The surprising reason you feel awful when you're sick - Marco A. Sotomayor
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-surprising-reason-you-feel-awful-when-you-re-sick-marco-a-sotomayor It starts with a tickle in your throat that becomes a cough. Your muscles...
========== It starts with a tickle in your throat
that becomes a cough. Your muscles begin to ache, you grow irritable, and you lose your appetite. It's official: you've got the flu. It's logical to assume that this
miserable medley of symptoms is the result of the infection
coursing through your body, but is that really the case? What's actually making you feel sick? What if your body itself
was driving this vicious onslaught? You first get ill when a pathogen
like the flu virus gets into your system, infecting and killing your cells. But this unwelcome intrusion
has another effect: it alerts your body's immune system
to your plight. As soon as it becomes aware of infection,
your body leaps to your defense. Cells called macrophages charge in...