Our Most Difficult Struggle

We are attacked; continuously and relentlessly. I am not talking about political or ideological attacks. What I want to discuss might even seem a bit ridiculous. But it’s true. And we are at a constant war with the environment. Our immune system is the barrier from us being consumed. And who are attacking us? They are numerous in numbers. There are billions and trillions of bacteria, virus, parasites, microbes and whole lot of things trying to get to us. Every breath we take, every surface you may touch every drop of seawater you might want to bathe in during vacation- all have this one thing in common. 

The constant battle our immune system fights may not seem obvious in normal time, but it becomes super apparent when we are without it. If you ever have the chance to be involved or to have knowledge about bone marrow transplants (like for people with leukaemia etc.), you would know that the old bone marrow cells need to be destroyed- essentially shutting down the immune system. These patients are one of the most vulnerable persons and need to be treated such (with sterilized food, minimal human contact, loads of antibiotics, anti-fungal etc.).  

Even if the immune system is not there for a few hours- the result can be catastrophic.

Let’s take another example- probably, a bit scary one. When we die, our immune system pack its’ bag and shut the hell up. Do you know what happens naturally after that? As soon as our immune system stop working, every bacterium, every virus in the vicinity start consuming our body cells. That’s why we start to rot.

Some people have a misconception- that the immune system is active only when we fall ill. That’s not true. Yes, sometimes our immune system can go crazy hyperdrive while other times it remains passively active. But that’s the thing- they are always active. I like to think of our immune system as the security system of any country- consisting of normal police, army, commandos and what not. During some occasion, you might think that the police has become a bit more active, but that doesn’t mean that they are inactive other times. For a smooth functioning of any society, you need a properly active security system and similarly for smooth functioning of a human body, you need an active immune system. So, never underestimate your immune system again!