Can you boost your immune system?

Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter

TED

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’ve been told products like goji berries and pomegranate juice will boost your immune system—but attempts at “boosting” your immune system can do more harm than good. In fact, over the counter supplements contribute to over 20,000 ER visits per year! So is there a safe way to boost our immune systems, and should we even be doing it in the first place? An immunologist takes us through the body and down the “wellness” aisle to debunk products you’ve been sold and shares what you can really do to improve your body’s most important defense system. Read the full transcript for this episode at go.ted.com/BSTscript5

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:07.0	Hey listener, a quick favor. We are conducting an audience survey and we'd be really grateful if you could take just a few minutes to respond.
0:14.0	Please visit survey.prx.org slash Ted to take the survey today. That's survey.prx.org slash Ted. Thanks.
0:25.0	It was March 2020 and our editor Sarah was living in Brooklyn.
0:30.0	She had started to hear about the spread of a highly contagious virus, COVID-19.
0:35.0	And like many of us, she was very worried.
0:39.0	So I went to my local health food store chain and I got a bunch of groceries.
0:44.0	Like everybody else, I bought beans and rice and I also wanted to feed my immune system.
0:51.0	So I went to the supplement section and four or five different aisles with vitamins and herbs and all of that stuff.
0:59.0	And it was packed.
1:01.0	People with their cards trying to shove one another out of the way to get like the last bottle of zinc or whatever it was.
1:07.0	So when you say good for your immune system, what does that mean to you?
1:14.0	Well, I don't really know.
1:19.0	The kind of story in my head about my immune system was it's chugging along doing important stuff.
1:27.0	And then sometimes it gets challenged by an infection or something.
1:33.0	And maybe it gets tired.
1:35.0	And so if I take all these supplements, it's going to have the fuel it needs to do the job that it does.
1:44.0	Our editor Sarah is not alone.
1:48.0	The idea that you can boost your immune system is everywhere.
1:53.0	And it seemed to multiply exponentially during the pandemic.
1:58.0	I'm sure you or someone you know tried to stock up in things like zinc,
2:03.0	vitamin D or vitamin C when the pandemic started.
	...

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