Questions tagged [immune-system]
The group of cellular and molecular processes that the body uses to fight bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections. Autoimmune and inflammatory disease are caused by malfunctioning of this system and should also be tagged with the disease name.
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Ulcerative Colitis Disease Activity
Ulcerative colitis can be endoscopically assessed and characterized as 'active' or 'inactive'. I was wondering how those disease states are related. Do patients with UC regularly alternate between ...
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Why should we finish antibiotic treatments in order to prevent antibiotics resistance?
I understand bacteria can mutate and develop resistance against antibiotics, but I do not understand how finishing an antibiotics treatment prevents this.
In my simple thought process, when an ...
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Is it known how often unvaccinated children are contagious with symptom free diseases?
I was looking at the CDC Vaccine Schedule for children, and it says that many of the things kids are vaccinated for may show no symptoms.
Do any of those diseases –– mainly haemophilus influenzae, ...
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How long is combined Meningoccocal ACWY vaccine effective for?
If I have the combined ACWY vaccine against meningococcal meningitis, how long should it make me immune to this group of diseases for?
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How is it possible for someone to suffer repeated bouts of flu?
About a month and a half ago I caught flu... recovered fairly quickly (2 days), and then 1 week later I caught another one, again, recovered even faster (just 1 day, a good night sleep) and a week ago ...
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Does stopping fever hinder the process of killing bacteria via fever?
Since the body produces fever in order to kill bacteria, wouldn't decreasing the fever by taking anti fever medication decrease the body's ability to fight the bacteria?
Assuming you have non life ...
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Does being infected protect one from further infection?
Does being infected protect one from further infection?
Intuition for why it could be the case
When one catch an infective disease, its immune system becomes more active which could eventually also ...
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Are allergies due to memory T cells for benign antigens?
If I understand correctly, the immune system reacts to infections by priming virgin helper T cells for the particular antigens exposed on the surface of the invader, leaving some memory T cells ...
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Is there an immune deficiency disorder that fits this description?
I've been trying to do some research for a writing project, but I need some advice to help me identify what specific things I should be researching, because "immune deficiency" in general brings up a ...
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Can the body delay infections/sickness for important reasons?
Background of the question: I worked on a very important project which was also critical for the firm and would have affected the employment permanently if it failed. During that time several ...
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Does being overly attentive to hygiene impair your immune system?
Like a lot of Japanese girls, I'm a bit obsessed with personal hygiene. Sometimes I get up 2AM to have a shower... after already having one before going to sleep, because something just doesn't feel "...
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Can a banana peel cure a plantar wart?
I have a large plantar wart (a wart on the bottom of my foot). It's been resistant to freezing and acid. My dermatologist said I just need to wait until my immune system is ready to get rid of it, and ...
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Can blood transfusion help in case of scleroderma?
Can blood transfer can somehow help a case of scleroderma?
I know it's not the way to cure it, but I was just wondering if this can slow down the body destruction made by the faulty lymphocytes.
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Why are two influenza vaccinations required for people under a certain age?
According to the CDC, people under 8 who have never had the flu vaccine or flu should get 2 doses at least 28 days apart. The reason given is that "the first dose 'primes' the immune system," but as ...
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How can a person make his/her immune system stronger and prevent flu?
If someone is getting flu frequently, how can he/she make his/her immune system become stronger? And what should he/she eat for daily meals?
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What is Immunotherapy for cancers?
I have heard a lot about immunotherapy in the last 2 years. It is not used in many countries and is still under testing.
What is immunotherapy? (I need a simple explanation, I am not a doctor)
How ...
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How does donepezil impact the immune system?
Is it immunosuppressive? If so, to what extent? What are the mechanisms for this effect?
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Can amphetamines suppress reactivity to scratch testing (for immunotherapy)?
My understanding's that amphetamines are immunosuppressive... Theoretically, couldn't these drugs result in false negatives?
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Immune system & methylphenidate?
How and to what extent does methylphenidate impact immune system function? How does its impact compare to that of amphetamines?
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Does conscious sleep impair immunity?
It's common knowledge that getting insufficient sleep makes people immune-compromised.
However, what about light rest? In particular, if you spend a significant amount of sleeping hours conscious (...
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Is the second vaccine dose necessary if seroconversion occurred after the first dose?
My question is applicable to all multi-dose vaccines with vaccination intervals of several weeks, though the specific case that triggered my question was the chickenpox vaccine Varilrix/GSK.
My ...
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Do I need to get re-immunized for immunities received prior to contracting measles?
One study has suggested that measles can lead to "immune memory loss", meaning immunities gained prior to measles infection can be lost.
I had measles at age six. According to the (current) CDC ...
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how does the immune system identify allergens? application: varenicline and lobeline
I'm wondering if we know how the immune system identifies allergens. My biochemistry knowledge is basic so I apologize if I use concepts incorrectly! Specifically, I want to know about the likelihood ...
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Tonsillitis and tonsillectomy confusion
I have read the article here, and I am confused on why the tonsils have to be removed.
Are tonsils removed when they themselves incur frequent/prolonged infection? The source I stated above does not ...
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Is it possible to get a secondary infection following a flu shot
Can a flu shot entail a risk of secondary infection like a real flu?
I just had my flu shot today and the resulting faux-flu is hitting me hard with fever, cough, aches, etc. I was wondering if the ...
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Can fasting destroy our adaptive immune system?
Fasting for 72 hours been shown to lead to white blood cell regeneration (1). The cells basically die after several days, and are created again from stem cells upon feeding. This article describes how ...
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Does the saliva of a person just recovered from an infectious disease help to cure another persons having the same disease?
I have always had this 'weird' thought (But could never quite test it...). Would the saliva contain antibodies, or other immuno-boosting substances that can help fight off the same pathogen in another ...
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What caused J&J's Procrit to be so deadly?
I just finished reading Blood Medicine and I'm wondering, what made Procrit/epogen so deadly, if it was from natural sources? Was it an immune reaction?
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How can an oral antigen help meniere's syndrome?
Can giving a sublingual antigen to a virus (e.g. herpes) whilst concomitantly giving antiviral drugs help with meniere's syndrome? The aim being to encourage the Mucosal Associated Lymphoid Tissue (...
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What is the average recovery time for cold and catarrh
I've been having cold and catarrh for the past one week. I don't want to disturb my parents about medicines, so I drink lots of water everyday, but doesn't seem to have any improvement.
Q1: What is ...
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How do steroids work in treating a multiple sclerosis relapse?
I have been trying to find this out with no luck. I understand that they don't affect the long term progression of the disease so don't seem to affect the demyelination, but I'm not sure how they ...
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Immunity after a GI bug
Common wisdom is that once you've been infected with a cold virus, you are then immune to that specific virus. Obviously there are hundreds of cold viruses, so you can keep getting colds.
Does the ...
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Can an infection with toxoplasma gondii be cured with the current medical state of the art?
According to the CDC, toxoplasma gondii is purported to be present in approximately 22.5% of those in the US above the age of 12, and is present in some populations worldwide at an incidence rate of ...
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has your body killed a cold virus before you experience any symptoms?
A friend tells me that by the time you feel the first symptoms of a cold (runny nose, sore throat, whatever the first symptoms are), your immune system has actually already killed the virus, and the ...
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Can being cold or wet be a significant influence in getting the common cold?
As most people know, it's a common thing to say something like "better wear a sweater, otherwise I'll get the cold tomorrow."
In my limited understanding, the common cold is caused by a virus. How ...
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What is the minimum exposure to a virus to acheive immunization?
Is it possible to gain immunity against a virus if the exposure to the virus is not large enough to cause any clinical symptoms? And if so, would the immunity achieved without symptoms be as strong as ...
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Tetanus antibodies
I received a tetanus vaccination less than 10 years ago when I was in the military. I recently started donating plasma and donation center gave me another tetanus shot to boost the tetanus antibodies ...
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no medication treatments for MS
What are the no-medication treatments for Multiple sclerosis (MS) ?
Based on many papers, sport and meditation can help to keep the immune system and the body healthier which leads to a higher level ...
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Are apples really better for the immune system than most fruit?
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away", the saying goes, implying that apples are somehow especially good for the immune system.
But does this idiom have any validity to it? Are apples high in ...
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What is the difference between the TDAP and DTAP vaccines?
What is the difference between the TDAP and DTAP vaccines? Some nurses/pharmacists told me they are the same, but I am not convinced.
If they are the same then why would some organizations request ...
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Can the immune system break down anything?
Every time one takes a pill, drinks a glass of wine, or uses an illicit drug, it is understood that the effects are temporary. Caffeine only keeps one awake for a few hours, alcohol only intoxicates ...
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Does antibiotics weaken immune system or causes Fever [closed]
If your popping antibiotics everyday, prescribed by your doctor though he asked you to revisit after two months and warned you to ignore any fever symptoms during these two months.
I'm just wondering ...
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Effect of the common cold on the immune system
I've heard that once a person catches a cold, his whole immune system becomes weak and is affected. In what way does having a cold influence the immune system?
If it does weaken it, how can one keep ...
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Is only the height of the spleen concerning? [closed]
Say you have a spleen size of 12.2cm by 11.8cm by 6.2cm when it should be 11cm by 6.5cm by 5.5cm (correct me if I'm wrong on the norm!), is only the height i.e. 11cm or 12.2cm matter I stated above?
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In a viral infection, which symptoms are caused by the virus itself, and which symptoms are caused by the body fighting the virus? [closed]
Most symptoms commonly associated with respiratory viral infections, like the common cold, are actually immune in nature. Fever is the body's attempt to overheat the virus, excess mucous is the body's ...
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Does laughing improve immune system?
From this question, I learn ways of the boosting immune system, but i didn't find main word laughing, so does laughing improve immune system?
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Can pathogens be transmitted from smelling something?
Long story short, when visiting neighbors the other day, a young child playing outside in the lawn stepped in some fresh animal fecal matter, and not knowing what it was, ended up taking off their ...
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Delayed vaccination: effect on the immune system
While researching child vaccinations, I found (and will presume was sufficiently verified by the WSJ) that the typical 5-6 vaccines given to a child contain only 150 antigens, while the child's body ...
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Is there evidence that the over-avoidance of germs weakens our immune system?
Is there evidence that the over-avoidance of germs weakens our immune system? Or vice versa: Does the under-avoidance of germs strengthen our immune system?
For some reason I hold the opinion that ...
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Can allergies "generalize" to other substances present during an allergic reaction?
I've heard some claims that allergic reactions to one substance can "generalize" to other substances present at the same time. For example:
A person is allergic to lobster, but not to clams.
The ...
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