After exposure to the virus, some have an immune response 'behind the scenes' so they don't have to be bedridden for days
By Kimberly Hayes Taylor August 30, 2011
Why do some people end up in bed with a fever, raining and coughing, broken for days with the flu - while others never seem to get sick?
To answer this doubt, researchers from the University of Michigan conducted the first such study: they infected 17 healthy people with the flu virus and found that all those exposed to the flu were attacked by the virus, but their bodies simply had a different immune response to it. About half of the study participants fell ill; the other half didn't even feel anything.
"Many might conclude that if you're exposed to a virus and you don't get sick, it's because the virus didn't "stick" or was so weakened that it just passed through your system and that system didn't even notice it. That's not a correct conclusion," says Alfred Hero, a professor at the University of Michigan's School of Engineering and author of the study, which was published in the journal. PLoS Genetics.
He continues: ″There is an active immune response that explains the resistance of some people who don't get sick, and that response is just as active as the response in those who do get sick, which we've all felt and hated: symptoms that make us breathe hard, have a fever , we rain, we cough, our nose runs - but these immune responses in those two groups are still significantly different." Hero, together with scientists from Duke University Medical Center and the University's Institute for Genome Science, studied gene expression in the people who participated in the study, and monitored how the immune system reacted to the flu virus. They analyzed 22,000 genes and 267 blood samples and used a pattern-recognition algorithm and several other methods to detect 'genomic signatures' associated with the immune response in people who get flu symptoms and those who don't.
They found significant and complex immune responses in people who became ill, as well as in those who remained healthy. Scientists observed changes in the blood 36 hours before some people actually felt sick. We see that some people's immune systems resist the virus.
Lamar Johnson, 44, of Minneapolis, says he often wonders if drinking a few glasses of juice a day and eating lots of fresh produce is keeping him healthy. Because in the winter, when everyone around him seems to get the flu, he never gets sick. In fact, he doesn't believe he's ever had the flu in his life. "Simply, I guard against colds, I try to stay away from sick people and I hope I don't get sick," he says. Indeed, prof. Hero says that juicing and using fresh fruits and vegetables to add antioxidants can be a way to avoid the flu. "It's certainly possible that the people who entered the study had very high levels of antioxidant precursors in their blood, and that may have been what protected them, but we can't say that for sure because we don't know. You can't make up data that would make these hypotheses."
Researchers know that the flu can be deadly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that of the 15 to 60 million Americans who get the flu each year, about 5,000 to 45,000 of them die. About 200,000 people end up in the hospital every year because of the flu. Hero says his study could lead to an inexpensive test that could check if people will have flu symptoms 36 hours in advance: "That way, people would know if they need some time off, if they cancel a ski trip or isolate yourself from your very sensitive elderly housemates as a precaution."
Pneumonia and influenza took about 84,000 lives in 1995, according to statistics in the USA. Unfortunately, the harmful side effects of many drugs also affect immunity and thus weaken our resistance against disease:
Medicines that weaken the immune system
- Anesthetics, associated with stress due to surgery (including ether, halothane, nitrous oxide, pentobarbital, etc.);
- A number of agents used against infectious diseases: drugs against malaria, drugs against worm infections, antibiotics, drugs for viral diseases;
- Cortisone and related steroids;
- Chemotherapy drugs for cancer;
- Major tranquilizers;
- Tricyclic antidepressants (eg amitriptyline);
- Progesterone.
- Other factors that weaken the immune system:
- Poor nutrition;
- Multiple infections:
- herpes
- syphilis
- hepatitis-B
- cytomegalovirus
- toxoplasmosis
- tuberculosis
Other substances that weaken the immune system
- Opiates (narcotics like heroin)
- Large doses of cocaine
- Amyl nitrate
- Alcoholic beverages
- Tobacco smoke
A diet rich in plant foods can also increase the level of glutathione in the blood - this is a powerful antioxidant produced in the body. A high level of glutathione can play a leading role against infections. There are many other ways to improve the immune system. Let's conclude: a strong immune system guarantees a lower probability of getting sick.
(From the book Proof Positive , Neil Nedley, MD)
