Worth a shot
As the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out continues across the UK, Amy Packer discovers ways to give the jab a helping hand when your turn comes
YOU’VE done the hard bit and had your jab. But how can you help the vaccine do its work?
PAY MORE ATTENTION TO YOUR DIET
Nutrition plays a major role in vaccine efficacy, according to a recent study which concluded that good nutrition bolstered the immune response to the BCG tuberculosis (TB) vaccine.
“This study showed that malnourishment in developing countries is a significant factor altering immune response to vaccination,” explains Dr Ross Walton, immunologist and founder of A-IR Clinical Research. “While we can’t yet conclusively state that improved nutrition provides better efficacy of the Covid vaccine here, it’s prudent to suggest that enhancing and enriching our diet may help.”
The study, published in the journal PLOS, suggests we should focus on fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds, while avoiding highly processed foods and takeaways. This will bump up our intake of vitamins A, C and E, vitamin B6, zinc, magnesium and iron– all vital for a strong immune system.
DON’T SKIMP ON SLEEP
“We need good restorative sleep for an optimum immune system, to fight off infection and for antibody production,” explains Dr Walton. Researchers at the University of California found that healthy volunteers who had the least sleep the night before having a flu jab produced the lowest level of antibodies to the flu in the months afterwards.
AVOID ALCOHOL
Booze negatively impacts our gut microbiome and has an inflammatory effect on the body which could reduce the effectiveness of the body’s immune response.
In the recent BBC programme The Truth About Boosting Your
Immune System, blood samples revealed that three glasses of prosecco reduced levels of lymphocyte cells, which are responsible for sending out antibodies, by as much as 50%. Alcohol charity Drinkaware advises that you avoid alcohol for at least two days before and at least two weeks after you’ve been vaccinated.
KEEP MOVING – IN MODERATION
Exercise has a positive antiinflammatory effect on metabolic function, which is why it protects against the development of chronic diseases and helps regulate the flow of immune cells around the body. “Exercise is also central to our mental wellbeing, helping us deal with the effects of stress,” adds Dr Walton.
But don’t go overboard. Too much high-intensity exercise can actually trigger stress chemicals, such as cortisol, which suppress the immune system.
DON’T ASSUME YOU’RE INVINCIBLE
“It can take two to three weeks to develop immunity after vaccination so there is still a chance you can catch the virus,” warns Dr Walton. And, although you must have your second dose to receive maximum protection, “no vaccine is 100% effective”, he adds, so it’s possible to still get infected and, we think, be able to spread the disease.
“It’s vital that we continue to adhere to social distancing and hygiene measures to protect ourselves and others,” he says. “This really does work. The proof is the 95% reduction in flu cases this year, entirely due to changes in social behaviour.”
POP A PILL
There’s growing support for vitamin D supplements as studies suggest that it plays a key role in immunity. “Studies show that low levels leave people susceptible to respiratory infections,” says Dr Walton.
Research shows Echinacea purpurea can support the body’s immune system to reduce the occurrence, duration and severity of cough, cold and influenza symptoms. While there’s no specific data related to vaccine efficacy, Dr Walton suggests it could be helpful for those using public transport or who work in close proximity to others. A. Vogel Echinaforce Drops (priced £10.50, Boots) have been shown to repel and reduce respiratory infection.
LYNDA LA PLANTE is contemplating how she’d like to bring her dogged detective DCI Jane Tennison, originally played 30 years ago by Helen Mirren, back to life. “I’ve been asked this so many times. I thought, ‘What is she doing now?’ She’s past retirement age. I’ve started a novel, but she’s retired.” Lynda reveals Tennison may be brought out of retirement to investigate a cold case.
“I’m working on it. It’s on the back burner. I’d love it for the screen. I’d love to meet Helen and say, ‘Come back now! One more time, Helen!’
“But she’s so hugely successful and such a big movie star now that I don’t know if she would be interested. It would be wonderful, though.”
Lynda may be 77, but the former actress from Liverpool – creator of Prime Suspect and Widows, author of the novelisations which followed, plus a string of young Tennison books and standalone thrillers – shows no sign of slowing down.
The bestselling author and scriptwriter has only been out of her home in Surrey to walk the dog and do a bit of grocery shopping for most of the past year, and recently had her first Covid vaccination jab, but the solitude hasn’t stemmed her creative juices, hard-working ethos and wicked sense of humour. She’s been positively productive during the pandemic, written two books – Judas Horse, the second in a new series featuring hapless detective Jack Warr, and a new young Tennison novel, Unholy Murder, out in the summer – and has just launched the second series of her forensics podcast, Listening To The Dead.
“I’m so used to being solitary in writing that it’s galvanised me. I’m like a lunatic. I can’t stop!” she enthuses. She’s also hoping to make a number of appearances to celebrate Prime Suspect’s 30th anniversary, pandemic allowing.
The series broke barriers on its release, as Tennison battled sexism and prejudice in a male-dominated profession, refusing to be undermined by colleagues who questioned her seniority and ability. It ran for seven series, from 1991-2006, although Lynda bowed out after series three to pursue other projects.
She recently found the original Prime Suspect script she had written, inspired by the experiences of ex-Flying Squad officer Jackie Malton. It cast Helen Mirren as DCI Tennison, the first woman in the history of the Met to lead a murder investigation after years of being overlooked, and aired in April 1991. The novelisation followed that year and is still in print.
“I had a terrible time with her name because you are not allowed to call a TV detective by the name of somebody already in the force.
“I could never have called her the name of the policewomen I know. “You have to find a name that is not in the ranks of the Metropolitan Police,” Lynda recalls.
“She started off as Brownlow, but there was already a Brownlow. But I always loved the poet (Alfred, Lord) Tennyson’s work – and thought, ‘Nobody’s going to be called Tennison in the Met’, and they weren’t.” Lynda never anticipated the huge success of the series, which won a clutch of Baftas and Emmys for cast and creators. She always had Helen in mind for the part, she recalls. “It was quite a fight. The [TV executives] were very much bringing up names [of actors] who were completely wrong for her. I kept saying no. Then I was met with, ‘Well, I don’t know Helen’s work – has she done a lot of TV?’ I said, ‘No, she’s a great theatre and film actress, she’s the right age to be a DCI.’ “Thirty years ago there were only three high powered female detective chief inspectors in the Met.” After Lynda parted company with the TV detective she was not impressed at the way the character turned into an alcoholic battling her demons. Today, she says: “My hope for the character was that she would become commander, which is the reason why I walked.
“I didn’t want her to be an alcoholic. I didn’t want her to lose her way. She’d come so far and lost so much of her love life, I didn’t want her to become an alcoholic and prove she couldn’t cope. Every woman I’d met who had reached the top coped magnificently.”
It’s no secret that over the years Lynda has conducted painstaking research into her subjects. She’s graced the tiled floors of mortuaries, witnessed numerous post mortems and is an honorary fellow of the Forensic Science Society. She has amazing contacts she can call on for all sorts of minute details pertaining to crime and the changes in investigative practices.
“The mobile phone can lead you to a killer, CCTV is everywhere these days – and then there are computers. And I’m so cack-handed with them! My son [adopted son, Lorcan, 17] fortunately, is an IT expert.” In 2015, Lynda brought back the detective in the first of a series of prequel novels as young Tennison, rewinding to the Seventies as the 22-year-old newbie WPC is drawn into her first murder case. Despite falling out with ITV executives over creative differences concerning 2017 TV adaptation, Prime Suspect 1973, which was axed after one series, Lynda has continued to pen her young Tennison novels, with Blunt Force, the sixth in the series, coming out in paperback. “I’m taking the young Tennison through the Seventies when she’s just out of training school, up through the Eighties and Nineties to the point where she becomes DCI Jane Tennison.
“I’m able to construct her life, her disappointments, failures and dogged persistence. It’s been very informative to go back to talk to women who were officers then. Which means Prime Suspect is constantly in my brain.”
In the 30 years since she penned Prime Suspect, many things have changed. The Met, for instance, now has its first female chief, Dame Cressida Dick, who she has met. Yet sexism hasn’t been totally eradicated, Lynda observes. “Sexism, as well as competitiveness [exist], but women have broken through, you can’t keep them down. It’s just that they are learning how to deal with it. Plus, in a team of officers, you daren’t have any form of discrimination or sexual harassment on show, but it is there, it’s just underneath.”
What would DCI Tennison make of the world today? “I think she’d take it in her stride,” Lynda reflects. And then we’re back to the possibility of Helen returning to the role that made her a household name. “I keep in touch with Helen Mirren, mostly on a congratulatory basis. She might be tempted to come back, you never know. And if it’s a good enough and strong enough storyline, maybe she would be interested.”
I keep in touch with Helen Mirren. She might be tempted to come back, you never know Lynda on reviving DCI Tennison
Blunt Force is published by Zaffre in paperback on March 4, £8.99. Judas Horse is published by Zaffre on April 1, £14.99. Prime Suspect is published by Simon & Schuster, £7.99 paperback.