Your immune system is designed to keep you healthy. It is able to contain, or overcome, almost any type of infection you may encounter. It is also very destructive and can kill the vast majority of microbes very swiftly. One important and interesting feature of the immune system, is that It is very focused and will only attack foreign cells and organisms, while ignoring your own tissues. As well as protecting you from infection, the immune system also quietly repairs and regenerates your tissues. There are also a variety of cancers that the immune system protects against, although whether it protects against all forms of cancer is more controversial. The immune system works in conjunction with the two other major body regulating systems, the nervous and endocrine (hormone) system. In order for the immune system to work properly it is important for you to look after it.
The immune system is an amazing system and without it we would all die very quickly (in a matter of days) from infection. Nature has given the immune system a very difficult task; to destroy all foreign things as soon as it comes in contact with them, yet to ignore and protect our own tissues and cells. It is therefore not too surprising to note that sometimes the immune system can go wrong. Occasionally, in particular individuals, and for reasons we don’t fully understand, the immune system may start attacking a person’s own tissues and cells. We call this autoimmunity and examples of autoimmune diseases include Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and Systemic Lupus.
Sometimes also, instead of the immune system focusing on the bad things in the environment (such as bacteria and viruses), it starts attacking harmless things in the environment, such as pollens or certain foods. We call this allergy and allergy is relatively common in our part of the world. Examples of allergic diseases include hay fever, asthma, eczema and food allergy.
The immune system is an amazing system and without it we would all die very quickly (in a matter of days) from infection. Nature has given the immune system a very difficult task; to destroy all foreign things as soon as it comes in contact with them, yet to ignore and protect our own tissues and cells. It is therefore not too surprising to note that sometimes the immune system can go wrong. Occasionally, in particular individuals, and for reasons we don’t fully understand, the immune system may start attacking a person’s own tissues and cells. We call this autoimmunity and examples of autoimmune diseases include Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes and Systemic Lupus.
Sometimes also, instead of the immune system focusing on the bad things in the environment (such as bacteria and viruses), it starts attacking harmless things in the environment, such as pollens or certain foods. We call this allergy and allergy is relatively common in our part of the world. Examples of allergic diseases include hay fever, asthma, eczema and food allergy.