Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

It's interesting, if I reflect back on my medical school education, I went to Edinburgh Medical School back in 95 and in 98, I took a year out to do an immunology degree.

It strikes me as I look back that there was a fundamental flaw that might be an understandable flaw, but a fundamental flaw nonetheless, which was to look at everything as separate.

Right.

This is what's going on when the heart's not working.

This is what's not working well when the lungs are not working or the brain's not working.

And I think our understanding as clinicians, as researchers, as scientists has really evolved over the years where we're now seeing this as a connected system.

And of course, the immune system lies at the very heart of it all.

Yeah.

I really love the introduction in your new book.

And I think in the introduction, you make the case that the immune system is made, not born, which I think is something for us all to reflect on.

The immune system develops depending on our life experiences, depending on the inputs we give our body that then shapes the immune system and how it functions.

First of all, have I got that right?

And secondly, if so, can you give us some sort of practical examples of what are the kinds of things that we can do that positively shape our immune systems?

Yeah.

So you're saying that there's some research showing us that if we increase the right type of fiber in our diets, we're going to get less infections?

Yeah.

I mean, that's really interesting, isn't it?

This more holistic look at the immune system, which I guess takes us away or a little bit away from things like, you know, when you have a cold, take vitamin C, right?

We can maybe unpack that later.

I guess the strong sense I get from your work and in particular reading your latest book, Immune to Age, is