Such elegance ! A tale of the immune system

Elegant is the best word that can be used to describe the immune system. We have been made to believe the immune system is only a military like defense system attacking everything foreign right ,left and centre. But this book paints facts in a different light showing us that the immune system is rather like an elegant gentleman who seeks balance between us and and our environment, doing negotiations, looking for the most effective way to avoid sickness, cancer and auto immune diseases.

The book is written based on four lives with one ending in a tragedy. Not really a tragedy but not at all hopeful but also reminding us of our objectives even as we continue to do our research on the immune system.

Coming from a immunology background in school it was really more fun, it was like revising without the pressure of an exam at the end of the semester. And presenting the information in layman's languages helps you to recall what you learnt.

My most favourite term was calling the body the festival of a life presenting it as a party where we have all kinds of people from normal cells who are general party goers with their diversity, then we have the party crushers ranging from foreign bodies like bacteria to rogue cancerous cells causing havoc and then we have the elegant defense system ranging from squad commanders like CD4 t cells, top shooters like B cells and ground cleaners like macrophages every cell doing their best to ensure that the festivities continues without or the least amount of commotion.

The book is educative in the sense that enables you to see in the immune system in a different light and all the progress we have taken has a species to learn about it. I learnt about HIV and its emergency starting with gay people, the development of drugs like corticosteroids used to treat diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune diseases where it the immune system fighting against the very cells it is supposed to protect. I like it that the author had time to reflect about this and apply it even to our society.

Other than fighting infections and sorts of things the immune system functions by it's capacity to differentiate what constitutes of SELF and what does not. This is very complex looking at the variety of cells and substances we have in our bodies. It is crucial too because failing to recognising normal cells as foreign will lead to autoimmunity and letting the bad guys go unchecked can result in cancer. And in our modern society we are always trying to find balance but if you look at most conflict it has the same patters as the failures of the immune system genocide, racism and civil wars taken as examples.

Another remarkable thing is the author really tells these tells in 4 lives from different backgrounds bring to life the immune system compared to reading about in articles with just figures, numbers and illustrations. You get to learn about the emergence of renown immunologists of our time like Dr Fauci.

final thoughts

The book is really insightful and one can draw all sorts of conclusions from it like our author did. it also raises certain question like the one in the book " are we aiming at immortality or what we looking for with all this pursuit and research?"(I paraphrased the question). Personally it leaves me in awe at the greatness and goodness of God for not only giving such a system but us to explore it and on top giving us divine help where our abilities end.

The book equally encourages small and simple habits that can change our lives globally : eating healthy, managing stress, better sleep management.

An interesting read it is and I hope you read it too.