Iron, Infectious disease, Immune system

Ask Dr. J

Lateral Immunological Thinking

Jim Cross, ND

My wife is always worried that someone is going to give her a cold or the flu, or so and so gave her a cold. I, of course, gently attempt to reassure her that the situation is more complicated than that. I gently remind her that, when she becomes infected with some sort of microbe, I massage her, sleep next to her every night, and do not become infected with whatever she is potentially carrying. I use the word potentially because many people and practitioners around our globe believe that we become ill because of a dysfunctional internal terrain or milieu and not from an external microbe. So, why did the chicken cross the road or why do some humans become acutely ill with colds and/or flus?

In this article, I want to veer off into a different direction that will hopefully think laterally (I prefer laterally to the more accepted term “critically”) about the above scenario. So, was Bill Murray correct, in his much under-watched movie The Razor’s Edge, when he tells his friend Gray at the end of the movie that “it’s just the luck of the draw”(meaning, we’re helpless immunologically and a plucky virus infects us and we magically inherit a cold or the flu)? Or is the opposite side of the immune coin real: can we actualize change in our life that either keeps the internal terrain healthy by building an impenetrable wall to the exterior world or supercharges our immune system to prevent any breaches or contain any breaches in the scenario of a successful microbial occupation? Let’s call this second choice Michael Jordan immunity. Personally, I want to be more like Mike. Let’s look first at a historical “luck of the draw” example of immunity.

Iron content in our body is one of those “good/bad” scenarios. Too little iron leads to anemia, which leads to fatigue and many other symptoms. Too much iron lends itself to a disease called hemochromatosis and a constellation of other problems. As George Block so astutely taught me in naturopathic physiology class, homeostasis, not too much or not too little, is the place to be. It turns out that infectious microbes need iron to survive, and all the places in our bodies that they can possibly invade besides our bloodstream have been declared no-fly zones by our bodies to iron. In addition, these possible areas of microbial penetrance are patrolled by proteins that can lock up or chelate the iron to prevent usage by these invading microbes. Finally, during a microbial invasion, there is a prison lockdown of sorts as iron is stored away into the liver or spleen to prevent these intruders from using the iron to replicate and overwhelm our immune systems.^1,2

To illustrate how smart our ancestors were, there is an old wives’ tale that you place egg white-soaked straw onto a wound to protect it from infection. As it turns out, egg whites are chock full of chelators so that they are securing the guns (iron) at the door (wound site) to prevent the microbes from using the iron to gain an upper hand against our immune systems.² Not only then were our ancestors smarter than us, so too are our bodies as the next example illustrates. Mother’s milk contains lactoferrin which helps prevent infections in the newborn gastrointestinal tract by chelating iron there.²

During the Middle Ages in Europe, the bubonic plague or black death swept through Europe decimating between one-third and one-half of the population. The bacteria Yersinia pestis is the source of this bacteriological scourge.³ So, why did some people die, and others survive. Is my son correct that Bill Murray is always right?

It turns out that Bill is partially wrong, and it’s not just the luck of the draw. Modern science has shown that the more iron present in individuals in a given population the more susceptible that population is to bacterial infection. It has also been theorized that the Vikings interjected the hemochromatosis gene into the European population during one of their invasions (Interestingly, it also turns out that Ancestry told me I have Viking ancestors even though my mother was 100% German.).⁴

Hemochromatosis is a form of iron-locking going on as a permanent condition. It can kill you in your 40s due to excess storage of iron in the body which in the long run didn’t matter as much in the Middle Ages as nature just needed humans to survive into adulthood to reproduce. However, the excess iron isn’t distributed like normal iron: the macrophage which is the major white blood cell of the innate immune system.⁵

In non-homochromatic individuals, macrophages have a good supply of iron. When these macrophages encounter microbes, they inadvertently give them the iron they need to replicate. That allows the microbes to decisively win their battle with our immune systems. The macs become not the front-line of defense but Trojan horses. The opposite scenario occurs in a hemochromatic person, whose iron-depleted macs deprive the invaders of iron.⁶

Ultimately then, the ability to access iron within our macrophages determines the conditions in which a microbial infection becomes deadly or benign. Maybe Bill is right. It was just the luck of the draw for some people whose ancestral Viking(s) donated their genetic material. On the other hand, as Paul Harvey used to say on his radiocasts: “now for the rest of the story”!!

Yes, it is the luck of the draw whether our macrophages sequester iron or not from the marauding microbes. We are not helpless though. At our functional fingertips are a vast armamentarium of herbs, supplements, and lifestyle choices that can prevent the microbes from gaining access to tour bodies or deter them once they have entered, even if our bodies don’t sequester the iron from the microbes. These include but are not limited to the following:

• Repletion of vitamins A/C/D and zinc

• Daily intake of elderberry tincture

• Daily intake of proteolytic enzymes between meals

• Adequate sleep

• Keeping our parasympathetic nervous systems active through meditation or yoga so our immune systems are in tip top shape

• Shinrin-yoku or Forest Bathing to access phytoncides from the multiple types of trees and bushes that increase natural killer cell activity

• Staying away from neo-carbs or white flour, whole wheat flour, and sugar that dramatically decrease the efficiency of our immune systems.

Adhering to the above regimen can turn your perhaps vulnerable immune system into one “Like Mike.” So, don’t just be safe against COVID-19. Be smart dietarily, nutritionally, herbally, and lifestyle-wise and more than likely you’ll be snug, as a bug in a rug, from the virus!

Nota Addendum: In these trying viral times, I think we need to look to the inherent wisdom of our bodies for guidance. All the various parts of my body continuously work in harmony (except for my prefrontal cortex sometimes!). So, this might be the message that the virus is really sending to us: the human race. This message is best summarized by lines from Stephen Stills’ wonderful song, “We Are Not Helpless”: We are not helpless/ We are friends/ What lies between us/ It can be set aside and ended/ All are strangers/ All are friends/ All are brothers.

References

1. Cassat JE, Skaar ER. Iron in Infection and Immunity. Cell Host Microbe. 2013 May 15; 13(5): 509–519.

2. Moalem S. Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease. Harper Collins: 2007.

3. https://www.pests.org/the-black-death/

4. http://www.hemochromatosisdna.com/about-the-disease/viking-ancestry#.XoT2XW5Fyhc

5. Lijian Wang, et al. Attenuated inflammatory responses in hemochromatosis reveal a role for iron in the regulation of macrophage cytokine translation. J Immunol. 2008 Aug 15; 181(4): 2723–2731.

6. Moalem S, Weinberg ED, Percy ME. Hemochromatosis and the enigma of misplaced iron: implications for infectious disease and survival. Biometals. 2004 Apr;17(2):135-9.