It is a widely held belief that all someone needs to do to contract an infection, such as one caused by a virus, is to come into contact with an infected patient. However, it’s important to realize that these pathogens are only able to successfully invade and take hold within our bodies if our immune systems are weak. Thankfully, there are countless ways to boost immunity and fend off disease, one of these being to increase production or intake of mannose-binding lectins.

Mannose-binding lectins are produced by a healthy immune system, for the purpose of breaking apart glycoproteins that enable many viruses, certain bacteria, and some yeasts to hide from immune cells and penetrate cell membranes. Once a virus penetrates a cell, it wreaks havoc by hijacking the DNA and RNA in order to turn the cell into a virus-cloning factory.

There is a multitude of studies showing that mannose binding lectins (MBLs) are associated with infectious and other diseases. Research has found that low levels of MBLs are associated with a higher rate of infections from tuberculosis and sepsis to candidiasis, recurrent Clostridium difficile infections, influenza, and “golden staph.”

For example, sepsis patients had a lower MBL concentration than control patients, with a standardized mean difference of 1.59; among Asian patients there was a stronger association with an SMD of 3.07. Other research found that women with candidiasis had a 4.84 or 12.68 times greater risk respectively of recurrent infections if they had mutated variants of one or both pairs of a gene responsible for MBL production. Continue reading →