Your Immune System

in immune •  8 years ago 

The Immune system!

In order to build a strong immune system you need to know how it works. Understanding the biochemistry is the key which involves a network of specialized cells and processes throughout your body.

There are two divisions: humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity. The humoral immunity produces antibodies to combat invading viruses, bacteria, chemicals, and other foreign substances to your body.

All these invaders are called antigens. The humoral immune system makes a specific antibody for each antigen, by recognizing it and attacking only that one. Your body will build an enormous record of different antibodies as you become exposed to more and more antigens, a lifelong immunologic memory encoded in proteins. It will protect you very well with the right maintenance.

Cell-mediated immunity has to do with specialized cells. The T-cell and the B-cell lymphocytes are the most important which differentiate into different subsets with different reactions.

Lymphocytes use antibodies to recognize and destroy invading antigens, multiplying quickly as they do this. It is called the lymphocyte proliferative response and this determines how strong your immunity is.

Your natural killer cells are large lymphocytes which don't need an antibody response to recognize these foreign cells. They can attack these invaders swiftly compared to the 10 days for antibodies to form or become activated. They are the first line of defence against a new virus or other invaders, until your antigen-specific immune response occurs.

The phagocytes are your bodies protector when it comes to injury or invading particles by ingesting dead and dying body cells caused by inflammation. They engulf and kill invading cells, especially if these invaders have already been identified and neutralized by antibodies. The two main phagocytes are known as macrophages, which are made from monocytes, and neutrophils, ingesting viruses and bacteria and even poisons.

Macrophages and neutrophils use up a lot of oxygen in this process. This produces a great amount of free radicals, toxic oxygen by-products. This reaction is called the oxidative burst which is very damaging to your body. The smaller this oxidative burst, the better your immunity is.

Another way to measure your immunity is through your delayed hypersensitivity response. This is a cell-mediated response where T-lymphocytes release growth factors for recruiting and activating more macrophages. This takes anywhere from one day to several weeks to occur, in contrast to other immediate immune responses. The better your delayed hypersensitivity response, the stronger is your immunity.

The SMAC 26 with CBC and Differential blood screen can be measured so you can get your own immune status. The total immune cells in your blood are quite small, but 50-65% are the phagocytes called segmented neutrophils. If these are elevated "segs" it means a bacterial infection, because as soon as an infection starts, your bone marrow releases neutrophils in massive numbers to fight the infection.

To boost your immunity and to improve it you should consider these important nutrients, vitamin E, vitamin C, selenium, zinc, beta-carotene, coenzyme Q10, alpha-ketoglutarate and branched-chain amino acids. It is very important to remember the synergy principal. There are many other nutrients involved in immunity including folic acid, vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, and pantothenic acid, and chromium. Dietary fat reduces immunity, and dietary protein in the form of whey enhances immunity. So remember this important fact, your focus should always be on complete nutrition.

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