What exactly ensures that you have a good resistance in your body. Is it your gut or maybe your blood? Santé looked it up for you.
This is where white blood cells and lymphocytes are made:the most important cells of the immune system. Because the white blood cells are constantly working hard against invaders like bacteria and viruses, some only last a few days. Your bone marrow therefore continues to produce cells.
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This organ is hidden between your breastbone and your heart (also known as thymus in animals).
The thymus makes a certain type of lymphocytes:the T-lymphocytes. These cells last almost your entire life and are mainly produced in childhood, until you are about fifteen years old. After that, the work of the thymus is done and it shrinks.
A filtering and tracking organ:all your blood flows through it. It is also the collection site for lymphocytes after they are produced by the bone marrow. They wait in the spleen to see if there are bacteria and viruses in the blood that passes by. If there are, they immediately attack.
Lymph nodes work locally:if an infection occurs somewhere in your body, more lymphocytes in the draining lymph node closest to the infection come and swell. With laryngitis you can feel enlarged glands in your neck. If you have an infection in your arm, the lymph node in your armpit will probably swell.
One of the most important organs in the immune system. It is estimated that sixty to seventy percent of the cells of the immune system are located around your gut. You have to, because your intestines form an open connection with the outside of your body. That also means that bacteria that can make you sick can easily enter. That is why there are many lymphocytes scattered in the intestinal wall and your intestines have a kind of lymph node-like structures:Peyer's plates. They contain special immune cells that constantly scan the contents of the gut for invaders.
Text Priscilla Borgers | Image:shutterstock
