The greatest strength that your body possesses? Your immune system.Your body has an astonishing power, and that power is your immune system. But it is usually thought of by us the way that we think of breathing in oxygen: it's really no big deal until it suddenly isn't working. Yet without this incredible biochemical power, we would decay completely in only a couple of weeks. Think about that for a while! Consider a body that dies and no longer has this system. If left exposed to the normal elements, how long does it last without that system? Not very long at all. Immediately, it is invaded by hordes of bacteria, parasites, and microbes that consume the tissues. It only takes a few days for the face and body to become unrecognizable to those who knew the living person. A couple of weeks later, the body is completely gone. All that's left are bones where once, only a few weeks before, there had been a breathing, thinking soul. While you are alive, it is your immune system that keeps you that way. Those microbes, bacteria, and parasites that show up at your death don't suddenly receive a memo saying that someone died and it's time for a feast. They are always, always invading our bodies. But our immune systems block them, fight them, catch them, expel them--and this goes on and on and on until the day we die. There are times when some kind of invasive element gets past the system,and we know that this has happened because we become sick or don't feel well. This is when we rest, "take it easy", and let our biochemical powerhouse track down and kill and expel the invader so that over time we feel healthy again. Or, we might need to use medicine to help our body. Sometimes an invading microbe or something like that gets past our immune system because that system has been compromised. It is not functioning as it should. It is unable to find or fend off the invasive pathogens that we are actually eating and breathing in all the time, and so we become ill. How can our immune system be compromised? Well, if we don't take care of ourselves, we become unhealthy, and we tax our system--we put demands on it that it cannot handle. It doesn't have the power or the fuel. It becomes overwhelmed by the invasive pathogens. How do we make ourselves unhealthy? Well, there are many possible ways. We may not get enough physical exercise. We may have poor diets that are out of balance. Perhaps we get lots of refined sugar but little fruits and vegetables. We may smoke. We may drink alcohol in excess. All of these lifestyle factors mean that we are taxing our system heavily, making its functioning that much more difficult to sustain and letting us have a higher risk of illness. There are other times where the immune system is not compromised but has an imperfection. An allergic reaction is the prime illustration of this. When we have allergies, our system is trying to fight off a non-existent harmful pathogen--an illusion. For most people, allergies are simply a very troublesome irritation, but for some people they can cause death. Nevertheless, this imperfection does not take away from the glorious power of the immune system. So take care of it so that it can take care of you--and keep you alive.
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