Helper T lymphocytes are the hub of operations, serving as both intelligence officers and battle commanders, communicating to and enabling other white cells of the immune system to perform their various combat tasks. The helper T cell commanders, armed with the intelligence information gathered by the scouts, can now recognize these foreign antigens and decide what lymphokines to secrete. Under helper T cell direction, cytotoxic T cells, NK cells, macrophages, and B cells all perform their various combat tasks. Technically, however, antibodies are not separate since B cells also depend upon communications from helper T cells to perform their task of producing antigen-specific antibodies. Another factor that diminishes their separateness is the fact that when these antibodies bind to or coat foreign agents they make it possible for some components of the cellular immunity system to function effectively.
Nothing serves as diligently in the war against disease as the skin that covers our bodies.
The central and autonomic nervous systems communicate directly with the organs of the immune system. Therefore, what we think and feel and believe has a powerful ability to affect the function and size of the thymus gland, lymphocyte counts and ratios, lymphocyte function, and lymphokines and antibody secretions. There are a multitude of studies that have clearly demonstrated that stress, personality, attitude and emotion are causative factors in many disease. Reaction to stress is entirely individual, reinforcing the fact that people and animals differ significantly in their perception and response to various events. The variations in response help account for the wide diversity of stress-induced illnesses.