What is the immune system? Our immune system mainly consists of two components, an external first line of defense including our skin, nose, lungs, and digestive system and an internal complex system made up of special cells, proteins, tissues, and organs.

The human body has many things to defend itself against pathogens such as bacteria and viruses.

Our first line of defense lies within our physical barriers including things like our skin, lungs, and digestive system.

• Skin is the largest organ of the body. It plays an important role in the immune system as it is the most pronounced barrier between you and your external environment. Bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungus, and other threats to health can use the skin as a landing zone to gain entry into your interior. Skin is actually tough and impermeable to bacteria and viruses. The epidermis contains special cells that are an important early warning system to your immune system. Your skin also secretes antibacterial substances. These substances explain why you don’t wake up with mold growing on your skin. Most bacteria and spores that land on your skin die quickly. So until there is a breach in our skin like a cut most invaders are kept outside. Unfortunately we are not completely covered in skin from head to toe, we have cavities including our nose, mouth, and eyes.
• Our nose, mouth, and eyes are the most obvious points of entry for bacteria and viruses to enter. Tears and mucus contain an enzyme that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria. Saliva is also anti bacterial. When some germs enter through the nose and into the lungs are body can react by sneezing in order to immediately expel the invaders. Since the nasal passage and lungs are coated in mucus many germs that aren’t expelled or killed immediately are trapped in the mucus and soon swallowed. This is where the digestive system kicks in.
• Our digestive system plays a very important role as a large part of our body’s immune cells are found in the gastrointestinal tract of the digestive system. In the stomach our stomach acid has a low pH making it fatal for many microorganisms. We also carry a healthy set of bacteria in our intestinal tract that helps to keep bad bacteria at bay and keeps it from overproducing. Any bacteria or virus that wants to gain entry must first make it past these external defenses.

If the bacteria or virus makes it past our external line of defense and gets into your bloodstream then it must deal with our internal immune system.

Our immune system is a complex system made up of special cells, proteins, tissues, and organs that work together to defend against germs and microorganisms every day. It helps to keep us healthy, fight off illnesses, and prevent infections. The main cells that are apart of the defense system are known as leukocytes also know as white blood cells. There are two types of leukocytes:

• Phagocytes which are cells that chew up invading organisms
• Lymphocytes which are cells that allow the body to remember and recognize previous invaders and help the body destroy them. There are two types of lymphocytes:
  • B lymphocytes, also known as B cells, act as the body's intelligence system seeking out their targets and sending defenses to lock onto them.
  • T lymphocytes, also known as T cells, are like the soldiers destroying the invaders that the intelligence system had identified.
• The foreign substances that invade the body are known as antigens. When an antigen is detected the B cells produce antibodies, specialized proteins that lock onto specific antigens. These antibodies continue to exist in a person's body so that if the same antigen is presented to the immune system again the antibodies will already know how to fight the antigens off. This is why when a person gets sick with a disease like chickenpox they typically don't get it again. This is also where the saying "you never get the same cold twice" probably derives.
• Although the antibodies lock onto the antigens, it is the T cells job to destroy the antigens that are tagged by the antibodies or cells that have infected or somehow changed. T cells are also responsible for signaling other cells like phagocytes to do their jobs.

Tips to Help

• Three important areas to help your immune system is diet, exercise, and stress reduction


• Eat a diet rich in antioxidants, antioxidants remove oxidants from the bloodstream. Oxidants are known as free radicals, they are the toxic byproducts our bodies make when we turn food into energy. They are also byproducts of environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, air pollution, and sunlight exposure. Free radicals can damage cells and play a role in heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.
• Eat a diet with nutritious foods from the rainbow as nutrient deficiencies can affect your immune system. Small deficiencies each day can cause problems with mental abilities, coping abilities, and your body's ability to resist illness and infection. To get a better idea of what the different vitamins and minerals you eat can affect you visit this chart at Vitagizer.com.
• Regular moderate exercise can help strengthen our immune system. People who get regular moderate exercise tend to get sick less throughout the year. This happens because as you exercise blood circulates more allowing your immune cells to move through the body more quickly to fight off bacteria and viruses more. After exercise ends the immune system typically returns back to normal, but studies show that regular exercise seems to make these changes more long lasting. Regular moderate exercise can also help to reduce stress as indicated below may also affect your immune system.
• Exercise with sessions longer than 90 minutes can actually decrease the immune system as during intense exercise sessions the body produces a hormone that temporarily lowers the immune system, this can last up to 72 hours after the session.
• There are two types of stress, acute (short-term stress), and chronic (long term stress). As with exercise acute stress can temporarily boost the immune system and chronic stress will weaken the immune system. Acute stress causes the body to temporarily take a fight or flight response. Your heart rate increases causing your blood to flow more and our spleen to release more red and white blood cells. The white blood cells are able to move through the body and fight off bacteria and viruses. Chronic stress causes a reduced white blood cell count leaving you open to infection and illness.


• Get Enough Sleep
  
  
  • Ever wonder why is it that when you have the cold or a flu that you always feel better in the morning and then that feeling starts to deteriorate as the day progresses? Is is because sleep is considered a time for your body to regenerate and rejuvenate. Sleep is a restorative time that allows your immune system to repair and strengthen itself. It is vital to your immune system to get a good nights sleep. Have trouble sleeping? For helpful tips on getting a good night's sleep check out this site.


• Wash Your Hands
  
  
  • Washing your hands is a preventative measure that could help you avoid many illnesses such as the cold, the flu, and other bacteria and germs. According to the FDA there is no advantage to using antibacterial soap over regular soap and water and in fact antibacterial products can spawn resistant bacteria. Using hand sanitizer such as Purell can help in a pinch if you are not able to wash your hands right away to disinfect your hands but soap and water are always best to not only wash away germs but to wash away any dirt left behind by these waterless sanitizers.


• Avoid Alcohol and Cigarettes
  
  
  • Alcohol can impair the normal function of the B lymphocytes, which produce antibodies. It only takes two drinks to reduce antibody production by two thirds. Cigarette smoke impairs the immune system's ability to recognize pathogens as well as impairing the ability of T cells to multiply. Need help to quit smoking yourself? CigArrest is a quit smoking aid and like Immuniboost, CigArrest is all natural.


• Avoid Excessive Sun Exposure
  
  
  • Excessive sun exposure can damage your immune system and make you susceptible to infections and cancers. Scientists have found that excessive sun exposure may be able to alter the disease fighting capabilities of white blood cells for up to 24 hours after sun exposure. Excessive sun exposure that causes sun burns can also weaken our first line of defense, our skin. Diseases that affect the immune system like the simplex virus or lupus can become worse during sun exposure.

Interesting Facts/Myths

• Music - Listening to your favorite music can reduce stress
  
  
  • As mentioned above stress can take its toll on our immune system and lower our white blood cell count. Studies have shown that listening to your favorite music can have a positive impact on your immune system. Music that has an upbeat beat that you enjoy dancing to or music that has a nice melody can help relax you and reduce stress. Certain types of music can actually help lower blood pressure and heart rate, regulate breathing, and lower cholesterol. Beware of negative music full of hate and fear that can be emotionally damaging.


• Turn Down Excessive Volume - Excessive noise can have an impact on your immune system
  
  
  • Elevated workplace noise, traffic noise, construction noise are all examples of excessive noise that may affect your immune system. It can affect your immune system because excessive noise can disturb your sleep, increase your annoyance levels and impact your stress levels. As mentioned above getting a good night's sleep and keeping stress to a minimum is important to maintaining a good immune system.


• Laugh More - Can reduce stress
  
  
  • Laughing can help you reduce stress in many ways. Laughing can help reduce stress hormones like cortisol and increase healthy hormones like endorphins as well as improve the effectiveness of T cells. Laughing also give you an emotional and physical release. Ever hold your belly after laughing up a storm? Laughing can work your abdominal muscles and is also a good workout for you heart. Laughing more can also help you to keep a more light hearted perspective on things. Just anticipating laughter alone can boost your health protecting hormones. Having problems finding the funny side of things? Just faking laughter alone can bring on the benefits of laughter so fake it till you mean it.


• Cold Weather Causes the Cold or Flu
  
  
  • Many of us share memories of our parents telling us not to go outside when it is cold outside because we could catch the cold or get the flu, but the truth is colds and the flu are caused by viruses. Cold and flu seasons tends to occur when its cold outside because the weather forces us indoors more. Close quarters and close contact makes the likelihood of passing on germs to be much higher making it easier for us to catch the cold or flu from another person than it is when the weather is warmer outside.


• Does Echinacea Work?
  
  
  • Echinacea is a popular herb used to reduce cold symptoms and the duration of the cold. Many studies have been conducted as to whether or not Echinacea has an effect on reducing cold symptoms. The results of these studies vary with the majority concluding that Echinacea has no effect on reducing symptoms or the duration of the cold. Although some studies have been to criticized for using too low a dose of Echinacea compared to the recommended 3 or more grams a day in divided doses. Another criticized factor is the type of Echinacea used as there is a huge variation in blends and concentrations as well as having over many different forms from teas to capsules sold worldwide. Many of which have never been tested.


• Things That Weaken the Immune System
  
  
  • Sugar can weaken the immune system. Americans are now eating about three to four pounds of sugar a week, obviously not through table sugar but through all the processed food that we eat. Sugar is also vitamin deficient, meaning it provides us with no vitamins or minerals what so ever. Vitamin C is a very important nutrient that is needed for the proper health and production of white blood cells. Vitamin C and glucose, a form of sugar, are both absorbed by white blood cells in the exact same way. With all the sugar we eat the glucose rather than the Vitamin C is being absorbed into our white blood cells causing our white blood cells to not function properly, which in turn weakens our whole immune system.
  • Alcohol can weaken the immune system since alcohol carries no nutritional benefits excessive alcohol intake can create a nutritional deficiency. High doses of alcohol also suppresses the ability of white blood cells to multiply leaving your immune system weaker and increasing your chance of infection. Although one drink hasn't been shown to have an affect on the immune system having 3 or more drinks does. So it is important to minimize the amount of alcohol you intake.

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