How Iron Improves Immunity and Protects You Against Infections

Iron improves immunity and is one of the essential minerals that the body requires to function optimally. Iron is required for several biochemical reactions of immune as well as non-immune cells. Iron deficiency remains a major public health problem, especially in children and women.

The role of iron in improving health is often considered to be limited to the production of hemoglobin. However, this mineral performs several other functions including those related to the immune system.

Recent research studies have shed light on how iron can regulate immunity and help the body fight infections more efficiently.

Here is a brief discussion about the role of iron in the management of immunological dysfunctions and how it would improve the ability of immune cells to fight infections.

Iron Improves Immunity and is Considered Essential for Strengthening Immune Responses

Iron Improves Immunity by Regulating Inflammation

Research studies have shown that both mammalian cells, as well as microbes, need iron for metabolic processes and microbial pathogenicity.

Anemia caused due to the deficiency of iron may affect the normal immunological functions and trigger inflammation in the body.

It may increase the risk of inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease.

The findings of these studies have provided insights into the foundation of novel strategies aimed at preventing anemia in order to regulate immune system functions, prevent excessive inflammation, and reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases.

The Interface of Infection and Immunity

The role of iron goes beyond just fighting the pathogen. It is also essential for relieving the symptoms and complications that can occur due to infections, especially those affecting the respiratory tract.

This marks the need to ensure your body receives adequate levels of iron, especially in relation to COVID-19.

This infective-inflammatory disease affects mainly the lungs and involves hemoglobinopathy and hypoxia that might be responsible for triggering breathing difficulties.

Scientific literature has suggested several pathophysiological mechanisms that can increase the risk of ARDS in patients with COVID-19. The interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with hemoglobin molecules through CD26, CD147, and other receptors on the erythrocyte and blood cell precursors is considered one of the possible mechanisms.

Iron metabolism dysregulation may also play a role in triggering breathing difficulties in these patients.

A decline in the functioning of hemoglobin, hypoxemia, lipoperoxidation, and oxidative stress are a few other mechanisms by which iron may be involved.

Hence, there is a need to understand the role of iron in widespread inflammation, and immunological pathways that create breathing difficulties in patients with COVID-19.

The Issue of Iron Overload

Experimental evidence has shown that iron is the fundamental element needed for the normal development of your immune system. A deficiency of this mineral may affect the ability of immune cells to trigger an adequate response to fight and destroy bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms.

Iron is also necessary for the proliferation and maturation of immune cells, particularly lymphocytes, that are linked to the generation of specific responses to infections.

Our body has the inherent ability to reduce the availability of iron that can be consumed by infectious elements. It should be noted that iron is also essential for the proliferation of parasites, bacteria, and neoplastic cells.

This means an excess of iron may potentially facilitate the spread of infections and support even the invasion of healthy tissues by cancer cells.

Luckily, our immune system has certain bacteriostatic mechanisms that would reduce the availability of iron to the tissues thereby preventing bacterial growth. This marks the need to ensure optimum functioning of the immune system so that it can allow you to derive maximum benefits of iron without developing any symptoms due to iron overload.

It must be noted that it is the immune system that can allow your body to use iron efficiently and regulate its availability to the cells. This is why; researchers highly recommend the use of iron supplements in combination with immunity-boosting supplements.

This would help to reduce the symptoms of iron deficiency anemia, support the immunological functions performed by iron, and even help you avoid the risk of iron overload.

Patients who are at risk of repeated infections due to a weak immunity or iron deficiency may use BioPro-Plus. BioPro-Plus is an immunity-modulating supplement that has been formulated to help strengthen the body’s response against bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms.

It would also help to protect you against immunological dysfunctions and ensure optimum availability of iron to the body thereby enhancing your immunity further.

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