Understanding the Importance of Immunity

When it comes to your health, the immune system plays a significant role. After all, a sign of a healthy body and mind is a healthy immune system. In today’s day and age, courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic, the necessity to have a robust immune system is perhaps more significant than ever. The stronger the immune system, the lower the chances of one falling sick. In this article, let’s look at all the reasons that make our immune system so very important.

Importance of a Robust Immune System

Our bodies are continuously exposed to potentially harmful microbes of different kinds. We need a robust and effective immune system to protect us from these germs and pathogens. Our immune system is made up of a complicated network of intricate pathways and stages in the body that prevent us from falling sick. It identifies these foreign bodies such as bacteria, parasites, and pathogens in the environment that cause infections and diseases and takes immediate action to keep us protected. Our immune system plays a significant role in your overall health and wellbeing. Let’s look into it and explore how!

Your body's immune system is the first line of defence against infections

If your body is a fort, then your immune system is the group of soldiers defending it from the enemies, which are none other than the infectious pathogens. Your innate immune system acts as the body’s first line of defence. Innate, or nonspecific, immunity is the defence system with which we are all born. It is level one of the complex immune system that we have and consists of physical barriers such as your skin, stomach acid, and mucosal lining present in the respiratory tract. So the tears, saliva, sweat, and mucus that the skin produces and the mucous lining mentioned above are all part of that physical barrier. All these prevent harmful materials from entering our bodies.

The immune system safeguards you from viruses, bacteria, and antigens

Your body is protected from potentially harmful substances, thanks to your immune system that instantly recognizes and responds to antigens. Antigens are substances (typically proteins) that are found on the surface of cells, fungi, bacteria, or viruses. Additionally, non-living substances such as chemicals, drugs, toxins, and foreign particles (such as a splinter) can also come under the category of antigens. Your immune system is responsible to detect substances that contain these antigens and then destroy them. Even your own body’s cells have proteins that are known as antigens. Your immune system’s responsibility is to recognise these antigens (usually known as HLA antigens) as standard and not attack them.

Sans a healthy immune system, you could easily fall sick.

Your immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to keep you protected against infections and diseases. Noone pays close attention to their immune system till they fall sick. In the absence of a robust immune system, one is easily susceptible to falling ill very often. Some of the most common signs of a weak immune system are frequent cold, cough, viral or bacterial infections, delayed growth and development among children, blood disorders, auto-immune diseases, organ inflammation, and other related issues. Simply put, devoid of a healthy immune system, you could easily fall sick.

What do you mean by auto-immune diseases?

As stated earlier, you will find your own body’s cells to have proteins on the surface known as antigens. These proteins may not necessarily trigger the immune response to fight the cells. However, the immune system may mistakenly think the body’s own healthy and harmless cells to be foreign and then attack them. This is referred to as an auto-immune disease. Some of the most common examples of auto-immune diseases are psoriasis, pulmonary fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and the like.

So how do you build a robust immune system?

Some of the most common ways of building a robust immune system are imbibing good nutritional habits, exercising regularly, managing stress effectively, getting enough good quality sleep, and always staying hydrated, among other things. All these factors are fundamental to improving immunity. To know more about it, read our article, Here's How You Can Boost Your Immune System.

If you don’t get sufficient nutrients from the food you eat, you can add multivitamin supplements to your diet that act as immunity boosters. Some of the best immunity boosting products that Wellbeing Nutrition (WBN) has to offer include:

• Daily Greens
• Grandma’s Kadha
• Probiotics + Prebiotics
• Melts for Natural Vitamin D3
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Apple Cider Vinegar Plus
• Melts for Vegan Vitamin B12

All these products help to meet the nutritional gaps in your everyday diet. To improve sleep, which is another crucial determinant of a sound immune system, you can try out Restful Sleep Melts. So hurry and get yourself a variety of immunity-boosting products that WBN has to offer.

References:

• Nicholson LB. The immune system. Essays Biochem. 2016;60(3):275-301. doi:10.1042/EBC20160017. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5091071/#)
• Chaplin DD. Overview of the immune response. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010;125(2 Suppl 2):S3-S23. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2009.12.980. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2923430/)
• Marshall, J.S., Warrington, R., Watson, W. et al. An introduction to immunology and immunopathology. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol 14, 49 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13223-018-0278-1. (https://aacijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13223-018-0278-1)
• Smith DA, Germolec DR. Introduction to immunology and autoimmunity. Environ Health Perspect. 1999;107 Suppl 5(Suppl 5):661-665. doi:10.1289/ehp.99107s5661. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566249/)