When the Antibodies go Haywire, the Process of Death Begins

   Perhaps death begins the moment our immune system starts attacking us, instead of attacking the viruses, diseases and maladies that also can kill us. One wonders if the secret to living forever is as simple as keeping our immune system in check.
  See, we have these little protein cells. They're called antibodies. They run around tagging all the infected cells, so the rest of the immune system can come around and attack those infected cells.
   But, what happens if the antibodies get a little mixed up, and don't recognize the infected cells, and don't tag them for destruction? Or, worse, what if the antibodies start tagging good cells, instead of infected ones?
   The minute the antibodies fail in their duty, is the minute death begins, I would guess. Sometimes, the antibodies might start going haywire even in a newborn baby, and we have what are called childhood diseases. As life goes on, more and more antibody failures start to pile up. Some people's antibodies fail in one way, and others fail in other ways. But, it is all a march toward death, the same.
   I wonder if hope against all this was born Dec. 3, 1967, in Cape Town, South Africa, when Dr. Chris Barnard successfully transplanted a heart into the chest of Louis Washkansky. Washkansky would only live another 18 days, when his immune system would again fail him,  and he died of pneumonia. But, what allowed him to live for the short time he did?
   Medications.
   When a patient receives a new heart, it is foreign to the heart, and the immune system attacks it. It is only by giving the patient drugs that stop that process, and get the immune system to accept the new heart, that allows the patient to accept the new heart.
   It would seem if we can find a medicine that persuades the body to accept the cells of foreign organ, we should be able to find a medicine that talks the antibodies into not tagging our own cells for destruction. One almost wonders if finding medicines to do this is the answer to life, itself. Okay, I don't almost wonder, I wonder.