What you feel when you are “coming down with something” such as a raised temperature, sore throat or a sniffly nose is actually the effects of the immune system battling the invaders.

Orchestration of the body immune defence mechanisms to destroy invaders is one of the most complex biological responses in the human body.

Organs including the skin and airways act as a barrier to pathogenic invasion while billions of immune sentinel cells constantly patrol tissues and release trillions of molecular weapons. Inflammation plays a central role in the communication of the different facets of the immune system to direct its destructive power to the site of infection.

This response is only beneficial if temporary, and the immune system is restored to a baseline level once the invaders are eliminated.

If prolonged indefinitely, this response can be more harmful than beneficial. The latter is a salient feature of conditions such as autoimmune diseases, in which healthy tissue is attacked, as opposed to invaders.

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