Immune System: Recovering Faster with Nutrition

Next Level Podcast with Host Tavis Piattoly, MS, RD, LD

Podcast Transcript

0:14  Welcome by Tavis Piattoly

1:28  Growth of My Sports Dietitian  

2:48  A look ahead at future podcasts 

• Pre-Workout Supplements: Good, Bad and Ugly

• Donald Hooton Jr. from Taylor Hooton Foundation

4:42  Intro by Tavis Piattoly

5:13  What is the Immune System

• A complex system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease or infection.

5:40  What are factors that impair our immune system

• Germs, bacteria, pollution, smoking
• Diet and exercise
• Psychological stress
• Age; the very young and old have weakened immune systems
• We are all exposed to a lot of this stuff, and don’t even realize it.

7:41  What is the relationship between the immune system and athletes?

• Inflammation
• The first response of the immune system is to infection.
• Symptoms of Inflammation include:
• heat, redness, swelling and pain 
• Usually caused by increased blood flow into the tissue due to:
• Overtraining or excessive exercise
• Poor recovery
• Poor food choices
• Lack of nutrient timing
• Overtraining or excessive exercise
• The immune system is weakened by too much exercise
• Volume, frequency and intensity of exercise
• Can lead to overtraining syndrome - too much training for events or competitions, exercising for long periods of time with very little rest and recovery leads to the body slowly shutting down.  
• Signs and symptoms of overtraining syndrome:
• Feel washed out, tired, drained
• Low energy that doesn’t improve the next day
• Aches and pains, soreness in lower body
• Muscles and joints hurt
• Performance starts to drop
• Irregular sleep patterns
• Headaches
• Irritable mood
• Sick more often
• Depression
• Appetite decreases
• How to determine if you’re overtrained?
• Measure your resting heart rate in the morning
• Record heart rate in BPM in timed intervals
• If it is 10-15 heartbeats above normal, you may be overtrained.
• Lack of sleep
• Need 7-8 hours a night
• Why sleep is important:
• Stress hormones (cortisol) in the body remain elevated with chronic lack of sleep.
• Muscles, joints and immune system recover while asleep
• You feel better!

13:22  How can diet play a role at protecting our immune system

Proper nutrition will reduce the chance of illness and plays a key role in recovery.

• Causes of a weakened immune system:
• Alcohol Intake: limit or keep to a minimum
• Destroys the immune system
• Toxic to immune dendritic cells
• Intake makes you more susceptible to infection and disease
• Performance decreases
• Poor recovery 
• Sugar intake
• Acute short term hyperglycemia affects all major components of immunity and impairs the body’s ability to fight infection.
• For athletes, if you like sweet foods or drinks, the best time to consume is right after exercise.
• How to protect the immune system with diet
• Antioxidant rich foods protect cells from damage from free radicals
• Fight infection, help body repair quicker, anti-inflammatory
• Fruits and vegetables
• 5-10 servings per day
• Nuts and seeds
• Key nutrients to fight infection are vitamins C and E, zinc and selenium
• Foods with the highest level of antioxidants per serving:
• All beans and berries are loaded with nutritional value
• Apples, sweet cherries, pecans, plums, prunes, honey, garlic, cabbage, mushrooms, oats, salmon (selenium), spinach, watermelon
• Protein
• Antibodies that fight disease are made of protein
• Good sources of protein: Lean beef and pork, beans, soy products, seafood (zinc), nuts (magnesium)
• Zinc and magnesium both help support a healthy immune system
• How much protein?
• 0.7-0.9g/lb
• If strength training 3-5 days a week = 0.8-0.9g/lb
• Don’t go over 1g/lb (difficult to metabolize)
• 20g post workout is ideal  

26:20  Are there any supplements that can help boost immune system

• 5 supplements that could help
• Glutamine
• Aids recovery from exercise and reduces infection rate.  
• Stress decreases the muscle concentration of glutamine while the immune and gut cells show increased demand for glutamine during times of stress.
• Supplementation of 0.1-0.3g/kg
• Vitamin D
• New research suggests that it boosts immune response
• Blood level of 50 nmol/liter for a healthy immune system
• Quercetin
• Fights inflammation and allergies
• Food sources: apples, onions, red wine
• Glutathione
• What is it?
• A molecule made up of three amino acids: cysteine, glycine and glutamine. 
• The body produces it, but is depleted by poor diet, pollution and toxins, medications, trauma, stress, aging and infections. 
• Food sources: sulfur rich foods are really high in glutathione
• Garlic, onions, broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower and collards 
• Exercise boosts glutathione levels
• N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
• Boosts glutathione levels
• Bioactive whey protein 
•  BiPro protein powder is pure whey protein isolate

38:41  Closing remarks from Tavis

• Focus on foods to protect the body from infection and recover faster from exercise.