Immune Repair as a Stress Response: The Hidden Energy Cost

Just like Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)—alarm, resistance, exhaustion—the immune system follows a similar arc:

⚔️ Alarm = Defense (inflammation, immune activation)

🛠️ Resistance = Repair (tissue rebuilding, resolution)

💥 Exhaustion = Dysfunction (chronic inflammation, fibrosis, immune fatigue)

📄 In "Immune-Mediated Repair: A Matter of Plasticity" (Laurent et al., 2017), researchers show how immune cells like macrophages & neutrophils adaptively switch roles—from killers to healers to resolvers.

But here’s the catch:

🔋 All of it burns energy and metabolic resources.

🧃 These processes are bioenergetically expensive—requiring metabolic reserves, mitochondrial function, and nutrient support.

✅ With enough energy and resources: you get hormesis → adaptive, resilient healing.

❌ In energy and resources deficit: you get maladaptation → chronic wounds, fibrosis, immune dysregulation.

👉 Recovery isn’t passive—it’s an active, energy-intensive phase.

Support the system that rebuilds you.

Laurent, P., Jolivel, V., Manicki, P., Chiu, L., Contin-Bordes, C., Truchetet, M.-E., & Pradeu, T. (2017). Immune-mediated repair: A matter of plasticity. Frontiers in Immunology, 8, 454. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00454

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