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Nutrition, Longevity, and Integrity of the Immune System

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Aging, Immunity, and Infection

Part of the book series: Infectious Disease ((ID))

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Abstract

In his masterpiece, Thales to Dewey (1), the philosopher, Gordon H. Clark, wrote the following in a discussion of epistemology: “knowledge is explanation, and to explain a matter is to state its cause.” If that be true (not relatively, of course), then we know very little about the fascinating effects of dietary manipulation on longevity and on immune capabilities. We are able to describe the effects but not to explain them.

It is one thing to ask whether we should increase people’s life span, and to answer no; it is quite another to ask whether we should make people immune to heart disease, cancer, dementia, and to decide that we should not. It might thus be appropriate to think of ‘immortality’ as the, possibly unwanted, side effect of treating or preventing debilitating illness.

—John Harris, “Intimations of Immortality,” Science 2000;288:59

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA

    Joseph F. Albright PhD & Julia W. Albright PhD

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© 2003 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Albright, J.F., Albright, J.W. (2003). Nutrition, Longevity, and Integrity of the Immune System. In: Aging, Immunity, and Infection. Infectious Disease. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-402-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-402-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-9787-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-402-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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