Key to Immunity - "Stimulate the Phagocytes"
Our bodies are home to many of these microscopic, silent sentinels that continuously patrol every part of our anatomy, without them we would not survive and Autohemotherapy (AHT) helps to maintain healthy numbers of them.
This video shows a phagocytic cell (meaning to “eat” or “devour”) known as a Dendritic cell engulfing fungal spores. Dendritic cells are found in those tissues that are in contact with the external environment, such as the skin and the inner lining of the nose, lungs, stomach and intestines.
Phagocytes include many types of white blood cells such as neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, mast cells, and dendritic cells. All these cells are produced by the bone marrow. These cells are part of the Mononuclear Phagocytic System (MPS) which is a part of the immune system that consists of phagocytic cells located in reticular connective tissue at strategic points in the body where microbial invasion or accumulation of foreign particles is likely to occur. They are essential for fighting infections with subsequent immunity and wound healing.
Of these phagocytic cells, monocytes circulate in the bloodstream for about 1-3 days and then move into tissues throughout the body where they change or differentiate into macrophages. Human macrophages are about 21 micrometres (0.00083 in) in diameter. Macrophages (meaning "big eaters") have the capability to move through tissues by producing pseudopods (meaning "false feet"). A pseudopod or pseudopodium is a temporary arm-like projection of the cell membrane that are developed in the direction of movement. This amoeboid action is the most common mode of locomotion in eukaryotic cells. It is a crawling-like type of movement accomplished by protrusion of cytoplasm of the cell involving the formation of pseudopodia. See video.
Recent work has shown that the size of tissue macrophage populations has an impact on tissue functions and is determined by the balance between replenishment and elimination. Tissue-resident macrophages are long lived and replenishment is mainly due to self-renewal, with a secondary contribution from blood monocytes. The available data suggest that developing and maintaining appropriately sized and physiologically beneficial tissue-resident macrophage pools has an impact on health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6115929/
Élie Metchnikoff, who won the Nobel Prize 100 years ago for his description of phagocytosis, proposed that the key to immunity was to “stimulate the phagocytes”.
Autohemotherapy does just that, it stimulates the phagocytic cell known as the macrophage and helps maintain optimal tissue-resident macrophage pools.
A study done in Brazil in 2015 showed an increase of 17% - 250% in monocytes in the blood 24 hrs after a 10 ml injection of autologous blood gluteus maximus muscle and was concluded that autohemotherapy is a factor of increased immunity of the body. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20153412180
So many drugs today affect an individual’s white blood cell count reducing them in numbers and effectiveness. How many times do you hear “may cause infection” as a side effect of these drugs and that is just one negative side effect! Autohemotherapy has no negative side effects only positive ones.
Obviously more randomized clinical trials need to be done but the problem here is who is going to fund them? Certainly not the pharmaceutical companies! There is no money to be made with AHT. It may be just up to us to prove the beneficial properties of Autohemotherapy.
(Video: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:S6-Dendritic_Cells_with_Conidia_in_Collagen.ogg
I have no rights to this video just reuploading for educational purposes. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
Author: Judith Behnsen, Priyanka Narang, Mike Hasenberg, Frank Gunzer, Ursula Bilitewski, Nina Klippel, Manfred Rohde, Matthias Brock, Axel A. Brakhage, Matthias Gunzer)