Nutritional and Infections
The interaction between nutrition and infection is synergistic - that is nutritional deficiency lowers resistance to infection and infection aggravates existing malnutrition. Individuals who are chronically undernourished not only succumb to infection more readily but take a longer period to recover than do the well nourished. There are series of studies to show the specific roles of nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, omega 3 fatty acids, trace minerals like iron, zinc which have a role either in terms of maturation, number and/ or activity of T cells and B cells. These have an influence on the cellular and humoral immunity. If you wish to go into the details of specific role of individual nutrients in the immune process, you could refer to some additional references listed, at the end of this course.