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DISGUST: YOUR BEHAVIORAL IMMUNE SYSTEM
How do we avoid getting sick in a world full of bacteria, viruses, and other deadly pathogens? We have evolved a subsystem within our immune system that functions as our very first line of defense against pathogens. This primary subsystem is called the “behavioral immune system”. This behavioral immune subsystem’s methods of defense against pathogens can be described up in one word….disgust.
ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES: YOUR BODY'S HOMELAND SECURITY
How do we survive infections when some types of bacteria can double their population as quickly as a run of a sitcom episode (twenty minutes) while our adaptive immune system takes a few days to produce antibodies and T cells in our defense? What defenses does our body use in the meantime to keep the infection under control?