Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
rachel.fast.ai
Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
1–10 of 202 posts
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#2Fascinating read and novel hypothesis on the increase in allergies.
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#3Interesting that in one of the cited studies the authors are not afraid to claim that viral infections may cause autoimmune diseases, despite the fact that the potential mechanisms they list could also apply to vaccines.
"Current research suggests that several mechanisms, such as molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, and bystander activation, can cause viral-induced autoimmunity."
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#4I don’t know enough to comment on the Hygiene / Old Friends hypothesis, but anecdotally it seems like almost everyone I know now has an allergy or autoimmune disorder of some sort.
After giving birth, my sister suddenly developed something similar to celiac disease (but not quite the same; I don’t think doctors ever figured out exactly what it is) to where she can’t eat grains and a few other types of food as well. I used to get eczema occasionally, but now it seems to have morphed into a permanent rash that continuously moves to different locations over my body. And my wife had food allergy testing done a couple of years ago due to constant stomach pain and has now eliminated chocolate, seafood, peaches, and many other foods from her diet.
It’s bizarre. We really need to figure out what’s going on before everyone has a diet prepared by their pharmacist alongside all of the pills needed to cope with their autoimmune pain.
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#5Interesting that in one of the cited studies the authors are not afraid to claim that viral infections may cause autoimmune diseases, despite the fact that the potential mechanisms they list could also apply to vaccines. "Current research suggests that several mechanisms, such as molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, and bystander activation, can cause viral-induced autoimmunity."
Autoimmune responses are well known with some vaccines and some conditions, such as GBS. Most real experts know that vaccines carry all sorts of risks. It's the general public that is mostly unaware and would find this sort of thing surprising. It's the whole "safe" vs "generally safe" thing.
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#6I'm confused about some of the implications regarding crowd infections.
Certainly for some of these -- say, Chicken Pox -- we know that early and controlled exposure is preferable to a first case later in life. And that the cycle of herd immunity in survivors leads to endemicity and less deadly strains.
It seems like both things can be true: it's best not to get infections at all, but if you live in a world where you will get infected, doing so early and outside a correlated epidemic can be advantageous. And, while our immune system evolved for a different social density, it still plays a critical role in mitigating the long-term collective impact of crowd infections.
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#7Interesting that in one of the cited studies the authors are not afraid to claim that viral infections may cause autoimmune diseases, despite the fact that the potential mechanisms they list could also apply to vaccines. "Current research suggests that several mechanisms, such as molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, and bystander activation, can cause viral-induced autoimmunity."
Autoimmune responses are well known with some vaccines and some conditions, such as GBS. Most real experts know that vaccines carry all sorts of risks. It's the general public that is mostly unaware and would find this sort of thing surprising. It's the whole "safe" vs "generally safe" thing.
>Most real experts know that vaccines carry all sorts of risks
And that's why all the real experts made sure to properly communicate the risks vs benefits of the Covid vaccine in an age, sex, and dose-stratified fashion, right? Oh wait...
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#8>We can see that not all obstacles make you stronger. Destroy the cartilage in your knee, and it may never fully recover, since cartilage doesn’t grow back. //
I'm not a medic but I recall this being disproven or shown to be at least partially a myth a few years ago - https://physicians.dukehealth.org/articles/humans-have-salam... from 2020, for example. Researchers showed that ankle cartilage is younger than knee- and younger still than hip cartilage. Indicating that it grows back in ankles relatively quickly.
As the article says, analogies can mislead us, but this didn't inspire confidence.
I could probably dismiss it if the article weren't about being scientifically precise and dispelling myths relating to human biology.
Good piece, but the title is misleading too as the conclusion appears to be "it's complicated; yes and no".
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#9I don’t know enough to comment on the Hygiene / Old Friends hypothesis, but anecdotally it seems like almost everyone I know now has an allergy or autoimmune disorder of some sort. After giving birth, my sister suddenly developed something similar to celiac disease (but not quite the same; I don’t think doctors ever figured out exactly what it is) to where she can’t eat grains and a few other types of food as well. I…
IHMO An old myth, I believe: Your immune system needs something to fight, otherwise, it starts finding problems that aren't.
Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle
#10Interesting that in one of the cited studies the authors are not afraid to claim that viral infections may cause autoimmune diseases, despite the fact that the potential mechanisms they list could also apply to vaccines. "Current research suggests that several mechanisms, such as molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, and bystander activation, can cause viral-induced autoimmunity."
Why would they be afraid? These are well-worn paths of research. I doubt anyone would be censored for referring to the vaccine-related injuries in 1976 and the proposed pathogenesis mechanisms, including molecular mimicry.