Simple Steps to Boost Your COVID-19 Vaccine! | Layla & Sajni

After months and months of research, researching and testing, the growth of covid vaccinations all around the world are increasing immensely. But in order for us to rely on these vaccines to bring an end to this pandemic, we need to maximise the effectiveness of them.

One thing that sticks out to scientists after research is that the one thing that risks undermining the proactive nature of the vaccine is the person having a nutritional deficiency, especially in the older generations. This is mainly due to the fact that older people have weaker immune responses and are known to respond less well than younger people to vaccinations in general, including the seasonal influenza vaccine. Although this is down to physical reasons that we cannot control e.g. frailty, there are also other factors e.g having a deficiency in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

Whilst we cannot change our age, there are psychological and behavioural changes we make in order to improve the effectiveness of our vaccines. The first is trying not to stress too much. Stress impacts the immune system in a number of ways- during stressful periods, your body releases the hormones adrenaline and cortisol which play a role in our fight-or-flight response. These include increasing our heart rate and suppressing our digestive and immune systems. Contracting Covid-19 puts you in a life threatening situation- there is no point diverting resources to digesting food when you are fighting for your life. After the threat has passed, other mechanisms are activated in order to restore balance in your body. If you are overloaded with stress, your body is overexposed to these chemicals and immune cells are unable to respond normally. This means recurrent stressful periods means we are more vulnerable to infection and may experience low-level inflammation that can lead to the destruction of healthy tissue. Stress can also have an indirect impact on your immune system if you resort to using harmful coping methods like smoking or drinking more, restlessness or eating more unhealthy foods.

Another thing you can do is to power up the immune system by eating more micronutrients When the immune system isn’t properly fuelled and is impaired, this can then lead to poor vaccine responses. For example, a review of nine studies – together involving 2,367 people – found that individuals deficient in vitamin D were less well protected against two strains of flu after having been vaccinated compared to those who had adequate vitamin D levels. It has also been found that having more micronutrients increases the amount of antibodies produced following the vaccination.

Trials in older people have also shown that responses to the covid vaccination are better after actions are taken to improve nutrition.One study found that people aged 65 to 85 who ate five or more servings of fruit and vegetables per day showed a significantly stronger response to a pneumococcal vaccine than people of the same age who ate only two servings of fruit and vegetables or fewer.

Finally, although it seems obvious, it is important that you get a good night's sleep before your vaccination appointment. We hope that you will be able to implement these tips into your daily lives in order to improve the effectiveness of your vaccine!

References:

New Scientist February 2021 Edition

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(21)00126-0/fulltext