What is our Immune System? And where is it?
The immune system is one of the most complex systems in the body. The immune system is unique among the body’s systems because it is not localised. Our immune system is a vast system of cells and tissues that are spread throughout the body with one main purpose – to protect us from danger. The immune systems purpose is to detect and respond correctly to thousands, upon thousands of microbial and antigen related issues without us ever being aware it is even doing this. If your immune system is running smoothly, you do not notice that it is there.
What is a microbe?
Microbes are tiny living things that are found all around us and are too small to be seen by the naked eye. They live in water, soil, and in the air. Some microbes make us sick; others are important for our health. The most common types are bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
What is an antigen?
An antigen is any substance that causes your immune system to produce antibodies against it. This means your immune system does not recognise the substance and is trying to fight it off. An antigen may be a substance from the environment, such as chemicals, bacteria, viruses, or pollen.
Keeping invaders out of parts of our body that they are not meant to be in, is incredibly important.
So how does it work?
At a basic level there are two types of Immunity – Innate and Adaptive (also known as cellular immunity). These systems protect our bodies inside and out from all different kinds of threats.
The Innate Immune System is the bodies primary protection against the outside world. It provides general protection, which is why it is also known as the ‘nonspecific immune system’ – it includes physical barriers, including the skin and mucus membranes. The main job of the innate immune system is to fight harmful substances and germs that enter the body, for instance through the skin or digestive system. The digestive system plays a vital role in our immunity, with a healthy gut microbiome, pathogens have a hard time finding room to grow and cause infection.
Every body system contributes to the innate immune response – integumentary, digestive, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, lymphatic system.
Therefore, we need to nourish and protect every body system – and we do this with basic daily habits. Feeding the digestive system with proper healthy, balanced nutrition - Fresh, high quality fruits, vegetables, and probiotics.
Hydrating adequately with clean water. The lymphatic system is 96% water. Dehydration causes the lymphatic system to slow down and inhibits waste removal from the body.
Exercise will improve your overall physical and psychological well-being. It can decrease the risk of developing other conditions such as stroke, heart disease and depression. Regular exercise is also one of the most important interventions to prevent the onset of type-II diabetes. Regular exercise supports your lymphatic, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
Getting adequate, good quality sleep affects your immune system. Studies show that people who do not get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as a common cold virus. Lack of sleep can also affect how fast you recover if you do get sick. During sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines - certain cytokines need to increase when you have an infection or inflammation, or when you are under stress. Sleep deprivation may decrease production of these protective cytokines. In addition, infection-fighting antibodies and cells are reduced during periods when you do not get enough sleep. So, your body needs sleep to support a healthy immune response.
The Adaptive Immune System is complex and specialised. The adaptive immune system targets specific threats and its main function is to destroy invading pathogens and any toxic molecules they produce. It is made up of 2 main cell types – B cells and T cells.
The B cells make antibodies which then circulate the bloodstream attaching themselves to the invader. By attaching to the invader, this blocks the invader from being able to attach to the cell receptors in our bodies. By attaching to the invader, it also marks them for destruction by other immune cells.
There are two main types of T-cells: helper T-cells and killer T-cells. Helper T-cells stimulate B-cells to make antibodies and help killer cells develop. Killer T-cells directly kill cells that have already been infected by a foreign invader.
Because the adaptive immune system is constantly learning and adapting, the body can also fight bacteria or viruses that change over time. The adaptive immune system provides Immune Memory – it remembers every threat it has ever come in contact with and remembers how to fight it, making future responses more effective and efficient.
Its obvious that our Immune System is vastly complex and impacted by many factors - In order to have a healthy immune response we need to take care of our bodies physically, emotionally and mentally, as every one of these factors can greatly impact out immune system and its ability to have an optimum response to invaders.