The Importance Of A
Strong Immune System

Overview

The immune system has two major entities that work together to protect you from foreign pathogens.

They are:

The innate (non-specific) immunity 

The acquired (specific) immunity

Making sure that your immune system is functioning properly results in neutralizing any threats, including foreign bodies and microbes.

Unfortunately, the online community is a hub for false claims and misinformation where advertisers mislead people about the effectiveness of their products.

In this article, we will discuss the importance of having a strong immune system, then switch gears to cover how things could go wrong.

What does the immune system do?

Good immunity describes the optimal function of immune cells. In other words, your immune system becomes more efficient at identifying and neutralizing any threats. Of course, the protection it provides needs to be moderate to avoid dysfunction (more on this later).

A good immune system will protect you from:

External threats (e.g., microbes, harmful chemicals, penetrating objects)
Internal threats (e.g., cancer cells)

An example of a good-functioning immune system is the destruction of newly-formed cancer cells, which occurs hundreds of times every single day.

How things could go wrong?

Due to the complexity of the immune system, it is susceptible to dysfunctions from both sides of the spectrum.

If your immune system is hyperactive, you could develop autoimmune diseases, which can be debilitating in some cases.

On the other end, the suboptimal function of the immune system predisposes you to immunodeficiencies.

Let us briefly detail each entity:

Autoimmune diseases

Autoimmune diseases are especially prevalent in middle-aged women. However, they also occur in men. 

The primary issue with these conditions is the release of immune cells and antibodies that target specific tissues of the body. As a result, the incurring immune reaction leads to the progressive destruction of that tissue/organ.

Some common autoimmune diseases include:

System lupus erythematosus

Type 1 diabetes

Multiple sclerosis

Crohn’s disease

The treatment of autoimmune diseases requires a combination of prescribing immunosuppressants, such as corticosteroids, and surgical intervention.

Immunodeficiencies

When your immune system is not functioning properly, you start dealing with immunodeficiencies. This could affect a cell type, antibody, or chemokines (chemicals that allow communication between immune cells).

Depending on the defective entity, you can expect unique signs and symptoms. One common aspect is the susceptibility to infections.

Some common immunodeficiencies include:

Chediak-Higashi syndrome

Combined immunodeficiency disease

Complement deficiencies

DiGeorge syndrome

Takeaway message

Optimizing your immune system is indispensable to protect your body from all threats. However, you need to pay attention to the type of products that are buying to avoid scams.

We hope that this article helped you appreciate the role of having a strong immune system and how it helps to improve your health in a variety of ways.

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