A Virus You May Want to Contract

I have been telling you for years that viruses and bacteria are good for us. Our obsession with constantly disinfecting everything around us for fear of infections is unhealthy.

Of course, I’m not ignoring the importance of hygiene. More than any other modern-day scientific discovery, hygiene is the most important reason we have been able to eliminate all of the infections that killed so many in the past.

But, the point I make is that leaving aside the issue of good hygiene, being exposed to bacteria and viruses is a good thing.

And now a new study from my alma mater, The University of Arizona, is just another one of the many studies that backs up this concept.

Cytomegalovirus is a common virus that’s in the herpes family of viruses. It can cause mononucleosis and pneumonia. Roughly 50% of us have been infected with cytomegalovirus. And it turns out that if you’re in this lucky group, it’s a good thing. The new study shows that cytomegalovirus in your body can benefit your immune system. And that’s just what we need to help offset the natural decline in immune system activity as we get older.

To study the effect on the immune system of cytomegalovirus, the team took a group of older mice and infected half of them with the virus. Then, they exposed all of the mice to a bacteria (listeria) that would normally make them sick. Compared to the mice who were not infected with cytomegalovirus, the infected mice fought off the new bacteria more effectively. The researchers were stunned.

According to author Megan Smithey, “We assumed it [previous cytomegalovirus infection] would make mice more vulnerable to other infections because it was using up resources and keeping the immune system busy. We were completely surprised; we expected these mice to be worse off. But they had a more robust, effective response to the [listeria] infection.” But, why is that?

It has to do with T-cells. T-cells are the foot soldiers of the immune system. The more active your T-cells are, the better prepared the immune system is to fight off a range of different infections. And the more infections we’re exposed to, the more active our T-cell response is. This is especially true of the innate immune system. The innate immune system consists of T-cells that are assigned to the task of fighting off new infections from microbes that our body has never been exposed to before. This would include microbes brought in from other countries as well as microbes that have mutated. The mice infected with the cytomegalovirus had a particularly strong innate immune system activation.

So, learn from the research and protect your immune system. Avoid the casual use of antibiotics, vaccines, and all of those antibacterial wipes, mouthwashes, and soaps we are constantly being bombarded with. As this experiment shows, every time you get exposed to a new microbe, your immune system response will be activated. And in addition, I think it’s a great idea to take a good dose of the friendly bacteria in a potent probiotic at least once a week. The bacteria in your gut also activate your innate immune system.