Immune System, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 1, 2011

Why Sjogren's Syndrome Caused Venus Williams to Quit US Open

Tennis star Venus Williams has announced she's dropping out of the U.S. Open because of an autoimmune disorder called Sjogren's syndrome. In autoimmune disorders, your immune system attacks your own tissues, mistaking them for harmful pathogens. Rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes and lupus are other examples of autoimmune disorders. In...

Sep 28, 2011

Why Women Have Stronger Immune Systems than Men

Women not only live longer than men, they also appear to be in more robust health. A new hypothesis offers a reason why: it's in their genes. Women are known to have a lower incidence of cancer — men have a two- to five-fold greater risk of developing the disease....

Oct 3, 2011

Immune System Researchers Win Nobel Prize in Medicine

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded this morning to researchers whose work provided key insights into how the immune system is activated. Three researchers, Bruce A. Beutler of the United States, Jules A. Hoffmann, born in Luxembourg, and the late Dr. Ralph M. Steinman, of Canada, won the prize...

Feb 21, 2012

Antibodies, Not Hard Bodies: The Real Reason Women Drool Over Brad Pitt

Women may drool over George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but their lust may be more for these macho guys' immune systems than their pretty faces and chiseled abs, new research suggests. Men with high levels of the sex hormone testosterone are seen as more hunky — and these same men...

Mar 28, 2012

American Men Have Higher 'Macho' Hormone than Bolivian Tribesmen

No one would accuse the men of the Tsimane tribe of Bolivia of being anything less than manly, given their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. But new research suggests that Tsimane tribesmen have a third less baseline testosterone than their more sedentary American counterparts. The study highlights the gap between the popular conception...

May 18, 2012

Immune System Strength at Birth Linked to Quantity of Baby’s Colds

The number of colds babies have in their first year of life can range from none to 10, a new study finds. And the quantity of colds was linked to the innate strength of the babies’ immune systems at birth. The science of it is complex, but in a nutshell,...

Nov 4, 2012

Is Yogurt Really Good for You?

The yogurt section in the grocery store has gotten pretty complicated. Instead of just choosing between regular and light, or fruit on the bottom versus premixed varieties, customers can now select what kind of bacteria they wish to devour with each cold spoonful. Yogurt manufacturers have long marketed the live,...

Dec 6, 2012

Mind-Control Parasites Hijack Immune System, Too

A parasite known for its ability to influence the minds of its hosts also hijacks the immune system, a new study finds. In fact, the parasite uses cells that would normally help defeat it as transport to get around the body. Toxoplasma gondii is a tiny parasite that infects about...

Mar 7, 2013

Protein 'Passports' Fool Immune System To Deliver Medical Nanoparticles

(ISNS) -- The body's immune system evolved to identify and destroy foreign objects that pose a threat, and it's very good at it. What it's not so good at is distinguishing between harmful invaders and the implants and nanoparticles used in medical treatments. But researchers at the University of Pennsylvania...

Mar 22, 2013

Weird Way Lyme Disease Bugs Avoid Immune System

The bacterium that causes Lyme Disease substitutes manganese for iron in its diet, a new study finds. The pathogen is the first known organism to live without iron. This talent helps the pathogen evade the immune system, which often acts against foreign invaders by starving them of iron. Lyme disease...

Apr 23, 2013

Bittersweet News: Chocolate May Trigger Acne

Eating chocolate may change the immune system in ways that aggravate acne, a small new study from the Netherlands suggests. In the study, researchers collected blood from seven healthy people before and after they ate 1.7 ounces of chocolate, each day for four days. (The chocolate contained about 30 percent...

May 30, 2013

Flu Deaths Caused by Immune System 'Storm'

When you get sick with the flu, it's not always the virus itself that's to blame. In some people, the immune system's response to influenza can be so overblown that it's the very cause of sickness, a new study shows. The researchers uncovered some of the proteins in the body...

May 30, 2013

Spaceflight May Compromise Immune System, Study Finds

Space is hardly an ideal place to become ill, and because of this, astronauts take precautions to avoid getting sick before a mission. But a long journey in space may actually compromise the immune system and make astronauts more susceptible to disease, a new study suggests. The results show spaceflight...

May 30, 2013

Massages Boost the Immune System

Getting a massage not only helps you relax, it might also benefit your immune system, a new study suggests. People who received a 45-minute massage had an increased number of lymphocytes, which are white blood cells that play a large role in defending the body from disease, researchers from Cedars-Sinai...

May 30, 2013

Special Cells Protect Tumors From Immune System

A particular type of cell that surrounds tumors may what prevents the body's natural defenses, the immune system, from wiping the cancer out, according to a new study in mice. Getting rid of these cells could improve the effectiveness of cancer vaccines , which rely on the immune system to...