Whether you are trying to control pneumonia, leukemia, herpes, shingles, diabetes, flu, indigestion, cancer, or fungus under your nails, all disease and illness in their various manifestations are a result of the failure of the immune system.

In the microscopic world, since the human body is surrounded by toxic gases, free radicals, damaging radiation, bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other sources of harm, it is no wonder that building and maintaining a strong, healthy immune system, should be second to none in any of our lives.

You can think of your immune system as an army of millions of microscopic soldiers patrolling your body, working to prevent illness by fighting any invading germs.

These "soldiers" are white blood cells, and how you "treat" and "feed" them has a large influence on how well they boost your immune system and protect you from microorganisms, infection, and disease.

How do you treat your immune system so that it'll work well for you? By following basic healthy patterns! In fact, many health recommendations you may have heard, such as eating a varied and balanced diet and exercising regularly, all help boost immunity.

Studies have linked a number of foods and nutrients to the strengthening of the immune system:

vitamin C (citrus fruit, broccoli), vitamin E (nuts, vegetable oils, and whole grains), garlic (also a natural antibiotic), zinc (beef, turkey, beans, oysters, crab), bioflavenoids (fruits and vegetables), selenium (chicken, whole grains, tuna, red snapper, lobster, shrimp, garlic, egg yolks, sunflower seeds, brown rice), carotenoids (carrots, yams), omega-3 fatty acids (nuts, salmon, tuna, mackerel, flaxseed oil).

In simplest terms, the immune system is a balanced network of cells and organs that work together to defend you against disease. It blocks foreign proteins from getting into your body.

If a few happen to sneak by your biological sentry, not to worry. With a powerful "search and destroy" task force, your body deploys a host of additional immune cell forces designed to hunt down these unwanted invaders and ultimately works to destroy them.

The human body is gifted with the ability to keep itself free from disease-causing invaders. Unlike the organ systems in your body, the immune system has no major organs of its own. It is composed of individual microscopic cells and molecules that have widespread access to every nook and cranny of the body.

You and a friend step into a crowded elevator and immediately notice two people coughing and sneezing up a storm. Within a couple of days you come down with a bad cold and blame it on that elevator ride. Yet your friend, exposed to the same germs at the same time, remains perfectly healthy. What made the difference? The power of your immune system!

Your immune system is a network that can help us avoid illness, or sometimes become the underlying reason we get sick. The strength of our immune system is what makes the difference between who gets sick and who doesn't. The one with the immune system functioning below base-line normal has an increased risk of getting sick.