Increase immunity the healthy way
Many products on store shelves claim to boost or support immunity. But
the concept of boosting immunity actually makes little sense scientifically. In
fact, boosting the number of cells in your body — immune cells or others — is
not necessarily a good thing. For example, athletes who engage in "blood
doping" — pumping blood into their systems to boost their number of blood
cells and enhance their performance — run the risk of strokes.
Attempting to boost the cells of your immune system is especially
complicated because there are so many different kinds of cells in the immune
system that respond to so many different microbes in so many ways. Which cells
should you boost, and to what number? So far, scientists do not know the
answer. What is known is that the body is continually generating immune cells.
Certainly, it produces many more lymphocytes than it can possibly use. The
extra cells remove themselves through a natural process of cell death called
apoptosis — some before they see any action, some after the battle is won. No
one knows how many cells or what the best mix of cells the immune system needs
to function at its optimum level.
Immune system and age
As we age, our immune response capability becomes reduced, which in turn
contributes to more infections and more cancer. As life expectancy in developed
countries has increased, so too has the incidence of age-related conditions.
While some people age healthily, the conclusion of many studies is that,
compared with younger people, the elderly are more likely to contract
infectious diseases and, even more importantly, more likely to die from them.
Respiratory infections, including, influenza, the covid -19 virus,
and particularly pneumonia are leading causes of death in people over 65
worldwide. No one knows for sure why this happens, but some scientists observe
that this increased risk correlates with a decrease in T cells, possibly from
the thymus atrophying with age and producing fewer T cells to fight off
infection. Whether this decrease in thymus function explains the drop in T
cells or whether other changes play a role is not fully understood. Others are
interested in whether the bone marrow becomes less efficient at producing the
stem cells that give rise to the cells of the immune system.