Keeping Your Immune System Strong 💪🏼

No matter what you may have heard, you can’t actually BOOST your immune system beyond its capacity. That’s right—no amount of orange juice or elderberry tea will “supercharge” your immune system, despite the internet’s assurances.  

The best approach isn’t “boosting” your immune system, but figuring out what you can do to make sure it’s operating at full strength when you need it most. 

So...how do you do that? 

How to Support Your Immune System

Authorities like Harvard Health offer a checklist of tips to support your immune system:

• Don’t smoke

• Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables

• Exercise regularly

• Maintain a healthy weight

• Only drink Alcohol in moderation

• Get adequate sleep

• Avoid infection

• Minimize stress

That sounds simple enough, right? But what if we’re just treating the symptom and not the root issue that’s causing our immune system to be over-burdened? 

What’s Really Behind Immune System Issues?

Our body’s natural processes, including our immune system response, become worn down when we are overexposed to free radicals. 

That is actually very great news! Why? Because free radical damage is avoidable. 

We don’t have to let our bodies become worn down by free radicals and then send our immune system in to correct it. 

In fact, letting our immune systems handle free radical damage is the #1 most wasteful drain on our immune response. 

There are better, more efficient ways that we can address this root problem, freeing up our immune system to stay strong and ready for action! 

Am I Experiencing Free Radical Damage?

If we’re going to address free radical damage in our bodies, then we need to know if we’re experiencing it. 

Here are some of the most common symptoms of Free Radical Damage:

• Accelerated visible aging
• Joint and body aches/pain/stiffness
• Low energy and fatigue
• Weakened immune system response

If any of that is ringing a bell for you, then free radical damage could be the culprit. That means that your immune system is likely being preoccupied fighting that damage. 

How Do We Prevent The Wasteful Drain on Our Immune System?

Now that we know that free radical damage is draining our immune system, we need to figure out how else we can alleviate the damage. 

There are ONLY TWO ways to do that: 

1. Avoid unnecessary exposure to free radical sources
2. Neutralize free radicals with antioxidants

With all medicine and healing, prevention is always the best course of action. An increase in free radicals comes from overexposure to:

• Stress 😡
• Alcohol 🍸
• Smoking 🚬
• Over Exercise 🏃🏻‍♂️
• Lack of Sleep 💤
• Poor Diet 🥩 
• Pollution 🏭
• Environmental Toxins 🌎
• Infection 🤢
• Medication 💊
• The Sun ☀️
• Radiation ☢️
• Bluelight 💻

And More...

(As you’ll notice, these free radical producers line up almost directly with the guidance given by Harvard Health and other educational and governmental health institutions as to how to support the immune system.)

So the first step is to implement lifestyle changes that help us avoid those triggers. 

But, let’s be honest, we can’t avoid those 100%. And even if we put changes into place today, chances are we’re already battling a lifetime of allowing free radicals to do damage to our bodies. 

That’s why we also need to rely on step #2: neutralizing free radicals with antioxidants. 

How Antioxidants Battle Free Radicals

Free radicals are essentially molecules missing an electron. Antioxidants are molecules that have extra electrons. If you don’t have enough antioxidants in your body to balance out the free radicals, they will steal electrons from healthy cells. 

That triggers a destructive chain reaction that causes plenty of damage to the body, including depleting the immune system, causing cellular inflammation, and damaging DNA. 

Antioxidants are the ONLY way to neutralize Free Radicals. But not all antioxidants are created equal.

OPCs: Greater Than Vitamin C?

Let’s take Vitamin C as an example. It has long been touted as the greatest immune support supplement. “Immune boosters” like Airborne and Emergen-C are essentially super-packed Vitamin C doses. Any good doctor will also recommend eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables for a strong immune system. 

So why is Vitamin C the go-to? Because of its antioxidant properties. 

But is it the best option? Not exactly. 

OPCs (short for Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins) are natural plant-based super antioxidants that are 20s more powerful than Vitamin C and 50x more powerful than Vitamin E. 

This is why OPCs have been shown to:

✅ Support the Immune System

✅ Promote Relief from Pain and Fatigue

✅ Amplify the Effects of Vitamin C + Vitamin E

✅ Protect The Body From Internal and External Stress

OPCs are more effective at neutralizing free radicals, and therefore are more effective at preventing free radical damage to help keep the immune system fully charged.

On top of that, they also magnify the effects of Vitamin C and E. That means that if you eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and you supplement with OPCs, you can easily neutralize free radical damage and let your immune system get back to full strength. 

 

Common OPCs you may be familiar with include:

🍇 Grape Seed Extract (aka GSE)

🌲 Pine Bark Extract (aka Pycnogenol or French Maritime Pine)

🍷 Red Wine Extract (aka Resveratrol)

Now, just like OPCs create a synergistic effect with other antioxidants, they also magnify each other. 

That’s why we created OPCXtra, with 6 Super Antioxidants instead of just one, two, or three, and why we included Vitamin C and Vitamin E in our formulation.

Shop OPCXtra to get your super dose of antioxidants today! 

 

Here is what some of our OptiLifer Family has to say about taking OPCXtra for immune support: 

"I’ve been using this for over 10 years. I start my morning every day with it. Highly recommend for keeping your immune system healthy." - Lori R. 

"I have been taking it for about 15 years the last 10 years I have been sick one time in 10 years I think it builds your immune system up. IT helps your heart and arteries, blood flow. many good things with OPC and the other products. good stuff." - Ronald E. 

"I’ve been using OPCXTRA & CALX daily for at least 15 years. I believe it has helped me keep my immune system healthy." - Beverly T.