We’re always looking for things to support our immune system, and given the uncertainty around health—whether that’s a pandemic, flu season, or just the common cold—having your immune system in tip-top shape should be a given.
The immune system is a complex system involving several organs and a ton of immune cells that protect your body from harm—inside and out.
But to do its job properly, it relies on a delicate balance of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, antioxidants, and other vital nutrients to support key immune pathways.
Food is obviously a significant contributor to provide the immune system with what it needs, but when desperate times call for desperate measures, or maybe just normal maintenance, supplementation is the way to go!
If you didn’t think probiotics were a staple for immune support, it’s time to think again. And we’re talking about one specifically—IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma.
We’ll give you the rundown of what IMMUSE™ is, why probiotics are important for immune health (and overall health), and what makes IMMUSE™ different from other probiotic supplements.
What Is IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma?
When it comes to choosing a probiotic supplement to support overall health and well-being or direct support to your immune system, choosing one that’s effective is no easy task.
Finding a good probiotic can be like looking for a needle in a haystack; there’s an endless supply of strains, brands, CFUs, and whatever else is involved in finding the right bacteria, and then on top of that, you have to questions whether it actually works—maybe it’s dead on arrival like many probiotic supplements are. And the efficacy of that? Zero.
Rather than stressing out about picking a probiotic, we’ve done the work for you. It’s called IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma, and it’s one of the best and most effective immune-supporting probiotics on the market.
IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma is a Lactococcus lactis strain of bacteria that’s totally unique. Unlike other lactic acid bacteria that only activate one type of immune cell—natural killer (NK) cells—IMMUSE™ works by activating pDC (plasmacytoid dendritic cells).
They’re the “commander-in-chief” of the immune system, and activation of these guys plays a massive role in activating powerful immune defenses.
Once turned on, it activates not only NK cells, but also killer-T cells, helper T-cells, and B cells, providing you with the broad-range immune support needed to fight invaders and keep your body protected.
The Lactococcus Lactis Strain Plasma is a research-backed strain of lactic acid bacterium that’s different from anything else you’ll find. Because it’s able to activate plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), it takes immune support to the next level to:
- Promote immune health and function
- Support respiratory function
- Promote digestive function
- Enhance exercise performance
But what is IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma really?
It is a heat-killed and shelf-stable lactic acid bacterium that’s classified as a paraprobiotic rather than a traditional probiotic. Unlike the conventional probiotic supplements you find that require refrigeration because they are alive, paraprobiotics are inactivated and are not alive.
IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma is an isolated fraction from the bacterial cells that activates pDCs, meaning it’s a shelf-stable product that offers probiotic-like effects. Essentially, it’s all the benefits you’d get from a high-quality probiotic with none of the hassle.
The Benefits Of Taking Probiotics
We’ve always thought about probiotics for balancing the gut and supporting good gut health, but it turns out that probiotics are actually so much more.
While they do play a significant role in re-establishing balance within the microbial environment of the gut, they play a more far-reaching role in maintaining health and equilibrium within the body.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of supplementing with probiotics.
1. Improves Health Of The Gut Microbiome
The gut is, quite possibly, one of the most important factors to consider when looking at overall health and well-being. It’s the center of your body and has control over several processes that influence health. Simply put, if the gut isn’t healthy, it’s hard to have a healthy body. They’re one and the same.
But when it comes to supporting good gut health, there’s a number of factors that work against you to try to disrupt the delicate balance in the gut—stress, nutrition, exercise, toxins and pollutants, alcohol, smoking, you name it, and it probably has some influence.
Where probiotics come in is to help support that balance and re-establish it if it’s gone whack.
When the balance between good and bad bacteria in the gut is disrupted, it leads to a condition called dysbiosis, which sets the stage for a host of nasty health conditions which you probably wouldn’t associate with gut health, including 1:
- Inflammatory bowel diseases
- Irritable bowel disease (IBD)
- Celiac disease
- Asthma
- Allergies
- Metabolic syndrome
- Obesity
- Cardiovascular disease
Aside from supporting the immune system, these good bacteria also perform essential metabolic functions like acting as a source of essential nutrients and vitamins, and supporting the extraction of energy and nutrients (short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), amino acids, etc.).
So, when you don’t have enough of the good guys to perform these roles, it causes body-wide disruption. And having good gut health also leads to our next role of probiotics—immune function. You can’t have an unhealthy gut and a healthy immune system; it just doesn’t work like that.
2. Supports Immune Function
One of the newest roles of probiotics and gut bacteria is in supporting immune function. More than 70% of your immune system resides in the gut, which means it must be balanced and healthy to support healthy immune defenses 2.
The immune system is thought to be one of the most important forces that shape the configuration of both a normal or dysbiotic microbiome, so looking at the immune system–microbiome crosstalk is essential for understanding how probiotics can help to support a healthy immune system via supporting a healthy gut.
Studies show that both the innate and adaptive immune defenses control the colonization of the intestinal microbiota via specific mechanisms, such as the production of antimicrobial peptides and IgA antibodies 3.
Intestinal dysbiosis, therefore, may actively influence the composition of the gut by directly altering the functions of the innate and adaptive immune defenses.
But with respect to lactic acid bacteria like what’s found in IMMUSE™, research shows it can 4:
- Support proliferation of good bacteria and re-establish microbiota homeostasis
- Suppress growth of harmful bacteria
- Reduce blood cholesterol levels
- Enhance immune defenses
- Suppress endogenous infection
We’re not going to dive into the mechanical depths of how they do this, but in simple terms, bacteria support immune balance and proper function through several unique mechanisms, including 5-9:
- Producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) — Regulate immune function and inflammation by reducing recruitment and migration of various immune cells (macrophages, neutrophils, dendritic cells) and regulating differentiation of T and B cells
- Decreasing gut pH — A low gut pH is required to kill pathogenic bacteria entering from food
- Nutrient synthesis — Colonic bacteria are known to synthesize several B vitamins (thiamine, folate, biotin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid); up to half of the daily Vitamin K requirement is also provided by gut bacteria
- Supporting mucosal barrier function — Disruption of epithelial barrier integrity is an underlying factor associated with the development of several gastrointestinal diseases, and probiotics may help to reduce intestinal inflammation, thereby improving gut integrity
- Immunomodulation — Offer immunological protection by regulating, stimulating, and modulation of immune responses
But that’s not all. Studies show that lactic acid bacteria influence several aspects of the innate and adaptive defenses through their ability to stimulate phagocytosis and IgA secretion, modify T-cell responses, enhance Th1 responses, and attenuate Th2 responses 4, 10.
3. Modulates Inflammation
There is no shortage of benefits to taking probiotics, especially at the intestinal level, but one of the major benefits of supplementing may be their ability to reduce inflammation.
Chronic low-grade systemic inflammation underlies a host of pathological conditions. It’s suggested that around the world, 3 in 5 people die from chronic inflammatory diseases like stroke, chronic respiratory diseases, heart disorders, cancer, obesity, and diabetes—all things that can be prevented through proper lifestyle choices that mitigate inflammation 11.
Of the many options that can reduce inflammation, lactic acid bacteria have been one route that’s been proven pretty successful. Research shows that lactic acid bacteria metabolites are characterized for their anti-inflammatory properties along with their capacity to cross the intestinal barrier under both normal and inflammatory conditions 12.
Studies find that L. Lactis may exhibit anti-inflammatory properties that can reduce the production of nitric oxide (NO) and pro-inflammatory cytokines 13.
One rodent study found that rats given IL-10-secreting Lactococcus lactis saw a 50% decrease in colitis occurrence. Other studies have confirmed that L. Lactis can increase the production of IL-6 and sustain the production of IL-10 in colonic tissue to modulate inflammation 14, 15.
Final Thoughts
Investing in a good probiotic is never a bad idea, whether it’s to clear up inflammation, up-regulate immune function, or just provide general gut maintenance. But we can all agree that the first step to supporting overall health and wellness starts with maintaining a healthy immune system.
IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma supports proper function of the entire immune system by activating the immune system’s master regulator—pDCs, which in turn activates several other types of immune cells for full coverage of the immune system.
With the increasing demands that our daily lives put on us, achieving balance and supporting a healthy immune system year-round can be a challenge, but when you throw something like PL-Immune with IMMUSE™ LC-Plasma into the mix, you know you’re getting clinically-researched immune support that will protect you from the inside, out.
References
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- G Vighi, F Marcucci, L Sensi, G Di Cara, F Allergy and the gastrointestinal system.Clin Exp Immunol. 2008;153 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):3-6.
- M Levy, AA Kolodziejczyk, CA Thaiss, E Elinav. Dysbiosis and the immune system.Nat Rev Immunol. 2017;17(4):219-232.
- M Kechagia, D Basoulis, S Konstantopoulou, et al. Health benefits of probiotics: a review.ISRN Nutr. 2013;2013:481651.
- Y Yao, X Cai, W Fei, Y Ye, M Zhao, C Zheng. The role of short-chain fatty acids in immunity, inflammation and metabolism (published online ahead of print, 2020 Dec 1).Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2020;1-12.
- MJ Morowitz, EM Carlisle, JC Contributions of intestinal bacteria to nutrition and metabolism in the critically ill. Surg Clin North Am. 2011;91(4):771-viii.
- RJ Kennedy, SJ Kirk, KR Gardiner. Mucosal barrier function and the commensal flora. 2002;50(3):441-442.
- PA Bron, M Kleerebezem, RJ Brummer, et al. Can probiotics modulate human disease by impacting intestinal barrier function?Br J Nutr. 2017;117(1):93-107.
- MAK Azad, M Sarker, D Wan. Immunomodulatory Effects of Probiotics on Cytokine Profiles. Biomed Res Int. 2018;2018:8063647.
- E Isolauri, Y Sütas, P Kankaanpää, H Arvilommi, S Salminen. Probiotics: effects on immunity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2001;73(2 Suppl):444S-450S.
- R Pahwa, A Goyal, P Bansal, et al. Chronic Inflammation. (Updated 2020 Nov 20). In: StatPearls (Internet). Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493173/
- S Ménard, C Candalh, JC Bambou, K Terpend, N Cerf-Bensussan, M Heyman. Lactic acid bacteria secrete metabolites retaining anti-inflammatory properties after intestinal transport. 2004;53(6):821-828.
- A Sharma. Chapter 4- Importance of Probiotics in Cancer Prevention and Treatment. Recent Developments in Applied Microbiology and Biochemistry. 2019; 33-45.
- L Steidler, W Hans, L Schotte, et al. Treatment of murine colitis by Lactococcus lactis secreting interleukin-10. 2000;289(5483):1352-1355.
- TD Luerce, AC Gomes-Santos, CS Rocha, et al. Anti-inflammatory effects of Lactococcus lactis NCDO 2118 during the remission period of chemically induced colitis. Gut Pathog. 2014;6:33.
