How The Immune System is Affected by the Digestive System Our body consists of 90% of bacteria. That means that for every cell that we have in our body, we have 9 bacterial cells living along with it. Granted that most of the bacteria live inside the intestinal tract, but without a proper immune system keeping the digestive system in check, we would not be properly digesting food or have healthy bodies. When the number of bacteria living inside the body is balanced, the immune system is also balanced, but if there is an imbalance in the number of bacteria, then that is an indication that the immune system is not balanced as well. If a protein is undigested, our body senses that it might be a result of a virus or bacteria and the immune system …show more content…
This immunity is dependent upon our body to be exposed to a particular type of pathogen once before. After the exposure, our body’s immune system learns of a way to counteract the foreign substance. The immune system learns the most effective way to counter each antigen that enters and then retains that strategy until the same pathogen attacks on it again. It completely customizes its attack, adapts to new conditions and remembers the information. This why people are given shots of inactivated viruses. When these viruses enter the blood stream, the body thinks that they are harmful pathogens and then develops a way of counteracting to them. After battling these viruses, they remember their form of attack, so in case these same harmful viruses enter the blood stream again, they can deal with them quickly and efficiently. Lymphocytes (T and B cells are required for this immunity). The antibodies IgA are expressed in our body on the mucous surface of the gut. When foreign substances enter, the intestine, they kill those pathogens before they can even grow in the …show more content…
Unending weakness, untimely maturing, joint inflammation, poor skin and hair quality, danger, hypersensitivities, growth, and numerous different ailments can all outcome from flawed assimilation since poor processing meddles with supplement breakdown, ingestion and digestion system; permits poisons to stay in the body and aggregate; and over anxieties the body. The gastrointestinal framework assumes a focal part in safe framework homeostasis. It is the primary course of contact with the outer environment and is over-burden each day with outside jolts, now and again hazardous as pathogens (microscopic organisms, protozoa, parasites, infections) or harmful substances, in different cases exceptionally helpful as nourishment or commensal vegetation. The critical position of the gastrointestinal framework is affirmed by the colossal measure of invulnerable cells that dwell inside it. Without a doubt, gut-related lymphoid tissue (GALT) is the noticeable piece of mucosal-related lymphoid tissue (MALT) and speaks to right around 70% of the whole safe framework; also, around 80% of plasma cells [mainly immunoglobulin An (IgA)- bearing cells] live in GALT. GALT communicates entirely with gastrointestinal capacities in a dynamic way; for example, by expanding intestinal penetrability in replay
The job of the immune system is to keep “foreign” invaders out of the body, or if one gets in, to seek it out and kill it. These foreign invaders are called pathogens, which are tiny organisms that can cause an infection in the body. Pathogens can be bacteria, parasites, and fungi (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/immuneSystem/pages/whatisimmunesystem.aspx).
There are two different parts of the immune system. Innate immunity is the more general type; for this reason it is also called the nonspecific res...
1. EQ: How does the structure and function of my immune system keep me healthy?
The digestive system otherwise known as the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) is a long tube which runs from the mouth to the anus. It operates to break down the food we eat from large macromolecules such as starch, proteins and fats, which can’t be easily absorbed, into readily absorbable molecules such as glucose, fatty acids and amino acids. Once broken down, these molecules can cross the cells lining the small intestine, enter into the circulatory system and be transported around the body finally being used for energy, growth and repair.
The immune system, which is composed of cells, proteins, tissues, and organs, is the body’s innate defense against foreign particles that may show to be harmful or infectious to us. Through a series of steps called the immune response, the immune system attacks potentially dangerous organisms and substances that invade our systems. (Durani, Y., 2012) The immune system’s key players include leukocytes, the lymphoid organs, and the lymphatic vessels. Leukocytes are white blood cells that recognize and destroy the harmful invaders. Lymphoid organs (lymph nodes, bone marrow, thymus, and spleen) make and/or store the leukocytes, and lymphatic vessels are a network of tissues that allow for the leukocytes to circulate through blood or the various lymphoid organs. (Durani, Y., 2012)
The idea behind vaccines is to provide the body with just enough of the disease-causing substance to trick the body into producing antibodies against it. By injecting weak or dead infectious agents through the skin, it’s believed that the body will create the appropriate immune defense. Infants come into the world with antibodies they have gotten from their mother through the placenta. Infants who are breastfed continue to receive many important antibodies in the colostrum (the thick, yellowish premilk that is secreted during the first few days after a woman gives birth) and breast milk. During the first year of life, the immunity an infant gets from its mother at birth wears off. To help boost the fading ability to fight certain diseases, vaccines are given. Once the antibodies are produced, they stay around, protecting the child against the disease they were designed to fight.
The innate immune system is given to you at birth and always has microbes ready to fight (Joanne M. Willey, 2014). This system is very fast to detect and attempt to eliminate any invading cells. It reacts by triggering Toll-like receptors (TLRs) who then fasten to pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) (Joanne M. Willey, 2014). The first line of defense in the innate immune system contains the skin and mucous membranes, along with normal microbiota (Joanne M. Willey, 2014). The second line of defense of the “early-warning” system consists of natural killer cells, phagocytes, eosinophils, dendritic cells, macrophages, inflammation, fever, and antimicrobial substances (Joanne M. Willey, 2014). Although a powerful system, it cannot take
The third line of defence in the body's immune response is the specific response. If there are still any pathogens in the body after the first responses have occurred they are targeted according to their type by the third defence. This third defence is a specific immune response, and it produces and binds protein molecules know as an antibodies to specifically target an antigen - which is typically a pathogen itself or a marker molecule on the surface of the pathogen. When the body becomes infected with a pathogen, certain antibodies are created by the third defence to attack that pathogen. Once these antibodies have been produced to fight off specific antigens they are remembered by the body and if the same antigen tries to invade again, it is instantly targeted and destroyed, as the body is now
The macrophages engulf and digest the foreign pathogens and leave behind parts of the pathogen called antigens that stimulates the immune system to attack them. The T-lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell that can recognize antigens that are not part of the human body (non-self) and attack the human cells that have been invaded by the pathogen associated with this non-self antigen. B-lymphocytes, another type of white blood cell, also recognize foreign antigens and produce antibodies that attack and neutralize the foreign antigens to fight the infection. When a new pathogen is first detected by the immune system, it can take up to several days for the immune system to properly coordinate all the different immune cells required to fight the infection (Understanding How Vaccines Work, 2013). However, once the infection has been eliminated, the immune system has the ability to remember all of the foreign antigens that have entered the body. The memory T-lymphocytes and memory B-lymphocytes will remember every antigen they have ever encountered throughout the human’s lifetime and are able to quickly respond and initiate the immune response if the same antigen is detected again. The immune system keeps a huge supply of “millions and possibly billions of different antibodies on hand to be prepared for any foreign invader by constantly creating millions of new B cells” (How Do Vaccines Work?, 2011). This process of antigen memory and antibody production is also called acquired immunity, and it the basis to understand how vaccines
Many people die a year from infection. Infection is one of the leading causes of death. There are many different precautions to prevent infection that are well known. However, anyone is susceptible to infection, healthy or not. I am healthy person physically and mentally. However, a healthy person can still be susceptible to infection. I was infected by the bacteria Escherichia coli, more commonly known as E. coli. While infected by a pathogen my body went through all of the periods of illness because the bacteria had made it through four out of five components that made it lethal. It led to a major kidney infection.
The immune system is a highly evolved and complex defence system, armed against millions of potential pathogens that may cause infection at any point. Pattern recognition receptors, known as PRRs, are displayed by the cells of the innate immune system, such as macrophages and dendritic cells, and recognise pathogen associated molecular patterns or PAMPs. PAMPs are evolutionary conserved structural similarities found in many pathogens but not in the host’s own cells allowing the innate immune system to distinguish between self and non self and to react to the pathogens immediately (Mogensen, 2009). Antigen recognition receptors are used by the lymphocytes of the adaptive immune system to provide a highly specific and targeted response to a precise epitope of an antigen. However as a single lymphocyte carries only a single type of antigen recognition receptor that recognises one type of antigen the chance of a pathogen of finding a lymphocyte with a given specificity is low. Therefore the adaptive immune response takes time to mobilise hence the innate immune system is essential to keep the infection
One of the most common mysteries in the world is the development of autoimmune diseases. An autoimmune disease is when the immune system, which usually keeps your body healthy thinks that your healthy cells are antigens and attacks them. This is irony right? It is against properties of evolution for an immune system to attack itself causing sickness and possibly death if untreated. There are about 80 different types of autoimmune diseases, which usually have periods of little to no symptoms and worsening symptoms. What particularly creates confusion in the world is the autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, which affects almost about five million people worldwide.
Adaptive immune system happens much quicker to the presence of an “infection creating potent mechanisms for neutralizing or eliminating the microbes. There are two types of adaptive immune responses: humeral immunity, mediated by antibodies produced by B lymphocytes, and cell-mediated immunity, mediated by T lymphocytes.”
In addition to serving as a drainage system, the lymphatic system, along with the lymphoid tissues and organs, play a vital role in the body’s immune system to create an immune response. The body ...
The digestive system is a very important system in the human body. It is a group of organs that work together to turn food into energy and nutrients in the entire body. The food that was chewed in a humans’ mouth now passes through a long tube that is inside of the body that is known as the alimentary canal. The alimentary canal is made of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, and large intestines. Those few things are not the only important accessories of the digestive system there is also the teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.