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The Immune System: Our Body's Battlefront

Audience: Middle and High School Students

Did you know laughter actually benefits your immune system It releases dopamine and other chemicals that decrease stress, which in turn improves your health. Photo by Fusion Medical Animation from Unsplash.


Soldiers scramble in front of the fortress, unearthly red light glinting off their armor, cast by the pulsing red walls. Some are clad in red metal, while others wear white. They are all wary and alert. They hear the sounds of battle and ready their swords and shields: they know that they must protect the fortress, at all costs. They hear noises again, closer this time, and know their fears have come to pass. The invaders, fearsome and numerous in size, have breached the first line of defense: the outer walls. They see the soldiers, and both sides rush out to meet each other. The battle begins. The opposing forces attack ferociously, with no mercy, because the stakes are sky-high. Your health hangs in the balance, and its fate will be determined by this war. This is the human immune system.


The immune system is one of your body’s vital systems. Its main role is to keep you safe and healthy by protecting you from potentially detrimental things such as germs, harmful substances, and injurious cell changes. The immune system is made up of various cells, organs, and proteins. Tonsils, adenoids, the skin, and mucosa all help to trap invaders, and are the initial defenses against harmful germs. White blood cells attack and eliminate harmful germs. Antibodies signal which invaders should be destroyed by marking them for destruction, while cytokines direct the actions of immune cells and have other functions, such as regulating inflammation. Lymph nodes filter waste products, and the spleen stores white blood cells and filters your blood. Bone marrow makes blood cells, and the thymus allows T-cells, a specific type of white blood cell, to mature. Each organ and part of the system plays an integral part in keeping you safe. They are all part of the innate immune system, the system of parts that you are born with, becoming effective from the time of your birth.


Conversely, the acquired immune system is not something you are born with. As the name suggests, it is acquired over the course of your life. If the innate immune system is the muscle of the immune system, the acquired immune system is the brain. It is the mastermind, and signals which germs are malicious and should be attacked. White blood cells, the attackers that are part of the innate immune system, have no memory of past invaders. This is obviously detrimental to their performance, because they have a serious weakness: they cannot offer protection against specific germs in the future, and will have to relearn how to fight those germs. That’s where the acquired immune system takes charge. It has a few different parts: certain white blood cells called lymphocytes make up for the innate immune system’s flaw, because they can remember and identify specific invaders. They work alongside the innate immune system to quickly dispose of any threats to your health. One important invention that aids the acquired immune system is vaccines. Vaccines are one of the most critical inventions in the field of healthcare; they improve your immunity by introducing your body to a controlled strain of germs, and consequently training your cells to learn to identify and destroy invaders.


Both the acquired and innate immune systems play an integral part in maintaining your health, and they are effective because they work together to function as a whole. Together, they fulfill various responsibilities to maintain your health. First, they distinguish between your own cells and invader cells. This seems like an easy task, but it can go wrong very quickly. An error can cause your body to start attacking itself, producing catastrophic results. Your immune system distinguishes between self cells and foreign cells by recognizing antigens, protein markers on the surface of each cell. If the antigen is foreign, an immune response will be triggered. The immune system also mobilizes to destroy harmful germs by using antigen-presenting cells or APCs: they storm and break down pathogens, displaying antigens to alert the immune system’s defenses that there is an intruder. Additionally, the immune system ends an attack after a threat has been neutralized. It develops post-contact antibodies against germs, which will make fending them off easier in the future.


These responsibilities are fulfilled all the time; your body can constantly be attacked by a plethora of different disorders and diseases. Infectious diseases, ranging from flu and strep throat to HIV and tuberculosis, frequently attack your body. Your immune system must endeavor to fight back against these diseases. Several disorders can actually directly affect the function of the immune system itself, making it harder to fight against invaders and threats. Primary immunodeficiency diseases are conditions that stop your immune system from functioning correctly and make you more vulnerable to infections, and autoimmune diseases are when your body is not able to recognize what are self cells and what are foreign cells, and attacks its own cells by accident. Sepsis is when your immune system begins to damage healthy tissues and organs. It is a response to infection that causes dangerous inflammation in your body. Allergies are fairly common afflictions, and are a result of your body mistakenly characterizing ordinary substances, or allergens, as harmful invaders and triggering an immune response. All of these conditions can be dangerous and highly impactful, which illustrates just how important your immune system is.


The immune system fights off invaders and infections to protect our health. It’s extremely important, and affects our daily lives in so many ways. We are only able to stay healthy because our immune systems are standing at attention, ready to protect us. For that reason, it’s important to educate ourselves on how to properly support our immune systems and make their jobs easier: letting go of stress, eating nutritiously, and sleeping an adequate amount. We should have gratitude for our personal army that is out there every day, protecting our fortress of health and preventing invaders from swarming and ruining us. We owe so much to them, so we must be thankful and aid them in their quest to safeguard us.


Bibliography


Chaplin, David D. “Overview of the Immune Response.” Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, vol. 125, no. 2, Feb. 2010, pp. S3–S23, 


Cleveland Clinic. “Immune System: Parts & Common Problems.” Cleveland Clinic, 23 Feb. 2020, 


“Fun Facts about the Immune System.” Healthline, 23 Oct. 2012, www.healthline.com/health/cold-flu/fun-facts#Laughter-helps-your-immune-system. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.


John Hopkins Medicine. “Disorders of the Immune System.” John Hopkins Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Johns Hopkins Health System, 2019, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/disorders-of-the-immune-system. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.


National Center for Biotechnology Information. “How Does the Immune System Work?” National Library of Medicine, Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), 23 Apr. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279364/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

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