Immune Boosting in the Time of COVID: Selling Immunity on Instagram

Wagner, Darren N.; Marcon, Alessandro R.; Caulfield, Timothy

doi:10.31219/osf.io/ptmcw

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In response to the increased COVID-19 cases, the lockdown was implemented across various countries, and the internet was the only valuable tool for accessing health-related information about immunity-boosting nutrients and vaccines, enhancing their self-efficacy in fighting against the virus (4) . Immune boosting was a trending topic correlated with the coronavirus pandemic due to people's heightened concern of developing a fighting fit immune system (5) . The pandemic has also affected the content explored by internet users, and internet services rise from 40% to 100% (6) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining the nutritional immunity information-seeking behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in India: a Google Trends data analysis

Kushwaha

Khanna

Jain

et al. 2021

Public Health Nutr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: During COVID-19, the internet was a prime source for getting relevant updates on guidelines and desirable information. The objective of the present study was to determine the nutritional immunity information seeking behaviour during COVID-19 in India. Design: Google Trends (GTs) data on relevant COVID-19 and nutritional topics were systematically selected and retrieved. Data on newly reported COVID-19 cases were also examined on a daily basis. The cross-correlation method was used to determine the correlation coefficient between the selected terms and daily new COVID-19 cases, and the joint point regression models were utilised to measure monthly percent change in relative search volumes. Setting: Online. Participants: People using google search during period 01-01-2020 to 31-08-2020 in India. Results: The date of peak searches can be attributed to the COVID-19 guidelines announcement dates. All the nutritional terms showed a significant increase in average monthly percentage change. The higher than the average daily rise in COVID-19 cases leads to a higher than average increase in RSVs of nutritional terms with the greatest association after 14 to 27 days. The highest mean relative search volume for nutritional terms was from Southern India (49.34±7.43), and the lowest was from Western India (31.10±6.30). Conclusion: There was a significant rise in the google searches of nutritional immunity topics during COVID-19 in India. The local/regional terms can be considered for better outreach of public health guidelines or recommendations. Further automation of Google Trends using programming languages can help in real-time monitoring and planning various health/nutritional events.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determining the nutritional immunity information-seeking behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in India: a Google Trends data analysis

Kushwaha

Khanna

Jain

et al. 2021

Public Health Nutr.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It was reported in high-pressure liquid chromatographic analysis, to contain a controlled steroid, testosterone in over-thecounter available dietary supplements (Green et al, 2001). The buyer's behavior is also influenced by variety of social media which largely involves commercial interest and is merely a scientific rhetoric (Wagner et al, 2020). Such studies are out of the scope of this article but we propose that more scientific validation of these herbal products should be performed for confirming the purity and efficacy of herbal products.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

An alarming public health concern over variability in herbal compositions of marketed immunity booster products during COVID-19: A botanical survey-based study

Kalal

Charola

2021

IJERR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The world is going through pandemic of the century named COVID-19 disease. The COVID-19 pathogenesis involves cytokine storm in advanced stage leading to systemic hyper-inflammation. Medicinal herbs are practiced as part of alternative therapies in addition to clinically approved drugs with strong belief of its safety and efficacy. In present times, many herbal immunity booster products are available in market which claims to boost immunity for fighting against COVID-19 in prevention and cure. In this study, herbal products with tag of Immunity boosters were surveyed from medical stores and studied for their botanical contents. We surveyed 60 herbal products out of which 31% were tablets and rest were other forms like capsule, decoction and avaleha. Among the products, 17% products were from Dabur followed by Himalaya, Zandu and rest other leading brands of herbal market. Total 98 plants belonging to 50 diverse plant families like Zingiberaceae, Lamiaceae, Piperaceae and Apiaceae were reported being used in these products. Including Fruits (19%), Root (18%) and Leaf (17%), total 20 different plant parts were found used as medicinal herbs. These herbal products were having 10.27 ± 14.02 herbs with range of 56 indicates huge ingredient variation among the products. This diversity in products poses serious health concern in buyers who do not know the safety and efficacy of immunity boosters, being used in COVID-19 pandemic.

show abstract

“…ese supplementations do not have any added benefits to the health if taken unnecessary or in an additional amount. [28,29] e additional amount of these supplements are mostly devoid of any injurious consequences; however, the doses used in the experimental analysis were not of very large levels.…”

Section: Immunity Boosters: Do They Exist?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[6,7,11] e use of supplementation will be providing the necessary sustenance to the immunity to achieve the optimal level in these conditions. [15,28,29] Due to the current age lifestyle, food habits, and exposure to toxic substances (level of pollution); physiological parameters show deviations from normal ranges. Neuropsychiatric and psychological well-being is also essential for achieving optimal immune response.…”

Section: Immunity Boosters: Do They Exist?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, using the term "Immunity Boosters" for these is misleading and scientifically debatable. [28,29] However, due to their effectiveness, at an insignificant level, no or minimal toxicity at the doses being prescribed, and being a food component, many individuals use these boosters. [29] A perceived fear of getting infected also drives the use of the substances and practices.…”

Section: Immunity Boosters: Do They Exist?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Immunity boosters in COVID-19: Reality or myth?

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented threat to human beings. The emergence of pathogens always had been a threat as the designing and verification of treatment strategies and vaccines take time. In such a scenario, the use of strategies, formulations, or chemicals to improve immunity can provide protection, at least partially. The use of some traditional or folk medicinal preparations and other supplements derived from plants are among the most common agents used for keeping immunity tidy and tough. They are used by many with the belief that being herbal in origin these agents are safe. These formulations/preparations are regarded as “Immunity Boosters.” Revolving information and advertisements in bulk and the strategies of “the attention economy” also propagate this belief. The term “Immunity Booster” is a misnomer for these agents and is scientifically not approved. However, the benefits of these herbal formulations cannot be denied. Few of these herbal formulations have benefits in preventive and therapeutic management infections including those of SARS-CoV-2. Due to lifestyle, diet habits, deficiencies and neuropsychological stress, the immunity of a large fraction of the population is not optimal. Uncertainty and fear prevalent in the time of pandemic also negatively affect the immunity threshold. Many phytochemicals have been proven to aid in maintaining the threshold of immune response to an optimal level in subjects with compromised states of immunity. The immunomodulatory potential of these traditional herbal formulations also offers advantages when used along with standard operating procedures in COVID-19. Proposed formulations and their components also have disadvantageous effects and must be used under supervision with scientific methods. Excessive use of these agents may not only affect the organ and tissues deleteriously, but it can also invite immunopathology. Experimental verification of benefits being offered by these herbal agents will aid in their rightful exploitation in the therapy of human ailments including COVID-19.

show abstract

Immune Boosting in the Time of COVID: Selling Immunity on Instagram

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Determining the nutritional immunity information-seeking behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in India: a Google Trends data analysis

Determining the nutritional immunity information-seeking behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in India: a Google Trends data analysis

An alarming public health concern over variability in herbal compositions of marketed immunity booster products during COVID-19: A botanical survey-based study

Immunity boosters in COVID-19: Reality or myth?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About