Posted on April 7th, 2010 by Craig Maltby, Editor
My chat with Ensure on Immune Balance
I received a comment on this blog recently from a person who is, apparently, suffering from a rare genetic disease and 
wanted to see if she could qualify for free supplies of Ensure ImmunBalance (Ensure’s spelling, not mine). Of course, I told her I’m not affiliated with Ensure or its parent, Abbott Labs, and I directed her to Ensure’s consumer contact page. While I was at it, though, I was curious about the latest on the Ensure ImmunBalance Product and what’s behind it. I had written about it briefly last summer.
So I brought up its site and signed on to a live chat with an Abbott nutritionist, Christy. By the way, good job, Abbott, with your chat tool. It was fast and ready to go as advertised.
I asked about the new “ImmunBalance” label splash on the package. What’s behind it? Christy said it reflects the antioxidant benefit delivered through selenium and vitamin C (which were already in the product) plus newly added probiotics for balancing good and bad gut bacteria. According to many health experts, the gut microflora composition comprises up to 70% of the body’s immune system defense.
Christy also said she’d check on whether any additional research using Ensure to measure blood or saliva immune cell changes exists and could be shared. I also told her it was interesting that Ensure was choosing to use the phrase “balance” instead of “boost,” which still seems to be the most common immune tag on packaging.
I’m glad Ensure is taking the enlightened, science-driven approach and promoting immune balance. For sure.
