How The Immune System Works

[oakway]

I think this article written by Mogens explains how the immune system

works in plain terms without all that confusing language. B j

From the desk of Mogens Eliasen, for immediate release

This article may be reprinted without further permission When brought in

its entirety, including the bio the end.

August 25, 2004

The Immune System how it works and how you support it

The Immune System of our dogs' bodies is extremely complex, and very far from easy to fully comprehend, even for the best educated scientists - nobody actually does! However, when you understand at least the main principles of the way it functions, you can make significantly better decisions in the overall health care for your dog. The following guide is no attempt to be scientifically "correct", but it will serve you as a valid reference model for making some of the crucial decisions you cannot leave for your vet to make.

"Law and order" for the body

The Immune System is a common denominator for a lot of processes that

all work together for the purpose of keeping the body well functioning, by spotting troublemakers, fighting them, destroying them, and disposing of the remains of them. It plays a role for the body that is similar to what Police does in our society. Although all cells in the body are genetically programmed to

work nicely together, they are better at doing this when their performance actually gets controlled and, in the case of foreign invaders that do not respect the rules, the body's many organs truly appreciate help getting them eliminated, so they can continue their important work for the body.

There are many organs that contribute specific processes to this: the liver, the

kidneys, the bone marrow, the vascular system, the lymph system, the

hypothalamus, the thyroid just to mention a few. All of those are "the back office" and the "volunteers" . The "police officers" on active duty are the white blood cells. They carry weapons and can kill invaders and lawbreakers, and they are on constant patrol.

As long as everything is fine and no criminals "on the streets", the body functions well, and the "police officers" do their regular patrols in peace, without being noticed much.

But when a foreign bandit arrives in the form of a virus, a bacterium,

or another parasite that does not respect the body's laws and the genetic code

for co-operation among all cells in the body, then the alarm bells sound!

How an immune response works

First thing for the Immune System to do when a problem is discovered is

to find out what exactly the problem is and who causes it. The alarm will, in the first place, only be a "911 call" from a troubled organ or part of the body.

The first thing will normally be that the body sends extra blood to the spot (more police) and increases the temperature of the area (which makes all chemistry go faster).

Then an investigation is done. The "police" on the "crime scene" will make notes about what the problems are and who is causing them. This is then

reported back to "the office" and a plan of serious action is then made, based on the collected information. There is some time involved in this. The body needs to know what to do all possible forces to deploy are set in preparedness for assault, and the body" gears up" for warfare.

When the plans are ready and confirmed by "head office", the execution takes place.

All the necessary forces are mobilized and directed to the troubled spot

but sometimes this will now be the entire body (virus infections often

travel so fast in the body that they are "all over the place" before anyone figures out what is going on.).

The deployed forces will include

-"Extra armed forces" (lots of white blood cells to fight the invaders)

-Elevated temperature (helps move things faster)

-Increased production of organs that provide antibodies to neutralize

the poisons left by the invaders

-Increased activity of the liver to destroy the remains of the killed

invaders and their junk and poisonous waste products after neutralization

-Increased activity of the kidneys to dispose of the waste products from

the liver

-Increased productivity of the blood system and the lymph system to

bring things quickly from one spot to another.

The time it takes to win this battle will vary. It depends a lot on how much head- time the infection got before the defence was effective and had all

"weapons" coordinated in the battle. It also depends on what kind of experience the forces have with this kind of invasion. It further depends on how much support the "combat forces" can get from the body, in the form of chemical and biological supplies needed ("ammunition" ). And it certainly also depends on the level of training the forces have obtained prior to this.

Obtaining auto-immunity

Let's assume that the body was successful fighting the disease, so life goes on. One of the strongest assets the Immune System has is it ability to learn. Now, first time a certain disease arrives, it might take the body some time to get a defence organized well. But the records are being kept on file. Next time the same culprit shows up, no time is wasted on making plans for the counter-attack the old plans are simply pulled out instantly, and the mobilization of a full-fledged defence takes on a fraction of the time it took the first time. Most often, the invading disease doesn't even get a chance to disperse itself into the body it gets destroyed at the entrance, immediately it is recognised!

This might all go so fast that the body does not even need to mobilize all the defences, such as elevated temperature and other symptoms of a disease being fought simply because the advanced defence now is so strong and so fast that it isn't necessary! When this happens, we will not notice that a disease attacked the dog the dog has developed auto-immunity to that particular disease and will never be bothered by it again.

Measuring titers

One of the ways an auto-immunity manifests itself is through the

presence of titers. Titers are a form of "anti-bodies" . For each disease, the Immune System develops very specific titers, and they are generally kept on

guard long after the disease is eliminated. Just to be sure.

Titers are relatively easy to measure. You can get a blood sample drawn

and have it analysed for titers for all the common diseases. If the

titers are present, you can be sure that your dog has developed immunity

against that particular disease and it can never attack the dog again.

But the titers don't stay on guard forever. Typically, in some months, they get

destroyed, and the body does not replenish them.

Until another attack is detected, that is! But then, it goes very fast.

New titers are produced again extremely quickly because all the production plans and resources are ready generally also so quickly that they will be

deployed in the advanced defence before the body is getting alarmed.

Again, the effect will be that body will not experience getting sick. The Immune System took care of that, based on the experience from the first successful battle with this disease.

But this is an area where you might get fooled. When there are no

titers present in the blood, we cannot measure that the Immune System is

still prepared for a fast and effective response to an invasion of disease! This is, however, not the same as the dog not being protected! You just cannot measure the protection but it is still there.

It does not take much to get the titers back in the blood. The slightest

exposure to the disease will ring the alarm and start an instant production. All it takes is letting your dog walk in an area where another dog has walked that was recently vaccinated against that disease.

Training the Immune System

Just as well as the Immune System will learn to respond to one given

disease, it will also learn from one disease to the next. For every time

it has been challenged, it will improve its performance when fighting the

next disease. In other words: Its ability, in general, to fight disease get better and better, the more it fights diseases!

And the bad news: it will deteriorate to plain inefficiency and

sloppiness if it never gets any chances to train.

The consequence of this is obvious, but generally not understood: you do

not protect your dog from disease by keeping it in a sterile environment. But you protect it by letting it get exposure to diseases, one at a time, so it can learn to fight diseases well. Hopefully, you will have lots of chances training it

first on fairly harmless diseases. When you can do that, it will have a much greater chance of fighting effectively also when a dangerous disease arrives.

Special rules for puppies

Puppies can, by nature, not have much experience using their Immune

System. You would expect them to be very vulnerable. But it is not as bad as you might think - the mother takes care of that!

By sucking the mother milk, they get all the protection their mother

has. The mother milk is full of antibodies and other "goodies" that will

keep the puppy very well prepared in case of an infection! This passive

protection from the mother milk is in fact so effective that Mother Nature does not bother calling the puppy's Immune System to action until it is 10-12 weeks old. Till then, it plays a very passive role, totally relying on the protection from the mother milk. But that's also the time when the puppy naturally will be weaned and start eating" real food". \

Beautifully coordinated, through 15 millions years of evolution.

Supporting the Immune System

Now you understand how the Immune System works, it is also very simple

to see what you need to do in order to support it:

-Feed nutritious food that contains all the ingredients that are needed

for all the body's many processes; the only possible way of doing this is by

feeding a natural diet.

-Don't give the Immune System unnecessary challenges through

poisoning with medication, chemicals, or foreign substances that will

stress it instead of supporting it;

-Train it well by giving it adequate challenges to develop its skills

on, by exposing the dog to a natural environment that is not sterile.

The only problem left is that some diseases are too dangerous to use for

"training".

For those, you would like to consider vaccination. But please check this

article before you do that.

Mogens Eliasen

Mogens Eliasen holds a Ph.D. level degree in Chemistry from Århus

University, Denmark and has 30+

years of experience working with dogs, dog owners, dog trainers, and

holistic veterinarians as a coach,

lecturer, and education system developer. He publishes a free newsletter

"The Peeing Post" containing lots of tips and advice on dog problems of

all kinds, particularly about training, behavioral problems,

feeding, and health care.

For more information about Mogens Eliasen, including links to other

articles he has published, please send a short e-mail to

contact@k9joy. com