Many people are tempted, especially in the cold season, to run to “strengthen the immune system” with the help of vitamins, supplements, pills or miraculous drops, which are everywhere: in pharmacies, in advertisements on TV or on the Internet. But is it possible to strengthen immunity overnight with miracle pills? I spoke with Adrian Marinescu, an infectious disease doctor and medical director of the Matei Balsch Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, about how much truth and how much myth surrounds the miracle supplement.

“There are no miracle cures, there are only medicines that help”

“I think the pandemic has shown that there are no miracle cures, only medicines that help,” says Adrian Marinescu.

According to the doctor, the number one method of prevention, for example, in the case of influenza, for which there is a vaccine, is vaccination: “No one says that at the moment medicine is not useful. But the method of prevention through vaccination has nothing to do with the fact that I will take medicine at a certain time,” Adrian Marinescu explains to HotNews.ro.

Dr. Adrian Marinescu

Vitamins and supplements don’t prevent virus infection: “It’s obvious and logical that it doesn’t go away from there”

Nobody says that you can’t use vitamin supplements and not only in the cold season, – explains Adrian Marinescu.

They do not in any way prevent viral infections such as the flu, explains the doctor: “If you want to take supplements and vitamins, you should do so while talking to your doctor if you have a certain pathology. . And you have to do it for balance, not to prevent a viral infection, a virus like the flu virus. It is obvious and logical that it cannot be resolved from there.”

Immunity is strengthened thanks to lifestyle: “In no case do not solve fast food with vitamins”

Vitamins and supplements can actually be a way to balance the immune system at some point, says Dr. Adrian Marinescu.

But besides these vitamins and supplements, “there are many factors that ultimately determine the balance at a certain point: here I mean lifestyle, diet, exercise, the fact that we teach our children to exercise from a young age, because we lead an honest way of life.”

“I will never be able to solve fast food with vitamins. No way,” says doctor Adrian Marinescu.

Read also:

• Why lemon, vitamin C and other miracle supplements do not protect against flu, COVID-19 or seasonal viruses: “There is nothing to look for in the correct language of the doctor-patient conversation in increasing immunity”