A lot of healthcare providers say, “it is important to boost your immune health.” The reason is that your immune system is your body’s first line of defense against certain diseases. In fact, this system is vital for your overall health. For this reason, you must know the importance of understanding your immune health. The first step is to learn and understand the function of your immune system.
The Immune System
Your immune system is composed of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend your body against foreign substances or invaders. As such, it is your main defense against the harmful things from your environment and harmful changes occurring inside your body. The main functions of your immune system are the following:
- Fighting disease-causing microorganisms, such as viruses, fungi, bacteria, and parasites
- Recognizing and neutralizing harmful chemicals or substances from your surrounding
- Fighting disease-causing changes inside your body, like cancer cells
How the Immune System Works?
Keep in mind that it is crucial to learn how your immune system works to determine the importance of understanding your immune health.
As you know, disease-causing microorganisms and substances are everywhere. However, you don’t have to worry about these harmful things if you have a healthy immune system because it can protect your body.
Your immune system can create a protective barrier to stop these invaders from entering your body. However, there are some instances that a microorganism can pass through the barrier. When this occurs, your immune system will release white blood cells and other substances to destroy this invader. If this step fails, your immune system will rev up to get rid of the invader as it multiplies.
The great thing about your immune system is that it can store information about the disease-causing microorganism or substance. As a result, it will be able to recognize, fight, and get rid of the invader faster than its first encounter. Remember, your immune system can recognize millions of invaders. However, it can only defend your body efficiently if it is healthy.
What Happens When Your Immune System is Weak?
Despite being a marvelous part of your body, your immune system can’t function efficiently from time to time. You will eventually get an infection if it can’t protect your body from harmful microorganisms.
Aside from that, your immune system can also make a mistake. For instance, it may identify a harmful substance or object, like a pet dander or pollen, when it is not. When this happens, your immune system will rev up to fight this invader, resulting in an allergic reaction. Additionally, your immune system may also think that your body’s cell is foreign. As a result, it will attack your healthy and harmless cells, resulting in an autoimmune response.
The Importance of Understanding Your Immune Health
Now that we know the way the immune system works, we can determine its important role in your health. As presented, this system is responsible for protecting your body against foreign invaders. However, it can’t protect your body from some diseases. Aside from that, it is also unable to ward-off invaders when it is weak. As a result, you may catch a common cold more often than others. The good news is that you can boost your immune health by living a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating nutritious meals, exercising regularly, minimizing stress, and getting enough sleep.
