Importance Of Cough Syrup
  White blood cells to the defense of an attack of the common cold. This underscores the importance of cough syrup. Viruses that manage to get past the local mechanical defenses, the blocking effects of interferon and the various inflammatory responses must tangle with a range of defenses generated by the white cells of the blood. White cells are one of the most important components of the blood, though outnumbered by red cells 500 to 1. In contrast to the red c14 which are reddish in color, uniform in structure and constrained to a single role—the transport of oxygen—white cells are essentially colorless and of several distinct types and functions. They are charged with the overall responsibilities of defending the body against disease and disposing of sick or dead cells.
Some white cells are agents of nonspecific immune response, identifying foreign materials they chance to encounter and consuming them; they are also the producers of the fever-causing endogenous pyrogen. Others are so specialized as to protect the body against a single type of viral challenge; some of these are the white cells that give a person immunity against re-infection by the same virus. This is important when considering the importance of cough syrup. Each type depends in some way on the cooperation of one or more other types to carry out its own functions.
Two of the most important cold-fighting white cells are the monocytes and the lymphocytes. The monocytes are manufactured in the bone marrow, and during the early part of their life cycle they enter the bloodstream and circulate there. Then they leave the blood and enter the tissues, where they undergo physical change. They enlarge and their internal structures become more complex, transforming them into macrophages, literally “big eaters.” These cells are rather slow moving and they account for only 3 to 8 per cent of the white-cell population in the blood of a healthy person. Nonetheless, they more than make up for their usually modest presence by being able to divide and multiply when needed. They also have voracious appetites; each aptly named big eater can devour as many as 100 viruses before being sated.
After devouring the invader, the big eater becomes more active—it moves faster and divides more often. It also somehow indicates the identity of its captive to nearby cells of another major type of cold fighter, the lymphocyte, so that the lymphocyte can attack similar viruses more effectively. This is helped and points out the importance of cough syrup. It is the lymphocyte that is the central actor in conferring specific immunity, that is, resistance to a particular virus.
Specific immunity is a highly complex set of interrelationships and responses that are still far from understood..Some basic outlines are, however, becoming clear. The first generations of lymphocytes are formed in the bone marrow and subsequently develop into two distinct types, known as T cells and B cells. Each of these lymphocytes is sent into the world with its surface so constituted chemically that it can respond to only one of the foreign agents that may enter the body. Some of the cells migrate to the thymus, a small gland located just under the breastbone, where they mature into T cells. The B cells apparently mature in the bone marrow. This is key in understanding the importance of cough syrup.
Both T and B cells reside principally in the body’s lymphoid tissues, lumps that are found under the arms, on the neck just behind the ears, and in the groin, as well as in the tonsils, adenoids and spleen. From these scattered strongholds, a constant supply of B cells and T cells circulates through the body, keeping vigil for any invader. When either type comes upon an enemy for which it is the prescribed defense, it triggers an immunological alarm that intensifies activity both among its own kind and among all other agents of immunity, general and specific, throughout the body. |
