excellent

Thoroughly enjoyable and informative. Well narrated and flowed well building storyline based on known and cutting edge science

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How amazing is the body

The basic message of this book is that we all have a unique immunology system dependent upon our genetic make up that can alter and change the way we respond to a vaccine or medicine. There is also some evidence that these factors can be dependent upon the time of day that we receive medicine, our age, stress levels, the impact of tai chi or meditation and many other factors. However, at the end of the day we simply don’t know yet how these can Influence how we will respond to vaccines and medicines or even our own body, the most effective thing we have in our armoury to fight disease and respond appropriately. It’s a miracle of modern medicine that we are able to treat so many illnesses and diseases. This book explores how even our mind can influence the effect of how a cure can work in fighting infection. The immune system can be dependent on your age and also what time of day it is and we have more immune system cells running in our body in the evening than in the morning. However, what is it that makes one person get cancer and another person not? This book looks at the story of immunology and the history and how people have found and discovered breakthroughs in curing and helping others.

This book explains how the human body works at fighting disease and how the immunology system of the body works so effectively. Vaccine comes from the Latin word for cow. When Edward Jenna gave cowpox to a young boy aged 11 he cured him of smallpox. He gave his findings to the Royal Society but they would not publish it as it was merely anecdotal. He then published after he experimented on more children including his own 11 month old child and the result was he then wrote a 75 page book which became a bestseller. Edward Jenna always believed that his idea could be used for total world suppression of smallpox.

In the book there are six different experiments that have played an important role in winning a Nobel Prize winners that have won through the work of fruit flies. The toil cell in a fruit fly it was discovered was responsible for switching on different other sets of genes to fight infections. Something similar was then discovered in humans. 98% of all animals are on this planet are vertebrates in that they have no backbone. All these creatures work on just one system to fight their disease but this system is also in humans. However we also have other systems that help to fight infection also.

The book talks about an experiment in attention where people watch a basketball being passed between players wearing white and to count the number of times the ball is passed whilst the opposing team wears black. Meanwhile in the video a gorilla is seen walking across the screen and even when this is shown to radiologists in one experiment over 83% of radiologists missed the gorilla. This experiment shows us that we see with our brain and not with our eyes. Perceptual blindness can be so true in what we pay attention to, what we observe and what we see and notice. It's an incredible experiment. This experiment is important because it shows that we often will only observe what we are trying to notice and fail to miss something that is unexpected but that could be equally important. You can watch the video on youtube and see if your friends notice.

A scientist called Steinman discovered dendritic cells which were able to switch on and switch off when they needed to trigger a response in fighting infection. They work in different ways dependent upon where they are in the body. These cells contain pattern recognition receptors which will recognise a new virus or bacteria or germ that might kill us and then switches on to start attacking the site where the virus or pathogens are contained. There is an interesting chapter on the story of interferon genes. We now know there are 100 interferon genes in the body which highlight, target and attack viruses and other pathogens. Then we have cytokines which are signalling molecules that coordinate the innate response. Some promote information and one is called interferons interfere with virus replication. Others can strike from certain types of white blood cells. We have B cells and killer T cells which help adapt the immune system to fight disease. Leucocytes can then mount to defence. Our immune system is divided into two branches, innate and adaptive. Innate immunity is the generalised rapid response defence system. Adaptive immunity provides slower, more pathogen specific responses. Dendritic cells engulfed in dismember pathogens and then display the remains on their surface to alert the adaptive immune system. The cells and T cells can mature into memory cells that remember a pathogen and can mount a response very quickly if it returns. I learnt a lot in this book, however, I’m not really sure if I’m correct in what I’ve just written. And I’ve borrowed some of this from a new scientist article. But the next time I read an article on immunisation, I will understand a bit more than I would have not reading this book. Other interesting points: 10% of the influenza virus is dedicated solely to fighting off interferon receptors from attacking and destroying the pathogen. All this work about interferon cells was discovered through the fact that when people are ill with one virus they seldom have a second virus of a different nature. This is because the cells within our body will have already started producing those cells that fight the disease that is called interference. Many people feel that our bodies are influenced by all the stars in the sky but actually the truth of the matter of a body is much more influenced by an ever ending arms race going on within the body to fight pathogens and other infections. It's a remarkable feat.

The second part of this book looks at the inner workings of the body and the miracle of things that we ourselves do as the human body in which to fight disease. A fever will heat the body to try and fight the disease. The body is an amazing piece of apparatus which can impact how a pathogen might influence and affect dependent upon stress most of which there is a lot of evidence for and less so for time of day, how one feels and laughter, things like mindfulness and tai chi all can have an impact on how well and how much a pathogen virus can be impacted upon the body.

The gut has to be able to distinguish the difference between receiving salmon and salmonella and it does this. We should definitely have more roughage and fibre in our diet as this is very beneficial to work in the immune system. However, the book also looked at how the body can attack itself with autoimmune diseases which include things like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis as well as motor neuron disease. I’ll be honest, I did get lost at times but I learnt a lot. If the virus causes a disease in humans it’s because it has evolved to block some aspects of our biology. A fascinating book.

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1 person found this helpful

Incredible insight into biomedical research!

Daniel brings the inner-workings of biomedical research to the forefront with compelling story telling! A must read for people who want to understand how modern medicines are developed.

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Fascinating, informative and thoughtful

Loved this. I had to rewind a few times at the more complicated bits, but enjoyed every minute. It’s not just about immunology or even science- there are some really important questions raised about what success looks like and the role of pride and egos in research.

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Brilliant!

Fabulous read and well narrated (always key of course).

Fascinating and captivating journey through the world of immunology (frankly most of it New to me).

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fascinating

Well written readable account of developments in immunology. He includes snippets on the personal lives of the scientists which enliven the book.

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Touched by mistake and cannot return - total disgrace

Touched by mistake and unable to return asks me to phone Canada. Speechless. A real theft.

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