![]() ![]() So why do some people simply seem to be better at fighting infection than others? “Maybe people at the top end have been primed through early exposure to bugs, fully vaccinated, and so on,” Robinson says. Or, as GP and Guardian contributor Ann Robinson puts it: “Keep your scepticism wrapped around you like a cloak.” “The bottom line is that we simply don’t know,” Davis says. It also throws into question the benefits of all the products out there claiming to boost our immunity antioxidants, vitamin C, hot lemon and ginger tea, garlic, echinacea, or wheatgrass. This unparalleled diversity makes generalisations about stronger or weaker immune systems meaningless. “That means that the genes that vary most between us all are the ones that influence the immune system.” “The greatest diversity in all of the 25,000 genes that make up the human genome is in our few immune system genes,” Davis explains. Much of this diversity comes down to our inherited genetic makeup. On average, each of us will get around 200 colds in a lifetime. There is an inherent diversity in how our immune systems respond to different diseases and that diversity is essential to how our species survives disease.” All it means is that you would deal with a particular flu virus better than me. “But that is not to say that you or I would have a better or worse immune system. ![]() “Some of us inherit a set of immune system genes that are particularly good at dealing with one particular virus,” explains Daniel Davis, professor of immunology at the University of Manchester and author of The Compatibility Gene, which explores how immune system genes shape our biology. This is because of the highly individual and complex nature of our immune systems, which are almost as specific to each of us as our fingerprints. Meanwhile, for doctors and immunologists, the notion of superhuman health remains at best unproven and at worst a fiction. As the American writer Eula Biss notes in her excellent book about vaccination, On Immunity, “building, boosting, and supplementing one’s personal immune system is a kind of cultural obsession of the moment”. Nutritional supplements alone, thought to be one of the world’s fastest-growing businesses, are predicted to be worth $60bn (£48bn) by 2021. “I need more evidence before I can believe these people really exist.” Though there is no scientifically proven link between lifestyle and enhanced immune function, the immune-boosting industry and our unshakeable belief in it continues to flourish like flu during fresher’s week. “It’s pretty much hearsay and self-reporting,” says Dr Natalie Riddell, a lecturer in immunology at the University of Surrey and spokesperson for the British Society for Immunology. Though some appear to suffer more than others, there is no evidence or, indeed, research on why, or if, that is really the case. “I never drank or smoked, I sleep well and I like a little rest during the day, preferably in bed, or rather on the bed … just shoes off.” What about her diet? “I have been known to have a great dislike for cheese,” she replies, “and I really do not like the Scottish specialities mince, haggis, or porridge.”Ĭan you boost your immune system with lemon and ginger tea? Photograph: Getty/iStockphoto “I hardly ever get a cold, bug or infection,” says Lore Lucas, a 97-year-old Jewish refugee and Holocaust survivor who has lived in Glasgow since 1946. What are their secrets? Can we become more like them? Do they even exist? They appear to be superhuman, with the kind of kickass immune systems the rest of us mere ailing mortals can only dream about as we dissolve another 1,000mg vitamin C tablet and hope for the best. ![]() They laugh in the flushed face of flu, spray hand sanitiser in the rheumy eyes of infection, and never take a day off work. Colds brush past them without leaving so much as a sniffle. Every now and then one pops up at work, down the pub, in the park, outside the school gate, or in your own family’s mythology. ![]()
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