ScienceForDummies - 15-22 Sep - The Immune System: Further Explained

 Hello! 

Last week I forgot to add a poll on the science post so I'll just do this topic: a further and deeper explanation of the Immune System. Last time, we learned how the Immune System responds against a bacterial and viral invasion. This time, we'll see how it responds against cancer, as well as a few other insights about the immune system.

Part 1 - The Immune System and Cancer

Cells sometimes mutate their genetic code and it sometimes make them disconnected with the rest of the body. The body actually has a mechanism against cells becoming cancer cells: when they corrupt, they're supposed to kill themselves. But sometimes they don't and that mechanism breaks.

Cancer cells grow and kill healthy cells nearby as they don't share resources and compete for them ferociously. They order the growth of blood vessels to provide for the cancer cells that basically stop functioning with the body and act independently. 

Our immune systems find the abnormality. Macrophages, NK Cells, and T Cells attack it and the tumor is massacred. Usually, this is the end of a tumor - it is killed before  becoming serious. And you probably have this kind of cancer hundreds or thousands of times in your life.

However, the serious disease of cancer is when one cell or a few survive. These cells have mutated to become hidden from the immune response and they have adapted for being stealthy. From one cell again, the tumor grows, but now is even stronger. 

The immune system returns and kills the tumor yet again, as the immune system is now more experienced. But once again, another cancer cell survives that is even stornger. The cycle repeats and repeats until the tumor gets stronger and stronger. But if the immune system manages to finish off all of them in one attack, the tumor finally ends for good.

But if it doesn't, the cancer cells will continue to get more and more resilient and invincible. And eventually, it becomes the dangerous cancer cell that kills. The tumor cells learn to "switch off" immune cells, as immune cells do have a switch off mechanism because they can be dangerous.

This strong and resilient tumor is defensible and it continues to grow. The tumor grows and grows into other tissues and into other organs. It eventually will kill the body over time. 

Part 2 - How Several Things affect the Immune System

How do our bad actions affect our Immune System? Find out below:

Stress

Being stressed and constantly worried of in an unstable condition is bad for the Immune System which causes excessive levels of inflammation and immune weakness. 

Not enough Sleep

Little quality sleep leads to excessive inflammation, worsening infection, and chronic diseases.

Smoking

Smoking is something that weakens the body in many ways, including the immune system. It makes your alveolar macrophages, a type of macrophage in the lungs, lazy and ineffective, and promotes autoimmune disease.

Next week poll:

https://forms.gle/j6WvAa9zncYmyYDw8


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