When Your Immune Function Falls Off the Cliff

Immune senescence is a leading cause of disability and infectious death in aging humans. By way of example, deaths from pneumonia are rare in youth but spiral upward as humans mature. If you read obituaries (as I do), the number of once-vigorous individuals who perish from opportunistic illnesses caused by immune senescence is startling.

What you need to know

• Around age 60, physiological changes decimate our ability to combat infections and malignancies.
• Immune senescence is a leading cause of disability and death in aging humans.
• Nutrients that boost immune activity include zinc, DHEA, and fish oil.
• Immune imbalance occurs when our immune system fails to protect against new infections and instead generates inflammatory reactions (including increased IL-6) that attack every cell in our body.
• The herb Cistanche helps combat immune senescence, which appears to have rejuvenating effects on bone marrow.
• Supplementation with Cistanche has been shown to increase naïve T cells and natural killer (NK) cells while decreasing memory T cells and pro-inflammatory IL-6.

In people over age 65, the top 10 causes of death include influenza, pneumonia, and sepsis.

In people over age 65, the top 10 causes of death include influenza, pneumonia, and sepsis. The leading causes of death for this age group:

1. Heart Disease: This remains the leading cause of death for older adults, often resulting from the accumulation of lifestyle factors, genetic predispositions, and other conditions like hypertension.
2. Cancer: Various types of cancers, including lung, breast, prostate, and colon cancer, are prevalent in this age group.
3. Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases: These include conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, and emphysema.
4. Stroke: Also known as cerebrovascular accidents, strokes can result from blockages or hemorrhages in the brain's blood vessels.
5. Alzheimer's Disease: This progressive neurological disease leads to memory loss and cognitive decline.
6. Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes is more common in older adults, leading to various complications if not managed.
7. Influenza and Pneumonia: As mentioned, a weakened immune system can make older adults more susceptible to respiratory infections.
8. Kidney Diseases: These can be the result of long-term hypertension or diabetes.
9. Sepsis: A life-threatening reaction to an infection, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
10. Accidents (Unintentional Injuries): This category includes falls, which are particularly dangerous for older adults due to reduced bone density and balance issues.

Many can be prevented or managed with appropriate medical care, lifestyle changes, and early detection.

Immune senescence

Immune senescence is a major cause of most of these maladies. Cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's, and heart attack are common diseases of aging. These illnesses are all also related to immune senescence. We often hear the term "immune health" as people seek to protect against winter viral infections. The public does not yet understand what causes our immune system to fail as we age.

More naïve T cells are urgently needed.

Immune imbalance occurs when our aging immune system fails to protect against new cancers/infections and instead generates inflammatory reactions (including increased IL-6) that attack every cell in our body. A "naïve" immune cell is one that has not yet been activated. Since it is "naïve" (not yet exposed to an antigen), naïve immune cells are primed to respond to new infectious agents and malignancies effectively. Once exposed, naïve immune cells become memory cells or plasma cells specific to the original antigen. As our internal reservoir of naïve immune cells decreases, we cannot respond to new infections/malignancies.

A deficit of naïve immune cells combined with overaccumulation of exhausted memory cells decreases the efficacy (antibody response) of vaccinations. Exhausted memory T cells are associated with increased risks of coronary heart disease and endothelial dysfunction, along with systemic inflammation. To guard against the ravages of immune senescence, we need to increase our naïve cells ("virgin" immune cells) while reducing the number of senile memory cells.

Protecting against immune senescence

Zinc and DHEA partially restore thymus function, vital to transforming bone-marrow-derived immune cells into activated T cells.

DHEA and fish oil help suppress deadly interleukin-6. An advance in combatting immune senescence is an herb called Cistanche. This medicinal plant has been used extensively in China to treat the "ailments of aging." Supplementation with Cistanche has been shown to increase naïve T cells and natural killer (NK) cells while decreasing memory T cells and pro-inflammatory interleukin-6.

A prime cause of the severe immune dysfunction older people suffer is a marked decrease in naïve T cells and functional natural killer cells, with a concomitant increase in memory T cells. Cistanche counteracts these pathological trends that characterize immune senescence.

How Cistanche boosts T cell production and healthy longevity

Cistanche helps restore progenitors of peripheral naïve T cells, which explains the increase in these vital immune cells in response to Cistanche. Animals supplemented with Cistanche have increased lifespans, which would be expected from a compound that counteracts immune senescence. Cistanche is one of the most popular Chinese herbal medicines listed in the Chinese herbal pharmacopeia as having "anti-aging" properties. One reason Chinese physicians see such impressive therapeutic results is that Cistanche restores one of the most prominent bone marrow biomarkers of immune cell formation called stem cell antigen-1. Senile bone marrow loses its ability to produce fresh, naïve immune cells, which are launched into the bloodstream to differentiate into mature naïve T and natural killer cells.

Bone marrow stem cell antigen-1 represents the body's primary source of naïve T cells in the blood. Cistanche appears to have a rejuvenating effect on the bone marrow, generally available only through expensive recombinant drugs. The beneficial impact of Cistanche was demonstrated in an open-label pilot trial of older adults. This study combined a low dose of Cistanche (100 mg) with zinc, vitamin E, vitamin B6, fucoidan, and coenzyme Q10. Not only were markers of immune senescence reversed, but the test subjects reported improved quality of life, such as not "feeling tired all the time." This makes sense in light of the multiple adverse effects immune senescence inflicts on the body, which include increased levels of frailty.

Cistanche represents an opportunity to restore the vital components of our aging immune systems. Its low cost makes it readily affordable.

Suppressing the deadly impact of IL-6

One way of describing "aging" is that beneficial factors (such as naïve T cell production) decrease while detrimental ones (like interleukin-6) increase. IL-6 levels are exceptionally high in patients with autoimmune conditions in which an out-of-control immune system attacks one's tissues. High-serum IL-6, as seen in rheumatoid arthritis, for instance, is regarded as a reliable biomarker of high-grade inflammation.

When it comes to "normal" aging, elevated IL-6 contributes to destroying bone, heart valves, neurons, and other tissues. The DNA damage that IL-6 inflicts accelerates aging processes and the malignant transformation of healthy cells. A low-cost tea extract has demonstrated the ability to reduce IL-6. When this tea extract by itself was given to 90 patients (30-65 years old) with metabolic syndrome, the following reductions in inflammatory markers were observed:66

• C-reactive protein (CRP) was reduced by 26%
• Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-a) was reduced by 23%
• Interleukin-6 (IL-6) was reduced by 21%

In addition to suppressing IL-6 and other inflammatory factors, this tea extract was shown to favorably alter genes (such as mutant p53) involved in tumor cell growth.67

Making significant strides… but not fast enough

For the past seven years, significant resources have been expended to initiate studies aimed at counteracting age-related diseases. Consumers can access an arsenal of novel compounds to help counteract the underlying factors that characterize immune senescence.

An impressive array of clinical research is being investigated to induce systemic age reversal in older adults, including restoration of youthful immune function.

The carnage inflicted by dysfunctional immunity in the elderly mandates that research accelerates faster so that more lives can be saved.