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White button mushrooms appear to boost immune function It appears that a little fungus may be good for what ails you. That's the conclusion of a new study that found that eating white button mushrooms may boost the immune system and protect against infection. If the research, done on animals, translates to people, it could raise the health-benefit profile of the fungus, which also contains high concentrations of the super-antioxidant ergothioneine, which protects cells from damaging free radicals. "This is the first published study showing the effect of white button mushrooms on immune function," Dayong Wu, a scientist in the Immunology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts and lead author of the study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Nutrition, told NutraIngredients.com. The research also suggests that the mushroom may boost both innate and acquired immune system health. The innate immune system, the one you're born with, is the body's first line of defense. The acquired immune system revs up if a pathogen makes its way past the innate system and customizes the immune response to target the invader.

Edible mushrooms are a versatile functional food and have been touted as a way to preserve youth, longevity and overall health for centuries. Now nutrition researchers from Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University are finding that they may even help boost the immune system and reduce inflammation, especially in the colon. Keith R. Martin, ASU assistant professor in nutrition, along with his Penn State colleagues, experimented with various types of mushrooms, from the more common white button to the exotic like shiitake and oyster, to see what sort of effect they had on the immune system. Their paper was published in late February in BMC Immunology, a peer reviewed online journal. "We found that the white button mushroom seemed to be the most effective in boosting the immune system, which is good because they are the most affordable," said Martin.

In the July 2005 FASEB Journal, Adrian F. Gombart of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his colleagues reported that vitamin D boosts production in white blood cells of one of the antimicrobial compounds that defends the body against germs.\n\nImmediately, Cannell says, the proverbial lightbulb went on in his head: Maybe the high doses of vitamin D that he had been prescribing to virtually all the men on his ward had boosted their natural arsenal of the antimicrobial, called cathelicidin, and protected them from flu. Cannell had been administering the vitamin D because his patients, like many other people in the industrial world, had shown a deficiency:

March 23, 2009 -- Men and women who eat higher amounts of red meat and processed meat have a higher risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, and other causes compared to those who eat less, according to a new study. Those in the study who ate the most red meat took in about 4.5 ounces a day -- the equivalent of a small steak.

Feb. 23, 2009 -- A walk in the sun may be better than popping a vitamin C tablet for boosting your chances of preventing the common cold or flu.\n\nA new study adds to mounting evidence that vitamin C may have been stealing the spotlight all these years from the real cold fighter, vitamin D.

In healthy people who have been exposed to tuberculosis, a single oral dose of vitamin D enhances their immunity against this bacterial infection.

dbroadwa I had a case of macular degeneration 7 years ago. For about three months I couldn't make out any features on a person's face from across a room with my right eye. My eye doc told me there was no cure. I contacted a person who worked at a holistic health college and she told me it sounded like I was dangerously deficient in zinc and selenium. She also sent me a chinese herbal formula called Celosia 10, some died red berries and told me to pick up bilberry supplement. I started taking these five supplements and in a week to ten days my eyesight was back to normal. On the next visit to the eye doc he was reading my file as he came in and asked if there were any changes since my last visit. I said 'as a matter of fact, yes'. He wrote down all the supplements I'd taken and I later printed out all the info off the containers and dropped it off at his office. He called to tell me that I was taking too much zinc and it could do liver damage, but I'd stopped taking it by then. Three times since, I've started to get the symptoms back and took at least some of these things with the same results. There are two types of MD, and I think only one responds to this approach. bpfsa Spinach truly is a wonderful vegetable, full of healthy properties. There's a website at http://www.spinachwords.com that shows how spinach is a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, multi-amino, multi-phytonutrient powerhouse. There's alot more to spinach than just lutein and zexanthin and it is beneficial for much more than just your vision. It is great for your heart, for cancer prevention, for maternal & fetal health & development, it boosts your natural SPF levels in your skin, it wards of memory loss, dementia and other signs of ageing, and it is good for strong bones, too. Popeye was right - except maybe about eating a highly processed, canned product instead of fresh spinach.

Increased intakes of folic acid by mandatory fortification of grain products to reduce neural tube defects may also reduce a baby's risk of severe congenital heart defects, says a new study. The incidence of the heart problems was reduced by 6 per cent following mandatory fortification of grain products, introduced in Canada in 1998, researchers from McGill University and the University of Alberta report in the British Medical Journal.

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Getting rid of belly fat may be another blueberry health benefit. This is also directly related to boosting heart health. Looks like a diet rich in blueberries can deliver a double health bonus! This report is revealing!

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Consuming cheese from ewe's milk, rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), may reduce markers linked to heart disease, suggest results from a small Italian study. Researchers from the University of Florence report that ewe's milk rich in cis-9, trans-11 CLA produced favourable changes in inflammatory cytokines and platelet aggregation, both of which are associated with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries due to the build-up of fatty deposits on artery walls. Atherosclerosis is the primary cause of coronary heart disease (CHD), which costs the British public health system more than €5bn per year. "These observations, although preliminary and obtained in a limited study group, seem to be of relevance for the practical implications in terms of nutrition and health of the general population," wrote the researchers in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases.

A recently completed study from researchers at Colorado State University supported by the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has demonstrated that AHCC(R) (Active Hexose Correlated Compound) enhances host resistance by boosting protective immune responses specific to the West Nile Virus. Since its discovery in the United States in 1999, infections caused by the West Nile Virus have become a major public health concern. West Nile Virus is caused by people being bitten by mosquitoes infected with the virus. According to the CDC, there have been 28,018 reported cases with 1,092 deaths since 1999. In 2003, the highest number of cases was reported at nearly 10,000. Currently there is no effective treatment for the disease.