Age and Immunity: Why Does Aging Weaken Immune System in Elderly?

13 Dec Age and Immunity: Why Does Aging Weaken Immune System in Elderly?

Knowing why does immune system weaken with age can help you figure out how to keep your defenses strong even as aging takes its course. 

A strong immunity fights off invading diseases. At a young age, it doesn’t require much attention as the growth of immune cells happens at a rapid rate. In contrast, the situation is much worse as you grow older.

Old people tend to have a weaker immune system. This makes them prone to diseases and numerous other health conditions. A stronger immunity can, of course, help you fight off these ailments.

This is possible only by first knowing why does your immune system weaken with age. So, in this blog, our prime motive is to find out the culprit elements degrading your immunity.

Why Does the Immune System Weaken with Age?

The immune system is responsible for maintaining your body in a healthy state by keeping away foreign elements. 

These could be harmful invaders including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and cancer cells. Your natural defense system fights using a complicated network of organs and blood cells.

Lymph nodes have an important role in the complete process. The glands stop the white blood cells, i.e., lymphocytes, and release them when necessary. 

Lymph and blood vessels transfuse lymphocytes throughout the body. They are essentially infection-fighting elements working for your immune system.

This is how your immune system functions, in summary. 

Now, let’s get to the age part. Well, your age determines how your immune system is going to react. With age, it begins to weaken and puts you at a greater risk of falling prey to an infection.

In other words, your immune system doesn’t retain the same robust reactive working. It takes a much longer time to realize if there’s an infection in the body. 

Even if detected, it takes much longer for your immune system to eventually fight off these infections. This is because of the fewer white blood cells.

Less WBC takes a much larger time to respond. As a result, your body begins to lose amid the constant attack of bacteria and viruses.

As a direct result, the frequency of illnesses increases. The infection gets severe. Recovery gets slower. 

While vaccines are helpful to protect from infection, they may not work as they used to earlier. 

The changes in immunity also make you vulnerable to autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

This is how and why the immune system weakens with age. 

However, all this doesn’t happen in a blink. Your defense system gets weaker in a step-by-step process. 

Here, let’s understand more about how the immune system is affected by aging. 

The Effects of Aging on the Immune System

Aging affects your immune system. No doubt about it!

It gets weaker, making you more prone to recurring illnesses. However, it has a different impact on different layers of a defense system.

For instance, innate and adaptive immunity have different functions. Thus, aging also affects them in an entirely different way. This only aggravates a weaker immune system in old age.

Here’s more on what are the effects of aging on the immune system, depending on the two main types of immunity.

#1. Aging and Innate Immunity

Experts have found persistent low-level inflammation present in old age. They call it “inflammaging”.

Inflammation occurs during a normal repair process for healing. It keeps things safe from bacterial and viral infections. 

However, not all inflammations are healthy and good. Prolonged and persistent inflammation can turn out to be damaging and destructive.

In young folks, the post-infection immune system logs into anti-inflammatory responses. This doesn’t occur fast in older adults. This is because of the excess heaps of aged, or “senescent,” immune cells.

These have smaller telomeres, i.e., the protective caps at the end of chromosomes. It is similar to a plastic cap present on the ends of a shoe. Their ultimate goal is to stop fraying. 

In the same fashion, telomeres stop essential genetic material from getting lost during cell replication.

They become a little short with every cell division until the division stops completely. If the cell continues to exist, it gets dysfunctional.

Excess of these cells, with increasing age, affects your immune system. A clear explanation for why do old people have a weak immune system!

However, there’s much more to immune system dysfunction in the elderly.

#2. Aging and Adaptive Immunity

This layer of immunity enables your body’s defense system to understand and neutralize specific pathogens. 

T cells, a kind of immune cell, have a vital role in terms of adaptive immunity.

Throughout your life, the number of T cells remains the same. 

However, the new and naïve T-cells shorten over time.

Eventually, the immune system of older adults has ineffective responses to new pathogens or infections. This is why vaccination affords weaker responses in people with aging immunity.  

The explanation of aging and different layers of immunity is enough to understand how aging affects the immune system. 

Indeed, a weak immunity can sabotage your health, though some immune-boosting tips can serve to be of great help.

How to Improve the Immune System in the Elderly?

With age, everyone suffers from immune system damage. 

However, some small modifications in your habits, lifestyle, and diet can help bring some positive change.

Here’s how to increase immunity in the elderly…

#1. Quit Smoking

Smoking is of no use. People often commit to quitting but give up midway because of the addiction. 

Surprisingly, this single habit puts your immune system in great danger. 

Smoking has high negative influences on your immunity. In the long run, it lessens your natural ability to fight off pathogens. This naturally makes you more prone to diseases.

#2. Drink in Regulation  

Alcohol consumption is another strong reason behind a weakened immune system. Excessive drinking shrinks your immunity-boosting nutrients.

On top of that, it lessens the potential of WBC to kill germs. If you are habituated to boozing, it’s time to put a stop. 

You should do this for the sake of having a healthy immune system. This is actually one of the best ways to anti-age your immune system.

#3. Skip the Sun

Excessive sun exposure is not good for the immune system. Well, vitamin D from sun rays supports your immunity. 

However, with excessive sunshine comes UV radiation, which can change your DNA. This puts you at a higher risk of cancer. You can even suffer from more cold sores than normal.

#4. Avoid Chemical Exposure

Limit your exposure to chemicals and associated carcinogens. This means preventing coal burning or cooking with charcoal. 

Also, this includes avoiding lab chemicals like hydrocarbons. It can degrade immune system strength by age.

#5. Lose Weight

Excess body weight puts you at a greater health risk. And one of its prime issues is a weak immune system. 

Abdominal fat causes inflammation, increasing the incidence of cardiac issues and diabetes. As you grow old, your body tends to expose your immune system to even more risks. 

So, you need to bring a change in your diet and lifestyle to lose weight. Without it, it would be tougher to get slim.

These were some of the best ways to strengthen your immunity. 

Of course, it will also help you fight off the delays in the workings of your immune system that are inevitable in older people.

ALSO READ: Can Vitamins Boost Your Immunity

FAQs

In this section, we have some Q&As on immunity and age. Let’s have a look at them for a better understanding of today’s topic.

#1. At what age is your immune system the strongest?

The immune system comprises cells, proteins, tissues, and organs. They fight off invaders causing illnesses and health issues.

When harmful microbes enter your body, these components switch to peak mode to fight them off. 

Children develop a fully developed immune system by the time they get 7 to 8 years old. After that to young adult age, we can say the immune system stays strong.

#2. Which exercise is best for the immune system?

Here are the top immune-boosting exercises and workouts:

• Walking
• Rebounding
• Strength training
• High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

You can try any of the above workouts and exercises to strengthen your immune system. Though, perform them regularly to get better results.

Now, it’s time to have a final overview of the weakening of the immune system with age.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, the immune system and age are linked in more ways than we think. 

At a younger age, you obviously seem to have a stronger immune system. But as you grow up, your immunity drops irrevocably due to aging. And in older-aged people, it can create a whole lot of trouble.

With fewer immune cells in your body, recognizing new pathogens becomes troublesome. 

Eventually, it gets difficult to fight off different and, more importantly, new viral infections. This is when a weak immune system poses a risk to your health.

Still, changing your lifestyle, habits, and diet can help fight off, or at least mitigate the effects of, these issues. 

Now that you know why the immune system weakens with age, it’s time to take steps for greater care.  

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