Your Immune System

One important type of white blood cell is a lymphocyte. These are made in the marrow of your bones. You may have as many as 2 trillion lymphocytes in your bloodstream at any one time. Two major types of lymphocytes involved in protecting the body against invaders are T lymphocyte cells and B lymphocyte cells. T lymphocyte cells destroy cells that have been infected or damaged by the antigens. B lymphocytes are found in immunity-related organs such as the lymph nodes. They direct the making of immunoglobulin E, called IgE. IgE is a special disease-fighting protein known as an antibody. It binds to an antigen in your body, such as bacteria, rendering it harmless.

Antibodies such as IgE are very specific. Much like a lock-and-key system, they only work on particular antigens. If, for instance, a flu virus enters your body, special flu antibodies attack it. Each time you're exposed to a new invading agent, or antigen, your body creates different antibodies to fight it.
What Happens During an Allergy Episode?
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When you have nasal allergies, your body sees harmless substances, including pollen, mold, or pet dander, as dangerous invaders. Your immune system immediately goes into action, releasing IgE. Each of these IgE antibodies is made especially for the particular type of allergen. For instance, the body produces one type of IgE antibody for ragweed pollen and another type for oak pollen.

The IgE antibodies attach tightly to the membrane of your body's mast cells and a kind of blood cell known as basophils. Thus the allergen, the IgE antibody, and the mast cell or basophil form a complex. The basophils circulate in the bloodstream and gather in the tissues of your nose, skin, stomach, and lungs. The mast cells remain stationary. The next time these complexes come in contact with the same allergen, the mast cells or basophils release powerful chemicals, called histamines, to fight the invader.

Histamines cause:

• smooth muscles to relax. These are in your lungs, stomach lining, and other areas.
• your blood vessels to open up, causing more blood to flow
• fluids containing more defensive chemicals to flow more easily from your bloodstream into individual cells

As the small blood vessels in your nose widen, fluids leak out into the surrounding tissues, causing the runny nose, watery eyes, itching, swelling, and other symptoms of nasal allergies.
This entire process is called the allergic inflammatory response. It's an effective way to fight invading agents. Unfortunately, when the agent is harmless, it's a wasted effort that only results in misery for you.

The Importance Of Healthy Immune System

Just as the world is filled with disease-causing organisms, the body is filled with defenses to resist them. In fact, no matter what your pet is confronted with, her body is well-designed to fight back. Studies have shown, for example, that cats that have suffered serious nerve injuries can recover complete muscle function. When pets take medications (or eat poisons), the liver produces extra enzymes to detoxify them. Even something minor as a pulled muscle is swiftly addressed with an increase in blood flow, which brings additional oxygen and nutrients and carts off wastes. The main reason a pet gets sick, according to holistic veterinarians, is that something is interfering with the body's natural healing powers.

The key to self-healing is a strong defense system, which protects dogs and cats from everything from the flu germs to cancer cells. More than their mainstream counterparts, holistic veterinarians believe that a weak immune system plays a key role in causing disease. Antibiotics fight infection, but they don't affect whatever weakened the immune system in the first place. This is why holistic veterinarians focus less on things that cause diseases and more on those that affect the body's defenses.

For instance, some veterinarians believe that there is a type of energy, or life force, that surrounds and flows into every living thing. You are not aware of this energy. You can't see it or hear it, and scientists still don't know how to measure it. But it is every bit as real as the invisible germs that surround us.
When this energy is flowing freely, dogs and cats have a superb ability to resist disease. But when the energy is blocked or unbalanced due to such things as stress or injuries, pets become vulnerable to illness. And once they get sick, the energy becomes even more unbalanced, making it much harder for them to recover.

Everything dogs and cats experience, from the quality of afternoon light to an upsetting afternoon, can affect the body's energy balance. But a few things in particular, such as diet, stress and exercise, play the biggest roles in determining whether pets get sick or stay healthy.