The immune system is the body’s defense system against infection. The immune system attacks invading germs and helps us stay healthy

Our body has a group of tissues, molecules, cells and organs that help protect the body from the entry of microorganisms, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites or even various particles that can generate an imbalance in its functioning and in the state of health of any person. 

But unfortunately, this defense system does not always work correctly, as there are different disorders, diseases or conditions that can affect the effectiveness and strength of the immune system, which we must know and treat to prevent invaders from entering our body with total freedom.

What affects the immune system?

There are different disorders of the immune system, however, these are classified into two groups:

• Defects: These can affect the functioning of the immune system partially or totally, these conditions are also known as immunodeficiencies, and when these are aggravated, they can produce severe infections that put life at risk.

These disorders can be very varied, some affect children and others, adults, even today different types of defects associated with the immune system are still being discovered and unfortunately, they do not always have an effective treatment.

• Lack of control: In this group we can name those conditions in which the immune system continues to function, but this time in an uncoordinated way, which ends up generating damage to different tissues of the body.

Within this classification are the so-called autoimmune diseases, allergies or asthma, autoimmune disease occurs when the immune system becomes confused and acts aggressively against the body’s own healthy tissues, being the beginning of more complex diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, leprosy, celiac disease, vitiligo, sclerosis, among other conditions.

Among the other functions of the immune system is to monitor and protect the body against some types of cancer, it is for this reason that there are some immunodeficiencies that increase the risk of malignant tumors, such as AIDS.

What to do to maintain a strong and healthy immune system?

Although there are deficiencies that are due to causes that we cannot control, there are a series of recommendations that we can follow to strengthen the body’s defenses.

As a first measure is to maintain a healthy diet, this does not mean that we must adhere to restrictive diets, on the contrary, the secret is to have a varied diet and with foods that are healthy.

We must also put aside a sedentary lifestyle since it is more than proven that physical activity improves the functioning of the immune system, in the same way, that sleeping at least 8 hours a day influences and maintaining mental and emotional stability.

In addition, when you suffer from a disorder or disease, the best thing to do is to maintain strict and constant medical control, in addition to following their recommendations to the letter.

Image Credit: iStock