‘Kimchi’s effect goes this far?’: Study finds it not only boosts immunity but fine-tunes it

Click here for more articles by Kormedi.com. As seasonal respiratory infections such as colds and influenza increasingly overlap, attention is shifting from foods that simply “boost” immunity to those that can precisely “regulate” immune responses. Against this backdrop, researchers at the World Institute of Kimchi have reported, for the first time at the single-cell level, that kimchi finely tunes the human immune system. According to reports by ScienceDaily and other science outlets, a research team led by Lee Woo-jae at the World Institute of Kimchi, a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, published clinical and genomic findings analyzing how kimchi consumption affects the function and balance of human immune cells. The team said kimchi does not indiscriminately activate immune responses but instead enhances defense against pathogens while suppressing excessive immune reactions, demonstrating an immune-regulatory effect. The study was conducted over 12 weeks with 39 overweight adults. Participants were divided into three groups: a placebo