Top 5 Herbs To Nourish Your Immune System
Welcome to the blog! We’ve created this blog to provide an understanding of how fruits, vegetables, and herbs come together to strengthen our bodies. We hope to do this by teaching you all about how the body works in digestible language, and how plants work with it.
With Covid-19 still being a hot topic, and with the emergence of new strands, we figured it would be appropriate to talk about healthy, natural ways to support the immune system. So our objectives for the day are to understand what the immune system is, what weakens it, and how herbs strengthen it.
The Immune System
The immune system is much more than another organ or tissue in our bodies. As the name suggests, our immune responses are conducted by a system, including cells, tissues, and organs (primarily the spleen, tonsils, and lymph nodes) alike. Even still, the immune system’s activity is concentrated through the lymphatic system (Jerne, 1973). This system is the process of creating lymphocytes (which happens rapidly and constantly. There are millions of lymphocytes in your body!), which are the cells responsible for protecting our bodies. Once created lymphocytes move through the blood to major organs and tissues.
Lymphocytes are white blood cells that present themselves as B cells, T cells, or natural killer cells. These types of cells are responsible for identifying and attacking foreign cells that enter our body. These foreign cells are called antigens. Lymphocytes have the ability to scan a cell’s surface to search for antigens, though the lymphocytes don’t expressly recognize the imposing cell as an antigen. Rather, the lymphocyte recognizes that the foreign cell is not “self” or a cell containing the DNA of our bodies.
Note that when lymphocytes lose the ability to distinguish between “self” cells and foreign cells, the immune system either fails to respond to invaders or begins to attack itself. This is referred to as autoimmune disease.
The immune system is also responsible for locating free radicals within the body. Free radicals are atoms or molecules that are more reactive due to their incomplete valence electron shell. Because free radicals are missing only one electron and have an odd number of electrons, they are unstable and reactive (Phaniendra, 2015).
What Weakens the Immune System?
You may have a weak immune system if you experience perpetual fatigue, bloating, constipation, dry skin, colds, and/or inflammation (Rohini, 2021). And a weak immune system can lead to autoimmune disease, delayed growth/development, and blood disorders.
There are a number of factors that contribute to the state of our immune system. As we learned in the last section, the immune system looks to eliminate free radicals. But free radicals are a natural byproduct of many biological reactions within our body. The problem occurs when our body overproduces free radicals as the exaggerated presence of free radicals can overwhelm our lymphocytes. This makes identifying antigens difficult as they collect in the nucleus and cell membrane of cells.
Our external environment and behaviors can contribute to the overproduction of free radicals. Heavily polluted or radiated areas are known to create more free radicals, as are certain drugs like alcohol, tobacco, and many pain relievers (Phaniendra, 2015). Our immune system is also damaged when we are lacking in sleep as lots of energy is required to keep this system alert and reactive.
Internally, our cell mitochondria also produce free radicals. The mitochondria can overproduce if not properly nourished, as it needs ample energy to carry out reactions in full. When we are lacking in proper nutrients, the mitochondria and other select organelles lack the energy needed to minimize byproducts and increase true products within reactions.
How to Strengthen the Immune System
We can help our immune system out by firstly reducing the amount of drugs and radiation we intake. Moreover, we can give our bodies the tools to attack the excess free radicals in our bodies. This assistance can be given through antioxidants. Antioxidants are compounds that constrict oxidation therefore decreasing the production of free radicals and inflammation.
They can be found in vitamins (primarily Vitamin C and E, but also Vitamin A), carotenoids, and phenolics (Bendich, 1993) . And many herbs carry these antioxidants. Note though that ingesting more antioxidants will not completely fix a damaged immune system. In fact, an overconsumption of antioxidants can have negative effects as well, so remember to do everything in moderation. In addition to adding antioxidants to your diet, adding fiber and exercise to your routines can strengthen the immune system.
We encourage you to find plant-based antioxidants as synthetic ones containing butylated hydroxytoluene can lead to an increase in liver damage and cancer cells (Chen, 2015).
Rose Hips
Rose hips is a great herb to collect antioxidants as it has one of the highest concentrations of Vitamin C among fruits and vegetables (Koczka, 2018). This herb also provides vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, D, E, and K, making it well-rounded and nutritious.
Rose hips is also reported to treat digestive disorders with its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cell regenerative properties.
This herb is most commonly ingested as tea, but can also be made into jams, jellies, and syrups. It can also be eaten raw.
Astragalus
Astragalus is an effective herb for strengthening the immune system because it assists enzymes transforming unsaturated lipids in cell membranes into saturated lipids. Lipids make up our cell membranes. When unsaturated, the lipids are not structurally or tightly connected to one another, leaving room for oxidation. This oxidation increases the amount of free radicals produced in the cell membrane. So astragalus takes the preventive measure to saturate lipids before they are oxidized.
This herb also takes offensive measures as it was found to be one of the most precise herbs to identify and attack free radicals throughout the cell (Chen, 2015).
Elderberry
Elderberry is definitely one of the more interesting plants on this list. It can be readily ingested as a berry, but its benefits are most concentrated as an herb and in tea.
This herb contributes to the immune system by supporting our respiratory and cardiovascular systems, meaning it supports our breathing and heart/blood flow (Andrezej, 2015). As we learned earlier, lymphocytes travel through the blood so having a healthy blow implies that the immunity cells can travel to organs more efficiently. In supporting our respiratory system, elderberry combats oxidative stress which is over oxidation within a reaction that leads to an excess of free radicals.
Nettle
This super herb is of course following the trend of being an effective antioxidant. This herb is also responsible for treating ulcers, microbial illnesses because it is a strong reducing agent (reducing amount of oxygen produces; opposite function of oxidizing agent).
Nettle is even more helpful to our immune systems because it has a heavy concentration of iron, an element responsible for catalyzing or speeding up many biochemical reactions within our bodies. Other minerals this herb contains include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus (the element mostly responsible for nettle’s reducing nature), and potassium. All of these minerals strengthen the immune system.
Lemon Grass
Last but not least, we have the herb lemon grass. This herb is another free radical attacker meaning it’s an antioxidant. More specifically though, lemon grass works to reduce the effects of radiation in our bodies as well as implement protective measures against further radiation (Kanatt, 2014). This herb is a natural inhibitor against antigens as well, suggesting that it prevents foreign compounds from interacting normally with our innate cells.
Works Cited
Andrzej Sidor, Anna Gramza-Michałowska, Advanced research on the antioxidant and health benefit of elderberry (Sambucus nigra) in food – a review, Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 18, Part B, 2015, Pages 941-958, ISSN 1756-4646.
Bendich, Adrianne. "Physiological role of antioxidants in the immune system." Journal of dairy science 76.9 (1993): 2789-2794.
Chen, Rui-Zhan, et al. "Extraction, isolation, characterization and antioxidant activity of polysaccharides from Astragalus membranaceus." Industrial Crops and Products 77 (2015): 434-443.
Gülçin, I. “Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, Antiulcer and Analgesic Activities of Nettle (Urtica Dioica L.).” Journal of Ethnopharmacology., vol. 90, no. 2-3, Elsevier, 2004, doi:10.1016/j.jep.2003.09.028.
Jerne, Niels Kaj. "The immune system." Scientific American 229.1 (1973): 52-63.
Kanatt, Sweetie R., S. P. Chawla, and Arun Sharma. "Antioxidant and radio-protective activities of lemon grass and star anise extracts." Food bioscience 6 (2014): 24-30.
Koczka, N. “Total Polyphenol Content and Antioxidant Capacity of Rosehips of Some Rosa Species.” Medicines., vol. 5, no. 3, MDPI AG, 2018, doi:10.3390/medicines5030084.
Phaniendra, A. “Free Radicals: Properties, Sources, Targets, and Their Implication in Various Diseases.” Indian Journal of Clinical Biochemistry., vol. 30, no. 1, Association of Clinical Biochemists of India, 2015, doi:10.1007/s12291-014-0446-0.
Pharmacogn Rev. 2010 Jul-Dec; 4(8): 118–126. doi: 10.4103/0973-7847.70902
Rohini Radhakrishnan, ENT. “What Are the Signs of a Weak Immune System? 13 Ways to Strenghten.” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 3 June 2021,
https://www.medicinenet.com/what_are_the_signs_of_a_weak_immune_system/article.htm.