# Immune System Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immune-system-question/572482 "2011-02-24T19:00:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immune-system-question/572482/21 "2011-02-25T06:09:32Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > Do you have a cite for this claim? > > That is obvious There’s only about a zillion. > **[Redirecting](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673600042598)** _Lactobacillus GG was effective in prevention of early atopic disease in children at high risk. Thus, gut microflora might be a hitherto unexplored source of natural immunomodulators and probiotics, for prevention of atopic disease._ > **[Probiotics in human medicine.](https://gut.bmj.com/content/32/4/439)** [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1574-695X.2000.tb01504.x/full](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1574-695X.2000.tb01504.x/full) There’s even Wikipedia ferkrisakes: > **[Probiotic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotics#Benefits)** > > Probiotics are live microorganisms in foods intended to improve or restore microbiota in the gut. Probiotic products include yogurt, cheese, some fermented foods, such as sourdough bread and nattō, dietary supplements, and clinical capsules containing a specific probiotic strain. > Probiotics are considered generally safe to consume, but may cause bacteria–host interactions and unwanted side effects in some cases. Many claimed health benefits, such as treating eczema or curing vaginal infectio... _Improving immune function and preventing infections LAB are thought to have several presumably beneficial effects on immune function. They may protect against pathogens by means of competitive inhibition (i.e., by competing for growth) and there is evidence to suggest that they may improve immune function by increasing the number of IgA-producing plasma cells, increasing or improving phagocytosis as well as increasing the proportion of T lymphocytes and Natural Killer cells.[20][21] Clinical trials have demonstrated that probiotics may decrease the incidence of respiratory tract infections[22] and dental caries in children.[23] LAB foods and supplements have been shown to aid in the treatment and prevention of acute diarrhea, and in decreasing the severity and duration of rotavirus infections in children and travelers’ diarrhea in adults.[20][21] A 2010 study suggested that the anecdotal benefits of probiotic therapies as beneficial for preventing secondary infections, a common complication of antibiotic therapy, may be because keeping the immune system primed by eating foods enhanced with “good” bacteria may help counteract the negative effects of sickness and antibiotics. It was thought that antibiotics may turn the immune system “off” while probiotics turns it back on “idle”, and more able to quickly react to new infections.[24]_ Honestly dude, that’s almost like asking me for a cite that the Earth goes around the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immune-system-question/572482/22 "2011-02-25T11:52:14Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > Cite please, this sounds like woo-woo I only have German cites which aren’t counted, but there have been lots of studies that being depressed lowers the measurable count of white blood cells. And there’s the list of traumatic events that (I think US?) scientists compiled - death of a spouse/ parent/ child gets 100 points, change in jobs (hiring/ firing, promotion/ demotion) gets 50 points etc. When you get over a certain number of points in a short time, you have a very high risk of getting heart diseases. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immune-system-question/572482/23 "2011-02-25T12:04:11Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Thanks for the replies. I have suggested that she start taking a daily multi-vitamin, and see a doctor about her immune system, in the past… I was hoping for a magic pill. :smack: There is no easy solution to a complex situation. We still don’t know any details, but there are three very basic possibilites: 1. She’s always had a weak immune system = got sick easily, hoped to grow out of it, but hasn’t. Solution: deal with it. Although, see below\* 1. Something in her life changed recently which impacted her immune system. This could be anything, from the obvious (she’s working night shift and sleeping less; she just borne a baby; split up with a boyfriend; moved from Florida to Alaska and her body needs time to adjust to the climate;…) to small things (she works in a building with AC and gets sick from that\*\*). That’s why a thorough check-up with a good doctor (and an insurance that pays for that) will take 45-60 min. or more, while the doctors asks question after question, several pages long on what has changed in the last year in her enviroment. 1. Something inside her body changed - cancer, an organ getting out of whack - and that’s affecting her immune system, although her life has stayed the same. This could also be caused by 2) if she took a business trip to Alpha Centauri and caught Zeticulan Grey disease there; if she walked in the woods and a tick bit her with Lyme disease; a wolf bit her and she has lupus (but it’s never lupus!)… - There are some interesting cases where people are sick for years, travel to a score of doctors, each of whom tells them “you’re sick, bad luck, accept it” and then the 21st doc. finds out “But you have Zeticulan Grey disease” and after one infusion of essence of liver to the spleen, that person is transformed into healthy. Sometimes the previous doctors didn’t catch it because the symptoms were abnormal to the expected ones; sometimes the method to correctly diagnose the disease were only recently developed; sometimes the disease is so rare, one in 1 mil., that the previous doctors simply never thought of it. \*\* In the 80s, building with closed AC system noticed that the sickness rate for colds among the office workers shot up. Upon investigation, turned out that there was a pool of water (either condensation or for cooling), which stood stagnant for two days during the weekend. This was wonderful opportunity for the bacteria to breed explosivly, and then be distributed with the fan on Monday morning among all employees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/immune-system-question/572482.md?page=1)