admin
The next is an excerpt from Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature’s Secrets and techniques to Longevity by Nicklas Brendborg. Obtainable on the market January 17, 2023 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org.
When the US started vaccinating in opposition to the measles virus within the Nineteen Sixties, kids thankfully stopped getting measles. However that wasn’t the one factor; immediately, American kids had plummeting dangers of dying from all types of different infectious illnesses, too. The identical factor occurred in European international locations becoming a member of the hassle. However how can a vaccine defend in opposition to infections that it’s not even concentrating on?
Like all different microbes that infect us, the measles virus just isn’t a giant fan of our immune system. Cells of the immune system are continually looking out for invaders and can spring into motion if an uninvited visitor is found. Viruses just like the measles virus struggle again by hiding, by attempting to trick the immune system and typically additionally by counterattack. This struggle between our immune system and varied microbes is ongoing all through our lives. It’s taking place inside you at this very second.
Pathogens have developed varied weapons to focus on the immune system, however the measles virus has discovered a very efficient one. It might trigger one thing you may consider as immune reminiscence loss. Often, sure cells of the immune system retain a reminiscence of earlier adversaries. That is intelligent, as a result of it decreases the time it takes for the immune system to react if it encounters the identical enemy once more. Then, there’ll already be a tried-and-tested battleplan prepared for deployment to rob the an infection of the prospect to take maintain. This immune ‘reminiscence’ is the rationale vaccines can defend in opposition to growing a illness, and in addition the rationale you solely get illnesses similar to chickenpox as soon as in a lifetime.
G/O Media might get a fee
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device
All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
When the measles virus causes ‘memory loss’ in our immune system, though, all this valuable information is lost. This benefits the measles virus itself, but it’s also a boon for all sorts of other bacteria and viruses. Suddenly, these pathogens have a much easier time infecting us. Therefore, infection with the measles virus predisposes you to all sorts of other infections, too. In fact, it is estimated that the measles virus used to contribute to half of childhood deaths from other infections.
Such one-two punches are quite common in the world of infections. A straight right from an initial infection and then a left hook from a second one that exploits the chaos to its own benefit. On the one hand, this principle illustrates why vaccines were (and still are) the uncrowned king of medical science. But it is also bad news, because there are still plenty of dangerous microbes that we don’t have vaccines against yet.
A particularly good example is HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV attacks certain cells of the immune system called T-cells. You can think of T-cells as the generals of the immune system, because they are responsible for orchestrating your immune responses. When HIV attacks T-cells, they eventually succumb to the virus. This means the immune system becomes weaker and weaker, and eventually it cannot keep up with all sorts of other microbes. As a result, HIV-infected people become vulnerable to otherwise harmless infections. Microbes, which normally live in or on us in peaceful coexistence, sense an opportunity and begin to grow out of control. The relatively harmless fungus Candida albicans – which lives on over half of us – can turn into a serious infection. Herpes virus 8 can go from being relatively harmless to causing a form of cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma. Even the flu can become deadly.
The infectious burden of HIV is taxing on the body, and even though we now have anti-HIV drugs that help patients live much longer than previously, they still die earlier than non-infected people. They also have an increased risk of everything from cancer to cardiovascular diseases. And in fact, it turns out that HIV infection in itself increases the rate of biological ageing. Patients with HIV are five to seven years older biologically than their actual age as measured by the epigenetic clock.
As a whole, there are countless viruses that target humans, including ones we don’t know about yet. It’s not hard to imagine that some of these contribute to ageing or disease; nor is it difficult to envision that diseases, for which we haven’t yet identified the cause, could turn out to have bacterial or viral involvement. Okay, it might not be particularly wise to become a paranoid hypochondriac either, but it’s certainly worthwhile using a little common sense and of course, getting vaccinated.
Nicklas Brendborg is a PhD student of molecular biology at the University of Copenhagen. In 2015, Brendborg published his first book, Top Student. He also co-authored Lars Tvede’s bestseller Supertrends.
