ENDOMETRIOSIS AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM CONNECTION
The immune system is the body’s warrior force. Without its strength, vigilance, and quick response. In battling “invading foreign bodies,” each of us could lose our lives to the most minor infection or irritation. Invading bacteria, viruses, pollen, allergens, or any sub-Stance the body responds to as a threat are dealt with through this complex network. When disease gets a foothold, it is because of a weakness at some point in the immune system defense. It is to this system that scientists are looking for the answer to the development of endometriosis.
The immune system has an awesome task, employing a force of “agents1* co keep it operating at its peak. These agents fight disease and remember the type of invading microorganism so they can prevent reinfection. The system’s guard consists of interferon, complex fighter cells that attack bacteria and viruses by destroying their ability to reproduce in the human body. Interferon responds first in fighting infection, slowing down the potency of invaders so the body can summon other defenses. Laboratory studies reveal that only four hours after infection the body begins its charge with interferon.
The suppport system has varied responsibility, but it operates as a strategic team. Phagocytes engulf and consume invaders, or antigens, and can prevent disease from spreading. Antibodies recognize intruding bodies, clamp on to them, and destroy them. T cell lymphocytes, which are derived from the thymus gland, and B cell lymphocytes, derived from bone marrow, also work in tandem. T cells will control and regulate antibodies; B cells perform the important function of binding with antigens (the enemies) to render them harmless.
When bodily tissue is invaded, substances are released into the blood that marshal white blood cells of a different nature: neutrophils and macrophages. Neutrophils can consume about twenty-five invaders, and macrophages can “cat” four times that amount before expiring from the toxins they’ve ingested. Macrophages also clean up blood and keep it healthier by consuming diseased or ineffective red blood cells. (In terms, of endometriosis, macrophage count, for example, has been found to be double the normal amount in the cul-de-sacs of women with the disease.) Memory cells function after disease is fought of C recognizing invaders and acting quickly to prevent reinfection.
Individual immune systems, like any army—no matter how sweeping—on suffer losses or serious setbacks in defense efforts through stress, alcohol consumption, smoking (cigarettes or marijuana), drugs (recreational or medicinal), and even diets that arc high in fat, sugar, and. recent srtidie have found, deity products. An extreme form of immune system devastation is AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Traced to a virus that begins a chain of destruction among these infection-fighting cells, victims of AIDS don’t die from AIDS itself, but from diseases the body’s immune system is powerless to fight-Doctors have long speculated that there may be an altered cellular immune response among women who develop endometriosis. This alteration, they propose, might explain why the implants adhere and grow. Among the many studies done in chit field. Investigators sought to explore an Immune system deficiency that may occur along with another factor, (or example, excessive menstrual flow or malfunction of the fallopian tubes. Answers to many of these studies were inconclusive. It was found that there might be an immune system breakdown or physiological problems in a victim of endometriosis, or an immune system deficiency and another factor. Therefore, conditions explaining the cause of the disease might exist as mutually exclusive factors or they might in fact be interconnected, la other words, there is, so far, no conclusive answer.
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