Resistance is a natural immunity to certain noxious agents and usually exists since birth. Resistance can be species-specific or individual and makes the individual resistant to certain substances. Meanwhile, some of the most common resistances are insulin resistance and antibiotic resistance.
What is resistance?
Resistance is a natural immunity to certain noxious agents and usually exists since birth. Substances or events that have harmful effects on an organism are called noxious agents. Thus, noxae include a wide variety of causes of disease, such as biological, psychosocial, chemical, and physical. The resistance to a certain noxious agent or a certain external negative influence is called resistance in medicine. In a broad sense, resistance can also mean the ineffectiveness of endogenous hormones or certain drugs. Resistance is often congenital. However, in the case of drugs and hormones in particular, they can also be acquired. An example of acquired hormonal resistance is insulin resistance as a result of poor nutrition. In a narrower sense, resistance is natural immunity, which in turn is equivalent to insensitivity or insusceptibility to external attack, and thus to the ability to eliminate certain pathogens without symptoms. Distinct from resistance as natural immunity is adaptive immunity, which corresponds to passively transmitted or actively acquired defenses against certain negative influences. Forms of innate and acquired immunity include antiinfectious, antitoxic, and nonspecific immunity.
Function and task
Humans are immune to various noxious agents. This phenomenon is referred to as nonspecific immunity or nonspecific natural resistance. Such natural resistance is present, for example, in the case of the noncommunicability of foot-and-mouth disease or swine fever to humans. In the case of foot-and-mouth disease, this non-transmissibility is due to physical and biological protective mechanisms such as the skin or mucosal barrier, which are specific to humans. Resistance as natural immunity is genetically determined and, in addition to biological protective mechanisms, may correspond, for example, to the presence of natural antibodies that are present without prior contact with the pathogenic germ or contaminant in question. As innate immunity, resistance exists since birth and, in the case of anti-infective resistance, is achieved through contact with maternal antibodies via the placenta. In addition to anti-infective and antitoxic immunity to certain noxious agents, resistance can also mean resistance to certain weather conditions such as drought, cold, and heat, or to harmful organisms such as parasites, bacteria, or fungi. Resistance can also be to antimicrobial agents such as antibiotics or toxic heavy metals and radiation. Although resistances are always anchored in the hereditary makeup, they can be influenced by environmental factors such as diet. Resistance is either active or passive. So-called passive resistance factors refer to chemical, mechanical or thermal barriers that prevent a certain harmful factor from taking effect. Active resistance corresponds to certain defenses triggered by exposure to a particular noxious agent. Resistance plays a medical role not only in relation to humans. Resistance of viruses, fungi, or other microorganisms can be equally relevant.
Diseases and ailments
Insulin resistance, which is a symptom of diabetes, has become a common disease. Insulin resistance corresponds to decreased or completely abolished action of the hormone insulin within peripheral tissues. The mechanisms behind insulin resistance are the subject of current research and are not yet conclusively understood. Current medicine assumes a genetic disposition as the basis. In insulin resistance, the insulin present in the blood increases. At the same time, insulin has only a reduced effect, which ultimately results in type 2 diabetes mellitus. A causal therapy for treatment does not yet exist. However, physical exercise improves glucose uptake and is therefore part of the basic therapy.In addition to insulin resistance, various resistances are common. One of the most significant in the 21st century is antibiotic resistance. Bacterial infections are usually effectively treated with antibiotics. Since poultry or pork in particular are often treated preventively with high amounts of antibiotics and humans consume a lot of them in the 21st century, resistance to antimicrobial drugs is developing more and more frequently with consumption. An increase in resistance to antibiotics renders the drugs ineffective. As a result, patients can sometimes no longer be treated adequately for infectious diseases. In extreme cases, antibiotic resistance can threaten the life of the affected person, as the drug is one of the few treatment options for certain infections. In addition to human resistance such as insulin resistance or antibiotic resistance, resistance of microorganisms or cells can also cause discomfort or problems when treated with a particular drug. Staphylococcus aureus, for example, is the most common pathogen causing hospital-acquired infections. Some strains of the pathogen possess epidemic virulence in the sense of an extreme ability to spread, as they have an inherent resistance to antibiotics and are thus difficult to combat. Pathogen strains regularly develop resistance to the therapeutic agents with which they were combated in the past. Similar phenomena are known from cancer therapy. For example, when cancer patients are treated with cytostatics, the effect of the drugs often diminishes over time. This is due to the resistance that cancer cells develop during therapy. Cytostatic-resistant cancer cells no longer respond to therapy with apoptosis, but continue to exist damaged or, in the case of absolute resistance, are even protected from damage.
