Author Archives: Julie Brown

Recall from last week that our immune system has two main divisions – the innate and the adaptive.  The innate immune system is our first line of defence against pathogens.  It includes physical barriers, chemical signals and cellular actions. The skin and mucosal membranes of the respiratory, digestive and urogenital systems form the first line of defense against pathogens (bacteria,Continue reading “The Innate Immune System”

While a change to school cleaning practices was warranted in the covid era, what we use to disinfect matters. Not all disinfectants are equal, especially when it comes to health. Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (quats) are a category of chemicals that have long been ‘generally considered as safe’ (GRAS). Over the past decade, research has emergedContinue reading “Disinfectants, Health & Our Schools”

Let’s begin with a high level overview of our immune system. Our immune system has two main divisions – the innate system, and the adaptive system. The innate immune system responds immediately to the presence of an antigen (piece of a pathogen) is non-specific and doesn’t require a prior memory. This includes our barriers (skinContinue reading “Immune Health 101: Context Matters”