What is an immune system?

Jun 15, 2010 at 1:58 PM

What is all this fuss about an immune system? Where is it? Can you touch it? Why do we need it? What happens when it doesn’t work? Should you care?

The immune system isn’t an organ – like a liver or a heart. It isn’t a place, like inside a lung or beside your stomach. Rather, it is a phantom-like arrangement your bone marrow and lymph glands have made with your blood cells to work, all the time, behind the scenes, watching, guarding and protecting your body from unwanted guests called pathogens (a.k.a. germs, bugs, bacteria, micro-organism, and microbes).

We are born with natural immunity to some diseases, vaccines also enhance the function of the immune system and recent examinations conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) support statements that Echinacea can also boost your immune system by revving it up, setting it pumped and primed in the crouch position, like the stance of an Olympic runner ready to burst out of the starting gate at the first sign of trouble.

Having a strong immune system means your body is armed and ready with the defence weapons it needs to fight germs. A strong immune system detects unwanted invader germs, responds by making anti-bodies (germ fighter cells called leukocytes) which are sent out into the blood stream to find the germs, surround them with enzyme-like gooey stuff and then, well, basically eat it up (called phagocytosis) before the germs have a chance to make you sick.

With a weakened, but still pretty good immune system, your body has most of the defence weapons it needs to battle germs but some of bacteria can slip passed the germ fighter cells and manage to make you sick anyway.

With a tired immune system, or an under-developed immature system, the germs get in, via your nose, mouth, a cut in the skin, or your lungs, take hold, stick like glue and cause nothing but havoc. They multiply quickly, by the millions. The only way to get rid of them is to ask for outside help by visiting your Doctor in the hopes your infection is not viral so that he can prescribe antibiotics. If you are really young or if you are elderly runaway infections can be a serious problem.

I recommend that we do all we can to prevent illness by revving up our immune systems.

Wishing you good health,

Nurse Cathi