Thymosin Alpha-1

[Forty2]

I'd like to get feedback on thymosin alpha-1 from anyone who has taken it.
What dose did you take, what did you take it for and what benefits and side effects did you experience?
Thanks.

 

[sammmy]

I've taken it from 0.5mg to 1.7mg every other day to "improve immunity" for repeating headaches, constantly irritated throat, and "sensitivity to cold weather". I measured one time it increased Lymphocytes but not Neutrophils, although the Lymphocyte increase could be immune activation from infection not from thymosin itself. It did not stop the recurring headaches, reduced the irritated throats and possibly increased allergic immune reactions with shortness of breath.

If your immunity is fine but you want to "optimize it", my advice is to not take it. It is not studied well, nobody knows what exactly it does, and it may bring you new problems if it stimulates the immune system the wrong way.

If you want better immunity, take probiotics and eat probiotic foods. 70% of your immune system is around the gut and is modulated by the microbiome there, so make sure you have lots of the "good bacteria", which displace the bad ones and that by itself will improve your immunity. This has a more profound effect on immunity than most people believe.

 

[Forty2]

Thanks.
Is there any particular probiotic you have found to be effective?

 

[sammmy]

You will have to try them to see which one fits you best, depending on the actual problem you are having. As a starting point, I suggest eating a lot of probiotic foods like good yogurt without additives.

From the probiotics, best is to start with the "pearls" that are triple layer protected from stomach acid and are multi-strain, such as Nature's Way Probiotic Pearls Complete.

The capsulated powders without protection might work and some contain 10+ strains but in order for them to survive the stomach acid, each capsule usually contains at least 30 billion bacteria units - the hope is that similarly to probiotic food "some" will survive stomach acid.

My personal problem is to suppress rising of Clostridium Difficile after antibiotics and the best way to do that is to use a capsulated powder probiotic with lots of strains and bacterial units, delivered straight to the large intestine with a retention enema. This works more reliably than any other oral probiotic, for this particular problem.