Ageing and the immune system

OUR immune system works around the clock in thousands of different ways, but it does its work largely unnoticed. The only time we really notice our immune system is when it fails – we catch a cold, suffer bouts of diarrhoea or experience allergies. 

The immune system is basically the body’s defence mechanism. The foot soldiers in this defense system are white blood cells, which move towards the site of an infection and identify foreign bacteria. They then engulf the bacteria through a process called phagocytosis and eventually kill them.