Enhancement of Immunity

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

We know that CVD is the leading cause of death among the general

population. But we also know for sure that, for people on CR, CVD

risk factors are dramatically improved. Hopefully those risk factor

improvements will be reflected in a similar sizeable reduction in CVD

incidence. So perhaps we have CVD nailed and should be paying more

of our attention to the other major causes of illness and death?

But avoiding many of the other leading causes of death seems to be

dependent on immune system effectiveness, which is said to decline

fairly steadily with age. So maintaining a sound and effective

immune system likely increases in importance with age.

So, should we try to assemble a list (and having done so put a copy

of it somewhere in the files) of interventions that each of us could

realistically adopt in our lives, if we wished, to keep our immune

systems in the best condition possible?

My contribution to such a list would be to suggest drinking tea

which, as a study I posted some months ago indicated, appears to

boost one aspect of immune response by an astonishing factor of

five!!! (Immune response observed in the blood of tea drinkers in

reaction to the introduction of E coli bacteria).

What else can we do to obtain greater benefits of this kind beyond

those provided by CR? From what I have read it seems that immunity

is a very complicated and not-well-understood topic. But if we could

find some sources listing practical, 'proven', interventions to

improve immunity, that each of us could apply to our lives, it would

help a lot to plug one possible leak in our plans to live to 120.

Pneumonia is certainly one major immunity issue. How many of the

older people who die from pneumonia might have lived ten or twenty

years longer had their immune system been strong enough to fight off

and survive just that one disease?

There is a reference to an article authored by " Salvador, ,

Ershler, and Ershler " that says the following: " This article reviews

techniques for reversing immune senescence and improving immune

responses, including immune reconstitution, restoration of thymus

function, vaccination in the elderly, intravenous immunoglobulin,

nutritional interventions, and vitamin supplementation, as well as

other lifestyle changes that may restore immune function. " (Thanks

to JW for this reference).

Here is the abstract:

" Future challenges in analysis and treatment of human immune

senescence.

Salvador J, EJ, Ershler R, Ershler WB.

Institute for Advanced Studies in Aging and Geriatric Medicine, 1700

Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20007, USA.

Immune functions decline with age; immunorestorative approaches have

been explored in laboratory animals and humans with definite, but

limited success. In the clinical setting, the age-associated immune

deficiency (immunesenescence) is compounded by the presence of

comorbidities that are associated with a functional decline in

immunity. Thus, any successful immune reconstitution strategy for

humans must involve treatment of the underlying diseases.

Furthermore, general health measures such as nutrition and exercises

may have powerful effects on restoring immunity, to the extent that

malnutrition and a sedentary lifestyle have contributed to existing

immune deficiency. More selective approaches, such as with specific

cytokines or organ transplantation are of experimental interest but

are quite distant from achieving clinical applicability as

interventions to restore immunity in the frail elderly. PMID:

12645883 "

It sounds as if this might be especially enlightening. Is there any

chance we could get to see a copy of that full paper? Even if it is

copyright material, if one of us could get to read it then s/he could

add the suggested interventions to the list to go in the files.

And can anyone suggest other material - with serious scientific

evidence/studies/papers to back it up - from which we could collect

additional interventions for our list?

Thanks folks.

Rodney.

PS: I believe JR lives in Mississippi. I haven't seen him post in a

while. I trust he is OK. Does anyone know?