Does research from Harvard confirm vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, selenium and probiotics are key nutrients to boost your immune system? No, that's not true: No such research from the American university was found.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by @dietkeeper (archived here) on February 7, 2024, under the title (translated from Korean to English by Lead Stories staff) "Prevent autoimmune diseases!" It opened:
Harvard biologists indicated vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, selenium and probiotics as five key nutrients to boost the immune system, and also indicated typical foods for those nutrients.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 28 08:37:14 2024 UTC)
However, a Google Scholar search (archived here) by Lead Stories on February 28, 2024, using the keywords "vitamin c, vitamin d, zinc, selenium, probiotics AND Harvard" did not reveal any such research conducted by Harvard faculty or scientists.
Moreover, Harvard Medical School's public health publishing, the consumer health information division of Harvard Medical School (archived here), stated in an article published on the website on February 15, 2021, that there is no scientifically proven way to boost your immune system because the immune system is not a single entity and much is still unknown about the intricacies of the immune response.
