How To Improve An Immune System

Research into the nuts and bolts of the human immune system shows that increased understanding of any process can lead to potential improvements: "researchers followed T cells as they spent time in the thymus then moved to the body. ... regulatory T cells learn what to protect while in the thymus and that everything the cells learn may not be good
... The findings mean, essentially from the beginning, some people may have regulatory T cells less skilled at keeping the immune system from attacking their bodies and/or too skilled at protecting invaders. It also means one day physicians might steer early education of regulatory T cells in the thymus as a way to vaccinate children against diseases such as lupus, arthritis and type 1 diabetes. Or, they might add regulatory T cells to improve the mix in people who already have some bad [cells]." Your immune system becomes less effective with age due to a bad mix of T cells - strategies of this nature may work to rejuvenate the aging immune response.

Link: http://www.mcg.edu/news/2006NewsRel/Ignatowicz_Pacholczyk080306.html

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