Immunomodulacja: leczenie żywieniem – cz. I

Why is it important to ensure immune health?

A healthy immune system ensures protection by preventing infectious agents from entering the host and establishing an active infection. This is a critical ‘barrier’ function, otherwise called the ‘first line of defense’ role of the immune system. When the immune system is compromised, this ‘barrier’ weakens and pathogens invade causing disease. This triggers an active immune response to neutralize and eliminate the infection agent involving physiological changes including symptoms like fever and cellular responses such as generation of T cells and antibodies that can specifically target the pathogen. Such a full blown immune response is a metabolically costly endeavor.

For example 1°C increase in body temperature involves energy expenditure equal to a 70 kg person walking 45 kms (9.4 x 10⁶ joules (Romanyukha, Rudnev, and Sidorov, 1-13). Repeated immune activation to combat infection is a significant drain on the metabolic resources and competes with energy demanding processes like reproduction, lactation and growth, impacting growth and development. Repeated immune activation tends to increase the oxidative stress, especially in older animals. Thus a healthy immune system capable of preventing infections has profound positive metabolic implications. This is another important reason to ensure good immune health – to prevent infections and the consequent immune activation.

Interestingly current research conducted in rodents and people with age-related dementia suggests that poorer immune health can [...]

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