Your Body's Immune System

During the millions of years of evolution, our bodies developed complex systems to protect us from harmful substances, such as bacteria and viruses.  In humans we refer to these systems as our immune and  detoxification systems (see How the Body Detoxifies.)

 While modern sanitation and hygiene reduces our exposure to bacteria and viruses, our immune and detoxification systems are often overwhelmed by chemical exposure.

 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 500,000 different chemicals are used today, and that 5,000 new chemical substances are added each year.  In addition our bodies are exposed to natural toxins like pollen, dust, animal dander, and smoke.  

 Simultaneously, the misuse of antibiotics has created resistant strains of bacteria.  What effect these "super-bugs" will have on humanity is still unknown, but their emergence points to the vital importance of protecting and strengthening one's immune system.

 Until recently, very little was known about the immune system.  American medicine has been dominated by an allopathic theory of offense based on fighting disease agents.  As a result, we know more about individual diseases than about the body's own healing and cleansing mechanisms. It is only recently that we have had the technological ability to observe and record many functions of the immune system.  The advent of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Epstein-Barr have led to more research on the bodily mechanisms centering around preventive health and healing.  Now we have a much clearer idea of why some people get sick, and others exposed to the same environment stay well. 

While our knowledge of the immune system is still in its infancy, we are beginning to understand some of the ways the body responds to toxins. A body that's processing toxins efficiently is much more likely to have a strong immune system.  The two are intertwined, especially via the lymph system.   

We're also beginning to understand the interconnectedness of the immune system and other systems of the body.  One important new area of study is called psychoneuroimmunology, which studies how our emotions affect our immune system.

Another breakthrough in "holistic" medicine, i.e. the body as an integrated "whole" rather than a series of systems, is looking at the immune system and the nervous system, the unity of which Sidney McDonald Baker, M.D., explains in his book, Detoxification and Healing.  Dr Baker writes that "certain cells of the central nervous system and the immue system share at least one key attribute:  an enduring presence in each of us from infancy to old age."  He continues, "There are other features shared by the central nervous system  and the immune system.  The first such shared feature is memory.  Memory depends on the persistence of permanent nerve and immune cells...the capacity for memory resides exclusively in the two tissues of the body where the permanent cells reside, linking these two features (permanence of cells and the capacity for memory) in the brain and immune system.  Another feature of both systems is perception."  A major point that Dr. Baker makes throughout his book is how important our detoxification processes are to the protection and functioning of the permanent cells in our bodies.  It is the job of the immune system to "remember" and "perceive" which substances are harmful to the body, and then attack and destroy them.

If the immune system is suppressed by an illness such as AIDS, or by drugs, as in the case of organ transplant recipients, the body can fall victim to opportunistic diseases that would never affect a healthy person.  The immune system can also become confused.  This often happens as a result of yeast infections and resulting leaky gut syndrome, which allows partially digested proteins to enter the bloodstream.  The immune system begins marking the proteins as "foreign invaders" and a host of food allergies results.  The proteins are no longer just "toxic," but have become immunoreactive, stimulating inflammation.  Fibromyalgia results.  In severe cases, an auto-immune condition can result when yeast infection-related toxins attach to the body's hormones and the immune system begins attacking elements of the endocrine system.  A wide variety of body function impairment results.

Learning more about your own immune system benefits you on two fronts.  For those who face illness, which we all do at some time or another, knowledge of the immune system can help you to respond to your illness, to help your body's own healing mechanisms in responding to your illness.  For those of you who are currently healthy, knowledge of your immune system can help you to maintain you health, and help you to avoid practices that might lead to illness in your future.  For anyone living in an increasingly toxic world, knowledge of your immune system and detoxification can help you respond to the toxins you encounter in everyday life.  The choice is up to you.  But today's choices may well determine your comfort and well being in the days ahead.

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