StemCell Therapy

Some people are claiming that wearing a mask weakens the immune system. This claim is false.

As several U.S. states try to enforce the wearing of face-coverings in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus, some people are desperately grasping for reasons why they should not have to wear one. I debunked a recent one claiming masks could give you carbon dioxide poisoning here, but another one doing the rounds via social media on memes, tweets and Facebook posts is a claim that wearing a mask will lower the immune system.

One argument against wearing masks based on this hypothesis, appears to be that they will stop microbes from coming in to the body and challenging the immune system, resulting in it getting lazy and reducing the chance of it being able to respond to infections. This firstly assumes that mask-wearing stops all microbes from entering the body, it does not, far from it.

Lets start with face coverings and what they likely do or do not do. Face coverings or fabric masks worn by the vast majority of people, largely will not stop that person from breathing in infectious particles. And this is not the reason why mask wearing has been recommended in many places. The CDC recommends that people wear home-made, non medical masks to limit the amount of droplets that are being released from noses and mouths into the surrounding air. The theory is that the droplets could contain SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19, even if people are not sick and that limiting the spread of these droplets will reduce the chance of transmitting them to others.

The hope is that the fabric of the mask will likely absorb some of the exhaled droplets and stop them from being in the air, ready to be inhaled by other people. The same may be partly true for breathing in the droplets of others, with the mask potentially catching some of these droplets before they are breathed in by the wearer. But the extent to which this happens depends on a number of variables, for example what the mask is made of and how tightly it fits around the mouth and nose. What we can be more sure of is that those wearing these facial coverings are likely helping to protect others, but not necessarily themselves.

An exception to this is N95 masks which if fitted and worn correctly to create a complete seal around the nose and mouth, should filter out virus-containing particles. Healthcare workers dealing with Covid-19 patients often wear these, but only after being appropriately fit-tested (see video below for how this works) to ensure they work. They are often incredibly uncomfortable for prolonged use and arent recommended for members of the public.

The masks weaken the immune system theory also assumes that there is no other way that microbes can enter the body other than by inhaling them. Well, unless you neither eat or drink, which will certainly eventually kill you, Im afraid thats not the case. Most food, for example, unless made under exceptionally clean conditions or sterilized, contains some microbes. An apple, for example can contain up to 100 million bacteria, most of them being inside the fruit. The same is true for both tap water and bottled water, the latter which can have even more bacteria in it. Many people do also not religiously wash their hands before eating, transferring a ton of microbes from their environment, directly into their bodies. A ten second kiss with your significant other will also transfer 80 million bacteria from one mouth to another.

It is also a little confusing how many people who believe their masks are so good that they will stop all microbes from entering the body and affect the immune system also argue that masks wont protect them from SARS-CoV2. These two things are contradictory and not resolvable with each other.

We already live with billions of microbes, all over the outside of your body and much of our insides too. Many of these microbes are actually vital for good health and microbiome research is a hot topic of investigation right now, particularly the gut microbiome, with scientists investigating its role in numerous diseases from depression, to multiple sclerosis and colorectal cancer. Many of these normal microbes are beneficial to health, but not all and it would appear that how all of these microbial species interact and are balanced with each other is key to understanding the microbiome, as is how the immune system interacts with them.

Not only do we live comfortably with microbes insides of us and on us, our immune systems get primed all throughout our lives and start developing even before birth. Upon birth, babies start to encounter microbes from the outside world, or even from the vaginal canal, with their immune systems starting to be challenged and this process continues throughout life, with individuals developing a complex range of immune cells and proteins, ready to respond to many different types of pathogenic microbes including viruses, bacteria and fungi. For many people, this process continues uninterrupted throughout life, but for some the immune system takes a hit for very good reason.

Children with leukemia (of which I was one aged 7), for example, get intensive chemotherapy with a cocktail of drugs to attempt to completely wipe out any cancerous cells in their blood and bone marrow. Unfortunately, this process does not discriminate between healthy immune cells and cancerous blood cells, therefore children with leukemia do experience suppression of their immune systems and have a severely reduced ability to fight off some infections. For certain periods of time, healthcare staff and family members need to be exceptionally careful to not transmit any infections to children on treatment, either via contact, exposure to pathogens outside of the house or hospital or via food.

But, the immune systems of these children quickly recover after treatment and exposure to pathogens again. I now have a perfectly healthy immune system, even after it was practically obliterated to get rid of my cancer over 20 years ago. So, the concept that wearing a non-sealing mask for small amounts of time whilst grabbing coffee or running errands, is going to affect your immune system in any notable way, is completely bunk to the point of being a little ridiculous and is categorically untrue.

See the original post here:
Wearing A Mask To Protect Against Covid-19 Coronavirus Will Not Weaken Your Immune System - Forbes

This entry was posted on May 18, 2020 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Immune System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |