Macronutrients, on the other hand, are things like protein, fat, and carbohydrates that are the major components of most food. Micronutrients, while small, play a big role in your immune system, especially for elderly people.
Without the proper amount of micronutrients, your body’s immune system will become weak and when you contract a disease it will be far worse. This is most common in children and the elderly, though children are at least hopefully having their diets looked after, while elderly people are often left to their own devices for food.
Without a proper diet, this malnutrition could cause some serious illness problems. One important micronutrient is iron. Most people know that you have iron in your blood, but they don’t quite understand the purpose.
Iron is a key component in many cells in your blood, which help carry oxygen around the body to keep everything moving as it should be, including your immune system. If you’re not getting enough iron, you might end up being anemic, making you tired, light headed, and generally feeling ill.
Vitamin D plays a crucial role in your immune system. Its role revolves around keeping your bones and muscles healthy, something that certainly helps as you age. Keeping your bones healthy is very important, because your bone marrow is where a lot of immune system cells come from.
Without healthy bones, you’ll find a whole lot of problems in your life along with the lack of a healthy immune system. Zinc is another important micronutrient, with a significant amount of the global population suffering from zinc deficiency.
While zinc helps your standard immune system operate more efficiently, it also plays a role in preventing some harsh diseases like pneumonia, which could be fatal to some elderly people.
While most younger people tend to get these micronutrients regularly, older people might not. Some of these micronutrients are found in things like flour, and if you’re not eating a lot of the right food when you’re older, you may need to start supplementing them with pills in order to stay healthy. It’s very important for you to keep track of these, because they’re easily missed but play an important role.