Info: Available in Daily Packets (20/Box), or a 300 g Jar (30 Servings)
Innotech Nutrition Immune Essentials is a blend of 10 vitamins and minerals, 4 amino acids, and other ingredients to support your body's natural immune function and provide its daily electrolyte requirement, in a convenient and highly palatable lemonade or OJ drink mix, with just 17 calories per serving (owing to its 2 grams of carbs; there are 0 grams of fat or sugar).
Info: Available in Daily Packets (20/Box), or a 300 g Jar (30 Servings)
Innotech Nutrition Immune Essentials is a blend of 10 vitamins and minerals, 4 amino acids, and other ingredients to support your body's natural immune function and provide its daily electrolyte requirement, in a convenient and highly palatable lemonade or OJ drink mix, with just 17 calories per serving (owing to its 2 grams of carbs; there are 0 grams of fat or sugar).
Product Notes:
Your Daily Immune Function and Electrolyte Support
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, for good reason. Even if you're generally in good health, you're apt to get the odd cut or scrape, and we're all exposed to people with viral infections, so it makes sense to optimize your immune system's ability to respond to such threats by fortifying it with essential nutrients.
Moreover, even very active people can inadvertently tax their systems by altering their electrolyte balance due to muscle exertion and sweating, so this formula addresses both those issues at once.
Naturally, it contains the two Vitamins (C & D) and minerals (Zinc & Selenium) most associated with immunity, of late, which need little introduction. It also includes quite a number of Vitamins (B12, E, and K2) and minerals (Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium) and several types of amino acids (which have been fermented to make them more bioavailable) a little less known on this score, whose rationales are explained in these accompanying videos and the Supporting Science section below.
Immune Essentials Ingredients:
Each 10 g Packet or Scoop contains:
L-Lysine HCl: 1200 mg
Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid, Magnesium Ascorbate): 1000 mg
L-Proline: 250 mg
L-Glutamine: 750 mg
L-Threonine: 150 mg
Potassium (Potassium Gluconate): 41.4 mg
Magnesium (Magnesium Bisglycinate/Ascorbate): 55 mg
Calcium (Calcium citrate, tetrahydrate): 25.2 mg
Zinc (Zinc Ascorbate): 15 mg
Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin): 300 mcg
Selenium (Selenomethionine): 50 mcg
Vitamin K2 (Vitamin K2 MK-7): 40 mcg
Vitamin D (Cholecalciferol): 12.5 mcg/500 IU
Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopheryl acetate): 100 IU
Non-medicinal ingredients: Orange and Lemon Juice Powder, Fructooligosaccharides (Fibre), Solnul™ (Resistant Potato Starch), Sea Salt (60 mg Sodium), Citric acid, Natural Orange and Lemon Flavour, Beta-carotene, Stevia rebaudiana leaf extract, Tapioca, Silica, Maltodextrin (Non-GMO, Less than 1%).
Note, as you can see here in the non-medicinal ingredients, the formula does contains 60 mg of sodium per serving from sea salt (or 120 mg per day) to help maintain adequate hydration (particularly during exercise) and blood pressure levels, but the latter represents just 5.2% of the maximum of 2,300 mg a day recommended by public health organizations like the American Heart Association.
This non-GMO, vegan friendly product is dairy-, gluten- and sugar-free, and has no artificial sweeteners, flavours or colours, or MSG.
Suggested Usage:
Take 10 g (either a packet or a scoop of powder) twice a day, mixed with 600 ml water (either hot or cold: your choice), a few hours before or after taking other medications or natural health products (if applicable). (The powder could also be made as a refreshing drink of lemonade in advance and cooled in the fridge, with 3 scoops in 1.8 litres of water. Store product in a cool, dry place.
Consult a healthcare practitioner for use beyond 3 months.
Warnings:
Consult a healthcare practitioner prior to use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have a history of non-melanoma skin cancer, or if you are taking blood thinners.
Health Canada Natural Product Number: 80107412.
Contributions of and Supporting Science for the Individual Ingredients:
The two major ingredients in terms of concentration (each comprising about 10% of the formula), which have both been found to have major roles in supporting the immune system, are:
- The amino acid Lysine, which not only has anti-viral properties of its own (best known for combating cold sores), but is also an important component of the protein our bodies produce to create immune cells and the collagen needed for wound healing; animal studies have shown a deficiency impairs both antibody responses and cell-mediated immune responses, as well as wound healing.
- The antioxidant Vitamin C which can help prevent and treat a whole host of respiratory and systemic infections (including of course the common cold) by enhancing various types of immune cell functions.
Some supporting references for these first two ingredients include:
- “The effect of dietary lysine deficiency on the immune response to Newcastle disease vaccination in chickens.” Avian Diseases, 2003.
- “Effects of dietary essential amino acid deficiencies on immunological variables in broiler chickens.” The British journal of nutrition, 2000.
- “Enhancement of lysine acetylation accelerates wound repair.” Communicative & Integrative Biology, 2013.
Regarding Vitamin C, review articles include:
- “Vitamin C and Immune Function.” Nutrients, 2017; and,
- this discussion paper by a physiology professor who recommends both Vitamin C and Vitamin D supplementation even for otherwise healthy athletes, to contend with both colds and overexertion:
“Nutrition and Athlete Immune Health: New Perspectives on an Old Paradigm.” Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2019.
Regarding the three other amino acids in this formulation, first, L-Proline not only shares lysine's ability to helps rebuild skin and collagen and heal wounds, but is also a precursor to or building block of antimicrobial peptides (PrAMPs): our bodies' first line of defense against bacterial infections. See, e.g.,
- “Proline Precursors and Collagen Synthesis: Biochemical Challenges of Nutrient Supplementation and Wound Healing.” The Journal of Nutrition, 2017.
- “Intracellular Antimicrobial Peptides Targeting the Protein Synthesis Machinery,” a book chapter in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2019.
The second-most prevalent amino acid in this formulation, L-Glutamine also has multiple roles. First, it's the main energy source for the lymphocytes: the white blood cells that actually fight infections. Second, it, along with some of the other amino acids, helps maintain the lining of the Gastro-Intestinal tract, to prevent toxins from passing from it to the bloodstream (Leaky Gut Syndrome). See, e.g.,
- Cruzat, Vinicius et al. “Glutamine: Metabolism and Immune Function, Supplementation and Clinical Translation.” Nutrients, 2018; and,
- Ruth, Megan R, and Catherine J Field. “The immune modifying effects of amino acids on gut-associated lymphoid tissue.” Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, 2013.
Finally, L-Threonine also helps protect the gut lining (by producing the mucin in mucus; see Ruth & Field immediately above), plus it's used by thymus gland to make lymphocytes and T-cells that fight infections (Finlay, David, and Doreen Cantrell. “The coordination of T-cell function by serine/threonine kinases.” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 2011).
Immune Essentials also contains a five types of minerals, two of which (magnesium and potassium), also do double duty in maintaining electrolyte balance (along with the sodium in sea salt among the non-medicinal ingredients), to stave off muscle cramps, for example (which could interfere with sleep, which in turn can impair the immune system). For a supporting references on Electrolytes, please see:
- “Electrolytes.” In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024. Available from: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541123/
- “Cardiac Consequences of Electrolyte Imbalance.” Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, 2016.
Magnesium has literally hundreds of roles in our bodies, some of which involve supporting immune function; see, e.g.,
- “Exercise, magnesium and immune function.” Magnesium Research, 2008; or,
- “Understanding How Minerals Contribute to Optimal Immune Function.” Journal of Immunology Research, 2023, which also covers Zinc and Selenium, which are also discussed in the final Dr. Berg video above, which also covers Vitamins C, D, and E.
(For more on Vitamin E, please see “Regulatory role of vitamin E in the immune system and inflammation.” IUBMB Life, 2019, and the final two references below.)
Similarly, Calcium is a relatively unsung hero when it comes to immunity (getting most of its glory for maintaining teeth and bones), but as Dr. Berg explains in his initial video above (and as confirmed by the following references), it's used in a signaling system to mobilizes neutrophils (a certain kind of white blood cell), and is needed to supply with energy and to enable them to multiply. And it, in turn, needs Vitamin D to get absorbed properly.
- “Calcium signalling and related ion channels in neutrophil recruitment and function.” European Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2018.
- “Store-Operated Ca2+ Entry Controls Clonal Expansion of T Cells through Metabolic Reprogramming.” Immunity, 2017.
- “Immunologic Effects of Vitamin D on Human Health and Disease.” Nutrients, 2020.
Supporting references for the immunomodulating effects of Vitamin B12 include:
- Tamura, J et al. “Immunomodulation by vitamin B12: augmentation of CD8+ T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cell activity in vitamin B12-deficient patients by methyl-B12 treatment.” Clinical and Experimental Immunology, 1999; and,
two which maintain that we likely need all the micronutrients listed here (B12, C, D, E, zinc, selenium, magnesium) and more to work synergistically together to maintain immune function:
- “Optimal Nutritional Status for a Well-Functioning Immune System is an Important Factor to Protect against Viral Infections.” Nutrients, 2020; and,
- “A Review of Micronutrients and the Immune System-Working in Harmony to Reduce the Risk of Infection.” Nutrients, 2020.
Finally, although it is better known for helping direct calcium towards bones (and away from arteries), Vitamin K2 also has an immune role, by functioning as an antioxidant and helping to facilitate the generation of the ATP which powers cells and helping to repair some mitochondrial defects, as discussed in “Dramatic Decrease of Vitamin K2 Subtype Menaquinone-7 in COVID-19 Patients.” Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland), 2022.
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