Give us this day our daily germs

✍ Scribed by Graham A.W. Rook; John L. Stanford

• Book ID: 104299078
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 491 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-5699
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-5699(98)80008-x

✦ Synopsis

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ecent newspaper articles reveal that there are now people, particularly in the USA, who are so obsessed with the concept of 'germs' that they will no longer touch the hand rails in subway stations. These individuals believe that they are protecting their health, but they are probably wrong. In order to function correctly, the immune system, like the brain, must learn from the environment.

There are many similarities between the immune system and the brain. They share many of the same mediators and receptors, although one obvious difference is their overall organization. The active cellular components of the brain are located in one site, and are 'wired' to each other, whereas