york | against | cancer
How our body fights to keep us
healthy
And how we can help it!
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
How the body becomes ill
The body can become ill because of –
a. Bacteria
b. Viruses
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
What can bacteria cause if they
get into the body?
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Stomach ache
Tooth decay
Spots
Infected cuts
Food poisoning
Cholera
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
What can viruses cause if they
get into the body?
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Chicken pox
Colds
Measles
Mumps
Whooping cough
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Common cold virus
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
What happens when microbes gets
past the first line of defence
• The body constantly makes defence cells to fight
microbes. It keeps a store of them
• It makes many different kinds of defence cells to
cope with all the different kinds of microbes and
the different ways they can attack the body some can be very sneaky!*
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Let’s look at three of the defence cells
• Neutrophils – found in the blood stream. They
are on the look out for microbes. When they find
them they release chemicals that kill the germs
but they die also – not to worry as the body
makes about 5 thousand million every hour!!
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Different kinds of defence cells
• Macrophages – they capture and eat the microbes,
they also clean up any dust and dirt that gets into our
body through breathing. Therefore there are lots of
them to be found in the lungs.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Macrophage
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Different kinds of defence cells
• Some defender cells make antibodies* that
stick to microbes and which Neutrophils and
Macrophages are now able to remove.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
The Immune System
• All the defender cells are part of our Immune
System.
• Sometimes though, the immune system needs
help and that is when the doctor may
prescribe an antibiotic. Antibiotics can only kill
bacteria they cannot kill viruses.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Video on the Immune System
• www.kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_
set=59296&cat_id=20607
• www.kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/htbw_main_page.htm
l
click on the immune cells
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
What we can do to prevent getting infected by bacteria
and viruses
• Hygiene - Wash hands, use a tissue etc
• Eat healthy food to keep defender cells fighting fit
and help good bacteria in the body
• Eat good bacteria
• Exercise to help remove waste from body and keep
lymph flowing
• Vaccinations
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
Vaccinations
york | against | cancer
• Scientists* found a way to protect us against some of the
diseases that can make us ill
• It all began with a doctor called Edward Jenner….
• The vaccinations have a weak form of the virus.
• When injected into our body it makes our white blood cells
react as if the virus is still dangerous and makes antibodies
• The virus is too weak to make us ill but now we have
antibodies ready so if the original measles virus gets into our
body we already have the weapon to attack it straight away
and so we do not get ill or only feel mildly unwell
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
Good bacteria
york | against | cancer
Not all bacteria hurt us some help us, some live in our
intestines they help by;
• Making a waste product that we need and
can use e.g. vitamins – Biotin, Folic Acid,
Vit B12
• Making Vitamin K which helps the blood to
clot
• Strengthening our immune system to fight
the bad germs – or even directly attacking
and digesting some of the bad germs in the
gut
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Where do the good bacteria come
from?
They are all around us
• Raw foods e.g. on skins of grapes
• In live Probiotic yoghurts and yoghurt drinks
like Yakhult
• Passed from mum to baby
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
What we can do to increase the
good bacteria?
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Eat them – through live yoghurts etc
Dried form in capsules
Feed them by eating -
- Whole oats and other whole grains
- Fresh vegetables e.g.wheatgrass to chicory, cabbage,
onions, leeks and asparagus
- Pumpkin, sunflower and other seeds;
- Lignans in liquids like olive oil and aloe vera.
- Fresh and dried fruits like bananas and apricots.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Allergies
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Sometimes the defender cells get it wrong
• When this happens it can trigger hay fever or
asthma - difficulty breathing properly,
sneezing, itchy eyes, etc.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6
york | against | cancer
Why this happens
• When pollen, dust, cats and dogs skin cells are
breathed in some people’s defender cells think
these are harmful and make antibodies that stick
onto defender cells called Basophils.
• When next time any of these things are breathed
in by a person whose Basophils contain an
antibody specific for one of them then the
Basophils explode as they meets the pollen grains
and release cell-destroying chemicals that make
you have the symptoms of hay fever.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
Year 6