MONTREAL — With the meteoric spread of the Omicron variant, this is a question that many people may ask themselves who will wake up one morning with a scratchy throat, a little fever and an annoying cough: could I do something to boost my immune system and get rid of the virus faster?
The short answer: no, other than reaping the dividends of healthy lifestyle habits that will have been adopted a long time ago rather than the day the symptoms appeared.
“The evidence that supplements (offered in pharmacies or on the internet) can stimulate the immune system to protect us, whether it’s cancer or whether it’s infections including COVID, I think is not very convincing, for be very honest,” said Dr. André Veillette, who is an immunologist at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute.
All the more so, he recalls, since the immune response is not monolithic and rather consists of several components. It is therefore questionable which phase of the immune response, for example, these supplements propose to stimulate.
Professor Caroline Richard, a specialist in the link between diet and the immune system at the University of Alberta, agrees, pointing out that “whole diet probably has a greater effect than supplements (or only) a nutrient”.
“It sure isn’t very sexy for people looking for simple solutions,” she admitted.
The immune system, she continues, uses all the vitamins and minerals in our diet to be effective.
The nutrients whose beneficial effect on the immune system is best documented in the scientific literature are omega-3s from marine sources (ie those that come from fatty fish such as salmon or mackerel). The anti-inflammatory effect of omega-3s is well documented, and a reduction in inflammation would then allow the immune system to work at full steam.
Otherwise, the beneficial effects of vitamin or mineral supplements will mostly be seen in populations with suboptimal diets, Richard said.
“If people are deficient in a vitamin, so if in general they do not consume enough of it in their diet and then we supplement in this vitamin, often we can see beneficial effects, she explained. . On the other hand, most people, and especially in North America, are not really deficient in vitamins and minerals.
It is therefore a matter of the health of the immune system as it is of health in general: eating well, sleeping well, doing physical activity, not smoking and drinking alcohol in moderation are all factors of success. .
And even if it is never too late to do well, it is useless (or almost) to adopt these good habits when the symptoms appear, warns Ms. Richard, who says she realizes very well that “it is not not what people want to hear.
“You have to consume (omega-3s) chronically because omega-3s are going to be incorporated into the cell membrane of all our cells,” she explained. It takes a little time, so it’s not overnight, if you start taking omega-3s, that you’ll see the effects directly.”
Water-soluble nutrients (like vitamins) may have a more instantaneous effect in the body, while fat-soluble nutrients must be consumed daily to generate benefits, she said.
If you have a balanced diet, it is not obvious that you need supplements, “but it’s a big market and it brings in billions of dollars,” said Dr. Veillette.
“I have family members who take vitamins, I don’t argue with them when they tell me that, but I can’t wait for them to move on,” he concluded. laughing.
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