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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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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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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Does intake of processed sugar lower the immune system?
Growing up, my parents were very strict about sugar intake, because they had heard "somewhere" that eating refined sugar lowered your immune system function for 12-24 hours.
At the time, this seemed ...
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How can I boost my immune system? [closed]
There are a lot of products, foods, and activities that claim they "boost" the immune system.
I've heard good things about yogurt, probiotics, superfoods, herbs, oils, supplements, acupuncture, yoga.....
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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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Will COVID-19 survivors develop immunity from future infections?
For this question, assume that the virus does not mutate.
Can survivors be expected to develop immunity?
Why or why not (what is the thought process)?
The CDC FAQ indicates that they do not know:
Q: ...
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What happens to HIV once it completely destroys the immune system?
Today, in my high school health class we were learning about HIV and AIDS, and I was wondering what would happen to HIV if it killed off all of the cells that it uses to reproduce.
For example, ...
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What is the mechanism of eczema?
I'm trying to link the signs and symptoms of eczema (especially atopic dermatitis) to its causes. In short, what is the mechanism of the disease?
In an answer of another question about eczema, @...
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Can someone have an allergic reaction to a virus?
My understanding of allergies is that they are more or less immune responses to non-pathogenic substances. The definition on MedicineNet more or less agrees with this.
While I don't have any known ...
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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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Are there diseases for which infection does not grant lasting immunity but a vaccine does?
There has been a lot of discussion about whether people who have COVID-19 and recover will have long-lasting immunity. At the same time, work is underway to create a vaccine for this disease. But if ...
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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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How does a thymus transplantation work? Why doesn't it result in rejection of the recipient's... everything?
I read that DiGeorge syndrome can result in a baby being born completely lacking a thymus. That page also says that this can be treated through thymus transplantation.
My understanding of the thymus ...
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How does a breeze cause irritated nose and throat?
The question popped in my head as to how a breeze (let's say one from a ventilator or ACU) can cause irritation in certain respiratory systems (e.g. nose/throat).
I haven't really found a suitable ...
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Why are peanut allergies so much more severe than other food allergies?
Based on my understanding of how adaptive immune responses arise, I would expect peanut allergies to be roughly normally distributed with regard to severity, like other food allergies. However, peanut ...
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Will the COVID-19 vaccine grant immunity to other coronaviruses?
As I understand it, the mRNA vaccine teaches the immune system to recognize and attack the spike protein on the surface of the novel coronavirus. Don't all coronaviruses share this same spike protein? ...
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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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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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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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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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Is there a direct correlation between high testosterone level and weak immune system?
I tried googling it, the only credible link I found is this:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2013/12/in-men-high-testosterone-can-mean-weakened-immune-response-study-finds.html
Can someone ...
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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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What is the Fatality Rate of the Common Cold? [closed]
During COVID-19, we've heard many comparisons between SARS-CoV-2 and the Flu, especially in terms of the case fatality rate (CFR). Currently, the Flu is thought to be around 0.1%, and according to the ...
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Is there a virus from which humans can recover, but which doesn't grant long lasting immunity?
Prior to the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic I was under the impression that viruses fall into two categories:
Diseases from which you recover and afterwards become fully immune. When reinfected with a mutated ...
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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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Is it possible to be allergic to corn but not popcorn?
Is it possible for a person to be allergic to one subspecies and not another of the same parent species? For instance, can a person be allergic to sweet corn but not popcorn (both subspecies of Zea ...
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Does fasting improve your immune system even when you are already having some infection?
I am one of the self-motivated activists who run some groups to answer various misconceptions about science and try to fight against ignorance, pseudo-sciences and blind faiths. I was recently asked ...
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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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How does immunosuppressant affect immune system?
I'm talking Immuran (azathioprine) and I would like to know what it does to immune system exactly. I'm not a doctor but I'm asking here just to learn.
Does it kill all white cells? Does it reduce the ...
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How long does it take for the COVID-19 antibody to disappear?
I saw a news article says; 90 days after the infection with ncov19, several patients had no detectable antibodies in their bloodstream. This seems to be one of their evidence that immunity against ...
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Does intermittent fasting induce autophagic cell death?
https://www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/home/tools/fact-sheets/intermittent-fasting-and-cancer/
In vitro and in vivo animal studies suggest that PF inactivates
pro-proliferative pathways, while ...
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What are the limits on the amount of pathogens that a body can be immune to at any given time?
Before the seasonal flu vaccine was recommended for all healthy adults, people in developed countries might get vaccinated against on the order of 10 different pathogens and develop immunity for some ...
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Can common cold really be lethal?
In the news reports after the murderer of John Allen Chau on the Andaman Islands, I have several times read that common cold could kill this tribe, for example in this AFP-report:
Fears that 21st ...
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Rising allergy and intolerance diagnosis rates
A leading theory behind the rising allergy and intolerance diagnosis rates is the "hygiene hypothesis." This theory suggests that living conditions in much of the world might be too clean and that ...
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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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Does vaccination weaken the immune system ? Studies?
A friend recognizes value in vaccinating in general - against major diseases - but with a caveat that they are opposed to the flu vaccine specifically.
They claim that vaccines weaken the immune ...
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Are non-allergic, non-pathogenic rhinitis associated with fever?
Among common causes of rhinitis are
irritants
weather changes
infection (e.g. common cold)
allergy (e.g. hay fever)
One way to disentangle between infection and allergy in presence of rhinitis is by ...
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Immunity of indigenous tribe
After reading about the American missionary killed on North Sentinel Island, I realized I'm not sure how to answer the following question. One of the reasons anthropologists advise avoiding the remote ...
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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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How long should I stay isolated after I recover from COVID-19?
If a person gets COVID-19 and (hopefully) recovers at home without being hospitalized, how long should that person stay isolated before they can return to social interaction?
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Does immunity to some coronavirus confer any immunity to other strains?
Genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in China in December 2019 revealed two strains of the virus, identified as S and L, with S being the ancestral version while L was more prevalent (70:30 ratio) and more ...
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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 typhoid occur multiple times?
Are there any chances of a person being reinfected with typhoid at regular intervals again if they don't follow proper medication and diet, even though they are cured or survived the first infection? ...
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Does prior COVID infection increase or decrease mortality on COVID reinfection?
One recent large scale study found that a prior COVID infection doubles your risk of dying when you later catch a subsequent COVID infection.
This study followed 5 million people in the Veterans ...
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What are the effects of repeated sub-infective doses of coronavirus?
There are experimental records and clinical observations showing that exposure to sub-infective doses of some pathogens can result in enhanced immunity to infection when exposed to an infective dose ...
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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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Will there ever be a universal vaccine for the common cold?
If I get infected once with the virus which causes a common cold, does that mean I will not get infected with the same strain of the virus ever in my lifetime?
Is the immune system capable and smart ...
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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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What would happen to the body if the immune system failed to respond to a rhinovirus?
What exactly would happen to the body if the immune system did not detect or respond to a the common cold virus like Rhinovirus?
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What would count as definitive proof that humans can develop COVID-19 immunity?
There are currently numerous debates over whether or not people who have recovered from COVID-19 develop immunity to the disease. By the standards of the the scientific community, what kind of proof ...
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