Too Much, Too Little, & Totally Inappropriate

When the immune system goes bad, its sort of like a delinquent teenager. (Not that you guys would know anything about this)…

See. Look. Delinquent. Sitting outside of school, 

not soaking in knowledge in health class.

But it falls into one of three categories. Too much, too little, or totally inappropriate. 

Patty Dolan- Super Professor

I can’t claim to have made this up, when I was in college, I had a professor who categorized immune issues like this, and I never forgot it. So here is me hoping this helps immune malfunction stick in your head as well as it did in mine.

To understand how a bad immune system is working, you have to have a little bit of understanding of how a good immune system should work.

wow! Look at that immune response!

If you want, you can think of your immune system as a well-trained army...

 .....with members who have the assignment of patrolling your body, seeking out enemy antigens, and signaling the body to attack them with the appropriate antibodies.

scouting out an area for enemies, like your immune system

 For the most part, this army attacks things appropriately. It attacks quickly, if it has seen the enemy before (like from previous illness, or vaccine) and already has antibodies for the enemy created. In these cases, you most likely will not even have symptoms of the illness!

Other times, like with the viruses that cause the common cold, the antigen is frequently changing, so the immune system takes longer to respond, as it creates the appropriate antibodies to fight the infection. (In these cases, because of the delayed response, you get the sniffles, cough, or whatever symptoms your pet pathogen brings with it!)

Now, if this army, your immune system, decides to have a coup de ta’, or if forced for some reason to be ineffective, several non-infectious diseases (and at times infectious diseases) can occur because of the failures of immune function. We’ll look at examples of non-infectious diseases related to immune function in more detail, in each different category listed above.

1.TOO MUCH!

The “too much!” category is referring to autoimmune diseases. The term “autoimmune” describes a category of diseases in which the immune system has decided that the entire body, or part of a body system, organ, tissue, etc, (like we learned about in a previous blog) is an ENEMY.

Either for no reason, or for various reasons, the immune system attacks and starts to destroy its own body cells.

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the body identifies the insulin creating cells in the pancreas as an ENEMY, and attacks! By the time people show symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes, it is likely that near 90% of their beta cells are already destroyed!

White blood cells attacking pancreas beta cells

Another autoimmune disease is multiple sclerosis. Again, in this non-infectious disease, we see our body’s defense system, attacking itself! Watch the video below for more information on this debilitating disease.

There are nearly endless examples of non-infectious diseases caused by TOO MUCH immune response. There is probably one example for every body system, tissue and cells. It just depends on what the body all of a sudden decides to attack and destroy.

2. TOO little.

Sometimes, the problem in the immune system is that the response is just too little.   One example of this is HIV, a virus that fools the immune system into participating in the attack on the body. In HIV, the body does not attack the intruder, because the intruder (HIV) takes over the immune cells called the T-cells. Then, the body starts replicating the virus as it’s own! Not only is the immune system not attacking, its assisting the spread and takeover of the virus!

3. TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE

             Lastly, we have the category I believe every teenager can relate to, “totally inappropriate”. I know I heard that more than a few times when I was a teenager. But now you can use it in a whole new way! You see, allergies and asthma are two conditions in which the immune system reacts in an outrageous, pink Mohawk, yelling at the top of your lungs, driving 110 miles per hour, “totally inappropriate” way.

yelling at the top of your lungs

                    

                                                                             

DRIVING 110 miles per hour!

            With allergies, the immune system has decided that a completely harmless antigen, like pollen, is a foreign invader. Thus, the body attacks it like it is a pathogen.  Its like shooting one of the walls of a paintball course. Its not on anyone’s team, you just wasted a shot! It’s a pointless, and “totally inappropriate response”.  Allergies are something that progress, as well. The first time someone who is allergic to bees is stung, they may not have a full “anaphylactic” reaction.

pointless shots! Totally inappropriate response!

This is the same reason that the first time you get an illness, like chicken pox, you get the symptoms. Remember? Because your body does not have antibodies against the chicken pox! The second time it sees chicken pox, it remembers, and mounts a large defensive attack on it, so effective, you never have the symptoms.

So, with allergies, the first time your body sees a bee sting, it may not like it, so it builds some antibodies and you get a small response. The second time, the body remembers the bee sting, and although totally inappropriate, mounts a full response. This is how people end up in anaphylactic shock.

Asthma is similar in many ways, although much more complicated of a process. With people who suffer from asthma, often times environmental things will stimulate their body into totally inappropriate action, in which, the bronchial tubes will swell, and excess mucus will be produced, making it very difficult to get air in and out of the lungs!

Okay, so the next time you hear someone has an autoimmune disease, you can tell them, “You are just too much!” Or the next time someone says they are allergic to bees or have hay fever you can exclaim, “You are so totally inappropriate!” Then, quickly explain your witty joke with what you’ve learned from your health class blog!


-Hip2HEALTH RN
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1. Describe in your own words how when the immune system is "too much" disease can result. 



2. Click on "type 1 diabetes" - It will take you to a link about a diabetic dog. Click on 'I would like to take care of a dog' - what did you name your dog? Play for 2 days. How much did you get paid each day? What happened to blood glucose when the dog was walked? How about when you fed it? What happened to blood glucose when you gave it insulin? 


3. Watch the video on "Multiple sclerosis". Why does this disease fit in the "too much category?" What does this disease affect? 


4. Click on the "too little" link. Watch the video on HIV.  What type of cell does the HIV virus invade? Describe in your own words, (including citing your source) how HIV infections occur and why it is so difficult to find a cure.


5. Explain how the way the body reacts the second time to an allergen relates to the second time a body reacts to a previously seen disease. 


6. Click on the "asthma link". What does the video describe happens to the lungs during an "asthma attack?" What are some things that might cause an asthma attack? How does this condition fit into the "TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE" category? 


7. Name some other conditions, with brief description, (AND CITE YOUR SOURCE) that fit into one of these categories.