Boost Your Immune System, Change Your Glycome

As the beginning of 2020 led the world into a new type of concern, the pandemics of COVID-19, we were bombarded with advice on how to keep ourselves safe. All the warnings came in the sense of “wash your hands regularly”, “do not touch your face” (and suddenly we became aware that this is a habit of most of us), social distancing and so on. However, one of the key ways to fight any disease, which seems to have slipped our minds, is making our immune system stronger.

The immune system is one of the most complicated systems in our bodies. It is a complex network, composed of an enormous number of cells, signalling molecules and processes, where all of those come together with a simple goal – to keep us safe from diseases. Major products of our innate immune system are antibodies. There are five types of antibodies in humans, and immunoglobulin G (IgG) is the most abundant one. IgG is a glycoprotein, carrying large glycan structures, contributing to the stability and function of the protein. IgG glycome has been extensively studied and not only have alterations in IgG glycosylation been reported in many diseases, but it is known to also change as we age.

The thing is, the ageing process is not kind to our bodies in many ways, but a rather important one is gradually making our immune system weaker. By ageing, most of us automatically think about our chronological age. We now know that this number is not so accurate in telling us how old we actually are. There has been an increasing need to define our biological age, which led to the emergence of new concepts, such as immune age or GlycanAge. Although we cannot change our chronological age, luckily for us, something can be done about our biological age! Taking small doses of vitamin E, vitamin D, and zinc have been reported as a good way to help boost our immune age. An efficient way to keep our biological age as low as possible, whether it is the immune age or GlycanAge, is simply by exercising and implementing healthy dietary changes.

Real age is not just a number, and your body can be rejuvenated, but only if you choоse to take care of it!