Where are My Immune Cells?

By Frank Jordan, CEO of Nutritional Scientific Corporation and NSC IMMUNITION Products

Your immune cells this moment are where you need them fighting, attempting to destroy that which would harm you and helping you recover from personal health assaults! Immune cells comprise about 1/5 of your body’s 20 trillion cells, 

but primarily about 60% in the digestive tract area. The immune system is actually a complex network of cells, tissues and organs that work together and are organized to protect the body and contribute to its recovery if it is harmed.

Most organs are specific in size and location, such as the heart or liver, but the immune cells are more like a national police force, all attempting to function together to protect and keep you well. The immune cells are positioned where you need them in the body and are so numerous that to say exactly where they are at any given moment would be similar to stating where all the police cars in America are at any specific time.

The point is that the immune cells are the protection force for the body; they are on patrol and the first cells protecting you from that which would harm you and the first to respond when you are threatened or invaded to help you recover. Recovery from health assaults such as fungus, mycotoxins, bacteria, viruses, parasites is initiated by your immune cells. Remember also that no health issue has ever been caused by lack of pharmaceutical drugs. Your body was designed by the Great Physician to heal, and the primary cells in the body for protection and recovery are your immune cells.

Any defense system keeps some soldiers in places most vulnerable and others on patrol throughout the area defended. Begin with your skin; most do not realize that the skin is an immune organ. Most know the skin holds in the things you don’t want to fall out of your body, but an equally important function is to keep out what doesn’t belong in your body, known as non-self.

Be it a fungus, parasite, virus, bacteria, toxin or any other pathogen, the skin is your first line of defense against what seeks to harm your good health. Think about infections when you have a puncture, cut or surgical procedure that penetrates the skin, making you susceptible to pathogen invasions (MRSA, etc). The redness in a wound area is in reality macrophage immune cells arriving at the scene to begin repairs to the skin immediately on notice of a skin penetration.

The openings such as nose, mouth and ears with the mucosal linings throughout are also potential ports of entries for health threats, allowing entrance of airborne and food borne pathogens, particularly fungi and mycotoxins. Emphasizing the importance of the digestive system to deliver nourishment essential to bodily functions, about 60% of the entire immune defense located in the body is devoted to the digestive process.

While emphasis is in the digestive tract to assist in our protection system, different immune cells are stationed and move throughout the body, similar to the old fort systems with the cavalry responding where needed, while the west was still being won.

An example of versatility and location is the large white immune cells, the macrophages. In the brain, these macrophages are called Microglial cells, while in the lungs their name is Alveolar. In the liver, they answer to Kupffer, and in the gut, just plain old Macrophage. These cells are also antigen presenting cells (APC) that take tiny samples of what comes into the body – called antigens – and then transmit them for analysis and confirmation of whether they are harmless self or potentially dangerous non-self.

Macrophages and granulocytes are defined as phagocyte immune cells, meaning they eat and digest foreign matter, or that which enters the body, not made by the body, designated as non-self. These warriors are part of our innate immunity and must be kept in prime condition by proper nutrition, adequate rest, managed stress, moderate exercise, spiritual peace and nutritional supplementation with quality and properly researched supplements in order to maintain good health. The MG beta glucan from NSC in IMMUNITION products is such a nutritionally beneficial supplement, backed with U.S. Medical School research.

There is so much complexity to the immune system, we can only briefly review some key elements. The sadly neglected thymus gland resides in the upper chest in front of the heart. The T-cells mature in the thymus and then migrate into the lymphatic system.

The lymphatic system is comprised of lymphatic vessels, lymph fluid, lymph nodes, the spleen and tonsils. Also included and essential to where immune cells are derived, is the long-bone marrow. Many are not aware the lymph fluid is pumped through the lymph system by the muscles, not the heart, indicating why exercise is essential to a healthy immune response. Toxic waste is removed from the tissues, evidenced by swollen lymph glands feeling hot when we have an infection.

An immune system at less than peak can make mistakes and attack the body, resulting in what we call in a broad umbrella, auto-immune responses. Some examples of auto-immune disorders are rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and diabetes. While some auto-immune conditions are inherited, many are life-style deficiencies created by bad choices and defective leadership from parents to their children. Yes, you are short on time. Yes, it is easy to provide fast food and a Big Gulp for your family, and they like it. And yes, you are probably setting bad examples, because you eat to resolve stress and time constraints. But you can change!

Until you decide to eat for fuel and not for sport, stress, comfort or craving resolution, you will have a deficient immune system. Bottom line, you are with no exceptions exposing yourself and those you care for to the ravages of bad health, including cancer, diabetes, digestive ailments, flu, colds and a myriad of other bad health problems that are almost totally unavoidable unless you make the right decisions and make a commitment to show and explain the discipline in seeking and maintaining good health needed to be successful.

While we can benefit in critical health crises from utilizing pharmaceuticals taken for the designated purpose in appropriate amounts for the minimum time necessary for results, we should always recognize a prescription is required because there are risks and side effects in addition to rewards. The ratio of benefits to dangers must be sufficient to risk suffering the side effects in seeking a solution.

An example of this is chemotherapy, which is a poison designed to hopefully kill cancer cells. But we know through science, chemo drugs also kill immune cells and red blood cells, causing reduced immune protection for other pathogens such as fungus, and interruption of proper nutrient and oxygen delivery through the red blood cells. Chemo drugs are also carcinogens; they can actually cause cancer. Tread cautiously with information and understanding in pharmaceutical drug usage that often diminishes your natural immune system functions by damaging or killing existing immune cells.

Another example is antibiotics designed to kill pathogenic bacteria, but also kill good bacteria in the gut that can result in fungal overgrowth and Candida risks. Thousands have used Doug’s Duo of NSC 100 Beta Glucan and Caprylic Acid to nutritionally counter such risks in addition to using a diet such as Phase I.

As we age and are affected by life’s negative health events, our immune response suffers, with our immune soldiers becoming fewer in number, slower to respond and less effective in response. Since health involves “don’t get it” or “get over it”, an immune response at less than peak translates almost without exception into bad health in some form.

Your immune system comprised of trillions of cells is functioning as your read these words, but at what level of readiness? Don’t wait, because life is precious and fleeting. We repeat due to importance: eat right (See Doug’s recipes, books and the Phase I and II diets), attempt to get 7-8 hours sleep a night, schedule moderate exercise including walking, manage stress through prayer and meditation, while nutritionally supplementing with quality products such as those IMMUNITION products from NSC when deficient in the others.

Where are your immune cells located? The answer is: where you need them in the body, hopefully in adequate numbers, in peak condition with rapid response time. Support, normalize and nourish your immune cells to win your battle for good health and as the first step to letting your better tomorrow begin today.