Herbs for the Human Immune System

Oh Toxic World, You Won't Get Me

There is general agreement that the world is a far more toxic place than it used to was. More chemicals and toxins are in the air, in the earth, in the seas, and, of course in us.

The Natural Step is a science-based approach out of Sweden that provides guiding principles for living within the resources of our planet. I took a seminar on TNS and they passed around a sheet of paper filled with the results of a chemical analysis. It was a long list and looked pretty bad. Then they asked us to guess what it was. Nobody got the right answer.

The nasty assortment of unpronounceable chemicals was trace elements in women's breast milk. In one recent study, a quarter of the women's milk was so toxic that had it been formula it would have been pulled from the shelves. We have more toxins in us than our parents did and our children are likely to have more than we do.

To consider

"A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come - may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system." - Jane Smiley (Pulitzer Prize-winning author)

What's the human immune system anyway?

Excluding viruses, which may not be life forms anyway, all living things have some means of protecting themselves from attack. No functional immune system, no life. Some may not even be complex enough to be called a system while ours is a highly refined network. All have the same basic protective functions.

We know human body systems are complex, but other pale by comparison with the intricacies of our immune system. It's really quite the do. I'd go so far as to say if the human immune system were a movie actor, it might not look as good as Brad or Angelina, but would definitely walk away with the Oscar.

It is an astoundingly 'intelligent' network of biological processes that protects us by identifying and killing pathogens that cause disease, and tumor cells that destroy healthy ones. The system is comprised of various types of proteins, cells, organs, and tissues, all of which interact in an elaborate and dynamic dance.

Its Sherlock Holmsian detection capabilities cover everything from bacteria, parasites and microbes to viruses and toxins. It's our own private army working 24/7 to protect us from outside invasion.

Corpuscles and corpses

To get an idea of how much invades us, consider the common corpse. Once we no longer have an immune system to protect us, we devolve sometimes in a matter of hours into finger food for animals much lower down the food chain. Within weeks, we're bones. The only reason this doesn't happen while we're alive is our human immune system.
Detection is not as easy as you may think, Watson. Not only can pathogens evolve quickly, but they're not stupid and they don't want to die so they try to hide from our immune system's detectors. Even once it locates the intruder, our system needs to stay on the alert. It has the all-important job of making sure it's got a real intruder, which can be a great impersonator of our own healthy cells and tissues.
Our human immune systems also need to remember pathogens or we would forever be getting colds, viruses and all the stuff kids get. As we grow up our immune system helps us adapt by remembering. It allows us to make use of vaccinations, stops us from getting the same illnesses repeatedly, and helps us stay healthy longer.

Smile: Your T Cells are Watching

I have to put in a word about one part of the human immune system called T Cells. I'm personally indebted to mine because they helped get rid of the cancer that thought it could get away with murder. My T(ough) guys showed them who was the boss of me. I also think they're totally cool because you can increase the number of T Cells in your body through exercise or by being happy. Go ahead and laugh -- it's healthy and your T Cells love it, but it's true.

On the other hand, you don't even want to know all the ways things can go wrong. There are all the autoimmune illnesses, there's genetically induced weakness in immune function, age-induced weakness, overactive immune reaction causing allergies, and of course, sadly, there's AIDS which, as a reminder, is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Despite the long laundry list, for most of us, for most of our lives our human immune systems are the humble, secret, but brightest of stars that keep us shining from the inside out. Now that's worth protecting!