The current pandemic environment means that everyone needs a healthy immune system, no matter what your age or what other health conditions you may have.
For older people, as well as those in risk such immunocompromised or who are sick with comorbidities (diabetes, heart problems, kidney problems, respiratory issues etc.), immune response is even more important, since we lose some of our immunity as we age.
A number of recent studies have shown that Thymosin Alpha 1 is helpful in promoting strong immunity and, more recently, helpful in dampening an over-active immune response, something that is adversely affecting the outcomes of those with COVID-19.
What is Thymosin Alpha 1?
According to the National Institute of Health website, Thymosin Alpha “is a naturally occurring thymic peptide of 28 amino acids”.
What does that mean, exactly?
It means that Thymosin Alpha 1 is a chain of amino acids that are already found in small amounts in the human body, inside the thymus gland.
Amino acids are the organic compounds found in proteins that determine that protein’s specific function.
The natural role is to regulate the body’s immune response.
It serves to activate the immune system and so it can kill bacterial, fungal, or viral infections as well as tumor cells.
Thymosin Alpha 1 also improves the body’s response to vaccines by stimulating antibody production.
“Discovered” in the 1960s, has been used successfully to treat a number of health conditions, such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy and more.
How Thymosin Alpha 1 helps improve immunity
There have been a number of studies done in the past few years by reputable organizations on the benefits of using Thymosin Alpha 1 to enhance a body’s immune system (over and above the body’s natural reserves of ).
More recently, studies have been done about the possible effects that might have in combating the effects and morbidity of COVID-19.
In addition, more than 4,400 individuals have enrolled in clinical trials involving Thymosin Alpha 1.
Below are a few highlights and conclusions from these studies and clinical trials:
Increased immune modulation.
A person’s immune system is a tricky thing.
If you have too little response, a virus or disease can replicate with abandon in the body and cause severe illness or even death.
Too much of a response is also harmful and can cause the body to attack itself, as it does with varying degrees in people with auto-immune disorders, such as arthritis, lupus, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
Increased efficacy of vaccines for viruses.
A 2016 study by the Department of Nephrology and Dialysis at Padua Hospital in Padua, Italy, concluded that combines with a vaccine for H1N1 virus increased the immune response and the protective qualities of the vaccine with no adverse effects.
Dampened overactivity of the immune system.
One of the leading causes of death from COVID-19 is a so-called “cytokine storm”, an overactive immune response, where the body turns against itself, specifically in the lungs.
A joint 2020 study by the University of Perugia in Italy and the University San Raffaele in Rome found that treatment with “specifically potentiated immune tolerance in diseased lungs, breaking the vicious circle linking chronic lung inflammation and infections and restoring ciliary beating function.”
They concluded that ” holds promise as a drug that will boost immunity at an early stage of SARS-CoV-2 infection and promote immune tolerance and tissue homeostasis in the severe respiratory stage.”
Augmented T-cell function in response to COVID-19.
Although has been used for many years as an immune modifier, especially with older patients, it was unclear how it would work against the novel COVID-19 virus.
