In the last article we explored your blood work and what different cell types can tell you about your health. Today we are going to dive into what a healthy immune response is, and how everything goes wrong!
Types of Immunity
To help explain your different immune defenses I like to think of your immune system like soldiers defending a walled city. I know this may be a bit abstract, but bear with me. You have people defending the wall at all times waiting for an attack – that’s your first line of protection, also known as your innate immunity. Then, if the attackers get past the wall we have a set of more specific soldiers. They investigate that invader and know exactly what to do to take them down. This response would be different if the invader had batons vs fire. This is the adaptive immune response.
Innate Immunity
Innate immunity is like having a general group of soldiers waiting for an attack. Their skill set is limited but necessary to keep pathogens out. Pathogens, the invaders, have a specific pattern, kind of like a smell, that signal to the rest of your cells that there is something going on.
You can find your innate immune defense pretty close to the outside of your body, as it is the first line. Think of things like your skin, tears, or certain chemicals in our blood. Just in case something gets past this first line they send back reports to the insiders and try to keep a memory so they are better for the next attack. Like we discussed before, your innate immune response includes systems like cytokines, complement system, mast cells, and neutrophils. When looking at drug interventions that target your immune system, they’re actually targeting the different cytokines to manage conditions like autoimmune diseases and inflammatory disorders.
Adaptive Immunity
Now we’re going to take it up a notch. Adaptive immunity is more complex and more specific than your innate immune system. Going back to the walled-city analogy, they’re the brains back at home base that are taking the information given to them by the innate immune response and planning a more detailed response. Not only do they respond to the situation, they make a memory of it so they can respond to the same attack the next time it happens.
Important cells that help mediate adaptive immunity are called T helper cells, specifically Th1 and Th2. Cells that have been at the site of injury bring a piece of the pathogen back to T cells in order to generate the specific response. In general, Th1 are related to autoimmune diseases or intracellular pathogens and Th2 to allergies. (Understanding these different arms is the basis of how I treat allergies and autoimmune disease!) Regardless of what is causing an immune response, T cells either suppress or adjust the immune response.
What is a Healthy Immune Response?
So now you know what your immune system does both in the short- and long-term. I hope you find it as fascinating as I do in how intricate and complex it is. Colds, flus, injuries, and even your period are all healthy and useful immune responses to have. The exposure to these pathogens, internal or external, helps our body remember what happened so we can quickly respond the next time. It keeps us on our toes and it’s almost like an increased reaction time.
What Are Signs of Chronic Inflammation?
Summary so far: inflammation is good – to an extent. The initial reaction your body has to foreign invaders is vital to maintain a healthy immune system. Your immune system is able to assess what is happening, react, and make a strategic plan for the next time it is exposed to it. What happens if the initial inflammation doesn’t go away? We’ll see some of the symptoms below:
- Mood changes (it can be anxiety or depression)
- Fatigue
- Stomach problems (gas, bloating, pain, diarrhea, constipation)
- Skin concerns (acne, psoriasis, eczema)
- Brain fog and memory issues
- Joint or full body achiness
- Abdominal weight gain
- Hormonal havoc! (PMS, period cramps, night sweats, hot flashes and the like!)
Triggers for Chronic inflammation
You may be wondering why you’re getting chronic inflammation if your body has so many ways to manage it. Unfortunately, certain triggers, or an accumulation of triggers, can cause this prolonged inflammatory response.
Stress
- Like we discussed earlier, we can either suppress or promote different parts of our immune system. Cortisol, the stress hormone, will suppress your immune response which can lead to chronic inflammation.
Viruses – If we don’t properly hand viruses in the first place, they hide and cause long-term problems without showing us obvious signs of infection.
- EBV (AKA Mono- or the kissing disease)
- Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
- H.pylori
- Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
- Herpes simplex virus (HSV) 1 / 2
Gut Microbiome– an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria in the gut, or even the overgrowth of too many ‘good’ bacteria or yeast can lead not only to bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation or diarrhea but also whole body chronic inflammation. These bacteria can be found in inflamed joints, are associated with chronic pain, nutritional deficiencies and changes in mood and brain fog. Untreated parasites and amoebas can also wreck havoc.
- Candida
- Ecoli
- Clostridia
- Dysbiosis
- Amoebas
- Parasites
Food Intolerances and Nutrient Deficiencies
- Food intolerance
- You should not have more then 1-2 food sensitivities. If you do then it is often a sign that inflammation has altered your gut or has you caught in a loop of inflammation. When your body recognizes a food protein it should not mount a response. It should recognize that the food is different then the body but it should give the salute and let it pass by. When there are issues with digestion and the immune response your body can start to attack the food causing symptoms. This is not a good sign and general means something bigger is going on.
- Nutrient deficiencies- there can be many but the following are most related to the immune response.
- Zinc
- Copper
- Selenium
- Glutathione precursors
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin A
Environmental – It’s a Bigger Problem Than You Think! I tell patients to try to not live in complete fear of their environments. There are a lot of things we can be afraid of but choosing organic food using the “Dirty Dozen” by the Environmental Working Group, drinking filtered water and choosing green cleaning and body products is a good start. This could be a whole book but just begin to look around your home for opportunities to support your immune health.
- Mold
- Pesticides
- Mercury and heavy metal
- Additives, chemicals, pollution
In Summary
I hope you’ve learned how important your immune system is and how it’s related to very common symptoms. Next time you get that annoying cold, I’ll still support you staying in bed all day to recover. But I also want you to think of how important it is to get that cold to make sure your immune system stays in tip-top shape.
I hope by now you know that your stress response, food intake, exposures and digestive health are key to your immune system and overall health.
Next we will review my top 3 herbs for a balanced immune system! Stay tuned.
Do you have an immune issue you want solved sooner rather then later? I am currently taking new patients in my practice (local only- sorry). See the contact page below to get more information on how to book.
