Immune deficiency is the body's inability to fight off germs that lead to disease and infection. Its ability to ward off germs can vary from being slightly deficient to totally ineffective.
Having this condition means that what may be a normal cold or infection for a healthy person becomes life threatening for a person who is immunodeficient. Here are 7 common reasons for the occurrence of this condition.
1. Heredity--Some people are born with an immune system that is compromised. This is called primary immune deficiency. Their systems can lack one cell or many cells that cause their body not to be able to effectively protect itself from invasive disease and infection.
Primary deficiency may present as recurring infections, symptoms that never go away or frequent illnesses that require hospitalization.
2. Poor Diet and Malnutrition-Not enough food or eating the wrong types of food can seriously weaken the body's response to disease. Eating a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, lean meat, and fish will strengthen the body's natural ability to ward off infection.
It is crucial to limit "junk" foods that are over processed, high in sugar and/or fat as these hinder the body's ability to be effective.
3. Lack of Sleep--Habitual lack of sleep can weaken immune response. Studies have shown that people who consistently get 7 to 8 hours of sleep within a 24 hour period have stronger immune systems than those who don't.
4. Stress--Acute stress happens as a normal part of life like when you're playing an organ recital, taking a final exam, or taking the behind the wheel test for your driver's license, or giving a speech to a cast of thousands.
Stress during these times has been shown to boost the immune system. But prolonged stress without relief has been shown to eat away at the body's ability to protect itself.
5. Steroids and Antibiotics-These types of medications are very helpful to the body in some ways but suppress the immune system by design or weaken it by eliminating the problem without giving the body's defenses a chance to function naturally.
Their uses range from such benign reasons as skin infections to major conditions such as organ transplants. And though they are quite effective in their primary use, they cause the body to be a sitting duck for infections.
6. AIDS--Acquired immune deficiencies include all the causes that are not heredity because you acquire the disease rather than being born with it. But AIDS has most recently thought to indicate HIV or human immunodeficiency virus. The AIDS virus causes the body to be unable to produce antibodies that can fight off infection.
7. Cancer--Certain types of cancers cause a drop in white blood cell count which greatly reduces the body's capability to fight off infection. Treatment for many types of cancer including radiation and chemotherapy kill off not only cancerous cells but those that would normally fight off infection.
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