FAQ

Praise

I've had excellent experience with beta-glucan, right now I'm using it again but I have an autoimmune disease of the thyroid; I'm using Euthyrox and, having studied your pages, I'm at a loss if I should continue using beta-glucan (problems with autoimmune reaction)? Thanks for your answer and have a nice day.

There are many autoimmune diseases of the thyroid but since you have been prescribed Euthyrox, which is a synthetic thyroid hormone, I can judge that you suffer from insufficient thyroid function. The truth is that the effects of glucan have never been observed in case of this disease (as far as I know) and insufficient thyroid function is often caused by the presence of antibodies against thyroid tissues.

An increased production of auto-antibodies, i.e. antibodies against own tissues (including thyroid), has never been established for glucan. Since you will probably have to use Euthyrox your whole life, it is highly unlikely that glucan should further damage your thyroid. If you, however, feel that there might be some risk here and you don't want to get rid of your good experience with beta-glucan, you can test it. Your doctor certainly has records on the levels of specific antibodies against thyroid measured before you started using glucan. And now you can undergo another test, for example after six months of daily use of glucan. And you'll see if the level of these antibodies has changed. And if you don't know the level, you can either have yourself measured now, after glucan, then stop using glucan for 3 months and undergo another measurement.

I have been using beta-glucan IMU daily since about March because of my previous problems with immunity and frequent antibiotic treatments. Any prior cold, rhinitis, pharyngitis etc. usually passed into many weeks of coughing and I was not able to get rid of it. Based on a doctor's recommendation, I started using the mentioned beta-glucan IMU and I have to admit that these problems have avoided me since them and I consider my immune system as optimal. The occasional mild sore throat and starting cold, which passed into weeks of rhinitis and pharyngitis in the past, now go away overnight and I don't feel any problem in the morning. That is why I am very satisfied with beta-glucan and would like to continue using it. However, allow me two questions:

1) Can its long-term use have a negative effect on the immune system if you stop using beta glucan? I.e., simply put, will the organism not be too "used" to the regular supply of glucan so that the efficacy of the immune system would drop significantly after interruption of use?

2) In case of long-term use – is it better to use the drug in multiple dosages (e.g. autumn and spring), or use reduced doses throughout the year?

I'm happy your experience with glucan is so good. As regards the organism's "addiction" to glucan, don't be afraid. Although something like this has not been studied in detail, but glucan is not too strong as sucy, so its stimulating effects are potent, but very mild. That is why it is the most efficient in case of long-term use. When you stop using it, the immune system will get back to the original level quickly (within a week at the latest), i.e. there will be no worsening of the immune reactions; they will be as "good" as they were at the beginning. An occasional use of glucan (i.e. for two months, then two months without it) will not be optimal, just like starting to use glucan when we contract a bacterial disease. On the other hand, it is probably the best to interrupt using glucan for a month, probably in summer when the risk of infections is the lowest.