{"id":116528,"date":"2023-10-30T11:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=116528"},"modified":"2023-11-02T16:24:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T20:24:49","slug":"immune-system-and-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/immune-system-and-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"A Failing Immune System and Aging: The Potential Fixes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What’s the link between the immune system and aging? What specifically happens to your body when the immune system begins to fail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your immune system is a network in your body that protects you from infection. But it’s also a system that becomes less functional as you age, leading to a variety of harmful repercussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look at how a decline in your immune system’s functionality causes aging and how to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Your Immune System Becomes Less Capable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Ageless<\/em>, Andrew Steele explains that this decline affects many components of your immune system, and aging is sped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Your<\/strong> thymus<\/strong> deteriorates.<\/strong> Your thymus is an organ that produces T cells, the white blood cells you need to fight infections. It begins to decline in volume and function when you\u2019re a child and halves in size every 15 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potential fix<\/strong>: Sterilization stops the thymus\u2019s decline, but Steele points out that this isn\u2019t a practical treatment. Growth hormones or gene therapy could rejuvenate the thymus, and scientists think it might be possible to use stem cells to grow a new thymus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Cells that remember past infections impair your body\u2019s ability to fight new infections.<\/strong> Steele explains that memory T cells and B cells become specialized to an infection. These cells\u2014such as the ones specialized to fighting a common virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV)\u2014remain in your immune system for years afterward. As you age, you have fewer T cells that aren\u2019t specialized. The ones that are specialized use up resources and cause your immune system to fixate on old infections, making it less effective against new ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potential fix<\/strong>: Steele writes that scientists could eliminate these single-minded cells via processes that kill senescent cells. Other ideas include targeting cells that have DNA damage or extending the telomeres of aging memory T cells and B cells. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) Your immune system gets less efficient at finding and destroying tumors<\/strong>, which is why cancer is more prevalent in older people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potential fix: <\/strong>Steele explains that an HSC transplant could reboot your entire immune system and boost its performance at destroying cancerous cells\u2014but wiping out and restarting the immune system poses a lot of risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mustering (and Culling) the Forces<\/strong>

You can think of your immune system as your body\u2019s military force<\/a>, as T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell explain in The China Study<\/em><\/a>. White blood cells, like the T cells and B cells Steele mentions, attack invading bacteria and viruses. The thymus starts training T cells<\/a> before you\u2019re born and produces all of your T cells by the time you reach puberty. Then it declines and is replaced by fat\u2014but some experts think that growth hormones can turn it back into a functional gland<\/a>. One expert has even injected himself to test the idea, but it\u2019s not proven that the process regenerates the thymus or kickstarts T cell production<\/a>, expanding your defensive force.

If your T cells are limited in number, then why does Steele suggest killing some of them off? One reason is that when your T cells become specialized to fight off an invader like CMV, they leave your immune system with fewer unspecialized cells to fight other invaders. Worse, the T cells that remain look like senescent cells<\/a>, with shortened telomeres and DNA damage. Experts contend that removing these cells might be best<\/a>. But when it comes to CMV, experts don\u2019t all agree that specialized T cells hurt you. In fact, there\u2019s some evidence that CMV might strengthen your immune system<\/a> by prompting it to send a more diverse population of T cells to fight a new infection. 

Dysfunctional T cells might also be the reason<\/a> the immune system sometimes fails to find tumors, which Steele notes happens more often with age. (T cells latch onto protein fragments<\/a> called neoantigens on the surface of a cancer cell as they pass by. But T cells are only good at recognizing neoantigens if they\u2019re densely concentrated, so they don\u2019t detect a tumor if only a few of its cells have a suspicious neoantigen.) Other experts agree with Steele that a bone marrow transplant could reboot the immune system<\/a>. But this isn\u2019t a procedure that patients undertake lightly: They often have to spend several weeks in the hospital, and they\u2019re highly susceptible to infection right afterward and remain at elevated risk for a year or more<\/a>. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s the link between the immune system and aging? What specifically happens to your body when the immune system begins to fail? Your immune system is a network in your body that protects you from infection. But it’s also a system that becomes less functional as you age, leading to a variety of harmful repercussions. Let’s look at how a decline in your immune system’s functionality causes aging and how to fix it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":32562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,160],"tags":[1311],"class_list":["post-116528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-science","tag-ageless","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nA Failing Immune System and Aging: The Potential Fixes - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The immune system becomes less functional as you age, but there are ways to potentially treat it. 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