As the COVID-19 turns into a national crisis in Kenya, individual counties in the country are taking some of the necessary measure to contain the pandemic. Most of the counties are engaging the national government in the acquisition of necessary interventions for preparedness for a possibility of the outbreaks in the regions, but very few are concerned with the food and nutrition of their natives, with Mombasa County being in the frontline as reported in the local dailies. However, this would contribute to the levels malnutrition amongst the population in Kenya. As documented by the World Health Organization (WHO) nutrition is a critical determinant of the immune responses and malnutrition the most common cause of immunodeficiency worldwide.  Further, WHO with bodies such as National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) outlines the role of body’s immune system is to protect the host against infection from pathological microbes, to clear damaged tissues, and to provide constant surveillance of malignant cells that grow within the body. Also, the immune system develops appropriate tolerance to avoid unwanted response to healthy tissues of self or harmless foreign substances.

There are considerable factors among individuals in the dynamism of their immunological responses, owing to nutrition, lifestyle, genetics, environment, and the interface of these factors. Nutrition is key and impacts the body’s immune system. Just as other bodily systems, the immune system depends on adequate nutrients to function properly. It is well-documented by the NCBI that nutritional status is closely associated with immunity and host resistance to infection. There is bantam argument that deficiency in both macro –  and micro – nutrients impairs the immunological responses, but the good news is that this can be reversed by nutrient repletion. Nutritional deficiencies are still prevalent in Kenya, following UNICEF Kenya Humanitarian Situation Report by February 2019 there were 1.1 million food insecure people in Kenya, up from 700,000 people in 2018. Therefore, nutritional deficiencies due to food insecurity in Kenya are among the main contributors to a high incidence of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases eg the current COVID-19. Even in developed countries such as the USA and Italy where general nutritional deficiencies are rare, nutrition issues such as specific nutrient deficiencies, less ideal diet composition, and excess calorie consumption are still a challenging reality among their populations. In Kenya nutritional deficiencies are particularly important in children under the age of five years, women of the reproductive age (15 – 49 years) and the elderly population due to a variety of physiological factors such as dependency, disease, poor food selection, and lower socio-economic status. Although it is established that nutritional deficiency or insufficiency needs to be improved to ensure proper immunological, growing proof proposes that for certain nutrients, increased intake above currently recommended levels may help optimize immune function including improving defence function and thus resistance to infection, while maintaining tolerance.

Research has shown that fruits and vegetables provide nutrients like beta carotene (Vitamin A precursors), vitamin C and vitamin E that can boost the immunological responses. Because most of the vegetables and fruit and other plant based foods are rich diets in antioxidants they help reduce the oxidative and inflammatory stress as documented by Eichelmann  and colleagues, 2016 in the Journal Obesity reviews. Firstly, beta-carotene a powerful antioxidant predominant in vitamin A rich vegetables and tubers (pumpkin, carrot, squash, or orange fleshed sweet potato and red sweet pepper) green leafy vegetables (amaranth, cassava leaves, Sukuma wiki, spinach and vitamin A rich fruits (ripe mango, apricot, ripe papaya, dried peach, and 100% fruit juice made from these). Beta-carotene can reduce inflammation and boost immunological functions by increasing disease-fighting cells in the body. Secondly, vitamin C and E are antioxidants that help the to destroy free radicals and support the body natural immune response. Key sources vitamin C are citrus fruits (oranges and lemons), strawberries, mangoes, red peppers, broccoli, amaranth, cassava leaves, Sukuma wiki, spinach while vitamin E sources are nuts, spinach, Sukuma wiki, seeds and broccoli. Thirdly, Grant WB and colleagues, 2020 in the journal nutrients have outlined evidence that vitamin D supplementation could reduce risk of influenza, COVID-19 infections and deaths, by reducing production of pro-inflammatory compounds in the body. Likewise, increased blood levels of vitamin D has been linked to prevention of other chronic diseases including tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis and cardiovascular disease. Sources include cereals, milk, egg, Organ Meat (liver, kidney, heart or other organ meats or blood-based foods) and Flesh Meats (beef, pork, lamb, goat, rabbit, chicken, duck etc). Fourthly, zinc predominant in nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, beans and lentils, is a mineral that can boost white blood cells, which defend against invaders.

Aside from the commonly known nutrients, there are a wide variety of non-nutritive phytochemicals (such as phenols and flavonoids) and functional foods (probiotics and fibre). They are not essential for maintaining normal cell metabolism and function thus do not have recommended levels of intake in dietary guidelines. Despite this, many phytochemicals and functional foods have been shown to have beneficial effects on immune function. While there are many other nutrients and non-nutritive categories that are also known to affect immune function, included are only a few as representative.

Despite, this evidence that nutrition and other lifestyle measures influences the immunological strength and susceptibility to infectious disease. Whether these measures do or do not influence susceptibility to COVID-19 or its clinical course is not yet known. Henceforth there is every motivation to put what we do know about foods and immune defences to use in addition to the everyday preventive measures- such as handwashing, avoiding contact with sick people, good hygiene as per the MoH and WHO guidelines – can go a long way in reducing your risk for viruses, bacteria and other pathogens.

 

Chadwick Digo, RNS, CPHN (Nutrition Scientist & Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Human Nutrition, Egerton University) chadscad@yahoo.com

1,211 thoughts on “Nutrition and the Immune System in the Midst of COVID-19 Pandemic”
  1. When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Bless you!

  2. When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Bless you!

  3. Hey! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after reading through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!

  4. Thank you for another informative website. Where else may I am getting that kind of info written in such a perfect approach? I have a challenge that I am simply now running on, and I have been at the glance out for such information.

  5. It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this fantastic blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook group. Chat soon!

  6. Hiya very nice web site!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I will bookmark your website and take the feeds also? I am glad to find numerous useful information here in the submit, we need develop more strategies in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .

  7. Heya! I know this is kind of off-topic but I had to ask. Does building a well-established blog like yours take a massive amount work? I’m completely new to blogging but I do write in my diary everyday. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it!

  8. Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!

  9. Great beat ! I wish to apprentice at the same time as you amend your web site, how can i subscribe for a blog web site? The account aided me a appropriate deal. I were tiny bit familiar of this your broadcast provided vibrant transparent concept

  10. Hi, i think that i saw you visited my weblog so i got here to go back the choose?.I am trying to in finding things to improve my site!I assume its ok to use some of your ideas!!

  11. Hi there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy reading through your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Thank you so much!

  12. I think this is one of the so much important information for me. And i’m satisfied reading your article. However wanna statement on few basic things, The site taste is ideal, the articles is actually excellent : D. Just right activity, cheers

  13. constantly i used to read smaller articles which also clear their motive, and that is also happening with this piece of writing which I am reading here.

  14. It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate to this superb blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group. Chat soon!

  15. Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is great blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back.

  16. I am extremely inspired together with your writing talents and alsosmartly as with the layout for your blog. Is this a paid subject or did you customize it yourself? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays..

  17. Helpful info. Fortunate me I found your web site by chance, and I am surprised why this twist of fate did not came about in advance! I bookmarked it.

  18. Undeniably consider that that you stated. Your favourite justification appeared to be at the internet the simplest thing to understand of. I say to you, I definitely get irked at the same time as other people consider worries that they plainly do not understand about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top as welland also defined out the whole thing with no need side effect , other folks can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thank you

  19. hey there and thank you for your information I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this site, since I experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for a lot more of your respective interesting content. Make sure you update this again soon.

  20. Hi, Neat post. There is a problem together with your web site in internet explorer, may check this? IE still is the marketplace leader and a good component of other folks will miss your great writing due to this problem.

  21. When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Cheers!

  22. I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what all is required to get set up? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100% sure. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

  23. My spouse and I stumbled over here coming from a different web page and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking over your web page for a second time.

  24. A person necessarily lend a hand to make significantly articles I would state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and thus far? I amazed with the research you made to create this actual post incredible. Magnificent process!

  25. Howdy this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding experience so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  26. Unquestionably consider that that you stated. Your favourite justification appeared to be at the internet the simplest thing to have in mind of. I say to you, I definitely get irked whilst other folks consider concerns that they plainly do not realize about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing with no need side effect , other folks can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thank you

  27. Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The layout look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Kudos

  28. Unquestionably believe that that you stated. Your favourite justification appeared to be at the net the simplest thing to bear in mind of. I say to you, I definitely get irked at the same time as folks consider worries that they plainly do not recognize about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top as smartly as defined out the whole thing with no need side effect , folks can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more. Thank you

  29. Онлайн казино радует своих посетителей более чем двумя тысячами увлекательных игр от ведущих разработчиков.

  30. What’s Happening i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It positively helpful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to give a contribution & assist other users like its helped me. Good job.

  31. Переставьте сомнения в сторону и обратитесь к профессионалам. механизированная штукатурка с mehanizirovannaya-shtukaturka-moscow.ru – это ваш путь к ровным и гладким стенам.

  32. An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a colleague who had been doing a little research on this. And he in fact bought me lunch simply because I found it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending time to discuss this issue here on your web site.

  33. Попробуйте механизированную штукатурку от mehanizirovannaya-shtukaturka-moscow.ru и убедитесь в ее эффективности. Ваш дом заслуживает лучшего!

  34. With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation? My site has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my agreement. Do you know any techniques to help stop content from being ripped off? I’d certainly appreciate it.

  35. Hi there, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any assistance is very much appreciated.

  36. Magnificent beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how can i subscribe for a blog web site? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright clear concept

  37. Good website! I truly love how it is easy on my eyes and the data are well written. I’m wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I’ve subscribed to your RSS which must do the trick! Have a nice day!

  38. I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.

  39. I will right away clutch your rss as I can not in finding your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please permit me recognise so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.

  40. What’s up all, here every one is sharing such experience, so it’s nice to read this weblog, and I used to go to see this website everyday.

  41. I like what you guys are up too. This type of clever work and exposure! Keep up the good works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to our blogroll.

  42. Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He always kept talking about this. I’ll forward this information to him. Pretty sure he’ll have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

  43. How do I know who my husband or wife is chatting with on WhatsApp, then you are already looking for the best solution. Eavesdropping on a phone is much easier than you realize. The first thing to install a spy application on your phone is to get the target phone.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.