The body’s Army of Defenses

Mary Brown
Rasmussen College
NU231/NUR2349
Professional Nursing 1
Instructor Mash
05/14/201
With every second of the day the Human body is waging a war against enemy forces that have been sent to defeat them. The hostile enemy army of bacteria, fungi and viruses swarm on our skin trying to siege the human body. However, our body’s recognition of these enemies rely on two intrinsic defense systems, they are the innate and the adaptive systems. These two systems work independent of each other and also rely on each other cooperatively in the defense of disease. This system of defense is what is called our immunity. If the immune system is operating effectively it will protect the body from foreign invaders vigorously and sometimes without regard to the good and bad cells. One system that is nonspecific to foreign substances is the innate system. The innate, sometimes called the natural immunity is the first line of defense for the body (Marieb, 2013). Skin barriers and mucosal bodies such as acidity of the skin, lysozyme found in salvia, mucus found in the respiratory track and defensins found in mucous membranes are all part of the innate immune system (Marieb, 2013). Internal innate systems include phagocytes and macrophages by killing and ingesting their prey with enzymes (Marieb, 2013). The innate system also includes the inflammatory response which prevents agents from spreading to adjacent tissues and promotes tissue repair quickly when an injury has occurred. Other defenses in the innate system include Natural killer cells which act as a policing cell in the blood and lymph (Marieb, 2013). In other words, they can determine which cells to lyse before the need to introduce the adaptive immune system begins. The adaptive immune system is the elite fighting force in the army that is equipped with special weaponry to attack foreign invaders and prevent these invaders from attacking again. The adaptive system works as an officer and is able to command other forces to help in the battle of invasion in the body. Examples of some of these Special Forces under the adaptive immune system are the Humoral immunity and the cell- mediated responses. The cell-mediated response will be discussed later in this paper. Adaptive immunity refers to the ability of the body to specifically counteract foreign organisms or substances. The adaptive system is not the first line of defense but must be activated or primed by an initial exposure to a pathogen (Marieb, 2013). The adaptive system is specific as it recognizes and targets pathogens, it is systemic and is not limited to a certain area of the body and it has memory after the initial exposure it recognizes and mounts a strong attack of antibodies (Marieb, 2013). When lymphocytes themselves rather than antibodies defend the body, it is called the cellular or cell-mediated immunity (Marieb, 2013). T-Lymphocytes recognize specific targets of proteins that develop an autoimmune or tissue rejection response (Hogan, 2012). Cell-mediated responses are responsible for the body’s response and rejection to transplanted organs (Hogan, 2012). They are also responsible for conditions of the autoimmune systems such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, celiac’s and diabetes (Daniels & Nicoll, 2012). There are many things that affect the efficacy of the immune system, but one of the most preventable negative effects is that of stress. If you think of the immune system a defensive army that is programed to destroy the enemy, it makes sense that stress would have such a huge impact on our defense of the human body. If an army is unable to function due to the stress of nonfunctioning equipment or miscommunication of missions to accomplish or even the loss of troops to defend it all creates stress on the normal functioning of the army. The immune system can serve us well into old age but its efficiency will wane and decline (Daniels & Nicolls, 2012). When we stress our bodies ability to function due to being to overactive or underactive we make our bodies focus on other areas of the body and the need to relieve the stress we have created. This creates a deficiency in our bodies to combat normal everyday viruses and bacteria. An example is when we run a marathon, we think we are helping our bodies, but in reality we are stressing our bodies systems beyond what they are normally able to combat, making the runner susceptible to disease (Daniels & Nicolls, 2012). In conclusion, our body’s recognition of foreign substances rely on two intrinsic defense systems, they are the innate and the adaptive systems. The innate system is provides us with natural immunity which we are born with and functions regardless of any presence of a pathogen (Hogan, 2012). The adaptive system is a slower working system the works only after the introduction of pathogens. Both systems release and recognize many of the same pathogens and work hand in hand to make sure the body is fully protected. Cell-mediated immunity is an adaptive system that is specific to T-Cells and is the main system responsible for autoimmune disorders (Daniels & Nicolls, 2012). Lastly, the body efficiency in fighting off pathogens is highly impacted by stress in our life’s and body systems. Overall, our body’s army wages war on foreign pathogens that enter or try to break down our systems and it is this army that makes up our immune system.

References:

Daniels, R & Nicoll L. (2012). Contemporary Medical-Surgical Nursing. 2nd edition. Delmar/Cengage Learning. Clifton Park, NY

Hogan, M. (2012). Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-RN: Reviews and Rationales. 2nd Edition. Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Marieb, E. & Hoehn, K. (2013). Human Anatomy & Physiology. 9th Edition. Pearson Education. Glenview, IL.