The brain and the immune system are the only two systems of the human body that can dominate all others by extracting resources, including glucose. The brain dominates during daytime hours and stressful situations, whereas the immune system protects us principally at night, during periods of infection and when wounds are healing. Both systems are similarly capable of drawing on energy and other essential resources using strategies beneficial to their own function and anatomy. Human evolution has made the brain the most important of the body’s systems, resulting in a shift from strong to smart. However, the immune system is very old and robust; when necessary it is activated by a variety of non-specific immune challenges such as psychoemotional stress and most often when immune activating risk factors (including endotoxemia) are not solved in an appropriate timeframe. When chronically activated, the immune system demonstrates even more selfish behaviour than the selfish brain, inducing chronic low-grade inflammation and multiple related diseases. But before castigating the immune system for this behaviour, it is crucial to recognise that it is only doing what it is made for: trying to protect us.
immune system selfish brain inflammation evolution stress chronic disease Alzheimer fibromyalgia syndrome insulin resistance
Birincil Dil | İngilizce |
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Konular | İç Hastalıkları |
Bölüm | Derleme Makale |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 31 Mart 2020 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2020 Cilt: 5 Sayı: 1 |
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License: The articles in the Journal of Immunology and Clinical Microbiology are open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.