All Videos for Immune Function

What Does a Low White Blood Cell Count Mean?

Since white blood cell count is a sign of systemic inflammation, it’s no surprise that those with lower white blood cell counts live longer.



Microbiome: We Are What They Eat

What happens to our gut flora when we switch from a more animal-based diet to a more plant-based diet?



How Much Should You Exercise?

Physical fitness authorities seem to have fallen into the same trap as the nutrition authorities, recommending what they think may be achievable, rather than simply informing us what the science says and letting us make up our own mind.



Best Food to Counter the Effects of Air Pollution

There is a food that offers the best of both worlds—significantly improving our ability to detox carcinogens like diesel fumes and decreasing inflammation in our airways—all while improving our respiratory defenses against infections.



Are the BPA-Free Alternatives Safe?

Do BPA-free plastics, such as Tritan, have human hormone-disrupting effects? And what about BPS and BPF?



How to Boost Your Immune System with Wakame Seaweed

Eating seaweed salad may boost the efficacy of vaccinations and help treat cold sores, herpes, Epstein-Barr virus, and shingles.



Benefits of Green Tea for Boosting Antiviral Immune Function

Unlike most antiviral drugs, green tea appears to work by boosting the immune system to combat diseases such as genital warts (caused by HPV) and the flu (caused by the influenza virus).



Does Paratuberculosis in Meat Trigger Type 1 Diabetes?

The majority of specialists in the field agreed that paraTB in meat and dairy likely represents a risk to human health and should be a high- or medium-priority public health issue.



Is Obesity Infectious?

Given the role our gut bacteria can play in affecting our weight, having family and friends who are obese may not just be socially contagious, but actually contagious.



Vitamin D for Asthma

Vitamin D supplements are put to the test in childhood asthma.



Does Bovine Insulin in Milk Trigger Type 1 Diabetes?

Is it the casein or the cow insulin that explains the link between milk consumption and the development of type I diabetes?



Does Casein in Milk Trigger Type 1 Diabetes?

Why might exposure to bovine proteins increase the risk of childhood-onset autoimmune type 1 diabetes?



HOW NOT TO DIE: The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, & Reversing Our Top 15 Killers

In this “best-of” compilation of his last four year-in-review presentations, Dr. Greger explains what we can do about the #1 cause of death and disability: our diet.



Do Vitamin D Supplements Help with Diabetes, Weight Loss, and Blood Pressure?

Those with higher vitamin D levels tend to have lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, but is it cause and effect? Interventional trials finally put vitamin D to the test.



Striking with the Root: Turmeric Curcumin and Ulcerative Colitis

A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial found a dramatic effect of the anti-inflammatory spice pigment curcumin against inflammatory bowel disease.



Are Happier People Actually Healthier?

The burgeoning field of positive psychology is based on the understanding that mental health is not just about the absence of disease.



Using the Produce Aisle to Boost Immune Function

Vegetables tested head-to-head to see which boosts immune function best.



How to Counter the Inflammation of Aging

What can we eat to combat “inflamm-aging,” the chronic low-grade inflammation that accompanies the aging process?



Vitamin C Supplements for Terminal Cancer Patients

If studies from the 1970s showed cancer patients treated with vitamin C lived 4 times longer and sometimes even 20 times longer, why isn’t it standard practice today?



Preserving Athlete Immunity with Chlorella

The green algae, chlorella, may help attenuate the drop in immune function antibodies associated with over-strenuous exercise.



Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Depression

If depression can be induced with pro-inflammatory drugs, might an anti-inflammatory diet be effective in preventing and treating mood disorders?



Prebiotics: Tending Our Inner Garden

Why does our immune system confuse unhealthy diets with dysbiosis—an overrun of bad bacteria in our colon?



Laughter as Medicine

What effects do laughing, crying, kissing, cuddling, and sex have on immune function and allergic responses?



Kiwifruit for the Common Cold

Compared to bananas, does eating kiwifruit decrease the incidence and severity of upper respiratory tract infections?



Is a Neutropenic Diet Necessary for Cancer Patients?

Immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, are often denied fresh fruits and vegetables to ostensibly protect them against foodborne illness.



How Many Glasses of Water Should We Drink a Day?

Based on the potential benefits of proper hydration such as reduced bladder cancer risk, how many cups of water should we strive to drink every day?



Why Do Plant-Based Diets Help Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Rheumatoid arthritis may be triggered by autoimmune friendly fire against a urinary tract infection bacteria called Proteus mirabilis, which could help explain why sufferers randomized to a plant-based diet experience such remarkable benefit.



Nutritional Yeast to Prevent the Common Cold

Beta glucan fiber in nutritional yeast may improve immune function, but there is a concern about lead contamination in some brands.



Gluten-Free Diets: Separating the Wheat from the Chat

How common is gluten sensitivity? Are there benefits of gluten? Why does the medical profession explicitly advise against people who suspect they might be gluten intolerant from just going on a gluten-free diet?



Treating Hepatitis C with Chlorella

Improvements in natural killer cell immune function may explain both the anti-cancer benefits of exercise as well as the apparent anti-virus effects of the green algae chlorella.



Alpha-Gal and the Lone Star Tick

Our immune response against a foreign molecule present in animal products may play a role in some allergic, autoimmune, and inflammatory disorders. This reaction is thought to underlie tick bite-triggered meat allergies.



Preventing Asthma with Fruits and Vegetables

A study involving more than a million kids suggests the striking worldwide variation in childhood rates of allergies, asthma, and eczema is related to diet.



California Children Are Contaminated

The levels of arsenic, banned pesticides, and dioxins exceeded cancer benchmarks in each of the 364 children tested. Which foods were the primary sources of toxic pollutants for preschoolers and their parents?



Phytates for Rehabilitating Cancer Cells

Unlike most other anticancer agents, the phytates naturally found in whole plant foods may trigger cancer cell differentiation, causing them to revert back to behaving more like normal cells.



Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies

The dramatic rise of allergic diseases such as eczema and seasonal allergies may be related to dietary exposure to endocrine-disruptor xenoestrogens, such as alkylphenol industrial pollutants.



Turmeric Curcumin and Osteoarthritis

The yellow pigment curcumin in the spice turmeric may work as well as, or better than, anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.



Turmeric Curcumin and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Randomized controlled trial comparing the safety and efficacy of drugs versus curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric, for the treatment of autoimmune inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis.



Boosting Natural Killer Cell Activity

Blueberry consumption may double the population of our cancer-fighting immune cells, and the spices cardamom and black pepper may boost their activity.



Minimum “Recommended Daily Allowance” of Antioxidants

How many antioxidant-rich foods do we need to eat every day just to stay out of oxidative debt?



Counteracting the Effects of Dioxins Through Diet

Phytonutrients in certain plant foods may block the toxic effects of industrial pollutants, like dioxins, through the Ah receptor system.