Nourish Your Immune System for a Lifetime of Good Health

By Lucy Nurek, Ph.D.

The world around us contains a hostile army of microorganisms. An assortment of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites swarm on our skin and thrive inside our bodies. The bacteria in the body outnumber the body's own cells by about 10,000 to 1. These organisms have the potential to cause us great harm. And as if that were not enough, we are constantly at risk from our own traitor cells that have the potential to produce deadly cancers. But we stay amazingly healthy most of the time.

How can our bodies maintain homeostasis (a relatively stable state of equilibrium) and respond to these unwanted intrusions? Many cells and organs of the body work together to provide resistance to disease, or immunity. The human immune system is a truly amazing collection of responses to infection. Without the immune system, humans could not survive. Two general types of resistance The body has multiple defense mechanisms, which can be arranged into two general categories: nonspecific defenses and specific defenses.

1. Nonspecific (or innate) defenses
Nonspecific defense, as it name suggests, lacks specific responses to specific invaders. Its protective mechanisms function the same way against any invader. These mechanisms are present at birth and are effective even against pathogens to which the body has never been exposed to before. We are born "fully equipped" with nonspecific resistance, since it is a part of our anatomy. The external physical and chemical barriers provided by the skin and mucous membranes, as well as the cells and chemicals that act in the internal body fluids, are ready to keep invading pathogens at bay.

2. Specific (or adaptive) defenses
Specific defenses protect against particular threats. Unlike nonspecific defenses that are always ready and able to react, specific (adaptive or acquired) defenses must be primed by an initial exposure to a specific foreign substance (antigen) before they can protect the body against that substance, and this priming takes time. The body learns to recognize each different kind of virus or bacterium it meets for the first time. So, the next time that particular antigen invades the body, the defense system is ready to launch stronger attacks. Specific defenses are based on the actions of antibodies, lymphocytes, and other cells of the immune system.

Dr. Lucy Nurek is a renowned scientific researcher focusing on stronger validations of natural health remedies. For the
past 25 years, she has been an author, researcher and university instructor, and has been most recently affiliated with Purdue University in Indiana as a Visiting Professor. An advocate of alternative and complementary therapies, Dr. Nurek is also certified in Clinical Massage Therapy and Oncology Massage. She holds a Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from Poznan University, Poland and a Masters degree in Biology and Chemistry from Wroclaw University, Poland.