Posted on January 6th, 2009 by Craig Maltby, Editor
On birds, two-parent households and immune balance. This hits the target!
We’ve come upon a great piece of science and commentary that was actually published last year. It lays out the 
immune balance story as well as I’ve seen. The piece is written by Jon Barron, who runs a health and nutrition enterprise called Baseline of Health.
Mr. Barron refers to, of all things, a published study of birds. Birds raise their young through the two-parent approach, as opposed to many mammals such as lions, in which the mother is the sole child-rearer. The study shows that bird families with two parents tend to share germs and viruses more frequently, which ultimately helps those pathogens develop stronger resistance to birds’ immune response, thereby building a more highly reactive and aggressive immune system in birds. This overcharged immune system results in:
- Greater immune stress
- More use of body resources
- Increased inflammation
At the end of the day, these outgrowths of amped-up immune response result in poorer health. Instead, Barron reasons, a balanced immune defense with a passive side that knows when to back off and not kick into overdrive every time a pathogen is detected is the ideal immune health profile.
As Barron states so well:
“The bottom line is yes, you want your immune system to respond strongly to any pathogens — but not too strongly. If it responds too strongly, the costs can outweigh the benefits. An overactive immune system can lead to:
- Sustained systemic inflammation
- Autoimmune disorders
- Overactive responses to allergens
- Even death, as in the case of avian flu”
The immune balance concept is a compelling one, illustrated in myriad ways, and most certainly not just for the birds!
