- [Narrator] Now once you're infected with any pathogen,
your body's gonna create a memory.
Now this memory is going to help with any subsequent
infection but doesn't help the first time.
So your first or primary immune response,
the first time you see a particular antigen,
that means the first time you see a particular
strain of a virus or particular bacteria,
you have this lag time, this three to six day lag time.
In those three to six days, your body is
just getting ready to make antibodies.
So it takes some time to get ready to fight this off.
A lot of times about ten to twelve days in,
is when you peak for your immune response.
It's almost a week and a half until peak immune response.
Now, if you think about it, usually most
people get sick, it's a week or less, maybe a couple days.
Questions why, you've already built up your immune system.
If you ever end up getting sick with a kind of
unique bug, it's gonna take some time.
But because of all those little colds
and everything else you had when you were
a little child, this becomes much lower.
Because you already went through
the Primary immune response.
A lot of things we're on now are
our Secondary immune response.
Or at least a close variation of it, maybe it's not
the exact perfect but your body has a
better idea of how to fight it off.
So lag time to make antibodies, a couple hours.
Once you see it, your body's producing
and making these antibodies.
Couple days out, two, three days
out, you've got peak response.
That's why you can bounce back so quickly
from so many different infections.
You're on your second response not your first.
So you can see this in graph, first verses second.
Not only is it faster, you can see about
12 days in is the peak for the first exposure.
The second exposure peaks, we're looking at,
give or take about eight days, nine days.
But by that point, you've already kind of cured up.
The difference is look how many antibodies are produced.
By the time you have enough antibodies to fight off a
typical infection, you're within the first day or two.
The peak is overkill usually, just making
sure that everything's gone, that nothing can infect you.
So Immunization, how do these things work?
When you get immunization, some might be like
an MR vaccine or any other type of vaccine.
The idea is, is try to cause your body to
develop immunity for that particular pathogen.
It's a way of doing it for active immunity.
And this one is the vaccination way.
You're intentionally exposed to a form of that antigen.
Now it might be a form of the
antigen where it's a living antigen.
That means that the virus or bacteria
or whatever it is, it's still alive but it's
weakened, maybe it's partially dead.
So therefore, it really can't produce much of
an infection for you, maybe a little slight fever.
It could be the fact that just gives pure antigens.
The rest of the infection's not even there.
So there's different ways of doing
this active Immunization through vaccination.
The key is the antigen must be present.
Your body develops a response against the antigen,
hopefully without getting sick in the process.
Then there's a Passive immunization.
In this case, your giving protective
antibodies to an individual.
Hold on, how's that work?
That works one way is for an infant.
When an infant is breastfeeding, it can
passively receive antibodies from the mother.
So there's active and passive ways of Immunization.
Antibiotics, well, they can help.
But you gotta make sure you know
what you're trying to kill off.
Antibiotics can either kill or inhibit bacteria.
Antibiotics really can't do
much of anything against viruses.
So it's really important to understand which
antibiotic is gonna be useful against which bacteria.
Each antibiotic has a special way of working.
It'll try to find something on the bacteria
that is different or unique from your own body cells.
Because the antibiotic can't know which is bacteria
and which is normal body, so what it does is,
it simply looks for something that's triggered
that is only in the bacteria.
Maybe there's a special antigen,
maybe there's a special bond,
maybe there's a special chemical,
something that's unique for the bacteria.
Because the Antibiotics will destroy
whatever that unique feature is.
Now, Antibiotics are not effective against viruses.
Straightforward, that's it, if you're ever
prescribed an Antibiotic for a virus, it won't do a thing.
Because the Antibiotics cannot function against
a virus because a virus works within your cells.
So to kill off a virus, you'd be
killing off your own cells that have the virus.
So there's really now way for that to work
without causing massive damage to your own body.
Now all those are great ways of having the
Immune System work properly.
Unfortunately, sometimes the Immune System doesn't
respond the way you want it to.
Allergies are a perfect example.
I can't think of anyone that I know that likes Allergies.
In Allergies, you're hypersensitive
to something in the environment.
It could be pollen from a plant.
It could be dander from a dog.
It could be dust in the house, whatever it is.
But your body's responding in a
way that isn't quite typical.
So one of the most common treatments is Antihistamines.
Your body releases histamines to cause the reaction,
the allergy so you try to stop the release of histamines.
Now those are more mild ways.
Epinephrine injection, that's an EpiPen.
This is more of an extreme way.
If someone's going into anaphylactic shock,
so they're going to the point where they're
not gonna be able to breathe which is
obviously deadly, an Epinephrine or adrenaline
injection, which EpiPen, can try and counteract
or at least slow down that anaphylactic shock.
It won't be a cure so get the person to treatment.
But it's a way of trying to cut down.
And then you have Allergy shots.
Well, an Allergy shot is a way that's a little more
potent than an Antihistamine that'll
hopefully last for a longer period, protecting against
a particular Allergy for a longer duration.
Well, those ones are all ways of having the
Immune System not work properly.
But here's an Autoimmune, which means you
don't need something from outside.
This one, an Autoimmune, is simply from within your body.
Your Immune System can't tell the difference
between your own cells and foreign cells.
It can't tell which are the self from the nonself.
So you have these cytotoxic T cells.
You have these antibodies called Autoantibodies.
They'll actually target your body's own tissues.
It'll destroy your own cells.
So Lupus is one example, that inflammation of
connective tissue, that inflammation is because
your body is destroying your own cells.
Rheumatoid arthritis, in this case,
your body is eating and destroying the
actual synovial membranes, the membrane around your joints.
So in both these cases, your own cells are causing
the problem because they're destroying your own tissue.