Pathway to Better Health: Immune Health & Autoimmunity
What is Immune Health?
We all know about upping our Vitamin C intake during the “cold season,” but taking care of your immune health is about so much more than that. The immune system is a network of cells, tissues, organs, and chemicals that help the body fight infections and diseases. While there are many components that make up the immune system, some of the main parts include the white blood cells, antibodies, the complement system, the lymphatic system, the spleen, bone marrow, and the thymus.
Everything we do affects the immune system: sleep, diet, stress, hormones, hygiene… the list goes on. Immune health is so important because it helps protect against pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and parasites while protecting the healthy tissues that exist. It also helps fight off diseases when they occur and restore the body to optimal health.
What Is The Immune System?
We mentioned above that there are many aspects of immunity and the immune system overall. If we boil it down to the absolute basics, however, the immune system can be separated into 2 main parts: the innate immune system (also referred to as the general immune system) and the adaptive immune system, (also referred to as the specialized immune system). The innate immune system is that which we are born with and the adaptive immune system is one that we develop over time; it changes as the body gets exposed to the environment.
What Are Autoimmune Disorders?
Immunity can be impacted by things like the common cold, but it can also experience distress in the form of autoimmune disorders. When individuals have autoimmune disorders or autoimmune diseases, their bodies mistakenly attack healthy cells in an attempt to fight off the harmful ones.
Because the immune system does not operate independently of the rest of the body, autoimmune diseases may impact several systems. At first, the various symptoms people experience related to autoimmune disorders may seem unconnected, but having a better understanding of how the body functions and the immune system’s role in it may bring a newfound understanding of what is needed to keep your body operating at its best.
The PLMC Approach To Immune Health
Here at the PLMC, we prioritize the overall wellness of our patients. We see wellness as a function of health rather than simply the absence of disease. As your healthcare provider, our mission is to equip you with the tools you need to live a full and balanced life. We do this by starting with the 5 pillars of health: sleep, exercise/movement, nutrition, stress management, and relationships/community. We focus on these 5 areas as a basis for what we’ve established as the 5 Functions of Health:
Our 5 Functions of Health are based on the 5 pillars of health: sleep, exercise/movement, nutrition, stress management, and relationships/community. Analyzing and optimizing all of these components is how we take a multi-pronged approach to autoimmune diseases.
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