9 Functional IV therapy Toronto tips for immunity support
POSTED BY TORONTO FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE CENTRE
Do you lose the battle with the sniffles every year? Health strategies based on functional medicine and IV therapy in Toronto may be supportive for general health concerns, such as immune function.
You can’t see your immune system up close; but it’s critical for protecting the human body from germs. It’s possible for your immune function to weaken, and when this happens, your susceptibility to fighting infections rises. If your immune health is declining, these symptoms may appear: poor energy levels after a good night’s sleep; digestive issues; whole-body inflammation; low white blood cell production; recurrent infections; difficulty dealing with an infection/illness; and nausea.
As we’re frequently indoors during the winter months, optimizing your wellness may be ideal for promoting an immune boost. For this post, the Toronto Functional Medicine Centre (TFMC) shares key tips for supporting your immunity.
Top 9 immune-boosting tips from our TFMC’s IV Lounge
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- Manage chronic stress: Physical and emotional stress can weaken immunity, enhancing your risks for forming infections or resuscitating viruses you’ve previously caught. In fact, “Shingles, a painful rash that arises from the reactivated chickenpox virus, often flares up when people are experiencing chronic stress,” confirms Columbia University Irving Medical Center. There are many ways to reduce your levels of stress, and we recommend discovering a wide range of strategies, such as acupuncture, meditation, mindfulness activities, and exercise.
- Consider getting lab tests conducted: Every person has a uniqueness to them due to genetics, diet, lifestyle, and such. So why not request lab work to see how your health is holding up? This can reveal if you’re deficient in key nutrients that help with enhancing immune function. Functional lab testing can be prescribed by a functional medicine-practicing health provider (i.e. naturopathic doctor or medical doctor). These tests reveal the status of certain elements of your health by detecting biomarkers. For example, those with a metabolic or chronic illness tend to urinate organic acids that are 100 times their natural concentration levels! In our clinic, we would analyze these organic acids with an OAT test (Mosaic Labs), which is designed to detect excessive organic acids and nutrient deficits.
- Take probiotics: The gut is one of the body’s core components for regulating immunity. When gut dysbiosis occurs, reactions from the immune system can be reduced. Taking probiotics regularly can stimulate immune cells in the gut to help support immune functions. To further nourish your gut and immunity, try adding fermented foods to your meals, such as kefir, sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, or tempeh.
- Schedule regular exercise: We’ve mentioned exercise for reducing high levels of stress, but did you also know it helps the immune system? Physical activities contribute to flushing germs out of your respiratory system. Exercise also helps white blood cells quickly circulate in the body, which may further help the immune system detect unwanted germs.
- Get a consult for IV therapy: There are times when the full dose of oral supplementation may not fully absorb in the body because of the digestive process. To top-up your levels of vitamins and guarantee a complete absorption of vitamins, intravenous therapy is an option. This treatment modality doesn’t require the digestive tract; instead, a nutritional drip solution enters the bloodstream and bypasses the digestive tract. This treatment is offered in our IV Lounge, and our wellness team monitors sessions for safety.
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6. Supplement with vitamin C: When you catch a cold, it can change how you metabolize the vitamin, momentarily lowering vitamin C levels in the blood and urine. Supplementing with vitamin C could help the body shorten the duration of a cold and sustain your body’s optimal amounts.
7. Prioritize sleep: Sleep deprivation can reduce your production of cytokines, which are proteins that signal the body to fight germs. Pay attention to your sleep conditions at night – make sure your room is dark, turn off personal devices, and refrain from eating heavy meals close to bed time. How much sleep you need is different for each adult, but the general rule is to aim for 7-8 hours per night.
Quick Tip
Our IV Lounge offers a high-dose vitamin C drip that provides you with a rapid absorption of nutrients! Click here to check out our vitamin IV menu.
8. Reduce exposures to pollutants: The Institute for Functional Medicine confirms that, “Ambient pollutants and toxicants such as heavy metals, pesticides, and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been associated with immune system imbalances.” Reduce chemical exposures at home by cutting out plastics. Use an air filter to help prevent indoor pollutants and opt for organic food options when possible.
9. Stay hydrated: We will not stop emphasizing the importance of hydration! Optimal levels of hydration help immune cells travel through the body to fight pathogens. Hydration and its link to immune function has been scrutinized; one study showed that low water intake impairs these immune cells and may also affect gut functioning.
What’s stopping you from reaching your health potential? Optimize your wellness with our personalized approach to wellness today.
Suggested reading: What is Methylation? Our IV Therapy Toronto Lounge Explains
Access our functional medicine and drip therapy treatments
Since 2012, our clinicians have been customizing treatment plans and intravenous therapy drips in Toronto. We practice integrative functional medicine, which is a health paradigm that treats each patient as an individual entity. Our integrated treatment modalities allow patients to draw from several tactics to promote symptom relief and chronic illness prevention. At the Toronto Functional Medicine Centre, we offer Western, naturopathic, and herbal medicines, holistic nutrition, acupuncture, hormone optimization strategies, and IV therapy. When therapies are personalized for biological needs, such as IV doses of nutrients and vitamin injection treatments, they may contribute to beneficial effects, including healthier energy levels.
Our in-house IV Lounge is where our clinicians prescribe and administer fresh intravenous infusion drips. Each IV drip blended by us is dosed for each individual patient – your dosage is unique to only your biology. The principles of functional medicine are applied to our IV drip therapies, which is how we customize nutritional solutions. From ascorbic acid, vitamin E and trace minerals to glutathione, alpha lipoic acid and NAD+ IV, our menu includes a variety of key ingredients. We can also blend drip therapies for health goals, such as an anti-aging IV drip for supporting healthy skin or a vitamin drip for athletic performance recovery.
Do you need some help fostering your immune system? Our clinic and IV Lounge is currently accepting new patients. IV therapy, when combined with additional functional medicine therapies and healthy living, may contribute to positive effects on your wellness.
Prep your immune health for this winter season! Start now by requesting your initial visit for IV therapy from the Toronto Functional Medicine Centre.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care. This information should not be used to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting a doctor. You should always consult with a health care practitioner before relying on any information in this article or on this website. Never delay or disregard seeking professional medical advice from your doctor or other qualified healthcare provider because of information you have read from the Toronto Functional Medicine Centre website or other affiliate media.
References
“Exercise and immunity.” MedlinePlus [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); [updated 2/8/2024]. Viewed on November 3, 2024. Available from: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007165.htm
Hemilä, H., Chalker, E. Vitamin C reduces the severity of common colds: a meta-analysis. BMC Public Health 23, 2468 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-17229-8
“Immune Fitness: Potential Barriers to Optimal Immune Responses” from the Institute for Functional Medicine, November 3, 2024.
InformedHealth.org [Internet]. Cologne, Germany: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG); 2006-. In brief: How does the immune system work? [Updated 2023 Jun 6]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279364/
Kavouras, S.A. Hydration, dehydration, underhydration, optimal hydration: are we barking up the wrong tree?. Eur J Nutr 58, 471–473 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-018-01889-z
“Lifestyle Approaches That Support Immune Function” from the Institute for Functional Medicine, viewed on November 3, 2024.
Mazziotta C, Tognon M, Martini F, Torreggiani E, Rotondo JC. Probiotics Mechanism of Action on Immune Cells and Beneficial Effects on Human Health. Cells. 2023 Jan 2;12(1):184. doi: 10.3390/cells12010184. PMID: 36611977; PMCID: PMC9818925.
Sato K, Hara-Chikuma M, Yasui M, Inoue J, Kim YG. Sufficient water intake maintains the gut microbiota and immune homeostasis and promotes pathogen elimination. iScience. 2024 May 3;27(6):109903. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109903. PMID: 38799550; PMCID: PMC11126815.
“What You Really Need to Do to Boost Your Immunity” from Columbia University Irving Medical Center, posted October 20, 2023, viewed on November 3, 2024.
Yan F, Polk DB. Probiotics and immune health. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2011 Oct;27(6):496-501. doi: 10.1097/MOG.0b013e32834baa4d. PMID: 21897224; PMCID: PMC4006993.
