So much of your health depends on the strength of your immune system, a sophisticated inner defense force that can protect you from disease and heal injuries. And some people have stronger defenses than others.
Everyone succumbs to sickness at some point, but while some people rarely get the sniffles, others seem to catch every pathogen that comes their way.
What contributes to good immunity? In addition to sleep, nutrition, and gut health, several types of specialized immune cells play a major role. Functional medicine physician Dr. Mitch Ghen compares these immune cells to military branches that work in tandem to fight microscopic battles in support of your health.
“The immune system is your armed forces, like your navy, your black ops, and your air force. All of these different branches protect you from foreign invaders,” Ghen told The Epoch Times.
Doctors typically get their first look at potential problems with your immune function by ordering the most common diagnostic test available: a complete blood count, or CBC. This test examines the concentration of red blood cells and platelets, but it’s the white blood cell count portion of a CBC that is the primary marker of immune strength.
A normal concentration of white blood cells is typically between 4,500 and 11,000 per microliter of blood.
If this number is higher, it may indicate that your body is currently fighting an infection and building its forces in response to the threat. If your white blood cell concentration is lower, it could mean that your immune function is compromised and lacks the soldiers necessary to prevent infection.
However, Ghen says a white blood cell count alone doesn’t reveal much detail.
“The white blood cell count is like saying, ‘Here’s your whole army, your whole air force, your whole black ops, and your whole navy, all in one number,’” Ghen said. “But [the human body is] so complex, and the immune system is a conglomerate of several components.”
A white blood cell count test may offer a breakdown of these various military branches, including neutrophils, which protect you against acute threats, such as sudden injuries and infections, and lymphocytes, which protect against chronic threats, such as cancer and viruses that remain in the body.
Further tests may be necessary to analyze other fighting forces, such as immunoglobulins or antibodies, which are proteins your body makes to fight specific viruses and bacteria.
Details like these can identify which features of your immunity are adequate or lacking, but they don’t explain why. Ghen says one underlying cause may be nutrition.
Adam El-Hosseiny, chief operating officer of Access Medical Laboratories in Florida, said holistic doctors who want to better understand the cause of a patient’s immune function often order a nutrient panel. These tests measure one’s levels of key nutrients that are vital to immune health.
For example, if a patient tests low in vitamin D, it could explain why he or she gets sick so easily. Evidence has shown that vitamin D plays a significant role in decreasing one’s risk of developing certain infections. Low vitamin D levels have been linked to a greater risk of hepatitis, influenza, COVID-19, and AIDS.
Other nutrients related to immune health include zinc, iron, magnesium, folate, and vitamin C. These nutrients supply the crucial resources necessary for the development and function of immune cells. When they run low, the immune system can suffer.
One example is magnesium, which plays a key role in several aspects of immunity. Magnesium promotes white blood cells such as helper T cells and B cells, as well as macrophage responses. Sufficient magnesium levels also contribute to immunoglobulin synthesis. Chronic magnesium deficiency, meanwhile, can lead to chronic inflammation—an indication of an immune system in distress.
Inflammation
Immunity is closely tied to inflammation, a condition in which tissues become red, hot, and swollen. Inflammation can help fight off infections, but too much can injure the body.
Another test a doctor might order to evaluate a patient’s immune function measures C-reactive protein, or CRP. This test is used to assess inflammation levels in the body. Similar to immunoglobulins, CRP is a protein the body uses to combat infections, but its presence also indicates the amount of inflammation a patient is experiencing. CRP levels rise rapidly when the immune system is hit with an injury or infection and decrease when these challenges begin to resolve.
Ideally, inflammation dies down when health threats have passed. However, according to Dr. Lela Iduna, a functional medicine practitioner, when inflammation is chronic, it indicates an immune system in distress.
“Inflammation is the root of every problem you know, from a common cold all the way to cancer,” Iduna told The Epoch Times. “Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes—it’s all inflammation and thus an immune system problem.”
The inflammatory response is one of the main ways the immune system confronts such issues as injury and illness. A healthy, well-functioning immune system keeps the right balance.
“A little bit of fire is good,” Iduna said. “But we need to have some control. When inflammation has gone wild, that’s where symptoms start to appear.”
To get more details about a patient’s inflammatory balance, Iduna said she may order a test to measure ferritin, a protein that stores iron in the body’s cells.
“If the ferritin level is high, it tells me there is some inflammation going on in the background. It’s not just that your iron is high, but there’s something physiologically off that is triggering your body to store it,” Iduna said.
Such problems could include inflammation, stress, tissue damage, or other conditions.
How Stress Affects Immunity
A number of things may cause inflammation to burn out of control. One common factor is stress. A large body of evidence reveals that chronic stress can wear down immunity and has been shown to impair the body’s ability to fight off infection. Chronic stress has been associated not only with low-grade inflammation but also with delayed wound healing and increased susceptibility to infections.
This is why Ghen might also order tests that measure stress hormones as part of his evaluation of a patient’s immune function. The information not only informs his treatment strategy, it also gives patients an understanding of what’s going on inside themselves so that they may course-correct, he said.
“I can measure your cortisol, your DHEA [dehydroepiandrosterone], or your melatonin, your sleeping hormone, which is also easily hit by stress. And I can say to a patient. ‘Look, here’s where the issues are, here’s where there’s too much stress. Here’s how stress is now damaging the body,’” Ghen said.
However, a stress-free life isn’t the key to strong immunity, he said. Like inflammation, stress also has both good and bad elements. Our body works best when it can keep itself in balance.
“Without stress, you wouldn’t get up in the morning and go to work. Without stress, your body would not produce the right substances to heal itself or to help you fight other different invaders that come in,” he said.