Your immune system gets worse at fighting new threats and worse at stopping old ones — and there is something you can do about it

Immunosenescence is characterised by thymic involution (the thymus shrinks progressively from puberty and is largely fatty tissue by age 75), reduced naïve T-cell output, accumulation of exhausted and senescent immune cells, and dysregulation of the cytokine environment. Older adults have significantly lower antibody responses to flu and COVID vaccines, impaired immune surveillance of nascent cancer cells, and chronic inflammageing driven by persistently activated but ineffective immune cells.

What Slows Immunosenescence

• Regular aerobic exercise — the most robustly supported intervention for maintaining immune function with age
• Adequate sleep — NK cell activity and vaccine antibody responses both improve with optimised sleep
• Zinc and vitamin D adequacy — rate-limiting nutrients for T-cell and B-cell function
• Avoiding chronic psychological stress — cortisol directly suppresses T-cell activity and NK cell function