Our Commando Force - Immune System
Considering a pivotal role our immune system plays in keeping us healthy and fit, its research has become a darling of our microbiologists, fad food/diet commercials and also of health conscious persons.
The immune system is a complex network of cells and proteins that defends the body against infection. Our immune system keeps a record of all the past battles with the microbes and is always in ‘operational readiness’ for a battle with the same type of microbe. If it is a new type of microbe, then it has to learn a hard way by battling and defeating it through its inert mechanism of detecting the enemy (microbe), develop weaponry and destroy the microbe. Therefore some common recurring infections, like the flu and the common cold, have to be fought again and again. This is because there are many different types of viruses or strains of the same type of virus which can cause these illnesses.
Pathogens (disease causing organisms) can rapidly evolve and adapt. This way they try to outsmart our bodily defense system (i.e. immune system).They are then able to avoid detection and neutralization by the immune system. However, our bodily immune system is one up over the enemy intelligence. It has developed multiple defense mechanisms. They recognize and neutralize pathogens even after they have so evolved and adopted.
The war with pathogens is an ongoing battle throughout our life.
The war with pathogens is an ongoing battle throughout our life. In practically every case our immune system wins, though there may be some initial losses. In a stray case when it loses the battle and keeps on losing it for a particular type of pathogen, a disease develops and we may need to take the external help of medications.
A hyperactive immune response is responsible for allergic reactions to ordinary nontoxic substances. Sometimes our bodies generate antibodies (our soldiers in the army) called Immunoglobulin E IgE at the mistaken sign of an invader environment factor or food, though it is benign. This causes inflammation of our skin or other body system and it results in an allergy to that particular element. With the passage of time our immune system develops immunological memory to prepare for the eventuality of future attacks of the same invader. This is normally a good mechanism. But in the case of such mistaken identity of an invader, it results in a sort of permanent allergy to that substance.
Scientists are clueless as to what causes our body to make this error of wrongly identifying a foreign element as harmful when in fact it is benign.
Our body has its own super speciality Body Defence Academy in the line of our NDA (National Defence Academy to prepare our high class army officers). This BDA is our thymus. The thymus is a specialized primary lymphoid organ of the immune system.Here our Thymus cell lymphocytes or T cells mature. T Cells are our commando force. They are very much essential for fighting any kind of foreign attack. The thymus is located in the upper front part of the chest, in the anterior superior mediastinum, behind the sternum, and in front of the heart.
As per the biological warranty card, our thymus should function until age 105.
The thymus keeps on growing after birth. It reaches its relative maximum size by puberty. Thereafter it was believed to begin to decrease in size and activity in a process called thymic involution. However recent studies have shown that thymic involution starts much earlier - right from the first year of age. As per the biological warranty card, our thymus should function until age 105. However, studies with bone marrow transplant patients have shown that the thymi of the majority of patients over forty were unable to build a naïve T cell compartment.
Fat cells occupy the thymus as it starts to decrease in size and function. During old age the size of thymus is very minute, barely able to be detected. As the new soldiers' training stops, our immune system gets highly compromised in old age. Human sex hormones are said to be responsible for this atrophy of the thymus.
Though scientists have good guesses as to WHAT causes this atrophy of thymus, they are clueless as to WHY it happens.
Living in too much of a hygienic, antiseptic and sterile environment will deprive your commando force of ongoing training to be in operational readiness at all the times. In other words, our immune system gets highly compromised in such an environment. The ability of the immune system to mount a strong protective response depends on the receptor diversity of naive T cells (TCR). For yet unknown reasons, TCR diversity drops drastically around age 65. This results in weaker immunosurveillance of the elderly. Therefore our immune system can become disrupted if it doesn’t have regular interactions with the natural world. We evolved over millions of years to have our immune system develop under constant assault. We evolved over millions of years to have our immune systems well trained in a hostile bactorial environment. Now it has much less to do in a modern sterile environment. This is dangerous for our robust health.
There is a perception that our immunity can be improved with external medication and diet. This is only partially true - may be just 25%. The very substantial process of immunity improvement lies outside the scope of any external medication and diet.
Take the example of our soldiers in the army. Can we win a war just by increasing stockpile of our weaponry? Yes, weaponry is certainly important. But far more important is the training of soldiers in using those weapons, their strict army discipline and most important of all - their motivation. They need to have very high level of 'जोश Josh' (meaning gusto and zest). There are innumerable cases in history when a battle is won on these points of strength even when their weaponry was much less than the enemy. They also have to be highly trained in operational matters to avoid friendly fire (Friendly fire is an attack by a military force on friendly or neutral troops while attempting to attack the enemy. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, long range ranging errors or inaccuracy). But then this area falls outside the scope of weapon manufacturers and suppliers.
Examples of 'friendly fire' is when our bodies generate antibodies (our soldiers in the army) called Immunoglobulin E IgE at the mistaken sign of an invader environment factor or food, though it is benign.
Taking this analogy to our bodily immune system, it is just not enough if we take external medication and follow prescribed diet to have improved immune system. Our T Cells who are our frontline soldiers in battle against pathogens, need training in fighting with different types of enemy. For this purpose receptor diversity of naive T cells is needed. Examples of 'friendly fire' is when our bodies generate antibodies (our soldiers in the army) called Immunoglobulin E IgE at the mistaken sign of an invader environment factor or food, though it is benign. This causes inflammation and then allergy to that substance. Scientists know 'how' this happens but not 'why' this happens. And most importantly, our T Cells need to be fully charged up with enthusiasm and robust health. This subject is completely out of medical science.
In Sri Anand Yoga, we make use of this knowledge to build upon a strong and robust immune system throughout our life span through its philosophy and practices.
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