Your immune system is like a finely tuned orchestra whose purpose is to defend your body from unhealthy insults from the world around you. Like an orchestra, your immune system contains many different instruments that work harmoniously together with one goal, protecting you from foreign insults that can cause damage to your body. And, like an orchestra, the different parts of your immune system must be present, play their part at the right time, and then stop when they have completed their function. The main parts of your immune system are the immune cells, the structural barriers in your body in which the majority of these cells are localized, and the specific messenger molecules that call the cells to action or tell them to stop.

The cells of your immune system are quite varied, and include the lymphocytes, or T-cells, which fight invading molecules directly, and the B-cells, which form antibodies that can respond to invading molecules or toxins. The antibodies produced by the B-cells can bind with a potentially damaging molecule or to the surface of a virus or bacteria, thereby targeting it for removal by other immune cells. Your immune system also includes the phagocytic cells, such as macrophages and neutrophils, which remove the debris created from destroying cells and tissue at the site of an infection.

The cells of your immune system are found circulating in your bloodstream or in the lymph nodes, which are located throughout your body; therefore, the immune cells themselves are spread throughout your tissues and can travel quickly when called upon. This way, your immune system is positioned so that it can minimize the entrance into your body of foreign invaders that can cause infection and disease and can quickly respond to any invaders that do manage to gain entrance into your body.

Your immune system also relies upon specific structures in your body that provide a foundation for defense. The most important structures are the barriers between the inside of your body and the outside. These barriers keep unwanted organisms and molecules from entering your body where they can do damage. Since your skin is in contact with the outside world, it is probably not surprising that your skin is an important barrier; however, it is only one part of your defensive barrier. Your gastrointestinal tract is actually the largest barrier between you and the outside world.

Your immune system also includes molecules called soluble factors. These are molecules that can recognize when your barrier has been compromised by a foreign invader or toxin and then try to heal the area of damage and remove the insult from your body rapidly. Factors such as the complement cascade, a complex group of proteins, can form an immediate response to an insult. Your immune system also can deploy signaling molecules, which are soluble factors that send messages to the immune cells located further inside the tissue that has been compromised, or into your bloodstream. These messenger soluble factors call immune cells to the site of damage and activate the cells, bringing them in full force to the infected area. These messenger molecules are called cytokines.

Your cytokines not only signal immune cells to take up action, but they also often promote an inflammatory response. The inflammatory response at a site of infection is one way your body secludes, or walls-off, an infected area. For example, if you have ever had poison ivy, or gotten a rash from eating a food to which you are allergic, you may have noticed the signs of inflammation -- redness and swelling -- surrounding the affected area. So, when we talk about the immune system, it is not one organ; it is really the types of immune cells, structures, and soluble factors, like cytokines, which are present throughout all your organs that constitute the immune system. And, your immune system gets help from your inflammatory response.

Nutritionally supporting your immune system means supporting all these sections in the orchestra.

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