Dr Jenna Macciochi

We have things like metabolic syndrome.

Now, these all have components of immune dysfunction going on, which I think has long been sort of misunderstood.

And if we start to consider how the immune system plays a role in driving these conditions, where does it go awry?

Then we can start to get ahead of what is probably the biggest health crisis that we have.

Yes, exactly.

And I kind of see it as a network.

So we call it the immune system.

But unlike other systems in our body, you know, you would be able to tell me where anatomically your digestive system is or your respiratory system because they're located in a specific anatomical area.

But your immune system is everywhere.

It's this network system that's sort of connecting all.

It's using your lymphatic vessels and your blood vessels to move around.

It's interwoven with the barriers to your body.

So the lining of your digestive tract, your skin, it's in your brain, it's everywhere, it's in the gut.

And it's there because it's constantly sensing your outside world and your internal world and working together with your nervous system to feed all that information back and give you a sense of if there's danger, what needs healing, what needs repairing and how well you feel day to day.

Yeah, I think it's broadly true to say it's made not born.

We are born with certain immune functions, but then it develops much of our early life.

So a little bit like the nervous system, like we're born with a nervous system, but a baby can't talk and think and articulate in the way that an adult does.

It has to do a lot of learning and training after birth.

And so the immune system is kind of similar to that.

And because it's responsive to your environment, it will respond to what inputs we get.