Question: What are the factors that affect immune system?

Helena Fisk answered on 16 Jun 2020:

Our genes, sex, ethnicity, age, and lifestyle can affect our immune system.
We may be born with a susceptibility to particular diseases or with a weakened immune system due to our genes, or be more susceptible to certain diseases due to our sex (e.g. women are more susceptible to having autoimmune diseases) or ethnicity (e.g. sickle cell anaemia is most common in those of African, African-America, and Mediterranean heritage).
Our immune system can worsen as we get older (elderly people are more susceptible to getting infections and viruses like the flu due to this) and due to the choices we make in our lives.
Our diet, exercise, whether we drink a lot of alcohol, smoke, how much sleep we get, and stress can all affect our genes and our immune system.
Pregnancy can also affect the immune system to help ensure a successful pregnancy but it does mean the immune system in general is weakened which is why pregnant women are offered flu vaccinations as they are more susceptible to getting this.

http://www.interactive-immunity.net/

Above is a link to an interactive free immunology book you can download, and a game too if this is of any interest 🙂