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Immune ‘Boosters’ Ignore the Immune System’s Best Quality: Balance

A healthy immune system is not fighting every minute. It’s also deciding what not to react to, what not to kill; this discernment is a skill it spends our whole lives refining. The immune system’s job, said Petter Brodin, an immunologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, is to maintain a healthy relationship with all of the bugs that live in, on, and around us. If the immune system killed everything foreign in sight, we would not have a microbiome (the millions of beneficial bacteria that live in and on us), and our bodies would resemble “scorched earth,” said writer and journalist Matt Richtel, the author of An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System.

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 Immune health is all about balance – an immunologist explains why both too strong and too weak an immune response can lead to illness

For immune health, some influencers seem to think the Goldilocks philosophy of “just right” is overrated. Why settle for less immunity when you can have more? Many social media posts push supplements and other life hacks that “boost your immune system” to keep you healthy and fend off illness. However, these claims are not based on science and what is known about immune function. Healthy immune systems don’t need to be “boosted.” Instead, the immune system works best when it is perfectly balanced. Scientific experts on the immune system – immunologists – know that too much of an immune reaction could result in allergies, autoimmune disorders or chronic inflammation. On the flip side, too little of an immune reaction could result in illness or infection. Your immune system requires a delicate balance to operate properly. When it’s out of balance, your immune system itself can cause disease.

 Is it possible to boost your immune system?

The idea of being able to do certain activities or eat something specific to boost your immune system such that you can become an illness-fighting ninja sounds incredibly enticing. But unfortunately, it’s not exactly how the immune system works.

Previously Featured

Show Your Immune System Some Love

Antibodies are great and all, but macrophages, B cells, and helper T cells deserve some attention too.

How to Get the Best From Your Immune System

Journalism has given me many surprises over the years. Few compete with this sentence: Do not boost your immune system. C’mon, really? What would cause me to urge you to ignore all the accepted wisdom and powerful marketing aimed at having you boost your immunity? Because the actual science tells a very different story. The immune system is much less about exercising power than it is about finding balance. You can help train and maintain it. Here’s how.

Immunity: An overview of coronavirus's biggest foe

Thankfully, we’ve got a defense against these microbial freeloaders: our immune systems. Dozens (or even hundreds, depending on which immunologists you ask) of types of cells patrol our bodies to look out for trouble, flagging and dismantling threatening pathogens while ignoring benign visitors (like our friendly, neighborhood microbiomes).

No, Vitamin C won’t cure your cold

Just because it’s good for you doesn’t mean more is better.

Something to Sneeze At

Natural remedies that claim to “boost your immune system” don’t work, and it’s a good thing they don’t.

The Defenders: Three Books on the Science of Immunity

The body has a complex system to block invaders. Scientists have learned how to join the fight.

A Breakthrough in the Mystery of Why Women Get So Many Autoimmune Diseases

Evolution might have played a trick on women’s immune systems.

Are There Health Benefits To Exposing Our Immune Systems To Bacteria?

Because bacteria have always been present in the environment of our ancestors, we’ve evolved to expect a certain amount of pull from the bacteria on the other side of the rope, and our immune systems are programmed to begin tugging right away.

Can A 3-Day Fast Reset Your Immune System?

Does a 3-day fast truly reset your immune system? Well, maybe not a total reset, but at least a mild refresh. The science suggests that, if you can do it, a prolonged fast for 2-3 days or longer may induce your body to clean out some old immune cells and switch on production of new ones. Stay tuned.

Exactly What Happens to Your Body When You Catch the Flu

Most symptoms are actually caused by your immune system's response to the virus.

How Can We Unleash the Immune System?

Although immunotherapy can work wonders for cancer, it does not help everyone, side effects can be fierce, and costs are high. But the field is young.

How Measles Hacks the Body—and Harms Its Victims for Years

The virus is the most contagious in the world, exploiting the human body's immune system to spread with extreme agility and harming its victims for years.

How pregnancy changes women’s metabolism and immune systems

The immune system changes during pregnancy too. These changes contribute to the success of the pregnancy, and are generally thought to be caused by the many hormonal changes that occur while women are with child.

Measles Makes Your Immune System’s Memory Forget Defenses Against Other Illnesses

New research shows the virus can have devastating effects on the immune system that persist much longer than the illness itself.

This Is How Living in a City Affects Your Immune System

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, or so the saying goes. If you believe that, you might assume that living in a city packed with people, pests, and the countless microorganisms they lug around would strengthen a person’s immune function. But is that true? The short answer: Maybe. It’s complicated.

What is sepsis and how can it be treated?

Researchers have now switched their efforts to identifying the molecular mechanisms that lead to the immune-paralysis phase of sepsis. Understanding this better will hopefully lead to the development of new immunotherapies to target the second phase of the condition.

World's Oldest People May Have Supercharged Immune Cells

The secret to living past 110 may be an increase in killer cells in the bloodstream.

Your Body is a Teeming Battleground

It’s time to rethink the quest to control aging, death, and disease—and the fear of mortality that fuels it.

Your Environment Is Cleaner. Your Immune System Has Never Been So Unprepared

A century ago, British scientists suggested a link between increased hygiene and allergic conditions — the first hint that our immune systems are becoming improperly “trained.”

Resources

Five life lessons from your immune system

As an immunologist, it strikes me that many of our recurring analogies for a healthy, functioning immune system promote excellent behaviour traits. In this regard, we should all aim to be a little more like the cells of our immune system and emulate these characteristics in our lives and workplaces. Here are five life lessons from your immune system.