YOUR HEALTH

Dr. Jerry Lee Hoover N.D. Dr. Hoover Costa Rica for three years. He is a Doctor of Naturopathy and operated a Natural Health Clinic in Florida. He have written many articles that have been published in Health magazines in the U.S. and has authored a book titled Natural Medicine which has also been translated into Spanish.  Dr. Hoover likes living in Costa Rica and enjoys sharing health information that can be beneficial to all those who read it.  If any readers have any questions they can be sent to: DrJerryLeeHooverND@Yahoo.com

 
THE BODY´S IMMUNE SYSTEM PART I
By Dr. Jerry Lee Hoover N.D.
 
 
The best way to stay healthy is to strengthen your immune system. A strong immune system is able
to  fight diseases from the simple cold to a major disease such as cancer. The complexities of our body´s immune system are really beyond mans understanding. 

Scientists are learning new things about our body´s immune system daily. Take for example, what we now know about DNA, which is a complex protein that carries genetic information about our bodies. This information not only tells about our physical appearance, but if we are prone to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. We can hinder our immune system by having a bad lifestyle, or we can help our immune system by having a good lifestyle. For example, a person who smokes may end up with lung cancer, a person who consumes a lot of sugar may become diabetic. Whereas a person who exercises regularly and eats correctly will not be overweight and will have less chance of contracting the many diseases caused by obesity. 

Our immune system´s job is to keep our bodies healthy. If two individuals visit in the home of someone who has a cold and the next day one of the individuals comes down with a cold but the other one does not it is because the healthy individual´s immune system was high and was able to fight off the cold whereas the other person´s immune system was low and could not fight the cold off. 

To keep our immune system up we have to have a clean, free flowing blood stream. There are many different types of blood cells in our body, each with their own individual chacteristics. For example, a red blood cell lives from 90 to 120 days whereas a cell that lines the stomach lives for approx. 2 days.  Red blood cells comprise a third of all the cells in the human body, about 20 trillion in the average adult,(approx. 4,500,000 red blood cells can fit comfortably on the size of a pencil dot). White blood cells are larger but less numerous than red blood cells and there are approximately 20 million in the adult body. The white blood cells are the ones that play a major role in our body´s immune system and are sometimes referred to as our warrior cells. Your army of white blood cells cooperate with each other to identify and destroy bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, etc. 

When the body has an infection the white blood cells will multiply rapidly. You may have three to five times as many of them in the blood stream during an infection. While red blood cells are buoyed along the blood stream like cargo rafts as the heart pumps the blood throughout the body the white blood cells function more like patrol boats. Under their own locomotion they can change direction and go after an invading molecule or cell. If you had an infected cut, they accumulate at the point of the infection, like an army to fight the invaders. At the site of the infection where the battle is raging, there is heat, redness, swelling and pain. This is called inflammation and may result in the formation of yellow pus, which is made up of white blood cells, living and dead germs and broken down tissue.  When the pus is cleared away, healing takes place.

Poor health habits can hinder our white blood cells from doing there job. In parts II and III of this article I will be sharing some of the natural ways to improve your immune system.

Click here for Part 2
Click here for Part 3


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