"Best Food to Prevent Common Childhood Infections"
In 1989, the late Charles Janeway gave a presentation
that was to revolutionize our understanding of the immune system.
He proposed that we must have some
ancient innate first-line-of-defense.
We knew about vaccination for centuries,
how our bodies can learn from past infections,
but he figured that’s not good enough.
Our body must have evolved some way
to recognize foreign invaders the first time they invade.
He proposed that the way our immune cells
discriminate between self and non-self,
our own cells vs. invading microbes,
may arise from pattern recognition receptors;
we’re just born with the ability
to recognize patterns of microbial structure.
For example, there’s a unique component
of fungal cell walls that naturally stimulates our immune system,
called beta-glucan.
Our own cells don't produce it,
but fungal pathogens, like candida, do.
Candida is a type of yeast that can cause
serious blood infections;
so, it’s a good idea our immune system
recognizes it right off the bat.
So, yeah, you could stimulate your immune system
injecting candida into your veins,
but then you also might die.
Luckily for us, non-disease-causing yeasts,
like saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is what baker’s yeast is,
and brewer’s yeast, and nutritional yeast,
also have that same molecular signature, that beta glucan.
So, the drug industry is all excited
about capitalizing on this powerful
immunostimulatory response to develop
new anti-infection, anti-cancer therapies.
Yeah, but does it have to be injected into the vein?
What happens if you just eat some nutritional yeast?
Our digestive tract is our largest point of contact
with the outside world,
more surface area exposed than
our lungs and skin put together.
And so, not surprisingly, most of our immune cells
are concentrated along our intestinal wall.
But, they don’t just stay there.
Once they’re tipped off to what’s happening in the gut,
they can go off to defend other parts of the body.
That’s why you can give an oral cholera vaccine, for example,
and end up with cholera- fighting immune cells
in your salivary glands,
pumping out antibodies into your saliva
to protect against infection.
So, what if we sprinkled some nutritional yeast
on our kids’ popcorn for a snack?
Might that help marshal defenses throughout their bodies?
Adults tend to just get a few colds a year,
but the average schoolchild can come down
with a cold every other month.
And, what can we really do about it?
Modern medicine has little to offer
for run-of-the-mill common colds.
Nevertheless, doctors still commonly prescribe antibiotics,
which can do more harm than good.
Clearly, there is a need for effective,
safe, and inexpensive treatments,
and β-glucan may be just the right solution,
but you don’t know until you put it to the test.
So, researchers performed a randomized,
double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
of about a half teaspoon of nutritional yeast worth of beta-glucan
in children who suffered from repeated respiratory infections.
And, after a month, they found a significant
increase in salivary lysozyme levels compared to control.
Lysozyme is an important protective
immune component of our eyes, nose, and mouth.
But, a larger follow-up study
reported the opposite findings,
an apparent drop in salivary lysozyme levels.
Though the researchers claimed that this was
“accompanied by pronounced improvements
in general physical health,”
no data is given.
The only reason we care about the lysozyme levels, though,
was we were hoping they would result
in fewer infections,
but that had never been directly studied...
until now.
The title kinda gives it away,
but basically a randomized
double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
was performed to see if just a dusting
of nutritional yeast’s worth of beta-glucan a day
could reduce the number of episodes
of common childhood illnesses.
During the 12-week course of the study,
85% of children in the placebo group experienced
one or more episodes of infectious illness.
Here it is graphically.
85% got ill in the sugar pill group,
but just taking like an eighth of a teaspoon
of nutritional yeast’s worth of beta-glucans,
or even just a 16th of a teaspoon’s worth,
appeared to cut illness rates in half.
And, those on the yeast that did come down
with a cold only suffered for about 3 days,
compared to more than 9 days in the placebo group.
The researchers conclude that by giving kids
these yeast beta-glucans,
we could decrease the incidence and severity
of infectious illness during the cold and flu season,
and thereby benefit the parents as well.