Beat Cold & Flu Season with My Favorite Immunity-Boosting Foods | Dr. Mark Hyman

why is this important why is it protecting your gut barrier important about 60 to 70% of your immune system is in your gut why because that's where your body comes into contact with a lot of foreign stuff and your immune system is supposed to help you identify and fight off Foreign stuff like bugs or things that leak into your system welcome back to another episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy and health bites where we take juicy little bites into current health topics today we're diving into the Incredible World of polyphenols what are those well they're Nature's

Powerhouse when it comes to supporting our immune system and our overall health now these Mighty compounds are found in abundance in plant foods and they do so much more than just nourish our bodies right they help us feed our good gut bacteria they reduce inflammation they strengthen our immune defenses and they make us more resilient to illness meaning we don't get sick polyphenols work their magic in lots of fascinating ways they act as kind of mild stressors and they trigger our body to ramp up their defense mechanisms this process process is known as hormesis it's

a basically a stress that doesn't kill you but makes you stronger and this makes ourselves stronger and better equipped to handle oxidative stress and inflammation and lots of other challenges so by incorporating polyphenol rich foods in our diet we're essentially giving our bodies a mini workout that keeps us healthy and protected against chronic diseases in this episode we're going to explore some of the best sources of polyphenols like green tea and yes my friends dark chocolate and citrus fruits and how they can help help you stay ahead of the cold and flu season which is

coming up soon to a station near you now whether it's boosting your immune system or improving your gut health polyphenols are just an essential part of any health focused diet so let's jump in and discover how you can eat your medicine and give your body the support it needs to thrive so let's start by diving into one of Nature's Most Powerful immune supporting agents polyphenols now what are those polyphenols are a type of phytochemical phyto means plant chemical means chemical or phytonutrient and these are found in our diet if we're eating an abundance of whole

real plant Foods they're definitely not in Ultra processed food at all which is a real problem and partly why we're so sick not just the bad stuff but n enough of the good stuff so this is the good stuff my folks not only do these polyphenols provide a trove of benefits for health and for longevity but they also support our immunity and our gut health which is so important for our immune system because they feed our good gut bugs they're literally fuel for your intestinal microbiome and if you don't feed your inner Garden right and

you don't tend it right it's not going to be nice to you it's going to cause all kinds of issues from chronic disease and many other things all connected to inflammation so polyphenols reduce inflammation and they also are beneficial for modulating our immune system all right so what is the impact of polyphenols on immunity well there's over 8,000 polyphenolic comp compounds that have identified to date now many more phytochemicals but these are just the polyphenolic compounds now these are a diverse group of bioactive phytochemicals that have been extensively studied for their antioxidant and their anti-inflammatory

properties they modulate immune cells and they turn on our anti-inflammatory Pathways which then helps reduce inflammation which is the scourge of of everybody as far as chronic disease and acute disease they combat oxitive stress which leads to rusting and aging and they protect against all of chronic diseases so how do they do this is this really kind of cool idea called phyto hormesis now hormesis is this stress that doesn't kill you that makes you stronger it's a process where a low dose of a potentially harmful thing like exercise or your strength training and ripping muscle

fibers actually stimulates a positive beneficial adaptive response like building new muscle same thing with cold therapy or cryotherapy or saunas there's a whole bunch of different hormetic therapies I talk about these in my book young forever and they're a key part of longevity but what's interesting is that these phytochemicals are tiny little stress molecules because they're the the plants defense systems they're not there for us I mean obviously the plant didn't create these for us but we've adapted with them to use them in our bodies to activate healing responses it's really amazing so it's like

a little stress that makes us stronger and and it's very powerful so these polyphenols which are actually the plant's defense mechanism make them a little sort of stressful in our body they create a little bit of a a stress response but that activates in response our healing system and it's super important to remember because these polyphenols are rich in plant foods but they're richer in Wild Foods they're richer in foods that are grown regeneratively and then organic and then conventional so it's a hierarchy because we basically have bred these out of our modern diet literally

by breeding for starch and for yield and for Drought resistance and for you know transportability and St shelf stability but not for nutrition so we have a real issue of nutrition security here food security is not having enough food eat but nutrition security is having enough nutrients to eat and we are definitely not having those and I I think of these polyphenols as conditionally essential nutrients we're not we're not seeing deficiency diseases like you know scurvy or rickets if you don't have them but over the long term if you don't have them they actually accelerate

all of our aging processes and by using them they activate our longevity Pathways and switches to help us live a long healthy life all right so what happens when we consume them our bodies respond by ramping up our own defense mechanisms they increase the production of our own antioxidant enzymes they enhance our detoxification Pathways they boost our immune system they help our mitochondria they help repair DNA they're doing all kinds of amazing things that help us live longer and healthier and basically trigger a mini workout for yourselves making them more resilient to stress and damage

now one of the key benefits of this hormetic response this hormesis I'm talking about is the reduction of free radicals or oxidative stress you know what that is it's rusting it's when your Apple turns brown in the air or or your face wrinkles from the sun right these are all oxidative stress reactions and polyphenols can directly reduce Ox stress by fighting off damage that's caused by these free radicals so when you incorporate a polyphenol Rich set of foods into your diet you can mitigate this damage to your cell and the harmful pro-inflammatory disease causing effects

that come with it so it's really powerful to include these because they sort of are you're you're working with your body to activate healing systems so when you do this when you activate enhance your body's antioxidant defense systems these polyphenols actually protect our cells from the things that cause rapid aging and disease inflammation and oxidative stress now what about gut health now until recently we thought oh you need prebiotics which is fiber and you need probiotics which is true but recent discoveries have made it really clear that polyphenols are essential for creating a healthy gut

microbiome and why do you need a healthy gut microbiome because it regulates everything in your body there's probably a third to a half of all your blood metabolites that come from your gut they interact with all your biological systems and abnormalities in your gut microbiome meaning have having bad gut bugs by not eating enough of the right foods and too much of the wrong Foods and not having enough polyphenols link to everything from heart disease to cancer to diabetes to dementia to autism to autoimmune disease to asthma to fibromyalgia to Chronic fatique syndrome and the

list goes on and on and on even aging itself so polyphenols are kind of newly understood to have a huge role in the microbiome and they help support our microbiome by basically feeding and growing the good gut bugs which produce anti-inflammatory metabolites and all sorts of other compounds we called postbiotics now what are postbiotics well you've heard of prebiotics you've heard of Po probiotics postbiotics are basically compounds that are made by the bacteria in your gut that have a role in our physiology and our biology in a good way that makes us healthier and these

are really beneficial they're quite amazing that's why I said about a third to half of all the things floating around your blood all the molecules floating around your but come from the gut bacteria now postbiotics support something called the en immune system as well as the Adaptive immune system these are our two immune systems that help fight off infection now it's super important to keep these good gut bugs around and keep them happy because they strengthen the gut barrier which prevents a leaky gut which causes a lot of inflammation and that leads to a healthier

stronger more more robust immune system why is this important why is is protecting your gut barrier important about 60 to 70% of your immune system is in your gut why because that's where your body comes into contact with a lot of foreign stuff and your immune system is supposed to help you identify and fight off Foreign stuff like bugs or weird proteins or food proteins things that leak into your system the more polyphenols you consume the stronger and more resilient your immune system and and many Studies have shown that there's an inverse relationship between viral

infection and polyphenol Rich diets meaning if you're eating a lot of C for fruits and vegetables you're less likely to get a virus and get sick from it not bad just from eating a bunch of good food now let's talk about a few foods that you can start including in your diet that will help protect you against the cold and flu foods and Foods uh that contain these compounds the first is a category of compounds called kakin kakin are powerful polyphenols that are found in green tea and that have shown to have significant benefit to

reduce the incidence of influenza and the common cold symptoms now cakin are also abundant in dark chocolate um apples a gooseberry Beres grape seeds kiwi strawberries red wine Al I wouldn't use that beer also I wouldn't use that chocolate cocoa all that is is a source of some of these cakin although green tea is one of the highest sources and they have a lot of benefits right these cakin are anti-cancer compounds they fight obesity they're anti-diabetic compounds they're anti-inflammatory they're detoxifying compounds they're antiviral and they have a role in preventing coals and flu and that's

really important in fact uh research shows that that regular consumption of green tea cakin either by drinking green tea or taking it as a supplement or gargling with green tea I never done that but sounds interesting and that's been linked to a decrease in in the flu so just just drinking green tea or taking green tea supplements or just gargling with it lowers your risk of getting the flu that's great I I by the way I never get the flu shot from many reasons but I I think if your immune system's healthy and your vitamin

D levels are up and you're eating a healthy diet you're you're really not going to get the flu or it's going to be very mild obviously if you're chronically ill you're sick or some other reason you might need a flu vaccine that's fine but for most of us I think it's it's Overkill and then basically when you drink green tea it's been linked to a reduced uh incidence of influenza infection and cold symptoms so when you're looking to beat that seasonal cold just have a cup of green tea or better yet have a piece of

dark chocolate that's my favorite uh now these These are great and delicious source of cakin and they're simple and effective ways to support your immune system another really important polyphenol is called coratin now you've probably heard me talk about this in in longevity talks I've done or in podcasts it's really important it's it's very high in Himalayan tarty buckwheat which I love I use Himalayan tar buckwheat Sprout powder every day you can get it from big bold health and it's it's a very potent uh flavonoid and has remarkable antiviral properties uh and it gained a

lot of attention recently for being effective against in infections like covid-19 and it's found in a variety of Whole Foods including apples berries brasas like the broccoli family Capers grapes onions shallots green tea cranberries blueberries dark cherries olive oil Parsley Sage and even honey so all these uh contain coratin some in higher amounts than others but I think the highest source is Himalayan Tarter buckwheat and you can use it as capsules as Sprout powder as flour you can make grae buckwheat pancakes in fact there's a recipe in my book Young Forever The Young Forever cookbook

uh using Himalayan tardy buckwheat as a way to get uh delicious Sprout powder now you can also take it as a supplement as I mentioned uh and my favorite is htb rejuvenate from Big both Health just make sure you're getting a good source of it uh I think that's really my favorite Source because it has lots of other phytochemicals too and other polyphenols now we're going to talk about more about this in a little bit but cortin is known well for it's it's antiviral anti-inflammatory anti-cancer and antioxidant properties uh and it's been studied extensively for

this and even was actually studied in a trial to reverse biological age and was effective in just reversing biological age now the most notable example of this antiviral effect is covid-19 it was making headlines throughout the pandemic for its strong antiviral properties it exhibits these antiviral activity by doing a few things it blocks the virus's entry into your cells it inhibits uh viral enzyme activity so it can't do what it's supposed to do it reduces the viral load the overall load of the virus which relates to how severely ill you are and it reduces inflammation

and there's lots of research to support this a smallscale randomized control trial which is the highest level of evidence found that 500 milligrams of course tend three times a week for one week followed by 500 milligrams two times a day for another week and those who tested positive for covid-19 led to a whole bunch of benefits like improved inflammatory B markers and faster clearance of the co virus in the coron group 68% tested negative at one week versus 24% in the control group 54% had earlier resolution of acute symptoms at one week versus 24% in

the control that's very impressive another clinical trial with about 152 covid-19 patients found that cors in supplementation about a th000 milligrams a day for a month led to reduced hospitalization rate which is amazing shorter length of hospital stays decreased need for noninvas of oxygen lower progression to intensive care so you basically prevented you from going to intensive care and reduce death now now just think about this for a moment folks there's no good drugs that can do this the vaccine may help with this although there are a lot of issues the vaccine but think about

these benefits from taking a simple harmless nutritional supplement or including foods with how have this in them every single day it's really that effective these these are not trivial effects these are really powerful effects Rootin is another polyphenol it's the third polyphenol I want to talk about it's a Powerhouse polyphenol found in a whole bunch of fruits and vegetables like apple peels black tea asparagus buckwheat and I particular like the Himalayan Tarter buckweed I mentioned it's probably the highest source of of Rootin onions green tea figs uh uh most citrus fruits like grapefruit lemon limes

apples cranberries and as I mentioned this Himalayan ttery buckwheat is a polyphenol super food is uniquely rich in cortin and routin and it's known for its immune Rejuvenation properties which strengthens immunity it boosts your cellular Health it boosts your energy your focus and your Clarity in fact uh exciting new research from my mentor Dr Jeffrey Bland and his friends at Big Bolt Health show that it can even help lower the age of your immune cells so it's basically reverses your immunological age which is important because that's how we age as through inflammation now rutin has

anti-inflammatory properties anti-carcinogenic properties it's neuroprotective cardioprotective it has antifungal properties and antiviral properties all that makes it extremely effective and versatile is supporting overall Health and Longevity it's based on immune resilience these are really amazing compounds that you can get as part of your diet and that will help you now there's a whole other class called flavonoids uh and many other polyphenols in this class exhibit immune supporting properties and also have antiviral benefits now there's a big class of these polyphenols called flavonoids there are subclasses of these called flavonols isoflavones flavonones flavanol anthocyanins uh which

are just a few examples now flavonoids have been shown to exhibit direct antiviral effects against respiratory viruses including influenza rhinovirus which is also known as the common cold and SARS K2 or covid-19 now they enhance immune function by increasing the circulation and the activity of your immune cells particularly antibodies and white blood cells pretty darn good right and and these are these are really important and they're found in a lot of foods you can eat uh they also reduce the expression of we call pro-inflammatory cyto cyto kindes are the immune messenger chemicals and they work

together with our gut microbes to enhance protection against infection uh one amazing source of flavonoids is propolis propolis or propolis or propolis however you say it it's a natural resin complex it's made by honeybees with immune supporting properties it's antiviral antibacterial and anti-inflammatory it's basically what the hive uses to protect itself now you can take propolis as a supplement as a liquid extract or it's a nasal spray uh beekeeper natural makes a great throat spray with with propolis it's really awesome for daily immune support now there's other foods that belong to flavonoids include um blueberries

strawberries blackberries also apples pears lettuce tomatoes kale soybeans citrus fruits and the list goes on all right well let's talk about citrus fruits because they're also great in all sorts of properties they're great in in terms of their antioxidant properties they have high levels of obvious C and flavonoids and that helps protect your cell from oxid of stress now something to keep in mind is that the bioavailability of these flavonoids from fresh citrus fruits is up to two times higher than frozen fruit so ALS so the longer the fruit travels to get you the more

nutrients it loses so basically you want to eat the lemon lime orange or gr grape fruit right off the tree if you can or basically in season and not stored for weeks or months in warehouses industrial farming practices and processing really reduces the nutrient content and the polyphenol content really significantly and that's why it's important to eat seasonal local fresh fruits and veggies Farmers Market is a great place to find these in the summertime I love the farmers market I pretty much only shop at the farmers market when I can in the summer H now

you can purchase Frozen fruits because they are actually flash frozen at their Peak ripeness which is you know great and uh actually contains more phytochemicals than typically which you get sitting on a shelf in a grocery store now studies show that when picked at Peak ripeness uh in their flash frozen immediately they actually retain more polyphenols and vitamin C than just regular stuff you can get that's not frozen in addition to obviously the flavonoids and the Citrus fuits they're also high as I mentioned in vitamin C now vitamin C supports the immune system by stimulating

the production of white blood cells which are really important for fighting infections it also enhances the function of something called fago sites these are cells that kind of engulf the bad bacteria and the viruses and that's why many studies suggest that vitamin C can reduce the severity and the duration of common colds sort of what Linus Pauling kind of came up with near the end of his life he was ridiculed for it but actually right he was really The Godfather of functional medicine he wrote the first paper in science uh Journal uh in 1969 called

orthomolecular Psychiatry about using nutrients to correct psychi psychiatric disorders and now we have Departments of nutritional Psychiatry you know I don't know how many years 50 years later in major academic medical schools the combination of vitamin C and polyphenols in citrus fruits provides a synergistic effect in supporting immune function things like oranges grapefruit also so strawberries blackberries red peppers b um broccoli brussels sprouts kiwis also great whole food sources of vitamin C that you can put in your diet also you can take Vitamin C right you can just take Vitamin C every day during cold

and flu season or when you get your symptoms hopefully you don't get symptoms if you follow what I'm was telling you but really important to help you prevent uh illness I like the pure encapsulations ascorbic acid or liposomal vitamin C for more rapid absorption you can find in my online store on drhyman.com you can see the link in the show Nots as well also you want to eat your medicine folks uh you really want to eat your medicine and I don't say this metaphorically as I as I talk about food but I want you to

understand that food is the most powerful uh biological response modifier that you interact with every day it signals your biochemistry to do all sorts of things and the nutrients in it play a huge role in your biology so you need to eat medicine another way to get H medicine and food is uh zinc zinc is really important for immune function it's another food first way to get your medicine uh and get lots of foods that get zinc in them H it's essential mineral that supports immune system and it fights off viral infection it helps stop

viral replication or you know viruses uh you know just kind of breeding I guess you call it uh some studies suggest it actually even helps reduce the duration and the severity of cold symptoms so where do you get those well grass-fed meat pumpkin seeds are a great source oysters cashews almonds salmon sardines are great food sources you can take them in different forms as a supplement lozes gels capsules or sprays all that's really important so that's hack one hack one was all the polyphenols and nutrients that you can use to help reduce your risk of

getting sick during cold and flu season all right as we wrap up today's episode I hope you're inspired to take full advantage of the incredible benefits that polyphenols offer by incorporating these polyphenol rich foods in your daily routine like green tea dark chocolate not so hard and a variety of colorful fruits and veggies you're giving your body the tools and needs to stay strong and resilient and protected against illness remember it's not just about eating for Taste although that's a great bonus but also eating with intention to nourish your body and support your health in

the long run but here's a little fun fact food that naturally tastes good right a summer Peach that's so ripe and Juicy and Delicious a strawberry picked right off a summer Vine a a tomato cherry tomato ripe right off the the August uh tomato Vines these are so flavorful you don't need anything on them to just create an explosion of flavor and why do they have that flavor it's because they are full of phytochemicals so actually taste follows phytochemical richness this is a major take-home and when a food food tastes Bland it's cuz it's got

no phyto chemicals in it now these small conscious choices make a huge difference and impact on your overw wellbeing help you live longer better and don't forget to rate review and follow the Doctor's Pharmacy and health bites wherever you get your podcast stay healthy stay informed and I'll see you next Friday for another episode of Health bites if you love that last video you're going to love the next one check it out here [Music]