I was brought up thinking that if you have a cold, you should drink some orange juice and it'll

feel better very quickly. And in our culture, that a high dose of vitamin C will help you get over a

cold or even stop you catching a cold in the first place. And it turns out, by and large,

it's a complete myth. There is a lot stronger evidence for the importance of vitamin D.

Well, that's Daniel M. Davis. He is a professor of immunology who wants to make sure that your

immune system is in good working order this winter. Well, I'm Liz Earle and this is the Lizzie

Wellbeing Show, the podcast helping us all have a better second half.

And my mission, well, it's to find ways for all of us to thrive in our later life by investing in our health and our well-being today.

So how often have you answered the question, how are you, with, oh, you know, little rundown

over the last few weeks, perhaps. It's the season, isn't it, for coughs and colds and lethargy,

as the days get shorter and colder, especially here in the UK. So how does the immune system

actually work? And how are our lifestyles affecting just how resilient our immune systems

are when the flu does come our way. Daniel M. Davis is head of life sciences and a professor

of immunology at Imperial College, London. His research using microscopy has helped us understand

how immune cells detect signs of disease

in other cells. Incredibly impressive stuff. He has published, no less, than 150 scientific papers

and authored several really great books, including The Beautiful Cure, the Secret Body, and most

recently self-defense, a myth-busting guide to immune health.

Daniel, you are so welcome here, and before I really start picking your incredible brain for knowledge

about the immune system that we can all use, I think, practically in our daily lives,

I really want to start with you because you have a PhD in physics and now you're in

immunology. What made you switch from physics? Was there a connection to studying the immune

...