Immunity 101: What your immune system actually does—and what people get wrong

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Welcome Back to the Immune Edit

Welcome back to the Immune Edit. What is the immune system and where do we go wrong with it? Today’s episode is gonna be Immune 1 0 1, and we’re gonna dive in and just get a little bit better understanding of what our immune system is.

The Rise of “Immune Experts”

But also where things go wrong with it so that we can edit that and, and kind of bring it back into the checks and balances within our own understanding. So what I’ve noticed is since COVID, we have an abundance of immune experts now, you know, ‘cause like everyone will go online and they’re, they’re researching and they’re doing their own research and they’re doing these things and, and they’ll get little snippets or bits and pieces of.

The immune system and kind of how they understand it. But again, it’s just bits and pieces and the immune system’s, something that’s just like really, really complex. And as I listen to patients and as I listen to people, it is quite under, uh, enlightening actually when they ask me questions about either what’s going on with their bodies or certain products that they’re trying, whether it’s, uh, pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals.

Exploitation Through Marketing

Just by the nature of the questions, I can understand or I can see how they have some understanding of what’s happening, but not that, you know, complete understanding of that immune system. And what that lends to is an abundance of companies or people that now take advantage. Of patients in, in that situation because they know of the vulnerabilities that are there, and so they exploit those, uh, through manipulation or, or marketing techniques.

Building a Better Understanding

Today, I want to start building on cutting through this so that you’re empowered, you feel a little more comfortable in your understanding of the immune system. This isn’t gonna be like an immune immunology course, but I just want to have you grasp it a little bit better.

The Origin of the Word “Immune”

Um, so let’s start with where does the word even come from?

It, it’s actually a Latin word from derived from a Latin word called immuno tos, and that originally meant kind of exemption from, uh, service or obligation. And so back in the day, people would become exempt from maybe a certain, uh, service requirements or taxes or, or something of that nature. But then it evolved over time into, uh, exempt from disease.

And so after people were getting like the plague. They started noticing they weren’t, those same people weren’t getting it again, and so it’s like they were exempt from that disease. And so then it, it kind of evolves even more. And, and medicine kind of borrows this term, uh, about biologic resistance or from infection, but the immune system is far, far more than that.

The Immune System as a Surveillance System

So it is this surveillance system. It is a surveillance system within our body, and it’s awesome. It, it’s fascinating because it’s constantly surveying everything, that interaction or that interface between the outside world and our body and that immune system’s constantly sensing what’s a threat, what’s a danger, what’s not, what can we let in, what can’t we, uh, and.

Or even certain things of like, you know, can we tolerate this or should we reject it? And so it’s this constant surveillance, surveillance system. If danger or threats are posed, then. It sets off kind of this series of, um, what I call chemical text messages.

Chemical Text Messages in the Body

Um, we, we call ’em like cytokines or interleukins or certain terms that you hear, uh, antibodies.

Um, there, there’s various parts to our immune system, and so we have kind of our frontline responders and then we have like the recruits that come in second. And there’s all different interactions with these. But it’s almost like you have these chemical text messages that are sent throughout the body to communicate what’s going on.

And if you can think about like or picture. Phones, for instance, within our body, you’re gonna send a text message and that receiver of that text message can then do one of several things. It could delete it, it could block that sender, it could forward it, it could recruit people into that conversation and then forward it.

Um, it could even send that to a different type of device. And so there’s all kinds of things that can happen with these chemical text messages that some may be for our benefit. But others may just be spam. It’s like, where is this even coming from and how can I get rid of it? Right?

Immune System, Nervous System, and Endocrine System

So, um, just think of the immune system as that communication system, but it doesn’t work in isolation.

It also works with something called our nervous system and also our endocrine system or hormones. So I often likened to any kind of food that we eat is broken down into three major things. It can be fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Any kind of communication that’s occurring within our body, I think can be broken down into three sections.

The nervous system, immune system, and endocrine system, or hormone system. But again, they’re not working in isolation. They work together and it’s not about necessarily boosting these things. It’s about balance within each of these systems in the communication system and where we go wrong. Often with the immune system is people may look at the immune system just in isolation and forget the other systems involved, or they may take just bits and pieces of the immune system in isolation and try and manipulate that in a way to get you to buy a, to do a test or buy a product.

Where We Go Wrong with “Boosting Immunity”

Ultimately, and, and that’s kind of where we go wrong. Let me give you an example. Okay. So way back in the day when we started with vaccines and things, what happens with vaccines is, or even an infection, is it triggers a, that those frontline responders, but then it also will trigger a memory. So you get like an immune memory.

With those exposures, whether it be through infection or vaccine, and when that immune memory gets increased. Sometimes over time, we may keep that memory indefinitely, but sometimes we may lose that immune memory. And so we started giving like vaccine boosters.

And what would it do Well in kind of our own thinking, it would boost that immunity. It would increase those antibody levels. Against that bacteria or whatever virus or whatever we’re vaccinating against. So that’s kind of that, that in my mind, the origination of this concept of booster to the immune system.

How “Immune Boosters” Became Marketing Terms

But it was something that’s very specific. It was antibody levels. It may be something called T-cell levels, like those are memory cells and proteins that can increase.

To help our body fight infection from that kind of stemmed this concept of boosting the immune system. The problem is it’s been so twisted and manipulated nowadays that I can tell you the term immune booster or the, maybe the newer term, is immune support or support to your immune system. Anytime you hear the word.

Boost your immune system, support your immune system, immune immune booster or immune support. Those are marketing terms. Those are not scientific terms. They’re marketing. You’re getting manipulated because if you look at a lot of the products that are currently on the market as boosting your immune system or immune support, I would like to ask what exactly is it boosting?

Do you even want that boosted? If it is boosting anything? Because again, we want more balance to the immune system.

Questions to Ask About “Immune Support”

Um, overall, again, we have this complex nature, but what is it supporting? How is it supporting that? What is it boosting? They won’t tell you, I, I have yet to meet, uh, uh, anyone that’s promoting some of these products that can specifically tell me.

What it’s boosting and how it’s boosting it, and to what degree it’s boosting it, and does it even make a difference.

What’s Coming Next

Okay, so in our next episode, what we’re gonna do is I’m gonna dive into some of these labels between nutraceuticals. And also pharmaceuticals that deal with the immune system, and we’re going to gain a little better understanding of the manipulation or marketing techniques that get you to buy these products that really may or may not.

Even contain what you think they contain or have any relevance clinically to what you’re experiencing. And so that’s the edit that we’re gonna do. So what I want you to do right now is anytime you see the phrase immune booster, immune support, think I’m being sold right now a product, and those are the red flags, pay attention to it.

And just, I’m not saying that, that those products are all necessarily bad. It’s just, I want you to understand what you may be, may or may not be getting. And so next episode, tune in. ‘cause I’m gonna pick apart some of these labels and, uh, look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the Immune Edit.

Thank you.