Immunity 3 - Essential Nutrients for Fighting Viruses

Join us this week as we talk about a proactive approach to supporting our immunity naturally. Learn about the three powerhouses in our new Immunity 3 blend; camu camu, zinc, and elderberry.

Notes for this week's Podcast

Empowering You Organically – Season 13 – Episode 122

Title: Immunity 3 – Essential Nutrients for Fighting Viruses

Hosts: Jonathan Hunsaker & TeriAnn Trevenen

Description: Join us this week as we talk about a proactive approach to supporting our immunity naturally. Learn about the three powerhouses in our new Immunity 3 blend; camu camu, zinc, and elderberry.

FEATURED PRODUCTS

3 powerhouse immune system support nutrients in one convenient daily formula: organic camu camu (vitamin C), organic elderberry & zinc
Natural immune support aids your body’s defense against harmful viruses & bacteria, including the common cold, influenza, and sinusitis
110 mg of whole food (not synthetic) vitamin C per serving from organic camu camu grown in the Amazon rainforest
200 mg of organic elderberry extract which has potent antiviral and antimicrobial properties
15 mg of zinc from two forms (zinc arginate & zinc glycinate) for better absorption and higher tolerability
Rich in antioxidants which are anti-inflammatory and help fight aging and chronic disease
Non-GMO; No fillers, additives, artificial flavors, preservatives, colors, yeast, soy, sodium, or starch

Immunity Refresher

The immune system has complex ways of fighting viruses, but viruses have complex ways of fooling the immune system and invading cells. That is why we need our immune systems ready for whatever floats our way!

Things to remember:

Nutrition may be the most vital component in maintaining — or gaining — a healthy immune system. It makes all the difference in the way your body fights off germs, but just as importantly, plays an important role in more minute functions like helping tissues repair and rebuild themselves and how your body reclaims flagging energy.

To keep your immune system functioning at its best, some of the most effective strategies include avoiding sugar, sleeping well, minimizing stress and including fiber and probiotics in your meal regimens
Not just vitamins and minerals, but proteins like collagen and free radical-fighting antioxidants can be introduced to your body through the foods you eat, and play vital roles in helping to keep your body functioning at its best. As the Chicago Tribune observes:
- “Collagen and its amino acids are essential to healing because they build tissues such as skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, blood vessels, bones and more. Antioxidants remove the harmful free radicals from the bloodstream that can impair the immune system, and vitamins and minerals play specialized roles in healing.”
Chronic stress can make you more susceptible to colds and the flu, as well as more serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes and other diseases. By practicing stress-reducing activities like yoga, meditation and laughter, you can keep your body from going into chronic stress mode.

INGREDIENTS in Immunity3

Organic Camu Camu

Camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) is a berry native to the Amazon rainforest. That sounds remote, but this so-called superfood has long been used to improve health and has become increasingly popular. Camu camu’s purported health benefits include reducing the risk of chronic diseases thanks to its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.

Similar to tart cranberries, the camu camu berry is too acidic for most people to enjoy its natural state. It’s generally processed as an ingredient in blended juices or freeze-dried into a powder that can be taken as a supplement, added to smoothies, or blended into other foods.

Camu Camu is High in Vitamin C

Nutritionally, camu camu is one of the most concentrated natural food sources of vitamin C.
Camu camu is rich in vitamin C, a vitamin that acts as a powerful antioxidant in your body and is vital for the health of your skin and immune system.
The fruit’s pulp provides about 2,400 to 3,000 grams (or 2,400,000 milligrams) per 3.5-ounce or so serving. For context, the recommended dietary intake (RDI) for vitamin C is 60 milligrams a day.
Because of its high vitamin C content, camu camu is also rich in antioxidants, which have anti-inflammatory properties.

Not JUST Vitamin C

Beyond vitamin C, camu camu provides smaller amounts of potassium, calcium, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and copper.
Like most colorful berries, camu camu is a good source of polyphenols.
Camu camu also has antimicrobial properties, and researchers have identified compounds in the fruit that have strong antimicrobial benefits.

Supports Gut Health

The dense punch of nutrients from camu can also support gut health and block free radicals and other pathogens from entering the body, according to studies, thus providing protection against bacterial infections, viruses and other issues. Remember your immunity is built in the gut!
Additionally, a 2018 animal study even found that camu may help prevent obesity by positively altering the gut microbiota (highly tied to immune function) and by increasing energy expenditure. Several studies found that camu could leadto lowered fat accumulation and blunted metabolic inflammation, leading to improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity.

Improves Liver Health

As a powerful cocktail of antioxidants and phytochemicals, camu camu benefits the liver in several ways. The high vitamin C content is especially central to its ability to improve liver health.

Research in 2010 showed that animals given camu camu powder showed significant signs of liver injury suppression.
Specifically, an active compound called 1-methylmalate was isolated from Myrciaria dubia This study concluded that the 1-methylmalate in camu is one of the reasons why it can aid liver health.

Enhances Mood

Camu camu berries’ high levels of vitamin C may help your brain to produce more serotonin, which will enhance your mood — which explains why it may act as a potential remedy for depression. In fact, research suggests people who have a deficiency in vitamin C often feel more depressed and lackadaisical.

Vitamin C is an important cofactor required for the conversion of tryptophan to 5-hydroxytryptophan in serotonin production. It’s therefore possible that vitamin C from camu camu benefits patients with depression that is associated with low levels of serotonin.
For example, in one study conducted at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, it was shown that many of the patients who had decreased levels of vitamin C reported signs of sluggishness and depression. When given doses of vitamin C, they all responded with rapid and clinically significant improvement in mood.

There is some concern that camu camu can interfere with some chemotherapy medications—you should always let your doctor know about the supplements you are taking, but especially so if you are receiving chemo, for example.

Zinc

Your immune system is your first line of defense against all disease, especially infectious disease, and there are many different ways to boost your immune system and improve its function. One nutrient that plays a very important role in your immune system’s ability to ward off viral infections is zinc.

Zinc is also a nutrient that plays many vital roles in your body. BUT…Because your body doesn’t naturally produce zinc, you must obtain it through food or supplements.

zinc is the second-most-abundant trace mineral in your body — after iron — and is present in every cell
it’s critical for the development and function of immune cells
fundamental to skin health, DNA synthesis and protein production
body growth and development relies on zinc because of its role in cell growth and division
Zinc is also needed for your senses of taste and smell. Because one of the enzymes crucial for proper taste and smell is dependent on this nutrient, a zinc deficiency can reduce your ability to taste or smell
Zinc lozenges were found to shorten the duration of common cold episodes by up to 40 percent in a study published in the Open Respiratory Medicine Journal.

Those at risk of zinc deficiency include:

People with gastrointestinal diseases like Crohn’s disease
Vegetarians and vegans
Pregnant and breastfeeding women
Older infants who are exclusively breastfed
People with sickle cell anemia
People who are malnourished, including those with anorexia or bulimia
People with chronic kidney disease
Those who abuse alcohol

Elderberry

Elderberry is one of the most commonly used medicinal plants in the world.

Traditionally, Native Americans used it to treat infections, while the ancient Egyptians used it to improve their complexions and heal burns. It’s still gathered and used in folk medicine across many parts of Europe.
Elderberry refers to several varieties of the Sambucustree, which has clusters of white flowers and black or blue-black berries. The most common variety is Sambucus nigra, also known as European elderberry or black elderberry.
Today, elderberry is most often taken as a supplement to treat cold and flu symptoms.

Health Benefits of Elderberry

There are many reported benefits of elderberries. Not only are they nutritious, but they may also fight cold and flu symptoms, support heart health and fight inflammation and infections, among other benefits.

May improve cold and flu symptoms
- One study of 60 people with influenza found that those who took 15 ml of elderberry syrup four times per day showed symptom improvement in two to four days, while the control group took seven to eight days to improve.
- Another study of 64 people found that taking 175-mg elderberry extract lozenges for two days resulted in significant improvement in flu symptoms, including fever, headache, muscle aches and nasal congestion, after just 24 hours.
- Furthermore, a study of 312 air travelers taking capsules containing 300 mg of elderberry extract three times per day found that those who got sick experienced a shorter duration of illness and less severe symptoms.
High In Antioxidants
- Antioxidants are natural components of foods, including some vitamins, phenolic acids and flavonoids, that are able to remove these reactive molecules. Research suggests that diets high in antioxidants may help prevent chronic disease
- Anthocyanins found in the berries have 3.5 times the antioxidant power of vitamin E
- Studies have shown elderberry juice may reduce the level of fat in the blood and decrease cholesterol.
- A study found that elderberry flowers inhibit the enzyme α-glucosidase, which may help lower blood sugar levels. Also, research on diabetic rats given elderberry showed improved blood sugar control
Fights harmful bacteria:Elderberry has been found to inhibit the growth of bacteria like Helicobacter pylori and may improve symptoms of sinusitis and bronchitis
May support the immune system: In rats, elderberry polyphenols were found to support immune defense by increasing the number of white blood cells

This week's Transcript

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Listen, next year there’s going to be a flu again. Next year there’s going to be a cold again. There’s going to be these things year after year after year and having a strong immune system is one of the best things you can do not just for viral infections but any kind of infection, any kind of invader that is coming into your body that wants to cause harm. Having an efficient immune system that recognizes that and can go in there and “kill” it, get rid of it, eliminate it is what’s going to have you stay healthy longer, and it’s going to have you feel better overall.

Announcer:

Empowering You Organically delivering content you trust with results you love.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Welcome everyone to the first podcast episode of 2021. Empowering You Organically. I’m your host Jonathon Hunsaker joined by my cohost TeriAnn Trevenen.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Hey everyone.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So excited to be here with you. So happy that we are here after such a crazy year last year.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

It was a crazy year.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

It was very crazy. Still kind of crazy, and that’s actually going to be the topic that we want to talk about today. The most important thing that unfortunately is not being talked about, especially in the mainstream media, especially all over the internet, the one thing we should all be talking about right now, and that is your immune system, building your immune system, having a strong immune system. All the things that you can do to really protect yourself, protect your body. Now no, it’s not going to cure anything. It’s not going to guarantee anything. But there’s a lot of things that you can do that can really minimize the effects of any kind of virus, whether it’s a cold virus, flu virus, coronavirus. Any of those viral infections can be minimized, even eliminated or prevented with a strong, efficient immune system.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely, and I think there’s been an increase focus on our health over the last year as the world has faced coronavirus, and I think that people are talking more and more about health and natural health and ways that we can really fortify our bodies so that we don’t have to be as concerned and worried about what happens to us if we do happen to come down with a virus or our body faces some type of struggle like that. The stronger we are, the healthier we are, the better a chance we have of bouncing back faster, overcoming it, all of that.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. And I know we did an episode or two last year where we talked about things to do to stay healthy, and this episode is really just focused on the immune system. I don’t want to go too far down the path of specific for coronavirus or COVID-19. Just immunity overall. Listen, yes, coronavirus is out and it’s effecting everyone, but that hasn’t stopped the common cold from happening. It hasn’t stopped the flu from going around or anything like that.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I mean, we all know when we get hit with the flu or the cold, I mean, it knocks some of us out for weeks. May knock you out for a few days, and again, just doing some of these precautionary measures that we’re talking about and proactive measures that we’re talking about today is really going to have you in a much healthier state.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Yeah. Well, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know that 2020 was an emotional year as well. And we’re learning more and more about the physical and emotional connection in the body as well. We’re not hear to talk about emotions today. I do want to point out the fact that a strong immune system not only helps us to bounce back when it comes to physical issues within our body, but also the immune system is the powerhouse of our body. It is the central hub to where our body just really does everything that it needs to to be healthy, and the ties to emotional strength and wellness as well when it comes to our immune system is very strong. So I think both the benefits on the physical and the emotional side, and I think all of us need to be strong in both of those areas right now to overcome some of the uncertainty and the things that we’re facing in the world right now.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. So let’s jump right into it.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Some of the things that weaken your immune system the most, number one is sugar. Having a lot of sugar in your diet, it really weakens the body. It gives you that high and gives you all that energy, but then it weakens you afterwards. That insulin response that’s going up and down can actually fatigue your body a lot more and have you more susceptible to different viruses and just weakens your immune system overall.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Another thing that weakens your immune system is not getting enough sleep, not resting enough, and that’s tough right now. The third one I’m about to talk about is there’s a lot of stress going on, and when there’s a lot of stress, oftentimes we turn to the sugar, we eat the sugar, we overeat. Then we’re not sleeping as well. We’re going to bed late. We’re waking up early. So there’s this whole compounding effect from stress to sugar to not sleeping as well. All of these things really effect our immune system.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

And then our nutrition overall effects our immune system. Eating processed foods, eating different things that your body doesn’t recognize as much as food. Yes, it goes in. Yes, your body uses the chloric intake from it. But the nutrient density of it may not be giving your body what it needs to be strong and be healthy. So nutrition, minimizing the amount of sugar, getting better sleep, minimizing the stress, adding more fiber to your diet, getting probiotics, and just more nutrient dense food overall is really going to have you have a stronger immune system overall.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

What’s the one thing that you need to be better at for your immune system right now? Because here’s the thing, we talk about all those things and it sounds overwhelming, and sometimes it’s just one thing at a time that you can work on to make it better. And we’re actually going to talk about one thing in particular in the podcast today. But out of that list you just listed, what’s one thing that you could be better at right now?

Jonathan Hunsaker:

The biggest thing for me hands down is sleep right now. Managing what time I go to sleep and then the quality of my sleep. Then I have two little girls that like to wake me up early as well. So when I don’t manage myself well in the evening on what time to go to bed, then I’m guaranteed to wake up early and not get as much rest as I know would have me functioning even better.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Yeah. I think sleep’s so important. Sleep leads to all the decisions being easier the next day, and emotions staying regulated and all those things. For me, there’s been a lot of stress from the last year, particularly in the last few months. So for me, I could work on a lot of different things. But for me right now, it’s down regulating my emotions. There’s a lot of information around stress and how it impacts your immune system. So for me it’s like I’ve been doing a lot of meditating and breathing, and I feel so much better. Just like pick one thing you can do today and work on, and I think it’s super important.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

The other thing we want to talk about today and really the biggest focus today is also talking about vitamins and minerals and supplementation for your immune system. When we talk about nutrition, it’s so huge when it comes to your immune system. Even if you are eating, and we’ve talked about this many, many times before. Even if you’re eating the best nutrition for your body that you possibly can, we just can’t get all of the vitamins and minerals and the nutrients that we need in our body based on the quality of our soil and where things are grown and the way things are grown and shipped places now and things like that. Things just lose their nutritional value. They don’t have as much as they used to.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So another thing with our immune system is making sure that we have all of those vitamins and minerals and nutrients in our body to fortify our immune system.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. And that’s why we have a supplement company because we create supplements that help supplement the nutrients that we’re not getting in our every day diet. No matter how hard we try, we’re generally going to fall short in one area of another. Not for lack of effort. Sometimes, again, it’s just the quality of food nowadays versus 50 years ago, 60-70 years ago.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So we talk about supplements, and one thing that we’ve received a lot of feedback on is an immunity supplement. Yes, we have our 7M+ [now 7 Mushrooms], which is our mushroom blend. Yes, that is great for your immune system. It’s great for anti-aging. It’s great for muscle repair. It does a lot of things. But I know that there’s more that we can do.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I mean, listen, your immune system is a complex system. There’s a lot of different things that go into it. Specifically, we wanted to create something that was more effective for viral infections. Mainly like the common cold, the flu, even different coronaviruses, just things that were really going to help our immune system when it comes to viral infections.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So we did just that. We created a new product. It’s called Immunity 3. I think you’re absolutely going to love it. Let me tell you the three things that are in it, and then we’ll talk a little bit more specifically about each one of those.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So first and foremost, we have organic camu camu. Camu camu has the highest density of vitamin C of any plant on the planet. So we often think of oranges as being high in vitamin C. Well, camu camu is the highest of them all in vitamin C. This is really important because we know the benefits of vitamin C. We’ll talk more about those in a minute. But what’s most important is this is a whole food and it’s an organic whole food. So we’re not doing a synthetic like ascorbic acid that you see in 99% of the vitamin C supplements out there. We’re also going to talk about how you can’t absorb 99% of that ascorbic acid that you’re taking and why a whole food is that much better.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

The second ingredient that we have is two different types of zinc. Many of us know the benefits of zinc. We’re going to talk more about that. But how that really helps your body prepare for when a viral infection comes in to be able to fight it off and even heal you once you’ve got it.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

The third ingredient is organic elderberry extract. To me, these are the three main powerhouses when it comes to being able to fight off a viral infection. Let me rephrase that because I don’t want to talk about it fighting it off. This isn’t something that all of a sudden you’re starting to feel sick and so you go and you pop a whole bunch of it to hopefully fight it off. Yes, it will likely help some. But what’s really important here is being proactive, and when you have these nutrients in your system in abundance beforehand, it prevents the severity of the symptoms that you get if you were to get a viral infection.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So this is not to treat, this is not to fix, this is not to cure anything. But this is really going to help support a strong immune system. And again, the elderberry, zinc, and camu camu are the top three powerhouses to allow you to do that.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So let’s talk a little bit more about camu camu.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

I want to go back really quickly to what he just said because a lot of people in mainstream medicine and marketing of supplements and products now are reactive to situations instead of proactive. So it’s like if you’re going into a battle and you haven’t prepared, then all of a sudden you’re scrambling and fighting and you’re probably not going to win that battle. So I really like what he just said.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

We talk a lot about supporting the immune system and preparing our immune system for whatever comes our way. This is one of those ways that you can do it because chances are if you get to a point where you’re getting really sick and you’re all of a sudden now like… I love marketing now. This product will make you feel better. No, what will make you feel better is if you’ve prepared for what’s coming and you can bounce back more quickly. So I think it’s really important to determine between supporting and preparing your immune system for what’s coming, or being on that side of now all of a sudden I’m sick and I’m going to do everything I can to fight it. Chances are you’re going to be a lot more sick, have a lot harder time bouncing back, and then your immune system’s going to get weaker.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

The beautiful thing about getting viruses and getting sick, we’re also afraid of it. But if our immune system’s strong, it’s prepared, it’s ready for what’s coming, we’re giving it beautiful ingredients like we’re about to talk about now. It can actually strengthen your immune system more. Whereas if you haven’t done that work to really fortify your immune system, then your immune system’s going to come out weaker after you’ve been sick versus now it’s stronger because it was already strong, fought it off. You’ve prepared it for that battle. You’re not just fighting last minute without preparation.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

A lot of times we think about the immune system as the thing that comes in last and helps you get better. It’s actually the thing that we need to keep strong all the time and support all the time. It’s an ongoing battle we fight with our nutrient, with our sleep, with our health, with these ingredients we’re about to talk about so that your immune system can fight whatever comes its way.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Well, I mean, our immune system is constantly fighting things every day. We all have cancer cells in our body every single day, and your immune system, for most of us, is fighting that off. Well, there’s all kinds of viruses. There’s all kinds of bacterias that are constantly a “threat” to our body. This is why managing your stress is so important because when you get stressed out, that’s your body’s reaction. So it inflames it, and it’s responding. That’s your immune system responding, trying to get rid of that stress, that freak out. It’s why sleep is so important because that’s your time to rebuild and it’s time for your body to get healthy again. So when you’re chronically stressed and you’re freaking out and you’re not sleeping enough and your body can’t rebuild, what’s left there then when you get a higher intake of a virus? Now your body is already been working so hard just to maintain that now this extra thing that comes in is just that little bit that took you over the top. Then that’s when you really get sick.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So that’s why yes, you can have something that you can take when you start feeling a little bit ill, and yes, it might help your immune system a little bit be able to fight it off. But the most important thing is building it up strong so that your immune system is not working 24 hours a day and going haywire to fight off the stress and the lack of stress and the lack of nutrients and all of that stuff. It’s got all the fuel it needs so that there’s extra in the tank. When you come down with a cold or when you come down with the flu, that it just can pull from that reserve tank, fight it off. Maybe you’re out for a day or two as opposed to a week or two, and you’re right back at it again.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So that’s just kind of the concept here. I’m not going to say that if you’re listening to this right now and you’re not feeling well that Immunity 3 may not have you feel better. What I’m saying is the most effective route is the proactive route, and taking a couple Immunity 3’s every single day to help build your immune system so that you’re just prepared moving forward.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. So let’s talk about these three ingredients that we’ve put in here to really help build, support, and fortify the immune system.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So camu camu is a berry native to the Amazon rainforest, and while that sounds really remote and it is, amazing, amazing things grow in the Amazon rainforest. But this super food as been used for a long time to improve health and right now it’s very popular. In fact, you’ll find it in some of our other supplements as well because it’s such a powerful ingredient. Camu camu is supposed to help in reducing chronic diseases because it has antiinflammatory and antimicrobial properties, which are really important when it comes to things like our immune system being strong.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

It’s similar to tart cranberries, and it’s too acidic for most people to enjoy in its natural state unless you like things that are very tart, which a lot of people don’t. So it’s processed as an ingredient in blended juices or freeze dried into a powder that can be taken as a supplement. People can add it into their supplements, their smoothies and things like that.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So this is something you’ll hear a lot about more and more because it’s becoming so popular. It’s such a powerful, powerful plant.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

One of the things about camu camu that we already touch on is it’s really high in vitamin C. It is one of the most concentrated, if not the most concentrated natural food sources of vitamin C. And vitamin C in the camu camu acts as a powerful antioxidant in your body and is vital for the health of your skin first and foremost and your immune system. So who doesn’t want better and healthier skin, and who doesn’t want a stronger immune system?

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Because it’s so high in vitamin C content, camu camu’s also really, really powerful when it comes to antiinflammatory properties as well. If we have chronic inflammation in our body, our body has a hard time fighting off disease and infections that you maybe getting and has a harder time bouncing back from those things.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Yup. Absolutely. Some interesting side facts about our camu camu. It’s organic, of course, but we actually source it from Amazon John, John Easterling, Olivia Newton-John’s husband who helped us formulate our Brain Health 8 [formerly Ageless Brain] supplement.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

He’s been on the podcast before too. He’s awesome.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

We’ll probably have him on again to talk about camu camu even more. But these come straight from his farms down in Peru and in the Amazon rainforest, which is helping employ a lot of people down there, a lot of the locals, a lot of the natives down there. It’s phenomenal. I love supporting him. I love knowing where our ingredients come from. I know who they’re coming from. It’s not grown in China. It’s not grown in a lab. It’s not all of these other things it could be. It’s coming from a friend of ours, and I could get on a plane and go see exactly where camu camu is coming from and know and trust that it’s the cleanest organic, highest potency camu camu on the market.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

And trust me, I’ve searched around. I didn’t just say, “Oh, I know a guy who’s got that. Let’s call and get it from Amazon John.” We searched around, and Amazon John’s camu camu came back as the most pure and highest concentration of vitamin C of any of the other organic camu camus on the market. So it’s nice to get that confirmation sometimes. A little pat on the back that we are using the best people over and over again for multiple products.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

The other thing I really want to talk about for a second is the difference between ascorbic acid, which is a lab created synthetic vitamin C, versus camu camu, a whole food vitamin C. So you’ll look on our supplement facts, and you’ll see that a dose of our Immunity 3 gives you 120% of the RDA, the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C. It’s like 120%. I mean, yeah, that’s all of it, but it’s not a ton. I could buy this big bottle of vitamin C over here for $20 that has 1000 milligrams of ascorbic acid per pill, and I get 2000% RDA versus your 120%.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

This is a very important distinction because what we have to look at it is the bioavailability. What we have to look at is can your body recognize that ingredients, that substance, that mineral, that botanical, whatever it is that you’re taking in, can they recognize it as food? And then will it absorb it and use it the way that it should or the way that it was designed to?

Jonathan Hunsaker:

We know this as a fact for synthetic multi-vitamins, like your Centrum Silvers and your other one-a-days that a lot of times they just come out the other end still intact. If it actually breaks down, your body doesn’t even absorb it. It doesn’t change your blood work. It doesn’t change. If you get your blood work prior to taking Centrum Silver for a couple months versus after, you’re not going to see a difference in your vitamin levels because your body doesn’t recognize it as a food, and it doesn’t absorb it.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So while a label might say, “Hey, this vitamin C gives you 2000% RDA,” well, what if you body only absorbs 1% of that? If your body only absorbs 1% of that, you’re really only getting 20% of the RDA from that big vitamin C horse pill versus if you’re to take camu camu and let’s say it’s 120% RDA, your body’s probably not absorbing all 100%. But it’s likely getting the 80-90% mark because it’s a whole food. Your body recognizes it. It’s just going to digest it, and now if you’re getting 80% of that 120%, now you’re sitting around your 90-95% RDA. You’re almost getting all the vitamin C that your body needs from those two capsules.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

That’s a big difference. It’s a big thing to understand, and it makes it tough in the supplement space because we could use synthetic ingredients. And our label percentages would be phenomenal. They’d be through the roof and everybody would look at it and be like, “Oh my gosh. I’ve got enough vitamin C to last me the year if I take this one pill.” But the reality is is your body doesn’t use it. Your body doesn’t absorb it. And I have no desire to take myself or so do you some crap that your body’s not going to use, that you’re not going to get a benefit from. That’s why a whole food supplement is so important. That’s why all of our supplements are whole food, and there just is no cutting corners. We’re not just going to go and throw some cheap ascorbic acid in there for the sake of saying it has vitamin C.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. So put it in simple terms. Whole food ingredients versus synthetic are really, really dangerous as far as how much money you’re spending and the benefits you’re getting out of them. You really want to know the quality of your supplement, where it’s being sourced from, is it real, is it synthetic. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay for a $60 bottle of supplements that’s synthetic. I just see no value in that, and I also think it can damage your body.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Fun side fact. Most synthetic vitamins and minerals come as an oil tar byproduct. So when they’re extracting the oil out of the Earth, they’re able to extract these different vitamins out of the oil that’s come out of the Earth. And then that fortified that you see on the side of cold cereal boxes. It’s been fortified with vitamin A and vitamin this and vitamin that. It’s just a oil. They’ve extracted that vitamin out of the oil, out of the tar, and then infused it into this cereal that they sell you to give to your kids as a healthy breakfast. I’m sorry, but that’ll start getting me worked up.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

He’ll go on a tangent. You know Jesse Itzler. He’s an amazing, amazing man in business and other things, but he challenges the cereal companies every day. You eat your cereal that you sell and tell me that it’s healthy, and he cracks me up because it’s not funny. But he’ll offer them six figures to like do certain things, and no one’s taken him up on it because he’s like they’re so unhealthy. I don’t know. I don’t want to drink tar every morning, not literally but figuratively by the supplements I take and the food that I eat. So just food for thought there.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Just really quickly a few other things. No pun intended.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I was going to say tar for thought. But go ahead.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Okay. So just a few other things about camu camu. I mean, it’s not just vitamin C. It provides potassium, calcium, zinc, magnesium, copper, polyphenols, and again, we talked about the antimicrobial benefits. It supports gut health. Gut health and immune system are so intertwined. We’ve talked about it on many podcasts before. They are so intertwined. So not only do you have this incredible plant that’s supporting you with the vitamin C side of things for your immune system but also supporting your gut health. It can improve your liver health. And then like we talked about earlier, enhancing your mood. Vitamin C coming through the camu camu, getting that extra dose of that can really boost your mood, which also boosts your immune system. The less stressed you are, the happier you are, the happier your immune system is. And there’s research to back and prove that.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So really, really good stuff there with camu camu. It’s not just a source of vitamin C, but it’s got all these benefits that go along with it and other things that come with it that really benefit your immune system.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. I mean, when we were talking about and formulating and figuring out what source for vitamin C to put in there, camu camu just checked off so many boxes that that was the route to go.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. Second ingredient we want to talk about today is zinc. And because your immune system, like we’ve talked about, is the first line of defense against all disease, especially infectious disease, and there’s all these different ways to boost your immune system. Zinc was the next thing we looked at. So, so critical when it comes to a strong immune system and warding off viral infections. There’s just so many benefits to zinc like camu camu. We’re going to talk about those today.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So why did we choose to put zinc in there? Because it plays a lot of vital roles in your body, but your body doesn’t naturally produce zinc. You have to obtain it through food or supplements. So this is why it was critical when it came to formulating this product to have zinc in there. Zinc is the second most abundant trace mineral in your body after iron, and it’s present in every cell. So think about how interesting that is. Your body doesn’t naturally produce it but it’s present in every cell. So think if I’m not getting enough of this in my body, what does that do to your body?

TeriAnn Trevenen:

It’s critical for the development and function of immune cells. I’m going to say that again. It’s critical, zinc is critical for the development and function of your immune cells. We’re talking about the immune system. It’s fundamental to skin health, DNA synthesis and protein production. Super important. It’s important for body growth and development, for cell growth and division, and healthy cell growth and division because there’s two sides to that conversation. And you want that healthy cell growth and division. You want that to be working normally in your body. When you see abnormal cell growth and division, then we’re getting into things like cancer. Really, really, really important to have that healthy cell growth and division.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Zinc is also needed for your senses of taste and smell. I mean, I learned some things in looking at zinc too that I actually didn’t know. So taste and smell, that’s really important. So there’s a lot of things that go into having zinc in your body and having enough of it in your body, and it’s one of the reasons we have it in here.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

It’s absolutely vital, and most of you in the know know about zinc, know about it’s ethicacy. When you’re trying to fight off a cold, when you’re trying to fight off the flu and getting it in there.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

A couple things to note about zinc is you don’t want to take too much zinc. It can start depleting your body of calcium and even iron. So it’s why our zinc levels, again, we’re putting I believe it’s 110%, 120% of the RDA of zinc that you need as well. And it’s okay to go a little bit over. It’s not like it’s anything critical, but you don’t want to overdose zinc so to speak and have too much of it at least for a long period of time. It’s not an issue if you’re taking it for short term, increasing your zinc dosage for a week while you’re fighting it off. But in the long term, which is what we… Again, we created Immunity 3 to be something you take every day of the year, not just when you’re feeling sick.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Preparation, not reaction to sickness. And I want to also say there was actually a study done with zinc lozenges just to kind of drive this home for you where people who are having an episode with the common cold, shortened the duration of their cold by up to 40%. So zinc when it comes to the immune system in your body… Now I’m not saying be reactionary and all of a sudden run out and get zinc because you’re sick. This is exactly why we created this product so that you can fortify your immune system along the way, and then when that common cold creeps in, why is it so important? Well, your cells get attacked when you’re sick. And here we’re talking about how zinc supports healthy cell growth and division. And part of the process of keeping your body strong and healthy is that healthy cell growth and division and your cells being strong and healthy so they can fight things off. So there’s all this that plays into it.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

But just to really drive that home, people who are at risk for zinc deficiency are people who have issues like Crohn’s disease, people with sickle cell anemia, people who are malnourished, people with chronic kidney disease, people who have alcohol abuse, pregnant and breastfeeding women. You have a huge risk at being deficient for zinc. So if you fall into those categories, really be mindful of your zinc intake that you’re getting enough to support you and your immune system.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Yeah. Vegetarians, vegans, and I do eat meats and even my latest blood work showed that I was deficient in zinc.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

I think a lot of people are quite frankly.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I think a lot of people are deficient in a lot of things if you’re not testing for it. I think that we believe that the marketing on all of the things that we eat is giving us everything that we need, but then when you actually get the blood work done, you find out that you could be operating at a much more optimal level if you were supplementing some other things or eating some different foods or doing some stuff like that.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Well, and it goes back to the conversation that you had earlier about synthetic. A lot of foods and especially processed food promise that you’re going to get certain nutrients and vitamins in there, but chances are that they’re synthetic. Chances are there’s very minimal amounts in there, and that’s why it’s important. Whether you’re going to research for yourself what kind of foods can I eat that contain zinc, that boost my immune system, support my immune system, help my immune system, or you’re going to supplement. Make sure whether it’s supplementing with this or eating it in your nutrition plan, make sure you’re getting it naturally and it’s something that your body can absorb and it’s not just a false promise from a company that’s doing great marketing, and you’re really not getting any of that benefit.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. You want to tell us about elderberry?

TeriAnn Trevenen:

I’ll tell you about elderberry.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Organic elderberry extract, by the way.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Yup. And it’s one of the most commonly used medicinal plants in the world. Chances are at this point you’ve heard about elderberry, especially with what’s happened last year. Everybody’s talking about elderberry. It was Native Americans who traditionally used it to treat infections. Ancient Egyptians used it to improve their complexions and heal burns. And it’s still used across Europe by natural folk, people doing natural folk medicine and things like that. I mean, it is very, very, very prevalent in the world today.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

It refers to several varieties of Sambucus tree, which has clusters of white flowers and black of blue/black berries, which I don’t know about you, but it just sounds beautiful in my mind. The most common variety is Sambucus nigra, also known as European elderberry or black elderberry.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Elderberry is most often taken as a supplement to treat cold and flu symptoms. It’s high in antioxidants, which we talked about with the zinc and the camu camu, so super important. It’s also really good at fighting harmful bacteria. It inhibits the growth of bacteria, which we know there are good bacterias and bad bacterias, and it fights the bad bacteria in your body that you don’t want growing there. And also just that really, really powerful support of the immune system, which is why we created this product.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Elderberry polyphenols were found to support immune defense by increasing the number of white blood cells. So back to the conversation about healthy cells. You want healthy cells. Healthy cells are indicative of a healthy immune system. So that is something that elderberry plays into. We saw that with zinc as well. So I just wanted to touch on those few things around elderberry because it is such a powerful ingredient in this product and something that I think is really important to have in your nutrient plan.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. I learned a lot more about elderberry quite frankly after having my daughters and them catching colds and finding out what the best stuff was. Stuff that was safe for kids to take, not wanting to give them a bunch of over the counter, other flu medicines and things like that or cold medicines. Elderberry came up a lot, and it’s something that I give them often. So it was a no brainer in making sure that it went into this formulation.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Now we talked about being very proactive, and yes, take a couple capsules per day to strengthen the immune system. Does that mean that if you start feeling symptoms that you shouldn’t take more? I cannot give you that medical advice, but I can tell you what I do and what works for me is yes, I take it every day. But we’ve seen the studies that show that taking elderberry once you have symptoms can decrease the amount of time that you have those symptoms. We know that having zinc can decrease by 40%.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So myself personally is what I do, not giving you advice, is I would double up at those times. And I do the same thing with 7up. 7up? 7M [now 7 Mushrooms]. What am I thinking? I need more Brain Health 8 [formerly Ageless Brain]. When I’m taking my 7M [now 7 Mushrooms], but if I start feeling myself come down with anything, again, this isn’t… What we’re offering here with our supplements isn’t like this guarantee that once you take them, you’re going to be strong and never get sick again. It’s good to get sick. It’s good for your body to respond, to be able to respond, to be able to fight off of these things. What I want to do is I want to give my body the nutrients it needs to help it do it.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So just like 7M [now 7 Mushrooms], I take my regular couple pills a day. But if I start feeling something come on, I double my dose there. The same thing with Immunity 3. The other thing that I do, and this is totally up to you for what you want to do, but what I do in my house is I give half a dose to my kids. So I open up the capsule. They’re too young to swallow it. Just one capsule each, and mix it in with their smoothie, with their organic greens drink or with their bone broth protein or just with the juice. Totally up to you on what you choose to do. But it’s what I do here in my house for myself, for my girls.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Yeah, I think this is a phenomenal supplement to have, especially with everything going on. There was some pressure early on for us to put something out. But there’s also part of having integrity and making sure that we didn’t just throw something together and throw it out to the market because the market was demanding it right away, and we could make a quick buck. We really wanted to make sure that we put together the best quality product that we could and for a time, it was hard to get some organic camu camu. It was hard to secure enough of the organic elderberry extract.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Really hard to get it. Really hard.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I mean, you guys know how it is right now with just shipping things and being able to get ahold of different things. So not only did we want to perfect our formulation, but we also wanted to make sure we secured enough ingredients to be able to have this long term.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

The other thing I want to talk about here is kind of the price point around Immunity 3. It’s really important to us, especially right now that we were able to put something out there that a lot of people could afford. I know a lot of our supplements are at the higher end of the spectrum. They simply have to be because of the quality of the ingredients. Immunity 3 is no different. The difference is we’re just not going to make a whole bunch on it, but the goal is to help a lot more people to get healthy until we get to the other side of the craziness that we’re going in right now.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Again, I’m not making any claims this is going to cure anything, prevent anything, or make up for any kind of vaccine or any craziness like that. All I’m saying is I think it’ll have you be healthier and stronger. So we’re doing it, and it’s only $38 a bottle for this single bottle. If you do the subscribe and save or buy multiple bottles, you can get as little as $30 a month. So that’s a dollar a day, which I feel we were striving to get to that point on a price point level. We had to secure a certain amount of ingredients, a certain amount of stuff ahead of time to make sure we could do that. Because I think that this is something everybody should take every single day, and it’s going to make a massive difference in how you feel. It’s going to make a massive difference if you were to catch a cold or get a flu or any other virus that might be out there.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. Yeah. I want to come back to all important points. I want to come back to elderberry for just a second so it’s not the unsung hero of the podcast in talking about these ingredients. I just want to touch on a few other things around elderberry. We’re going to have in the show notes some research around the common cold, and some of the things that we found with elderberry because of people taking elderberry and reducing their time with the common cold. And especially where we’re in that winter time of year for a lot of us, not all of the world, but for those of us who are in the winter time and for those of you who will go into it later, the cold becomes more prevalent when things get cold. We’re inside more. We’re not out getting that sun and all those things that we need to stay healthy.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

I do want to just touch on something that we often touch on on the podcast. While we love providing amazing, high quality, clear, pure supplements to you using organic ingredients wherever possible, it’s just really important for us too to educate you and to let you know that taking care of your body is the greatest gift you can give to yourself to strengthen your immune system. We talked about this earlier. But I just want to drive these points home, and I am walking proof of the fact that your strong immune system leads to a healthier, happier life. Getting better sleep, reducing your stress levels, whatever that is, taking a walk with your dog, meditating, deep breathing, spending time with people you love, putting your phone down and walking away. Our phones cause a lot of stress. Painting, if you love to paint. Playing a song if you play an instrument. Get into those things that down regulate your emotions.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Healthy nutrition for your body, and that looks different for all of us. We are not advocates of one way of eating. Rather we really encourage you, especially when it comes to your immune system, there’s so much you can do now to dial in what you need. Where are you deficient? Blood work. Where are you deficient? Where can you really fortify your immune system where you maybe lacking things in your nutrition plan? Cutting back on sugar. Sugar is the number one killer of our immune system. Eating sugar in moderation, I think that’s fine. I don’t think eating sugar in every day nutrition plans is wise, and also something that you can really spend some time education yourself on is the labels. Sugar is being snuck into everything that we eat, and looking at the label really tells you how much is there.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

We even did a challenge as a team for one week, eat things that have less than five grams in sugar content in your foods. Everything you eat, and it’s just if you did that one thing for yourself, it would make a massive difference. It’s overwhelming to think how do I do all of these things at one time? As we mentioned before, what’s one thing right now that you’re struggling with the most? Is it sleep? Is it stress? Is it eating better foods every single day that really benefits your body? Maybe you’re doing all those things and the next step is getting that supplementation in there with those vitamins and minerals that you need. Whatever it is, I think it’s so important that we focus on our immune system, focus on our health as we kick off the new year.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Again, I truly believe it’s the greatest gift you can give to yourself for long term happiness and health. And then also as we share on the podcast today, we’re super excited to have put this product together for you as something that you can add into your regime to really support your immune system long term and be able to fight off those diseases, those infections, those things that try to invade your body.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So this is a good time as we kick off the new year to put an increased focus and effort into living a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. We have a lot of resources for you at empoweryouorganically.com. So we’ve done podcasts on how to sleep better. We’ve done several podcasts on stress. We’ve even done podcasts on the coronavirus and things you can do there. I mean, some quick tips, especially as I see there’s countries going back into lockdown again and things like that. I’ll keep my personal opinion aside on that, but what I will say is if you’re forced to stay inside, open up your windows. Get some fresh air in. It’s one of the best things that you can do right now. You need that fresh air and not have that same air circulating and circulating, more and more toxic the longer it circulates. Open your windows, open your doors. Get outside and get some sunlight somehow. If that means sticking your head out the window, I don’t know. Whatever you need to do, get some vitamin D, supplement with vitamin D as well right now.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

But anyway, we have a whole podcast about things you can do around coronavirus, the sleep, the stress. Tons of podcasts around nutrition and different ways of eating and different ways to supplement to get what your body needs.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So go to empoweringyouorganically.com and check out the library of different podcasts that we have there. Organixx.com. We have tons of articles in our health library. There’s so much there that we want to give you and educate you on, and if you feel inspired and want to try Immunity 3, try it. If not, at least go get educated and make other changes in your life that are going to get you to that next level of health. And the good news is once you got that next level, there’s another level and another level. And it’s not a daunting, “Oh my gosh, there’s more and more to do.” It’s an exciting place to be because as you get to each new level of health, you feel better and better, which increases the motivation, which increases all these other things. And your quality of life gets so much better that when you look back to this day, three years from now, you may not even recognize who you were or how you were living.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So you don’t have to wait to the first of the year to always make a change, but January certainly is a great time to make that change and a good motivator.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So empoweringyouorganically.com, organixx.com. Everything you need there. Go check out Immunity 3. And that’s all I got to say.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Happy New Year everyone.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Thanks everyone. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we will see you on the next podcast.

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