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Your Immune System – What Is It And How Does It Work?

Your immune system is very complex. What is it, how does it work, and how can you keep it strong? Learn all about how to have a healthy immune system, the immune response, and how to avoid illness here.

Very simply, your immune system is your front line of defense against all invaders to keep you healthy. “Invaders” include pathogens, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses. Collectively, these make up a group of antigens. The response to these is invaders is called the antigen response. The word comes from the generation of antibodies to fight them off.

This sophisticated system is made up of proteins, cells, organs, and tissues. These all interact in a very sophisticated network of partnership towards one goal – keeping you healthy.

To make it simpler, we will refer to all invaders as “the bad guys.” The cells and tissues that are normal and healthy, part of your “self”, are “the good guys.” At any given time, we have lots of these foreign invaders in our body. And we are constantly taking new “bad guys” in through our food, air and water. This defensive system has a tall order to fill, and a healthy immune system never takes a break.

To function properly, it must be able to decide whether or not what enters the body is a good guy or a bad guy. In a properly functioning immune system, the friends and foes are identified correctly. To make matters more complicated, pathogens or “bad guys” can adapt and change quickly, fooling or tricking this system into accepting them, and then you can become sick. So it’s war between the good guys and the bad guys!

When a pathogen enters the bloodstream, there is an immune response. The large white blood cells engulf the pathogens and eat them up. The smaller lymphocytes have to be a little more clever – they have to adapt a specific defense to them. The B Cells identify pathogens as bad guys, then the Killer-T cells kill them. Helper-T cells help out, and when the carnage is over, suppressor T-Cells turn off the immune response.

When it comes to immunity, there is a delicate balance to be maintained. If the immune system is too weak, referred to as immunodeficiency, or too strong, as in auto-immune disorders, problems can result. Immunodeficiency occurs when a person’s immune syste
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m is not strong enough to fight off infection. One of the best known examples of immunodeficiency is HIV.

By contrast, an overactive system is referred to as an auto immune disorder or autoimmunity. Here, the normal cells and tissues are identified as enemies, and then the killers (T-cells) and eaters (White Blood Cells) go in and destroy this healthy tissue. Some examples of autoimmune disorders are Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and Lupus.

The immune system you are born with is called your innate immune system. The things that we do to increase our resistance to disease, is part of what is called our adaptive immune system. An example of adaptive immunity is receiving a vaccination, so that your body builds up a defense or antibodies to the vaccine. As a result, if and when you are exposed to the virus that was in the vaccine, your immune system will fight it off and you won’t get sick. In this way your immune system has memory.

The study of all aspects of this and how it relates to human health is called immunology. This is an ever growing field, and with complexities that are continually uncovered each day, we learn more about how we can protect ourselves and our health through better understanding of our immune system, both innate and adaptive.

Genes play their part, and we can do the rest. This is our front line of defense against all foreign invaders, so we can certainly strengthen our army of good guys to keep out the bad guys.

In order to do this, it is important to exercise regularly, eat well, get regular rest, maintain a healthy body weight, and supplement with what is missing. It is also important to avoid ingesting toxins wherever possible, and where it is not possible, to eliminate them as soon as they are ingested. And it goes without saying that smoking, alcohol abuse, and inappropriate drug use will do harm to this complex system as well.

Often, when our immunity is down and we get sick, we go to the doctor. At this point the approach is reactive. We are finding more and better ways now to be pro-active, and to prevent this in the first place by stopping the invaders in their tracks . This is done by building a very strong defense – a healthy immune system.

Glutathione has been shown to optimize the adaptive immune system, and so it is very important to boost glutathione levels in order to stay healthy and ward off illness. Glutathione is a balancer, so if your are immuno-deficient , you will get stronger. If you have an autoimmune disorder, glutathione will re-balance it.
It “knows” what to do, and gets busy doing it.

Our immune system is very complex, and requires very precise interaction and raw materials to do its job well. We can do our part to have a healthy immune system by eating well, resting, exercising, and optimizing our immune system by raising our glutathione levels.

So keep your immune system strong by preventing disease before it strikes. You will be happy and healthy as a result!

By: Laura McCallum

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Copyright 2009 Immune Health Solutions: You may freely republish this article, provided the text, author credit, the active links and this copyright notice remain intact.

Laura McCallum is the owner of Immune Health Solutions and enjoys writing helpful information about the immune system and glutathione. She regularly consults with medical professionals and published research, and believes in giving her readers the information they need to optimize their immune system and wellbeing.

Visit Immune Health Solutions for more information about how glutathione can optimize your i
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mmune system!

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10 Things To Do When Looking At Your First Job
 by: Joseph Ullman

You are in the final year of your residency or fellowship. The anticipation of finishing and moving on to a “real” job (like working 80 hour weeks isn’t a real job…) is mounting. You’ve gotten through med school, internship and years of residency; so how tough can it be to find the perfect job?

A surprising number of all doctors don’t stay at their first job. Most have no idea what to look for as they cruise the job market. Here are 10 tips:

1) Find out what they want. When you speak to them, ask what type of skills, interests and procedures they want their ideal candidate to have. If they want a pediatrician with genetic counseling background and you don’t have it and don’t like it, don’t try to fake it.

2) Be honest about your needs. There are 3 things to look for in a medical job – location, practice style, money. You’ll probably only optimize 2 of the 3. Sit down and figure out what you need and want.

3) Be honest about your skills. When you apply and interview, make sure you are absolutely clear about what you can do, and what you want to do. If you are a general surgeon and absolutely hate trauma, really consider whether it is worth taking that job at a trauma center just to be in the city and in the salary range you want.

4) Look hard at the area. Not only should you take a realtor tour, but try to spend an additional day driving around the region. Look at nearby cities and recreation. Regional factors may turn a drab opportunity into an acceptable one.

5) Find out where you have to live. Never take a job without clarifying this. Certain medical staffs and accreditation agencies may require docs to be available within a certain amount of time. Don’t be surprised when you arrive.

6) Be wary of any group that offers to parallel train (train you in a procedure with an existing member of the group. They may mean well, but it just rarely happens. They’re busy, you’ll be busy; how realistic is it that someone will stop his clinical practice to stand with and proctor you for a dozen cases?

7) Look at subtle clues – growth in the city; maintenance of physical plant of the hospital. Is it clean? Freshly painted? Are shopping and dining opportunities in line with your expectations? For example, if there are closed down fast food franchises, is that a sign of a robust local economy?

Do some homework before you arrive. Know something about the geography of the region, local industries, other hospitals. Look at a map to see what is in the region so when you are talking with potential colleagues about recreation and housing you’ll have an idea what they are talking about. Check out http://www.city-data.com).

9) Be wary of citations, accreditations, and awards influencing your decision. Bus advertising touting America’s Best Hospitals or media ads featuring smiling nurses are created by the same type of media minds that market Swiffer dusters and Oxyclean.

10) Next tip? Wait for my next article; when I’ll include the single most important question you can ask when you are sizing up a possible job.

About The Author

Dr. Joseph M. Ullman is an American Board of Radiology Certified General and Interventional Radiologist with 16 years of practice experience. He is the author of Getting Down to Business: The New Doctor’s Guide: What you need to know to find the ideal job and practice. For more information, visit http://newdocsguide.com.

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