The next time you recover from a cold or a nasty flu, don’t just thank your lucky stars; thank your bones, too! Or, more specifically, thank your bone marrow!
Hidden deep within your bones is a factory that works tirelessly at all hours of the day to manufacture all the cells that make up your immune system; this is the bone marrow.
However, just like any factory, your bone marrow needs maintenance to keep your body running as well as possible. This article will explore the functions of the bone marrow in relation to the immune system and analyze the best ways to keep it healthy.
Read on to learn all about the defense factory that keeps you healthy and how to boost its health!
Bone marrow: The unsung hero
Bone marrow is the soft, spongy tissue inside your arm and leg bones. It works behind the scenes to manufacture all the cells that make up your blood, called “hematopoiesis,” or the process by which blood cells are formed. This starts as early as the 7th day of embryonic life!
The simplest way to classify the products of this process is as red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells, which are the main players in your immune system.
While bone marrow is not considered a classically vital organ like the heart or the brain, it’s just as essential to overall health. Imagine: the heart pumps blood to deliver nutrients and oxygen throughout the body, but without bone marrow, there would be no blood cells for the heart to pump!
However, most people are unaware of this critical role. It’s not emphasized at school, and when has it ever been “sexy” to discuss bone marrow health compared to other health fads like gigantic muscles? Because of this, you may be ignoring a crucial aspect of your immunity.
That’s why, in the next few sections, you will get a further glimpse of how important your bone marrow is and what you can do to improve its health.
Bone marrow and the immune response
Every day, your body is exposed to countless pathogens with the potential to make you sick. These include viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites, just to name a few. To counter this, your bone marrow produces the cells that keep you safe from these pathogens and fight them when they enter your body. This is the function of the immune system.
Your immune system can defend itself against all types of microorganisms anywhere in your body. It does so through innate and adaptive immunity.
Innate immunity
You can think of innate immunity as the “general” immune system.
The innate immune system is mainly in the skin and mucous membranes, governed by cells known as neutrophils and macrophages. These are your body’s first line of defense against any invading microorganism.
However, they cannot “remember” familiar pathogens. Thus, they attack all pathogens indiscriminately, regardless of their origin. They also mediate inflammation when pathogens enter the body.
For example, say you have a splinter in your finger. The skin acts as the first line of defense, a physical barrier to prevent the entry of bacteria. However, if the skin is broken, your body mobilizes neutrophils and macrophages to the injury. These cells engulf all invading bacteria before they can spread and cause infection.
Adaptive immunity
On the other hand, adaptive immunity is more “specialized” or “sophisticated.” It relies on lymphocytes, such as T and B cells, to generate a lifelong “immunological memory” for encountered pathogens. Although this process takes time, it results in a more accurate response.
The adaptive immune system usually takes over once the innate response fails to neutralize the infection.
To do so, the system must first recognize the type of germ causing the trouble; once it does, it mobilizes special T lymphocytes to attack the microorganism. In conjunction, the B cells work on producing antibodies that help stimulate more T cells and form the “immunological memory” against the pathogen.
To visualize this, remember the last time you got chicken pox. At the time, your innate immunity fought against the infection, so you probably spiked a fever — a non-specific protective mechanism. However, this tricky infection requires a more targeted approach: the adaptive immune system.
A cascade of B cells spreads all across the body, producing antibodies against the virus-infected cells and marking them for destruction by the T cells.
After the infection is cleared, your body will remember the offending microorganism and can easily recognize and terminate it much quicker if you get exposed again. That’s why you’ve never had chickenpox again! This is the exact mechanism by which vaccines work and why people who get measles once or get vaccinated are immune for life afterward.
Bone marrow and disease resistance
You can’t underestimate the importance of your immune system. Thus, diseases affecting the bone marrow will harm you.
One of these diseases is leukemia.
Leukemias are a group of blood malignancies that affect the bone marrow. In 2020, they accounted for 2.5% of new cancer incidences and 3.1% of deaths. They are classified based on how quickly the cancer cells multiply and the type of cell line affected.
One example is Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). As the name suggests, AML affects the myeloid progenitor line of cells.
Thus, the cells most affected are macrophages, neutrophils (also known as the innate immune system), red blood cells, and platelets. The condition is called “acute” because it rapidly produces and grows diseased cells that cannot perform their functions as well as their healthy counterparts.
Other conditions, such as certain anemias, environmental exposures, or infections, can suppress the bone marrow and compromise the immune system.
While these conditions are considered rare, their incidence can lead to severe effects. Thus, it’s essential to learn how to best care for your bone marrow and keep it healthy.
How to maintain bone marrow health
Although the bone marrow is autonomous in its ability to self-regulate and maintain itself, some practices protect it and ensure its long-term health.
Adopt a bone marrow-supporting diet
Your diet plays a much bigger role in regulating your immune system than you might think.
Certain vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A and Zinc, have been found vital for cellular proliferation and proper function. A deficiency in either of those micronutrients has been linked to a marked reduction in immune function.
Other micronutrients essential for proper immune functioning include vitamins C, D, E, and K and minerals such as iron and selenium.
Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all fat-soluble vitamins. Pairing them with healthy fats, such as extra-virgin olive oil and a squirt of lime, over a salad is a simple way to ensure their absorption and increase your intake of healthy nutrients to support your immune health.
Also, drink a lot of water. Staying hydrated allows all the aforementioned vitamins and minerals to reach where they’re most needed. It also helps keep cells well-oxygenated, further protecting against infection.
Read more: The Perks of Having a Balanced Diet
Consider bone marrow supplements
If you follow a particular diet (e.g., vegans, vegetarians, etc.) where it’s harder to get all the nutrients you need from food alone, consider some nutritional supplements.
Your best bet would be a supplement combining the nutrients you need most. These nutrients are abundant in animal proteins, including vitamins B9 (folic acid), B12, and D. Vitamins B9 and B12 play a vital role in facilitating immune cell synthesis and proliferation, while a deficiency in vitamin D has been found to increase susceptibility to infections.
Before you start taking any nutritional supplements, though, make sure to consult with your doctor. You might find out that you have no real need to start one and potentially find a deficiency in one you didn’t expect.
Engage in regular exercise
Physical activity has also been positively linked to improved immune function and, by extension, bone marrow health.
Studies have shown that regular, moderate physical activity promotes improved immunosurveillance, the process by which the immune system finds threats and neutralizes them. This effect is most prominent after short exercise sessions, and it compounds in the long run with more frequent sessions.
Moderate exercise has also been shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects, improving glucose and fat metabolism over time.
A systematic review published in 2021 found that regular moderate to vigorous exercise reduces the risk of acquiring infectious diseases and dying from them. Additionally, some of the evidence suggests that regular exercise enhances vaccine potency.
To maximize these effects, you should plan regular exercise sessions that last an average of 30 minutes, 3-5 times a week. Try to include both aerobic exercises, such as brisk walking, cycling, or swimming, and resistance exercises of variable intensities.
Read more: How to Create Optimized Workout Routines to Maximize Productivity
Avoid bone marrow-damaging habits
Just like there are practices that boost your bone marrow health, there are habits you should avoid, as they can damage it and compromise immune functions.
It is no surprise that smoking is at the top of that list. Avoiding smoking will protect your health in general, but specifically your bone marrow as well. This is because smoking has harmful effects on both innate and adaptive immunity and has been linked to causing a wide variety of cancers.
Another habit you must avoid is not sleeping enough. Sleep is when your body performs all of its restorative functions, and sleeping for fewer hours than you should or having low-quality sleep has been linked to acute and chronic inflammation, higher infectious disease susceptibility, heart disease, and cancer.
Lastly, avoid eating too many high-fat and processed foods. Reliance on overly processed meats seems to cause low-grade inflammation throughout the body’s tissues. This inflammation adversely affects bone marrow cell function and differentiation, impairing immune functionality and disease resistance.
In conclusion
Healthy bone marrow is a cornerstone of a healthy and well-maintained body. As the chief producer of all the components making up your immune system, its maintenance and care are of utmost importance to anyone.
Now that you understand how important the bone marrow is in keeping your body safe from outside invaders, remember to implement the practices above. Not only will they improve bone marrow health, but they’re also great for your overall well-being. After all, the human body is intricately connected, so what’s good for your bones is also suitable for everything else.
So, eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, avoid bad habits, and take supplements when needed! These will positively impact all your organ systems, including bone marrow and the immune system!
If you would like to see more resources on bone marrow, check out the Longevity Science Labs. The lab uses the research of the Institute for Life Management Science to produce courses, certifications, podcasts, videos, and other tools. Visit the Longevity Science Labs today.
Photo by Freepik