Supporting Canada’s Immunity

We’ve long known that a healthy diet with some key nutrients is the foundation of health and can help promote a strong immune system: fruits & vegetables for their phytonutrients, fermented foods, healthy fats, plus vitamin C and zinc, echinacea, garlic and elderberry to help to fight infections as needed.

There’s also a lesser-known nutrient that has amazing anti-viral potential. Canadian scientists are collaborating with Chinese scientists in a massive 1000-subject trial to examine the anti-coronavirus properties of quercetin. Quercetin, found in healthy plant foods, already has proven anti-viral properties as it has been studied with both Ebola and Zika viruses.

Incorporating superfoods into our diets can have significant benefits on our immune system. University of Toronto researchers have been focusing heavily on quercetin along with other herbs that they believe to be highly effective. Licorice and ginseng, both studied for antiviral properties would also be an excellent addition to your daily diet. Ultimately your goal to maintain optimal health is to reduce dietary acid load, a form of stress to the immune system.

Researchers are also focused on susceptibility. Remarkably, the gut microbiome may have influence on viruses that wreak havoc on the respiratory tract. This is one of the reasons why oral (encapsulated) probiotics, for both adults and kids, have been so successful in lowering upper respiratory tract infection rates and associated sick days.

Research has also shown that probiotics can help maintain a healthy mental outlook and support immune health during stressful periods. The last few months have been stressful for all, and we should be doing our best to get more advanced gut health probiotics into our bodies.

Supplements provide the foundation for health, including immunity. And the time is no more important than now.

At Genuine Health, a proudly Canadian company, we have five core values that we live by:

1. What we do matters. We feel so lucky to have the opportunity to change people’s lives every day&mdashby producing science-backed supplements in Canada&mdashand we take that responsibility very seriously.

2. What we put in the bottle matters. We’re passionate about looking at the latest research in nutritional science to drive innovation in our products. And we have an unwavering commitment to only use the most effective ingredients, like hand-picked dulse from the North Atlantic, and Siberian ginseng, standardized to a dose that will actually provide a benefit.

If you’ve ever had a hard time finding your favourite Genuine Health product, it’s because we don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. We produce in smaller batches and always insist on using ingredients that meet our standards&mdashnot ingredients that are easy to find.

3. How we treat the planet matters. Canada is among 6 countries that contain 70% of the world’s remaining wilderness, so we are committed to helping preserve these valuable resources for years to come. What this means to you is that we source the most effective ingredients that we can find closer to home.

4. How we treat people matters. We realize that not everyone has access to nutrition&mdashso we share our supplements with people less fortunate than us so we can all thrive together.

5. Providing you with the latest credible information matters. Nutritional and health science is ever-evolving, and so we make it a priority to provide education on how consumers can achieve optimal health at any time.

The most important thing is that the products we create make a difference in your life, by supporting your immunity, your gut health, and giving your body the energy, it needs to thrive.

By Stewart Brown, Founder, Genuine Health

Sources:

Cross, M.L. Immune-Signalling by Orally-Delivered Probiotic Bacteria: Effects on Common Mucosal Immunoresponses and Protection at Distal Mucosal Sites. International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology. 2004.

Lenoir-Wijnkoop I, et al. Probiotics Reduce Health Care Cost and Societal Impact of Flu-Like Respiratory Tract Infections in the USA: An Economic Modeling Study. Front Pharmacol. 2019 Aug 28;10:980

Shibata M, et al. Potential common factors associated with predisposition to common cold in middle-aged and elderly Japanese: A community-based cross-sectional study. Medicine (Baltimore). 2018 May;97(20):e10729

Wijnkoop, I et al. The Clinical and Economic Impact of Probiotics Consumption on Respiratory Tract Infections: Projections for Canada. PLoS One. 2016; 11(11): e0166232.