This idea seems self evident once heard. But I have only heard it from one source, Dr. Doug Graham of FoodNSport.com at one of his many excellent retreats.
Here's the deal...the anatomical systems of the body are:
1) the cardiovascular system
2) the digestive system
3) the endocrine system
4) the muscular system
5) the nervous system
6) the renal system
7) the reproductive system
8) the respiratory system
9) the immune system?
Each of the first eight is a specific biomechanical system:
-cardiovascular: heart,arteries,veins,capillaries
-digestive: mouth,stomach,intestines
-endocrine: hormone glands
-muscular: muscles
-nervous: nerve network
-renal: kidneys filter blood to produce urine
-reproductive: genitalia,uterus
-respiratory: lungs
Of course much more could be said about each of them, but the point is they are comprised of specific organs and biomechanical constructions of tissue relevant to the functions of that particular system.
So where are those specific organs and tissues located in the immune system? Is it the microbiome? Well maybe, we know how important it is to immune function. But it is not comprised of physiologic tissues...it is, as we know, bacteria, viruses, and parasites. We also know when the balance of friendly to unfriendly of these innumerable critters gets out of whack our health collapses and all kinds of problems follow. But none of these little guys is us, they are not our tissue. It's not a biomechanical system of the body.
A more appropriate name for immune function is, well, just that, immune function. If immune function is good, you're good, if not, not so good.
I'm not sure why immune function was tacked onto the anatomical systems, which were first established in the 16th century: "Andreas Vesalius founded modern anatomy with the publication of De Humanis Corporis Fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body) in June 1543". https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458/
Perhaps physiologists and biologists didn't know where else to put it, but recognized it's significance. Immune function is exceedingly complex, and we can't say we really understand it very well yet. The significance of the microbiome was recognized very recently in relative terms. On the other hand I think it was Hippocrates who first said "all disease begins in the gut". Definition of science - if it can't be measured it doesn't exist.
Mind you I am not anti-science, not at all, I just recognize it's limits.
What we do know for sure is immune function draws on all of the anatomical systems of the body. And again, we can be reasonably sure we don't understand it all that well yet. If we did we probably would not have exponential epidemics in cancer, autism, Alzheimer's, all of the many autoimmune disorders, etc, etc.
But we are making progress...we actually do understand how to reverse and cure all the cardiovascular diseases for example, but these modalities have not filtered into medical practice yet. And we know why, right? It doesn't involve drugs! In fact it requires patients to suspend use of drugs.
And that is a pill too large for the healthcare system to swallow at this point.
So if critters that were formally only thought of as pathogenic are now known to be crucial to our health, what other things might we find that are unidentified parts of immune function? How 'bout this one:
Sunlight disinfects the blood.
UV penetrates the epidermis and dermis and reaches the hypodermis where we find - blood vessels. And UV is well known to kill viruses and bacteria: http://sunlightinstitute.org/sunlight-disinfectant/
Why don't we know this? Well, again, the health care (disease management) industry can't make a dime on it. They are too busy promoting the idea that sunlight causes cancer. And, sure, we know too much sunlight is destructive (one should minimized getting "burned" by the sun). But what is the cumulative effect of all this advice to avoid the sun? More cancer?
Very possibly.
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