Immune System Part 1

Nourishing your immune system

 

The immune system protects the body from illness, infection, and disease. This complex system uses different body tissues and chemical reactions to defend our bodies from harmful invaders like bacteria, viruses, microbes, free radicals, and parasites. Different types of invaders trigger immune responses and produce antibodies – proteins produced by the immune system to defend the body. Over time, the body builds memory of which antibodies to use for each kind of invader, so protection becomes routine.

Components of the immune system

The lymphatic system plays a large role in the immune function. When vessels circulate and drain body fluids known as lymph to one from our organs. Lymph transports nutrients to the organs and removes any excess substances from them. Lymph also contains white blood cells – the soldiers of our body that kill a wide range of harmful invaders. White blood cells are manufactured in the finalists and bone marrow, then released into the lymph and circulated through the lymph vessels to their final destination.

Your blood contains roughly 50 billion white blood cells with the sole responsibility of maintaining your body’s natural defenses.

Risk factors for the immune system

Diet and lifestyle play a huge role in our immune system’s ability to keep our body functioning at its best. Unhealthy habits significantly increase the number of harmful chemical compounds our body takes in. These compounds, known as free radicals, are present in abundance in processed foods and alcohol. Free radicals also enter the body when we breathe in cigarette smoke, paint fumes, exhaust fumes, and other gasses and pollutants in the air.

Free radicals destabilize healthy atoms in the body, causing cell damage they may eventually lead to disease and illness. When our immune system constantly works to defend against free radicals, it has fewer resources available to fight off other invaders like viruses and bacteria, which is why we tend to get sicker when we fail to eat healthy or live a wholesome lifestyle.

Basically, the more free radicals we take in, the harder it becomes for our immune system to keep us healthy. If you are free radicals be taken, the more available our immune system is to seek and destroy other harmful invaders.

Immune statistics

• The immune system is closely linked to cancer – the second leading cause of death in the United States. CDC 2011
• An estimated 23.5 million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease, and incidences are on the rise. US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010
• Autoimmune diseases collectively rank as a top 10 causes of death in women from ages 10 – 64. American Journal of Public health, 2000.
• Approximately one in two males and one in three females will contract cancer over the course of their lifetime. American Cancer Society, 2011
• Over 40 diseases have been classified as having autoimmune roots; these diseases can be both chronic and deadly. National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, 2004.