Our Immune systems truly are spectacles of nature. Spectacles i’ll add, that we can’t see nor really pay attention too unless something goes wrong, but that simply only adds to its amazements.
Think about it, at this very moment you have billions of immune cells patrolling your body, ready to activate a full fledged war on any “non-self” cellular material that makes its way within the confines of your bodily castle. ALL while having the grace and elegance to limit its response based off threat & magnitude to prevent unnecessary collateral damage.
Ultimately neutralizing and clearing the majority of cellular problems without us intelligent walking apes realizing anything is even going on. It REALLY is quite Amazing! And you may be wondering… How?
How does our immune system know all this? How does it know when to attack and when to relax?
Well… By a complex, multi-step and multi-factor escalation process, guarded by many authentication variables and assisted by equally complex de-escalation mechanisms. All of which we are still trying to fully understand.
However, what we do know is, a large part of our adaptive immune system is carefully trained in a little organ called the Thymus, which sole job is to make sure these fierce warriors don’t attack the wrong things, like our own cells. Which I think we’d all agree is pretty damn important!
Making the fact that our Thymus begins to deteriorate from the moments we come out of the womb, shrinking to HALF its original size and density by the time we’re 25, a tad nerve-racking. Potentially explaining one of the reasons our immune system weakens and becomes dysfunctional as we age….
And begging the million dollar question… Is there anything we can do?
