"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You may not be aware of this, but your immune system has two distinct components. Each component has its own purpose and way of working. We believe that understanding these differences is important for understanding how your immune system functions.
Innate and Adaptive Immunity
The two categories of your immune system are called “innate immunity” and “adaptive immunity”. They are both essential for fighting off potential diseases and also for preventing them from getting a foothold. You must understand how they function so that you are aware of how your immune system protects you from disease.
Innate Immunity
Your first line of defense is your innate immunity. It stops pathogens from entering your body. Your innate immunity does not target any particular type of pathogen.
Often innate immunity is non-specific in nature because it will target anything that it discovers in your body that should not be there rather than chase after a specific type of pathogen. Two significant parts of your innate immunity that you will be familiar with are your skin and your hair.
Your skin is vital as it provides a barrier for your body to the outside world. The skin does a great job of keeping out things that want to get in. Your hair also performs a vital role as it will trap different types of microorganisms and it is essential that you wash it often so that it is always clean.
If you have long hair, never put it in your mouth, chew it, or bite it. You never know what bad microorganisms your hair has trapped, and you do not want them in your mouth. Your innate immunity has many other internal parts, one of which is mucus.
Similar to your hair, mucus will trap microorganisms as well. It will trap harmful bacteria before it is able to reach your respiratory system. Mucus is responsible for developing a cough prior to getting sick.
Adaptive Immunity
You have several cells that will try to eliminate any foreign body that they believe should not be there. Your adaptive immunity works differently in that it responds to the discovery of a threat that has already begun to become a problem for you.
This element of your immune system will specialize in eliminating sickness using a variety of methods. This could be opening up a membrane or simply taking it and flushing it out of your system.
The most common examples of adaptive immunity are T cells and B cells. These cells have memories and will recognize foreign bodies that they have fought in the past. This is great because they will know how they will need to fight against them if they appear again. When these cells see a threat they try to identify it so they know what to do to eliminate it.