Feed the Cold
Researchers of have discovered that an old adage is actually correct for once. Researchers studying deer mice have discovered evidence to support what mothers everywhere have long suspected: the immune system needs food to function properly. In a new study Lynn Martin and coauthors find that reduced food intake leads to a decline in immune function in their subjects. The findings could have profound implications for human health.
This saying is so ingrained in public perception that this doesn’t even seem like a discovery at all does it? IT doesn’t say anything about the flu, but I guess food isn’t exactly going to keep you from heaving in front of your bathroom vanities either. It is going to help.
While it is known that the immune system expends energy when it gears up to fight a virus or an infection–a fever, for example–the researchers found that restricting their subjects’ diet by 30% significantly decreased the amount of available B cells, which produce antibodies and maintain immune memory. Without these cells, the immune system must relearn how to fight a threat if it reappears.
Studies have shown that infections are more prevalent in malnourished children because they lack the energy to get vaccines to work properly. Specifically they must provoke B cells to produce sufficient antibodies for immune memory.
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