| The immune system is the body's ultimate defense against infectious
agents such as bacteria and viruses. Traditional medicine uses
botanicals and other natural substances to stimulate the body's
defense mechanisms rather than substitute for them, as is often the
case with modern Western medicine.
Many botanicals, including shiitake and maitake mushrooms, licorice,
echinacea, ligustrum and astragalus, owe their effects to a group of
polysaccharides--complex sugars that have the ability to activate
white blood cells on the front lines of cellular defense. The
polysaccharides also stimulate T cell formation and differentiation--T
cells direct other cells in a specific immune response--as well as
activate the complement system, a group of more than 25 blood
proteins that play a vital role in the body's immune defenses.
It's best not to focus exclusively on individual botanical constituents,
however, since multiple components appear to be involved in their
therapeutic effects. Although researchers must focus on a single
isolated compound to isolate specific activity, using whole herbs takes
advantage of the multiple benefits plants offer. |
