherapy proposes an innovative approach: restoring health by harnessing the body’s self-regulating mechanisms. It is aimed at modulating the immune system, which in turn functions better when adequate levels of micronutrients are restored.
Thus, the meeting point where the synergy of these two therapies comes from is obvious. Restoring the efficiency of the immune response depends on two factors: its intensity and its modulation. The former is influenced by the levels of micronutrients, and the latter is regulated by the molecules in low doses (mostly cytokines) micro-immunotherapy uses to communicate with the immune system.
The synergistic combination of these two treatment approaches adapted to the needs of each patient helps to significantly improve the quality of life and pave the way back to health, especially for those suffering from chronic diseases.
