Immunology is the study of your body’s built-in defenses: the immune system. Your immune systems impacts so many different aspects of your health, from fighting off disease and preventing cancer, to sleep, skin health, and more. Understanding the immune system helps to understand how other things in the body work.
The immune system is a mobile defense system. If someone has a cut on their arm, the immune system responds to the site of the cut. If they have a cut on their toe, the immune system will mobilize to the toe.
One way to understand the immune system is to think of it like calling the emergency services, such as dialing 911 in the US. When you call the emergency line, police, fire service or medics are dispatched to where they are needed. In the same way, the immune system responds by initiating a response that travels through the body to wherever it is needed. For example, when you get a cut there is swelling, heat, redness, and pain. These symptoms are all manifestations of your immune system going to the cut and responding to it.