What Is The Relationship Between Immune Health And Heart Health?
The immune system plays a key role in protecting the body against infections and diseases that are linked to inflammation, oxidative stress, and degeneration. The heart is one of the most vital organs of the body that supplies blood to all the organs to ensure they can work efficiently. Immune health and heart health are closely linked as both of these can affect each other, both positively and negatively.
A weak immune system could make the heart vulnerable to inflammation and infections. An inefficient cardiac system, on the other hand, could affect the blood flow to vital organs thereby reducing the supply of vital nutrients and immune cells to them.
Let us have a closer look at the interdependent relationship between immune health and heart health and see how they affect each other.
How Do Immune Health and Heart Health Influence Each Other?
Adaptive and Innate Immune Responses
How your body’s immune system responds to threats may play a role in your heart disease risks.
Studies have shown that adaptive and innate immune responses play a vital role in the development and progress of cardiovascular diseases.
Atherosclerosis, which is the primary cause of stroke, coronary artery disease, and peripheral vascular diseases, is often triggered due to the chronic inflammatory changes occurring in the heart. Disruptions in the processes involved in the resolution of inflammation could promote the progress of atherosclerosis resulting in the formation of vulnerable plaques.
Inflammation is also one of the mechanisms involved in the development of cardiac arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation.
Altered immune responses have been found to be at the root of these cardiac dysfunctions. The weak and inefficient functioning of the immune system could disrupt the body’s natural defense mechanisms that protect the heart due to which your risk of developing cardiac ailments may increase.
Studies have also revealed that a strong immune system could lead to faster cardiac remodeling in patients with myocardial infarction. These findings suggest that immune health and heart health are closely linked.
Development of Atherosclerosis
Recent evidence indicates that cholesterol crystals present in the plaque built up in the blood vessels of patients with atherosclerosis could trigger the release of certain molecules from the immune system.
It has been found that these molecules might cause inflammation thus promoting plaque instability and blood vessel injury, leading to a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The receptors on the immune cells serve as guards. These receptors can sense the potentially harmful molecules like foreign bodies, damaged DNA, and cell debris and release cytokines to remove such “threats”.
However, an elevated level of cytokines has been linked to a higher risk of coronary artery disease. Cytokines may cause harm by overstimulating immune cells to try to remove the cholesterol plaques deposited in the walls of the blood vessels. This overstimulation may cause inflammation in the blood vessel walls thus triggering the development of heart diseases like strokes and myocardial infarction.
This suggests that the overstimulation of the immune system could be detrimental to cardiac health. Hence, it is important to be aware of the link between immune health and heart health and adopt appropriate measures to restore healthy immune functions to protect the heart.
Post-Infarction Immune Response
Research studies have elucidated that lymphocyte clusters in the adipose tissue of the pericardium have the potential to control the post-infarction immune responses.
The ability of a person to recover after myocardial infarction is determined by immune health and heart health. Research studies have elucidated that lymphocyte clusters in the adipose tissue of the pericardium have the potential to control the post-infarction immune responses. This process can have a critical impact on the repair of the damaged heart tissues.
Additionally, analysis of the data from people with and without coronary artery disease have revealed that patients with this condition have a significantly higher number of lymphocytes in their pericardial adipose tissues compared to people whose hearts are healthy.
These results indicate that the modulation of the immune response in the pericardial tissue could have a positive impact on tissue repair and help patients with myocardial infarction to recover faster. This suggests how immune health and heart health influence each other in a positive way.
The results of these studies have revealed the link between immune health and heart health. It suggests that adopting strategies to strengthen immunity could have a positive impact on the functions of the heart.
Patients at risk of cardiac disorders may use immunity-modulating supplements like BioPro-Plus to help strengthen their immunity. BioPro-Plus could promote the body’s natural defenses against inflammation, and other disease-causing mechanisms by regulating the response of the immune system. It could help to protect you against life-threatening heart diseases such as myocardial infarction and stroke.
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