How to Enhance Your Immune System | Dr. Roger Seheult

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Staying well rests on the same pillars as general health

  Seheult, a pulmonary and critical care physician, organizes prevention around NEWSTART, a mnemonic coined by Dr. Neil Nedley: nutrition (as natural and unprocessed as possible), exercise, water, sunlight, temperance (avoiding toxins), air, rest and trust. Exercise follows a J-curve: going from none to mild or moderate activity lowers inflammation, while elite-level loads can leave athletes more vulnerable to illness.

• 02

  Infrared light penetrates deep and supports mitochondria

  Seheult cites a 2019 paper in Melatonin Research by Scott Zimmerman and Russel Reiter showing long-wavelength infrared photons can scatter up to about 8 cm into the body, through clothing and skin. Mitochondria appear to make melatonin on site, in far higher concentrations than the pineal gland, and use it locally as a powerful antioxidant that mops up reactive oxygen species and upregulates glutathione, rather than as a sleep signal. Red and near-infrared light also act on cytochrome c oxidase and nitric oxide to improve mitochondrial efficiency.

• 03

  Mitochondrial dysfunction underlies many chronic diseases

  Seheult notes ATP output is said to drop about 70% after age 40 and that diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and dementia share mitochondrial dysfunction at their root. During the COVID pandemic, his ICU patients were dying with exactly those conditions, which led him to sunlight as a low-cost way to support mitochondria. This is his mechanistic framing, built partly on observational data.

• 04

  Green spaces multiply infrared exposure

  Chlorophyll strongly reflects infrared, so a sunny day among trees and grass delivers perhaps two to four times more infrared than open pavement. Living near green space correlates with less diabetes, hypertension and mortality. In a Louisville, Kentucky project, planting over 8,000 mature trees in a four-square-mile area, with no change in income or exercise programs, was followed by lower levels of the inflammation marker hs-CRP, an effect Seheult likens to exercising three times a week.

• 05

  Sunlight appears protective against influenza

  The 2009 H1N1 pandemic peaked in summer, decoupling flu from winter, and a Harvard analysis of solar radiation concluded sunlight strongly protects against influenza. A 2021 European COVID analysis found autumn surge dates were not predicted by temperature or humidity but tracked latitude, starting in Finland and ending in Greece. US flu deaths peak 1 to 3 weeks after the shortest day; Australia's peak in late June or early July; Singapore's are not seasonal.

• 06

  Fever is a feature: heat boosts interferon

  Interferon is the innate immune system's broad antiviral weapon, effective regardless of variant, which is why viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 carry genes to suppress it. In a lab study, lymphocytes exposed to bacterial LPS secreted 10 times more interferon once temperature reached 39°C (about 102.2°F). Seheult argues against reflexively suppressing fever, noting heavy aspirin use in 1918 army hospitals coincided with high case fatality.

• 07

  Cold after heat mobilizes white blood cells

  Brief cold causes vasoconstriction, which knocks white blood cells off vessel walls into circulation, a process called demargination, and also locks in core heat. The Battle Creek sanitarium protocol was about 20 minutes of heat followed by less than a minute of cold with rubbing of the chest.

• 08

  NAC reduced flu symptoms, not infections

  NAC replenishes glutathione and breaks disulfide bonds, thinning mucus and possibly limiting von Willebrand factor polymers implicated in the white clots seen in COVID autopsies. Seheult cites a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled winter trial of 600 mg twice daily: infection rates did not fall, but symptoms did, especially runny nose and sore throat. He takes that dose during flu season but no longer than about three months; in vitro cancer-model concerns should be taken with a grain of salt, in his view.

• 09

  Flu shots reduce severity more than infection

  Strains are chosen by watching the opposite hemisphere six months earlier. Seheult gets one yearly because ICU work exposes him heavily, and recommends it for the immunocompromised, the metabolically unhealthy and the highly exposed. He gave his children the shot from their teens. Huberman has never had one; Seheult frames it as weighing risks and benefits using a Swiss cheese model of layered protections.