Balance is the key to being strong against different pathogens, says doctor.

Not only drugs, alcohol or tobacco damage our body, but other habits that we think are healthy can stop being healthy if we abuse them. We must have a varied diet and not spend exercising; you have to have a balance. For this reason, África González, a doctor in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Alcalá and professor of Immunology at the University of Vigo, shares secrets to knowing and strengthening our immune system through healthy routines.

In her book, she explains the functioning of the immune system through a castle.

The castle would be our body, which has doors, windows … through which pathogens can enter.

In the castle there are a whole series of sentinels who are already prepared to act, this would be the innate immune system. If few pathogens have entered and they are not very virulent, the innate immune system is sufficient.

If these sentries cannot alone, they have to inform other elite soldiers who take longer to arrive: the lymphocytes. When they arrive, you have to show them the photo of the enemy, who you have to eliminate.

Once these elite soldiers are in gear, immune memory is generated and the infection resolves. This is what is intended with vaccines, to trick the immune system with elements that look like the pathogen but do not produce the disease, in order to generate that immutable memory. So when the true pathogen arrives, we act very quickly to eliminate it.

What aspects affect the immune system?

There are some that we cannot change: age, since the immune system is immature in young children, very powerful in the stage of puberty and adults and, around the age of 65, what is known as immunosenescence occurs, which is a deterioration of the immune system; the sex; the genetic; the history of infections and illnesses we have had; if we are taking certain drugs …

What advice would you give to keep it looking good?

By maintaining a healthy body, we will also have a healthy immune system. The most important elements are nutrition, which is varied and balanced, with vitamins and trace elements; have adequate vitamin D levels; moderate exercise, because excessive sports is as bad as doing nothing; sleep the right hours, because melatonin is very important for the immune system; and have the corresponding vaccinations. We must avoid excesses, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, stress … All this will help us to be better protected against possible pathogens.

How to fight against some external agents?

We can avoid contact with pathogens with the use of masks, ventilate rooms, avoid crowds … to try to avoid the transmission of the pathogen if it is respiratory. Others would be having treated water and food control, to avoid diseases such as salmonellosis or listeria that were previously affected very seriously.

Are ultra-processed foods related to the immune system?

The problem with ultra-processed products is that we do not usually know certain excipients that are added to them and also, in many cases, nutritional components are lost precisely due to the effect of this processing. We must follow a Mediterranean diet, with many vegetables, fruits … We have a huge variety of foods that are very healthy in their precise quantity. On the other hand, it is necessary to adapt this diet to the age of the people and their needs: a young person who needs a large amount of calories because he has a lot of physical activity is not the same as an older person, where the amount of intake is usually reduced due to less mobility.

If from a young age we are exposed to nature and animals, do we become more immune?

Any exposure to different pathogens will make us have a memory in front of them. Children in rural settings have been said to have fewer allergies than those in urban areas. It’s not very clear. Different theories have been talked about, such as hygiene, which argues that if you do not adequately activate the immune system, you make a hyper response to things that are not pathogens, such as pollen, animal dander or food itself. There are other hypotheses that say that exposure to parasites would induce a tolerance response. Other people think that it is air pollution, which surrounds pollen and this makes us have more allergies to pollen, for example. In addition, processed foods, which have excipients that are not in nature, cause a greater number of allergies.

Can we prevent cancer?

There are cancers that we know their origin and we can prevent them. For example, liver disease is related to the hepatitis B virus: we can get vaccinated against it. The same with papilloma, which causes cancer of the uterus. This is a way of anticipating the development of cancer, preventing the advance of the infection and, as a consequence, its progress. In other cases, it is a matter of avoiding agents that we know induce it. Excessive exposure to the sun is associated with skin cancers, therefore, you have to use sunscreen, do not go to the beach in dangerous hours of sun, etc. Tobacco not only causes lung cancer, but also cancer of the tongue, throat, stomach, bladder … we have to avoid its consumption. The same with alcohol, certain products that are calcinogenic and paints or toxic agents without adequate protection measures.

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