Young people rarely become afflicted with some of the serious life-threatening diseases like Cancer, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease. Why? Because their immune systems are operating at peak efficiency, activating and deactivating precisely when needed to eradicate whatever threat presents itself. Thus eliminating potential chronic inflammation.
However, this ideal situation is far from permanent. As we grow older, our immune systems become less and less efficient due to the reduction of defensive immune cells.
Inflammatory diseases, serious infections, numerous types of cancer are high on the list of leading causes of premature deaths among older adults. And all those serious diseases have one common denominator, an aging immune system (Immune Senescence). This is characterized as a major threat to our maturing population.
Mainstream doctors approach Immune Senescence by treating each ailment separately. So, for example, if a patient was suffering from two or three ailments resulting from a weakened immune system, the mainstream approach would be to treat each ailment separately. This would result in several different drugs prescribed, bringing up a potential for several sets of potential side effects. If you pay attention to some of those TV commercials, you realize even one of those side effects can be disastrous.
A holistic approach to the same issue would be to target the immune system for treatment. This could be accomplished with fewer, side effect free, herbs, vitamins, or minerals.
One of those holistic applications should the use of Reishi Mushroom, a rare mushroom originally grown in China, now grown in the United States. It increaes vitality, enhances brain function, prolongs a healthy lifestyle, and most importantly, stimulates immune function. It also helps regenerate the Liver, lowers Cholesterol, reduces Coronary risk and High Blood Pressure.
Our aging population needs a highly efficient immune system to guard against Cancers, Viral Infections, and Inflammatory Diseases.
So, if we are to restore our ailing immune system to it's former state of high efficiency, we should begin by understanding how it works.
There are two main categories of the immune system. They are closely connected interconnected and work in unison to produce a 24/7 defense against bodily intruders.
Immune Senescence is the result of the gradual reduction of functional activities of the Innate and Adaptive branches of the immune system. In a normal situation, both branches function in harmony, leading the way in the process of defending the body against infection.
Innate Immunity is the front line defense when it comes to neutralizing a foreign viral or bacterial threat. Cells that have undergone a malignant transformation in the early stages of Cancer are also targeted.
While the Innate System is busy attacking the foreign intruders, the Adaptive Branch starts to gear up it's objective defenses which include intelligent weapons like antibodies that target specific organisms and a group of Immune System cells called T-cells.
Adaptive Immunity relies heavily on T-cells but regretfully declines early in life. The Thymus Gland, located in the chest, the primary source of T-cells, also becomes less and less efficient as we get older. This makes the production of new T-cells extremely rare.
It's often said, the immune system has the ability to think, frequently saying to itself “is this a threat ? What means at my disposal should I use to defeat this threat ?” If it has the ability to think, then it must have cells that function like the brail would. The T-cells are considered the brains of the immune system.
There are two types of T-cells involved, Naive T-cells and Memory T-cells. They are extremely important to our overall well-being. Without them any relatively minor infection like the common cold or a minor cut could ultimately result in death.
Enhancing the efficiency of Adaptive Immunity is just half of the effort to manage Immune Senescence. In order for the immune system to be totally successful, an active active Innate Immune response is necessary in order to fully identify and eliminate threats from malignancies, infections, and inflammation that has that has gone out of control. It should be noted that without a strong nonspecific Innate Response, your body will not have the time to develop the Adaptive Immunity to survive new threats.
The Reishi Mushroom is well known in Traditional Asian Medicine as having numerous uses for the promotion of health and longevity. Reishi Extracts have the ability to stimulate the Innate Immune System. This enhances the performance of it's components, which is preventing premature aging and death.
If we expect to remain healthy, leading productive disease free high quality lives, we must not ignore the devastating impact Immune Senescence inflicts on our aging bodies. Immune Senescence has the ability to increase our vulnerability to viral, bacterial, and fungal infections, opening the door to Cancer and other similar horrific diseases. All have the ability to seriously affect our quality of life. They often, too often, end up taking a precious life.
It is encouraging to hear of the promising results involving Reishi Extract coming out of the scientific communities in the US and the Asia.
If you are a woman, or a man who has female loved ones in his life, you may find my recently published book of interest. Its titled Holistic Medicine For Women's Health. It's a health reference book for all women and the men who love them. Even though it is classified as a book for women's issues, it also addresses ailments common to both sexes. For more information go to www.VitaminAndHerbalHealth.com.