Vitamin D and Zinc: 4 Ways It Boosts Your Immunity

  • By Performance Lab
  • 8 minute read
Vitamin D and Zinc: 4 Ways It Boosts Your Immunity

Most people don’t give a second thought to supporting their immune system until they’re grabbing tissues to blow away a stuffy nose. But the immune system is quite possibly one of the most important systems you can support.

It’s your front-line defense against pathogens, but it also plays a role in regulating several other functions in your body. An underactive immune system can lead to frequent colds and infections, while an overactive immune system can lead to autoimmunity.

Regarding immune function, it’s all about striking a balance—and that’s done mainly through diet and lifestyle choices.

Right now, we’re talking about two of the biggest names in immune health—vitamin D and zinc. They’re key players in maintaining optimal immune function, and we are giving you a rundown of why you need them and how you can best support immune health.

Basics Of The Immune System

The immune system is your bodyguard against invading pathogens that can cause illness or disrupt homeostasis. While the immune system is perhaps one of the most complex systems in the body, we’re going to break it down to just the basics.

The immune system is composed of a handful of parts that all work synergistically to keep your body healthy. We’re talking about white blood cells (lymphocytes), antibodies, the complement system, the lymphatic system, the thymus, spleen, and bone marrow. All of these components actively work together to fight infections and maintain health.

The skin, cornea (eyes), and mucosa of the respiratory, GI, and genitourinary tracts form physical barriers that prevent pathogens from entering the body. But some of these barriers also play an active role in immunity.

However, when a pathogen breaches any of these barriers, it results in two types of immune responses 1:

  1. Innate
  2. Adaptive (acquired)

Many components of the immune system are involved in both the innate and acquired immune responses. Let’s break these down further.

Innate Immunity

Innate (natural) immunity is your first line of defense; it does not require previous exposure to a pathogen to be activated. As such, it produces an immediate response when an antigen is detected.

Cells that comprise the innate immune system include:

  • Phagocytic cells (monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils): Engulf and destroy antigens
  • Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, monocytes, macrophages, mast cells): Release inflammatory mediators
  • Lymphoid cells (natural killer (NK) cells): Kill cells infected by viruses and some tumor cells

Adaptive Immunity

The acquired (adaptive) immune response requires previous exposure to an antigen to be fully effective. Compared to the innate immune response, acquired immunity takes time to develop but is quick upon subsequent exposures.

In simple terms, the adaptive immune system encounters an antigen, remembers it, and mounts an immune response when re-encountered. Unlike the innate system, it is antigen-specific.

Adaptive immune components include:

  • T-cells (T-lymphocytes)
  • B-cells (B-lymphocytes)

Acquired immunity encompasses:

  • Humoral immunity: Derived from B-cell responses
  • Cell-mediated immunity: Derived from specific T-cell responses

When an invading pathogen enters the body, B cells and T cells work together to destroy it.

Vitamin D And Zinc In Immunity

In order for the immune system to run optimally and protect the body, it requires a special cocktail of nutrients. Vitamin C is the nutrient we hear about most often, but two super nutrients are non-negotiable for immune health: zinc and vitamin D.

Here’s why.

Supports Innate And Adaptive Responses

If you want your immune system to keep you protected, you need to ensure both the innate and adaptive components work efficiently and effectively. Zinc and vitamin D work together to strengthen these responses.

Zinc is required for normal development and function of cells involved in nonspecific immunity, such as neutrophils and natural killer cells.

A deficiency of zinc can impair adaptive immune responses by preventing outgrowth and certain functions of T lymphocytes 2. On top of that, vitamin D also plays critical roles in regulating the responses of B and T cells, especially in the case of autoimmunity 3.

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Fight Autoimmunity

A deficiency of vitamin D has been linked to an increased risk of autoimmune disorders like MS, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and diabetes 3.

A recent study sought to investigate the effects of vitamin D and omega-3 supplementation on autoimmune disease risk and found that compared to the placebo, participants taking vitamin D supplements (with or without omega-3s) reduced AI disease risk by a whopping 22% 4.

Reduces Cold Duration

If you happen to catch a cold, zinc can help to reduce the duration of it. On top of boosting immune function in general, studies have found that taking zinc can reduce the length of the common cold in healthy people if taken within 24 hours of symptom onset 5. As well, if you’re taking zinc and do happen to catch a cold, your symptoms are also less likely to persist over seven days.

Reduces Inflammation

Inflammation is a normal component of an immune response against an invading pathogen. Inflammatory cells and cytokines are released upon immune system activation to trap bacteria and other offenders, or initiated to start the process of healing.

Under normal circumstances, the immune system does its job and the inflammatory cascade subsides, but when it becomes pathological, it can lead to development of inflammatory-based diseases. There’s a large body of research suggesting that both zinc and vitamin D play important roles in inflammation.

Vitamin D plays a key role in regulating the production of inflammatory cytokines and inhibiting the proliferation of pro-inflammatory cells, while a zinc deficiency has been associated with significant increases pro-inflammatory cytokines 6, 7.

Studies suggest an inverse relationship between circulating levels of vitamin D3 and various inflammatory markers such as CRP and interleukin (IL)-6. Zinc is also heavily involved in modulating pro-inflammatory responses via targeting nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), a transcription factor that is a key regulator of pro-inflammatory responses 8.

5 Tips For Boosting Your Immunity

So, how else can you support your immune system? Try these five tips!

1. Eat A Rainbow Of Food

Brightly colored foods are loaded with phytonutrients that support optimal immune function. A 2021 review of 87 articles looked at the effect of 24 phytonutrients and nutrients on immune function 9.

Some of these included acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR), beta-glucans, coenzyme Q10, curcumin (turmeric), frankincense, garlic, ginger, isoflavones, lipoic acid, N-acetyl cysteine, omega-3 fatty acids, resveratrol, selenium, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), vitamin E (d-alpha- and gamma-tocopherol), and zinc.

They found that many of these nutrients exhibit immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties that regulate nuclear factor-Kappa B, tumor necrosis factor-a, interferon-g, interleukin-6, and CD4+ T cells, among others. Together, phytonutrients and nutrients play a significant role in modulating immune function and reducing inflammation.

2. Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important factors involved in maintaining health and well-being, and it’s an easy way to boost your immune system.

Sleep deprivation has been linked to various adverse health outcomes, along with an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke 10.

During sleep, specific components of the immune system are upregulated. Specifically, we see an increased production of cytokines linked to inflammation, and while an injury doesn’t trigger this type of inflammation, the cells and cytokines involved in this response help to strengthen the adaptive immune system 11.

But sufficient sleep is also required for strengthening immunological memory, which plays a role in reinforcing the immune system’s ability to remember how to recognize and react to pathogens.

3. Manage Your Stress

Stress is a biggie for your immune system. Acute stress can be beneficial for the body and actually strengthens immune responses, but when the stress response doesn’t subside, it can cause chronic low-grade inflammation that makes your body less effective at responding to pathogens or stressors.

That’s because stress is linked to inflammation, and chronic inflammation leads to dysregulation of immune function and increases the risk of chronic diseases 12.

To avoid having stress alter your immune function, implement stress management techniques like deep breathing, meditation, gratitude journaling, earthing, or walking in nature.

4. Move Daily

Exercise is a great way to stimulate immune function. Moderate-intensity exercise can strengthen and improve immune responses to vaccinations, reduce low-grade chronic inflammation, and improve various immune markers in several diseases 13. However, there’s a fine line between enough and too much exercise.

If you fall on either end of the spectrum, it can suppress immune function, in part due to increases in circulating levels of stress hormones that inhibit various aspects of the immune system.

There is a period of transient immune dysfunction after heavy exertion that results in physiological, metabolic, and psychological stress that are associated with immune dysfunction, inflammation, oxidative stress, and muscle damage 14.

On the other end, lack of physical activity can result in adipose tissue accumulation and muscle dysfunction, which can have nasty side effects for both your innate and adaptive immunity 15.

Inactivity tends to increase systemic inflammation (increased levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, CRP), impair natural killer cell cytolytic activity, and reduce T-cell proliferation and cytokine production, all of which affect your ability to fend off pathogens.

5. Support With Supplements

When it doubt, supplement it out. While we don’t advocate for replacing a good diet with supplements, they can be a great crutch to bolster a clean, balanced diet.

There are two supplements in which we stand behind to supercharge your immune system: PL-Immune™ and Performance Lab® NutriGenesis Multi®.

  • PL-Immune™ is an ultramodern dynamic immune support supplement built to support even the toughest and most complex immune challenges. It’s a probiotic and antioxidant super-stack that activates multiple types of immune cells. Restoring fast, frontline defenses and supporting your natural immune function for robust long-range health.
  • Performance Lab® NutriGenesis Multi® is an innovative multivitamin designed for active individuals. It helps restore nutrients that may be missing from the diet to support healthy cell performance across all body systems. NutriGenesis® is ultramodern nutrition technology unique to Performance Lab® that supplies vitamins and minerals bioengineered with cofactors that boost absorption and maximize benefits. In NutriGenesis® Multi, you’re getting 100%+ DV of 17+ essentials all encapsulated in NutriCaps®—Prebiotic-infused and vegan-friendly capsules for digestive comfort and peace of mind.

References

  1. Chaplin DD. Overview of the immune response. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010;125(2 Suppl 2):S3-S23.
  2. Shankar AH, Prasad AS. Zinc and immune function: the biological basis of altered resistance to infection. Am J Clin Nutr. 1998;68(2 Suppl):447S-463S.
  3. Aranow C. Vitamin D and the immune system. J Investig Med. 2011;59(6):881-886.
  4. Hahn J, Cook NR, Alexander EK, et al. Vitamin D and marine omega 3 fatty acid supplementation and incident autoimmune disease: VITAL randomized controlled trial. BMJ. 2022;376:e066452.
  5. Singh M, Das RR. WITHDRAWN: Zinc for the common cold. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;2015(4):CD001364.
  6. Yin K, Agrawal DK. Vitamin D and inflammatory diseases. J Inflamm Res. 2014;7:69-87.
  7. Foster M, Samman S. Zinc and regulation of inflammatory cytokines: implications for cardiometabolic disease. Nutrients. 2012;4(7):676-694.
  8. Gammoh NZ, Rink L. Zinc in Infection and Inflammation. Nutrients. 2017;9(6):624.
  9. Poles J, Karhu E, McGill M, McDaniel HR, Lewis JE. The effects of twenty-four nutrients and phytonutrients on immune system function and inflammation: A narrative review. J Clin Transl Res. 2021;7(3):333-376.
  10. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research; Colten HR, Altevogt BM, editors. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 3, Extent and Health Consequences of Chronic Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19961/
  11. Irwin Sleep and inflammation: partners in sickness and in health. Nat Rev Immunol. 2019;19(11):702-715.
  12. N Morey, IA Boggero, AB Scott, SC Segerstrom. Current Directions in Stress and Human Immune Function.Curr Opin Psychol. 2015;5:13-17.
  13. Simpson RJ, Campbell JP, Gleeson M, et al. Can exercise affect immune function to increase susceptibility to infection?.Exerc Immunol Rev. 2020;26:8-22.
  14. Nieman DC, Wentz The compelling link between physical activity and the body’s defense system. J Sport Health Sci. 2019;8(3):201-217.
  15. Damiot A, Pinto AJ, Turner JE, Gualano Immunological Implications of Physical Inactivity among Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Gerontology. 2020;66(5):431-438.

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