THE GUARDIAN: The secrets of people who never get sick

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Meanwhile, for doctors and immunologists, the notion of superhuman health remains at best unproven and at worst a fiction. This is because of the highly individual and complex nature of our immune systems, which are almost as specific to each of us as our fingerprints. “Some of us inherit a set of immune system genes that are particularly good at dealing with one particular virus,” explains Daniel Davis, professor of immunology at the University of Manchester and author of The Compatibility Gene, which explores how immune system genes shape our biology. “But that is not to say that you or I would have a better or worse immune system. All it means is that you would deal with a particular flu virus better than me. There is an inherent diversity in how our immune systems respond to different diseases and that diversity is essential to how our species survives disease.”

Much of this diversity comes down to our inherited genetic makeup. “The greatest diversity in all of the 25,000 genes that make up the human genome is in our few immune system genes,” Davis explains. “That means that the genes that vary most between us all are the ones that influence the immune system.”

 

This unparalleled diversity makes generalisations about stronger or weaker immune systems meaningless. It also throws into question the benefits of all the products out there claiming to boost our immunity; antioxidants, vitamin C, hot lemon and ginger tea, garlic, echinacea, or wheatgrass. Do any of them work?

“The bottom line is that we simply don’t know,” Davis says.