Supplements to maintain a better immune system |
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Dayo Audi - Sports Performance Nutrition |
Adequate recovery requires a strong immune system, which protects your body from trauma, keeps it healthy and enhances its ability to maintain an anabolic state. When dieting, your body is usually expending more calories than it expends. It is therefore in a potentially weakened state and more susceptible to illness and injury. With this is mind, the nutritional strategy you adopt can help prevent this from occuring. Protein and Glutamine plays a monumental role, as well as sufficient calorific intake from carbohydrate and fats of course. However, there are macro-nutrients that feed the immune system and should be considered essential for either building or maintaining your recovery capabilities. It may seem contradictory that effective weight training can wreak havoc with your immune system at the same time that it's encouraging your body to add muscle mass. Training is a stress that tears down your body, your body the grows as it recovers and repairs itself from that stress, rather than growing from the stress itself. Your body grows, in part, through the help of a strong and effective immune system. Many bodybuilders grow like weeds because their systems are inherently healthy and effective; others who have trouble adding muscle mass may suffer from suppressed immunity, sometimes without acknowledging any obvious symptoms. By regularly including the foods and supplements listed below, you can dramatically improve your immune system and build and then maintain this important factor in your quest to add muscle. Remember what I have said before, diet is 50%, training is 30% and how you recover is the final 20% of your success.
Vitamin C Vitamin C is a strong antioxidant, neutralising free radicals so they can't crush the immune system. This vitamin, taken with a post-training meal, can also lower cortisol levels, the stress hormone released with hard training. When cortisol is left unchecked and allowed to increase, the immune system maybe weakened, which compromises your ability to recover fully from the stresses from training. Try 1-2 g of vitamin C with after-training meals. Echinacea Echinacea contains a natural antimicrobial to fight bacteria and viruses we come in contact with on a daily basis, and it can boost three of the immune system's workhorses — T-cells, interferon and natural killer cells. Combined, these three protect the immune system, thus facilitating muscle recovery, whereas a system that's under stress has to waste valuable energy fighting common everyday bacteria and viruses. Approximately 250-500 milligrams (mg) should be taken twice per day to help prevent colds and as an immunity booster. For treatment of cold or flu-like symptoms once they are occurring, take 250-500 mg two to four times per day for one to two weeks. Zinc Zinc supplements support the production of testosterone. The muscle-building hormone testosterone is immune-system friendly so an immune system is only as strong as the testosterone levels that support it. If testosterone levels drop, immunity may drop and recovery becomes more difficult. You'll need 10-40 mg of zinc daily, which is often difficult to obtain even from the best-planned bodybuilding nutrition programme. Therefore, you should consider using a zinc supplement, such as ZMA. Grape Seed Extract This ingredient, when combined with arginine, increases blood flow to muscles to enhance a pump. It's also a potent nutrient supporting the immune system. Grape seed extract contains proanthocyanidins. These compounds boost your pump, but they also target free radicals, which, in turn, builds your immune system, leading to better recovery. Grape seed extract also is rich in polyphenols, the compounds in red wine that support good health. Take 50-200 mg per day. Garlic Garlic is rich in antioxidants, including sulphur-containing compounds called allicin. Allicin and other antioxidants fight free-radical production, the by-product of exercise or stress that damages the immune system and impedes recovery. Eating foods with garlic on a daily basis is one of the best things you can do to support your immune system. Garlic can support and even increase testosterone production, which typically falls when an immune system is weak or under attack due to the stress of a cold, a bacterial infection or overtraining. You can eat fresh garlic or take garlic supplements if you prefer. A good dose is 4-10 g of allicin or one clove of garlic per day. Onions Onions share common properties with garlic — they contain allicin. They also contain fructooligosaccharides and quercetin. Fructooligosaccharides help make "good" bacteria in the intestine and colon. It's thought that increasing the production of good bacteria not only raises the absorption of nutrients but also supports the immune system. A digestive system lacking in good bacteria may suffer from inflammation that's catabolic to muscle tissue and stressful to the immune system. Quercetin, an antioxidant, also has an anti-inflammatory effect. Half a raw onion would be sufficient. Selenium Selenium acts as an antioxidant targeting free-radical production. As you should know when free radicals are neutralised, the immune system remains strong, allowing the body to completely recover from workouts. Good food sources include nuts, tuna, sardines, swordfish and turkey. Using a selenium supplement would require 100-400 micrograms per day. Ginger Ginger does many positive things in the body. It helps to destroy bad bacteria in your intestines, it boosts the production of good bacteria, it helps keep blood-sugar levels stable, it encourages protein synthesis and it's thermogenic, meaning it helps you burn stored body fat. It can boost the calories burnt through exercise, allowing you to tap into additional body fat stores and helps you stay or get lean. The standard dose is to take 250 mg of standardised ginger extract (standardised to 5-20% gingerols) two or three times a dayCourtesy of ProMuscleMag.com
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