It produces several hormones like thymulin and thymosin, which regulate immune cell production. It also synthesizes hormones such as insulin and melatonin.

But its central function is to produce and release powerful immune cells to help fight infection and disease.

Most experts believed, however, that the thymus’ contributions occurred in the womb and didn’t extend into adulthood.

But investigators have found that theory was wrong.

In fact, they believe the thymus may hold the secret to a lifetime of good health, thanks to a specialized kind of cell they hope to harness for future preventative treatments…

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The education of T cells

A team of Australian researchers examined thymus samples donated to the Melbourne Children’s Heart Tissue Bank from heart surgery patients up to 16 years old. They likely chose these samples because the thymus is most active in childhood.

The researchers looked at the role of gamma delta T cells within the gland and found for the first time how the organ produced these cells.

“We have large numbers of these specialized cells in our blood and tissues, which accumulate as we become adults,” says study co-author Dan Pellicci, a professor at the University of Melbourne. “Until our study, it was unclear how these cells develop in the body.

Similar to receiving an elementary, high school and college education, the T cells are trained over three stages and fully form in the thymus, Pellicci says.

“Following this education, the cells are ready to enter the rest of the body and are completely capable of fighting infections,” he adds.

Some previous studies suggested these immune cells were mainly derived in the liver and thymus during fetal development in the womb.

“Many experts assumed that after birth, the thymus played little role in the development of these cells as we age, but we now know this little unsung organ helps the body prepare for a lifetime of good health,” Pellicci says.

The hope is that through understanding their function, these T cells can be manipulated to help prevent cancer and highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and tuberculosis.

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The care and feeding of this important gland

It’s clear the thymus gland is a key part of our immune system. Unfortunately, the thymus tends to shrink with age, and by the time we hit the age of 65, it’s pretty much unable to produce any new T cells.

This explains why older people are at higher risk for a lot of diseases like cancer, and why they have a harder time fighting off infections.

The good news is there are a few things you can do to support it:

• Get more antioxidants. One study found that antioxidants — especially vitamin C — can protect the thymus from damaging free radicals and prevent some of that age-related thymus shrinkage.
• Cut down on wheat. Research has shown that a chemical in wheat called wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) contributes to a shrinking thymus.
• Get enough zinc. It’s the most important mineral your thymus needs to stay healthy. Correcting a zinc deficiency can prompt the thymus to grow and start generating T cells again.
• Don’t use artificial sweeteners. Studies have found artificial sweeteners like sucralose shrink the thymus gland in rats.
• Try tapping. It’s not scientifically proven (yet), but tapping your chest over your thymus gland can supposedly stimulate a sluggish immune system. Try tapping the center of your chest, below your collarbone, for 15 to 20 seconds several times per day. Hum as you do it for even better results.

Sources:

Discovery could lead to more treatments to prevent cancer and infectious diseases — ScienceDaily

A three-stage developmental pathway for human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells within the postnatal thymus — Science Immunology

What is the thymus gland? — Medical News Today

The post The little gland that’s key to a lifetime of good health appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s where people travel abroad to receive treatment for various reasons, but the main attraction is the low cost of procedures they’d pay much more for in the U.S. Cosmetic medical tourism is immensely popular for that reason

I’ve heard good and bad things about medical tourism, and though it’s not my cup of tea, another travel-related benefit certainly is…

It’s called travel therapy and it could serve as a groundbreaking anti-aging intervention — no surgery, injections or hospital stay required.

According to researchers from Edith Cowan University, it could be the best way to defy premature aging…

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Slowing the trend toward disorder and death

For the first time, researchers have applied the theory of entropy to tourism and health benefits that could slow aging.

Scientists classify entropy as the general trend of the universe towards death and disorder. In humans, that translates to aging.

“Ageing, as a process, is irreversible. While it can’t be stopped, it can be slowed down,” says lead researcher Fangli Hu.

She and her team believe travel could slow aging by triggering changes that help the body sustain a low-entropy state.

That’s because travel and exposure to new surroundings and relaxing activities positively influence metabolic activities and may also trigger an adaptive immune system response.

That latter part is a big deal because with age, our adaptive immune response declines — along with the atrophy of the thymus, a gland that supplies immune cells when we’re young.

“Put simply, the self-defense system becomes more resilient. Hormones conducive to tissue repair and regeneration may be released and promote the self-healing system’s functioning.

“Leisurely travel activities might help alleviate chronic stress, dampen over-activation of the immune system and encourage normal functioning of the self-defense system. Engaging in recreation potentially releases tension and fatigue in the muscles and joints. This relief helps maintain the body’s metabolic balance and increases the anti-wear-and-tear system’s effectiveness. Organs and tissues can then remain in a low-entropy state.”

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Take a trip to slow aging — or try these anti-aging practices

So if you want a youthful boost, maybe a vacation is just what the doctor ordered! If you’ve been putting it off, you’ve got a great reason to make your plans now.

If travel abroad or to a resort isn’t possible, there are plenty of destinations right here in the U.S. and most likely, even in your home state, that could help you relax and trigger a low-entropy state the researchers mentioned.  

If travel isn’t possible, exercise could kick things into gear. The researchers noted the physical activities of travel such as walking, hiking, climbing or cycling, promote a low-entropy state.

And if you can handle intense exercise, you could also “wake up” your thymus. A couple of years ago, researchers found that 80-year-old endurance cyclists were producing the same level of T-cells as adults in their 20s!

Reducing oxidative damage can also help. Oxidative stress can suppress your T-cell response, which impairs the adaptive immune response. At the same time, reduced oxidative damage at the cellular level means slower biological aging.

The nutrient resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, helped spearhead research into anti-aging because of its effects against oxidative stress. Muscadine grapes have high levels of resveratrol and of course, you can find the anti-aging antioxidant in supplement form.

Sources:

Travel could be the best defense against aging — ScienceDaily

The post These scientists say travel could help us defy aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

You’ve probably heard of T-cells, those powerful disease-fighters we all need.

But have you ever wondered why they’re called “T” cells and not “B” or “F” cells?

The “T” stands for thymus, a small gland located in the chest, between the lungs and behind the breastbone.

Your thymus is the organ that produces those powerful T cells and “trains” them to recognize invaders, like bacteria or viruses, and not to attack your body — which otherwise could lead to autoimmune disease.

But for a long time, the thymus has not been considered important in adult life…

Convention has held that it begins to shrink into adulthood and by the time you’re 65, it’s pretty much “done for” — the result of an aging immune system.

But when researchers looked at the gland in older Swedes, they found it may be possible to head off this degeneration — giving us an opportunity to revive the little gland that’s key to a lifetime of good health…

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Fatty thymus reflects aging of the immune system

The SCAPIS study (Swedish cardiopulmonary bioimage study) examined CT scans of the thymus gland in 1,000 Swedish individuals aged 50 to 64.

At the same time, they analyzed cells in their blood and saw that individuals with fatty degeneration of the thymus showed lower T-cell regeneration.

Dr. Mårten Sandstedt of the Department of Medicine and Health Sciences at Linköping University described certain conditions that made fatty degeneration of the thymus more likely to occur — and they’re the same factors that lead to fat in other areas of the body…

“We saw a huge variation in thymus appearance,” he says. “Six out of ten participants had complete fatty degeneration of thymus, which was much more common in men than in women, and in people with abdominal obesity.

“Lifestyle also mattered. Low intake of fibers in particular was associated with fatty degeneration of thymus.”

Professor Lena Jonasson of the Department of Medicine and Health Sciences at Linköping University, says that this finding presents an opportunity to support our thymus before it’s too late.

“This association with T-cell regeneration is interesting. It indicates that what we see in CT scans is not only an image, it actually also reflects the functionality of the thymus.

“You can’t do anything about your age and your sex, but lifestyle-related factors can be influenced. It might be possible to influence immune system aging,” she says.

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Slim down your thymus

Clearly, adding some fiber to your diet can only help your immune system. It can also support your health in a multitude of other ways — but most importantly it can help you avoid the abdominal fat associated with a fatty thymus.

One study showed that for every 10 additional grams of fiber people eat, their visceral fat (the type that collects deep within the belly) shrinks. 

There are a few other things you can do to support an aging thymus so hopefully, it can keep supporting your immune system…

• Get more antioxidants. One study found that antioxidants — including vitamin C — can protect the thymus from free radical damage and some of that age-related thymus shrinkage.
• Reduce wheat in your diet. Research has shown that a chemical in wheat called wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) contributes to thymus shrinkage.
• Supplement zinc. It’s the most important mineral your thymus needs. Correcting a zinc deficiency may prompt the thymus to grow and start generating T cells again.
• Avoid artificial sweeteners. Studies have found artificial sweeteners like sucralose shrink the thymus gland in rats.
• Try tapping. Tapping your chest over your thymus gland may stimulate a sluggish immune system. Try tapping the center of your chest, below your collarbone, for 15 to 20 seconds a few times a day. Hum as you do for even better results.

Sources:

Immune system aging can be revealed by CT scan — Science Daily

Complete fatty degeneration of thymus associates with male sex, obesity and loss of circulating naïve CD8+ T cells in a Swedish middle-aged population — Immunity & Ageing

How the immune system’s key organ regenerates itself — Medical Express

The post Scans revealed how to slow immune system aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Perhaps because, until recently, most experts believed the thymus’ contributions to our immune health occurred in the womb and didn’t extend into adulthood.

But investigators have found that theory to be incorrect. A recent study revealed the thymus continues to produce and release powerful immune cells to help fight infection and disease as we age.

Unfortunately, when we grow older, the thymus begins to shrink and fold in on itself. By the time we hit the age of 65, the thymus often is unable to produce any new T cells.

This deterioration of the thymus has made medical professionals believe we can live just fine without it. However, they weren’t just wrong — they were dead wrong…

Thymectomy can increase premature death and cancer risk

Often during cardiothoracic surgery, the thymus is removed in a procedure known as incidental thymectomy. That’s because the small gland is inconveniently located in front of the heart, and since convention held it was inconsequential, it made sense to surgeons just to get it out of the way.

But, thankfully, a team of researchers decided to look deeper…

They set out to compare patients who had nonlaparoscopic cardiac surgery with thymectomy at Massachusetts General Hospital from January 1993 to March 2020 against patients who had the same cardiac surgery but left the operating room with their thymus intact.

First, they excluded patients who died within 90 days after the procedure or who had cardiac surgery within 5 years after the procedure, as well as patients who had heart failure before the surgery.

Then, of those patients left, researchers did blood tests of a subset of both groups of patients to measure their T cell production and plasma cytokine levels. They found that thymectomy patients:

• Had reduced production of newly formed T cells compared with the control group.
• They also had more than 10 times the level of inflammatory cytokines. You may remember hearing about cytokines during the pandemic and how they contribute to dangerous inflammation.

They also found that the rate of autoimmune disease was 12.3 percent after thymectomy compared with 7.9 percent in those who did not have their thyroid removed.

But that wasn’t the most shocking finding…

Results showed adults who had their thymus removed had at least double the risk of all-cause mortality and cancer at 5 years post-surgery compared with those without thymectomy.

The study also compared the thymectomy patients to the general population and found all-cause mortality and death from cancer were both higher in the thymectomy patients.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Naomi Taylor of the National Cancer Institute Pediatric Oncology Branch called the research a “landmark” study that strongly argues against total thymectomy in cardiothoracic surgery if it can be avoided.

The researchers cautioned that because of the retrospective and observational study design, causality of the findings could not be determined. However, the evidence of an association between thymectomy and adverse outcomes strongly suggests that when possible, preserving the thymus should be a clinical priority.

Nourishing your existing T cells

If you still have your thymus, there’s a lot you can do to support its continued health even as you get older. I’ve listed some of the steps here.

However, if you’ve had your thymus removed, you may want to take action to supercharge the T cells you already have.

• Make sure your diet has plenty of selenium, a trace mineral that studies show helps increase the effectiveness of T cells.
• You may also want to try cat’s claw, a plant native to South America that may turn on T cells.
• You can energize your T cells by getting 10 to 20 minutes of daily sunlight, preferably around midday. One study indicates sunlight directly activates key immune cells by increasing their movement.
• Lastly, get adequate vitamin D. Even with daily sunlight, our skin doesn’t synthesize vitamin D as well as we get old—so you may need to take a supplement. A study in the journal Nature Immunology reported that vitamin D can increase T-cell responsiveness by 750 percent.

Sources:

Routinely Removed Organ Linked to Increased Mortality, Cancer Risk — MedPage Today

Health Consequences of Thymus Removal in Adults — The New England Journal of Medicine

The post The consequences of removing the thymus (and why doctors routinely do) appeared first on Easy Health Options®.