The History of the Immune System

Clemens Arvai traces the fascinating evolutionary history of our immune system in his book and vividly demonstrates how much the health of the organism depends on the state of the environment. His message boils down to this: to maintain health in the long term, we must change the paradigm of our thinking towards ecoimmunology.

This young science studies the impact of environmental factors, nutrition, and lifestyle on diseases and their course. For example, we learn why people are particularly susceptible to infections in certain life situations, why vaccines are not always effective, and why tiny creatures in the gut play a crucial role in our protective functions.

Only by knowing the past of our immune system can we understand what it needs to remain healthy in the future.