Posts Tagged ‘immune system’

Depression is linked to immune system changes

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Current Psychiatry ReviewsThis may seem like a “no-brainer”, but many are still poorly informed about the biological dimension of depression that can be evaluated and treated with a functional medicine approach. This paper recently published in the journal Current Psychiatry Reviews is a reminder. The authors state: “Epidemiological findings indicate a connection between depressive symptoms and changes in status of the immune system in depressed patients…medical treatment of depressed patients may be adjusted by more specific knowledge about the interaction between neuroimmunology and depression.”

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Ever wonder what the appendix does?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

In this interesting article from the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, the mammalian cecal appendix is shown to be a “a safe-house for symbiotic gut microbes, preserving the flora during times of gastrointestinal infection”. Try to hold onto yours by maintaining a healthy microbiome (microbial ecology) and gut immune function.

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Fever suppression reduces antibody response to vaccination

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Please do not interpret this post as a blanket endorsement of vaccination; this is a complex topic that demands a sophisticated understanding of immune system regulation and the knowledge and clinical experience to apply it on an individual basis. However, this study just published in The Lancet is of interest because it confirms that antipyretic (fever suppressing) medications must be used judiciously (after vaccination or otherwise), because they suppress the body’s disease fighting immune response. “Although febrile reactions significantly decreased, prophylactic administration of antipyretic drugs at the time of vaccination should not be routinely recommended since antibody responses to several vaccine antigens were reduced.”

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