Your immune system is your body’s way of protecting itself from disease and invasion by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, yeasts and fungi. If you are not sure what it protects you from, consider what happens when you die and your immune system shuts down. Your body is rapidly invaded by bacteria and parasites and rapidly degrades. It is only your immune system that prevents this from happening when you are alive.

It is therefore imperative to your good health that this wonder of nature is maintained in tip-top condition. That said, how does it actually work, and what can we do to ensure that our immune system keeps working in the background as we go about our daily lives? Every second of every day you come into contact with pathogens such as the bacteria and viruses that would invade your bodies if they could break down your defenses, so how does this system prevent that from happening?

The immune system is a very complex wonder of nature, and even today it is not completely understood. However, we know enough about it to understand its general biochemical principles, any of which are based upon given and learned memory of the protein structure of the pathogens involved. The system consists of three distinct levels.

Level 1 is your skin and various fluids, such as mucus and tears, that prevent pathogens from entering your body. Healthy skin can prevent bacteria and viruses from getting through, and those other parts of your body exposed to the outside world, your mouth, nose, ears, eyes, respiratory and digestive tract, are continually being flushed by mucus, saliva, tears, urine and so on in order to prevent invaders from taking hold.

Level 2 is known as the innate system, part of which are phagocytes, a form of white blood cell that eat invading organisms alive. It also consists of other systems, such as the inflammatory response that will be discussed later. Another form of Level 2 response comes from Natural Killer (NK) cells, that kill off cells in your body that have been infected by pathogens. By killing the cells, they also kill the pathogen.

Level 3 is known as the ‘adaptive response’, whereby specific pathogens, or antigens, are remembered by associated antibodies, and deactivated by them. The antibodies may have already been formed, the adaptive system having come across them before, or they may be formed fresh within about two weeks of infection by new organisms.

When we are born, we have been provided with a degree of immunity from disease from our mother’s blood. Additional to that, the initial colostrum produced from the human breast is a rich soup of antibodies designed to enhance that immunity. From then on we are on our own. Antibodies are also known as immunoglobulins and your blood can contain many millions of different antibodies at any one time.

As previously mentioned, a part of your immune system is known as the inflammatory response. This is the initial response of your body to infection, and involves the release of chemicals known as eicosanoids and cytokines. The former dilate the blood vessels to allow the large phagocytes to reach the infected area, and also increase the body temperature of the area in order to render conditions unfavorable for the bacteria and viruses to multiply.

The cytokines enable the various white cells to communicate, possess antiviral properties (interferons) and also lead other cells needed by the immune system to the infected area. It is the inflammatory response that causes the temperature increase known as fever and that can make you feel generally bad and run down.

When your body is put under stress, such as through dealing with the stresses of everyday life, people crowding together in offices or busy trains, and with the stresses imposed on the body through hard exercise, your antibodies are unable to deal with pathogens as they enter your body.

Germs get through your defenses and the immune system is activated. Cytokines are generated that trigger the inflammatory response to this invasion, which in turn uses up energy and slightly raises your temperature. Your body protein begins to be converted to amino acids that are broken down by the liver.

In short, you begin to feel tired and run down, and will continue to feel this way unless you do something to change the natural progression of events. Extra antibodies can help you recover from this run down feeling, and an oral immunoglobulin supplement can give your immune system the boost it needs and help reduce the production of the inflammatory cytokines.

The immunoglobulin content of Protein Extreme Energy can help to prevent you from feeling run down through the reaction of your immune system to environmental stress by giving your system a boost of antibodies to overcome the effects of common environmental pathogens. It enables you to withstand the stresses of everyday life without losing athletic ability and endurance.

Copyright 2010 LifeHealthSecrets