From the Desk of Carolyn Dean MD ND
Why You Need to Build Immune Resilience Before Winter Arrives
Immune Readiness Is a Daily Mineral Habit, Not a December Scramble
Every August, the same pattern plays out as kids trudge back to school.
Backpacks are bulging. Lunches are planned. Classrooms fill up. Offices become busier after summer vacations. Meanwhile, almost unnoticed at first, coughs and sniffles begin making the rounds. The sounds of summer outdoors are replaced by crowded, stuffy rooms where everyone shares germs and eventually brings them home to the rest of the family.
It’s no coincidence that August is also National Immunization Awareness Month. While much of the conversation focuses on preparing for the months ahead, many people don’t think about supporting their immune system until they’re already reaching for tissues and herbal tea.
By then, you’re playing catch-up.
I’ve always believed we should think about immune health the same way we think about building strength or maintaining heart health. Do it every day. You don’t wait until you’re weak to begin exercising. Likewise, you don’t wait until your house is on fire before installing smoke detectors.
Your immune system deserves that same daily attention.
One of the themes you’ll hear more about in my just-published Vitamin C book is that the ability to build immune resilience isn’t created by a single nutrient taken after symptoms appear. Instead, it’s built day after day through the nutrients your cells depend on long before cold and flu season arrives.
Why the “Cold Season Fix” Misses the Bigger Picture
For decades, Vitamin C has been associated with a familiar image: someone already sick, drinking orange juice and swallowing Vitamin C tablets.
That idea has become so ingrained that many people only think about Vitamin C after they start feeling unwell.
But that’s not how the body works.
Vitamin C isn’t simply an emergency nutrient. Rather, it’s involved in the everyday function of the immune system, helping your body’s natural defenses stay prepared before they’re called into action.
As children head back to school, they mix various strains of germs from different neighborhoods. At the same time, families spend more time indoors together, so exposure to everyday viruses naturally increases.
Instead of asking, “What should I take once I’m sick?” a more useful question is:
What does my immune system need every day to function at its best?
What do I need to dodge the viral bullet?
That’s a very different conversation.
What Vitamin C Actually Does for Your Immune System
More Than Just an Antioxidant
Vitamin C is often described as an antioxidant, but that barely scratches the surface of what it does.
Your immune system depends on an army of specialized white blood cells, each with a different role. B lymphocytes produce antibodies. T lymphocytes coordinate immune responses. Natural killer cells help identify abnormal cells. Neutrophils are among the body’s first responders, engulfing and removing unwanted microbes through a process called phagocytosis.
Vitamin C supports the healthy function of all of these cells.
In addition, it helps regulate the signaling molecules that allow immune cells to communicate with one another, supporting a balanced immune response rather than an overactive one.
The Barrier Most People Never Think About
Your skin and the delicate mucus membrane linings of your nose, throat, lungs, and digestive tract form physical barriers between you and the outside world.
Vitamin C helps support these epithelial barriers, giving your body another layer of everyday defense.
That’s why Vitamin C isn’t simply something you take after symptoms appear. Instead, it’s part of the daily maintenance program your immune system relies on throughout the year as you build immune resilience.
Vitamin C’s Shocking Competition With Sugar
One of the most fascinating—and overlooked—aspects of Vitamin C involves sugar.
Inside your body, glucose and Vitamin C compete for the same cellular transport systems.
When blood sugar is consistently elevated by a diet rich in refined carbohydrates and sugary foods, glucose occupies more of those transport pathways. As a result, it becomes more difficult for Vitamin C to reach the cells that depend on it.
This matters because white blood cells accumulate remarkably high concentrations of Vitamin C—up to 80 times higher than levels circulating in the bloodstream when everything is working properly.
That extraordinary concentration tells us something important.
Immune cells don’t simply like Vitamin C.
They depend on it.
When sugar continually crowds the transport system—which, by the way, is insulin—immune cells may receive less of the Vitamin C they need to function efficiently.
This helps explain why elevated blood sugar has long been associated with greater vulnerability to infections and why maintaining healthy blood sugar balance supports overall immune function.
White blood cells can actually go into paralytic shock for five or more hours after a big hit of sugar—think two pieces of cake and a Coke!
It’s another reminder that nutrition isn’t about isolated nutrients.
Everything in the body works together.
The DNA and RNA Story Most People Never Hear
Here’s another piece of the puzzle that rarely makes it into everyday health conversations.
When your immune system detects a potential threat, it doesn’t simply activate existing immune cells. Instead, it must rapidly create new ones.
That process requires DNA and RNA—the genetic blueprint every new cell needs before it can grow, divide, and perform its job.
Vitamin C plays an important supporting role in the healthy cellular processes involved in producing these new immune cells.
When high sugar intake reduces Vitamin C availability inside cells, the body has fewer of the nutritional resources it depends on during periods of increased immune demand.
This isn’t something most people think about when they reach for a sugary snack.
Yet every meal either supports your cells—or asks them to work harder with fewer resources.
That’s why I encourage people to look beyond symptom relief and think about the cellular environment they’re creating every day.
Vitamin C Doesn’t Work Alone
Nutritional Teamwork Matters
One of the biggest mistakes in nutrition is assuming one nutrient can do everything.
The body doesn’t operate that way.
Instead, it functions through nutritional teamwork.
Vitamin C works alongside a wide range of minerals that support healthy cellular function.
Selenium is an excellent example.
Some people know selenium for its antioxidant properties. However, it also supports healthy thyroid hormone metabolism. Since thyroid hormones influence metabolism, energy production, adrenal function, and normal immune activity, adequate selenium contributes to a healthy internal environment where immune cells can do their work.
Magnesium is equally important.
Every immune response requires energy, and magnesium participates in hundreds of enzymatic reactions involved in producing that energy. Likewise, it supports healthy nervous system function and helps the body adapt to everyday stress—another factor that can place additional demands on immune health.
This is one reason I rarely focus on single nutrients in isolation.
Instead, I prefer to think in terms of nutritional terrain.
Healthy cells need a full spectrum of minerals working together—not isolated ingredients acting alone.
Build the Baseline Before the Season Changes
One of the greatest gifts you can give your immune system is consistency.
Instead of waiting until December to think about immune support, begin building your nutritional foundation while you still feel well.
That means eating whole, nutrient-dense foods, limiting excess sugar, prioritizing restorative sleep, managing stress, staying hydrated, and supplying your cells with the minerals modern life often makes difficult to obtain consistently.
This philosophy is what inspired ReMyte®, my picometer-ionic multi-mineral formula.
Rather than focusing on one nutrient, it provides a broad spectrum of minerals designed to support the cellular foundation your body depends on every day.
There is selenium in ReMyte®, but I also often recommend Pico Selenite® for those looking to support healthy selenium intake as part of a comprehensive wellness routine.
Neither is intended as a once-you’re-sick solution.
Instead, they’re part of building the daily nutritional baseline that helps support your body’s natural defenses throughout the year.
That’s a very different philosophy from scrambling for immune products after symptoms have already appeared.
The Takeaway
The strongest immune support doesn’t begin with the first sneeze.
It begins long before cold and flu season arrives.
Every healthy meal.
Every good night’s sleep.
Every effort to reduce excess sugar.
Every mineral-rich glass of water.
Every day you give your cells the nutrients they need.
These are the quiet habits that prepare your immune system for whatever the season brings.
As I explore in my book Vitamin C: Listening to the Experts, immune health is far more sophisticated than we’ve been taught.
Vitamin C supports healthy white blood cell activity, antioxidant protection, and the body’s natural defenses—but it works best as part of a larger nutritional picture that includes magnesium, selenium, and a broad spectrum of essential minerals.
But I won’t leave you wondering what to add when you do get sick—that’s Pico Silver®, the super antiviral, antibacterial mineral.
I take several teaspoons a day if I feel something coming on. However, I actually haven’t felt sick since the COVID years because I take one to two teaspoons every day. I also use a small handheld nebulizer with straight Pico Silver® to regularly “disinfect” my sinuses.
In summary, now that back-to-school season is arriving, the goal isn’t to begin preparing.
The goal is to already be prepared.
Build Your Daily Immune Foundation
Your immune system doesn’t wait until winter to do its job, and neither should your nutritional support.
Explore ReMyte®, Pico Selenite®, and Vitamin C ReSet Powder® to help support your daily mineral foundation because building immune resilience happens one day at a time—not during a December scramble.
This content is for educational purposes only and discusses nutritional and lifestyle support for normal structure and function of the body. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure disease. Consult a qualified healthcare professional for personal medical guidance.
👉 About the book:
Magnesium: The Missing Link to Total Health
Go deeper than the data. Support your cellular nutrition with ReMyte—the mineral foundation that complements what your wearable tracks but can never measure.
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