Should I submit my immune system to medical research?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I will be turning 49 on May 17. The last time I was sick with anything worse than a cold was … 1987 or '88, when I caught chicken pox at the age of 21. I was working as a shoe salesman at Kinney Shoes, so I probably picked it up from some kid whose shoes I was fitting. I missed two weeks of work because of it. But … like I said, I haven’t been sick with anything worse than the common cold since then (not counting hangovers). Seriously, I haven’t missed a day of work in the last 28 years.

OTOH, I recently underwent a bit of medical illness … “abscessed tooth”. At least that’s what I think it was. My very back molar (the one behind the molar I already had removed) started hurting, and the next thing I knew, my legs felt funny, and I felt tired all the time, and I didn’t feel like eating. In fact, I felt hungover all the time though that might be due to all the alcohol I was consuming, because the Aleve, ibuprofen, and Tylenol PM weren’t killing the pain.

I have no medical or dental diagnosis (and I still need to have that tooth yanked), because I can’t afford a doctor (Obama’s “Affordable Care Act” is really not that affordable if you’re a single male making $25k/year), but damn, that tooth hurt (I also have remarkable pain tolerance), and damned if I wasn’t sick. I spent two weeks stumbling through my job, only doing it right because I’ve been doing this work for 32 years and I can do it on autopilot, and damned if I’m not going to make sure my old folks get a good meal (I once served lunch while I thought I was having a heart attack - turned out it was just a combination of constipation and gas, which my RN sister informed me later happens to every man over 40 at some point).

Everything I’ve heard about abscessed teeth involves going to the hospital for antibiotic shots. In fact, the nurse at my job (I work in a retirement home), when I mentioned my bad tooth, told me “I hope it’s not abscessed, 'cause that can make you sick!” Well, I couldn’t afford antibiotic shots. So … I just dealt with it.

Two+ weeks later, my immune system seems to have fought off whatever the hell was going on. No drugs, just my immune system.

2

Good for you.

I hear though that the immune donor system is all stacked up with people who report they haven’t had any illnesses at all since they popped out of the womb. :slight_smile:

3

I have a relative who is being studied because she’s managed to reach her 70s without ever developing cancer, unlike her parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and first cousins older than 30. As Jackmanii indicates they may have a lot of people already who just don’t get common illnesses.

4

Yeah, I’m kind of the same.
I blew out my appendix last year (at the age of 38), that marked the only time I’ve ever been in hospital that wasn’t a result of my own stupidity and/or clumsiness. Other than that, it’s just been colds and the like. Apart from the appendix thing (four whole days off!), I’ve had exactly one day off sick since I started working.
I don’t know what my secret is - it certainly isn’t a great diet and exercise regime…

5

It occurs to me that I wasn’t entirely accurate about not missing a day of work in 28 years. On April 1, 1990, I was about 30 minutes into my shift, and, while chopping lettuce for salads, I lopped off the tip of my left thumb and had to go to the emergency room, and missed the rest of the day. But not for illness. Can’t be cooking when your thumb is wrapped in several layers of gauze and, despite stitches, is still oozing blood. I also had hernia surgery in 2010 and “technically” missed three days of work, but I don’t count those. My surgery wasn’t an emergency situation, so I didn’t miss any scheduled days of work. My hernia was umbilical (in my navel), and I actually spotted it myself shortly after it became noticeable. My “innie” was turning into an “outie”. So I made an appointment with the appropriate surgeon, and he verified that I did, indeed, have the beginnings of an umbilical hernia. And fortunately, being in such an early stage, it wasn’t vital to fix it right now. We scheduled the surgery for two months later, specifically during a week where my job didn’t have much work scheduled (I was working in the convention/catering business at the time). So while there were three days that week that I could have worked, I wasn’t scheduled to work them because of the planned-in-advance surgery.

6

it’s easy to say you’ve “never been sick” if you ignore all of the times you’ve been sick. I “don’t get sick” because I didn’t even catch a cold this past 12 months. but I did get a bout of salmonellosis, so I was sick.

7

I was part of a vaccine evaluation study run by the National Institutes of Health. Of every participant in the study, I had the strongest immune response to the vaccine. I even won a bag of mini Snickers for it at the summer picnic for volunteers.

StG

8

Did I mention that I’m a professional cook, and have been in my line of work for more than three decades? In my line of work, if you are truly sick with something communicable, you don’t go to work.

I actually suspect that all those times I missed school as a child because of “the flu” were actually food poisoning from my mother’s cooking. “The flu” is a respiratory disease. It shouldn’t make you throw up, like my “flu” did so often as a child. I don’t say that sarcastically or ironically. I’ve been a foodservice professional (mostly a cook) for 32 years. I know how to properly and safely handle and prepare food, and I can look back at how my mom did it, and realize that she did it wrong, and probably gave me food poisoning multiple times. Maybe that’s what built up my immune system.

9

well then, you are truly awesome. go you.

10

This has nothing to do with the OP (sorry) but this drives me nuts. Why is a national organization dedicated to HEALTH for Christ’s sake giving out candy? Candy is bad for your health! I thought we’d established that! /rant

11

Your toothache that went away might be a sign that the infection killed the nerve of your tooth and now it’s dead. That would mean you’d need a root canal. I had a similar terrible toothache that just got better by itself, and by the time I saw the dentist the tooth was dead and needed a root canal.

12

if you eat it all the time.

13

Flu symptoms may include:

A 100°F or higher fever or feeling feverish (not everyone with the flu has a fever)
A cough and/or sore throat.
A runny or stuffy nose.
Headaches and/or body aches.
Chills.
Fatigue.
Nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea (most common in children)

14

So, the OP’s, at the least, had the chicken pox, plenty of colds, a tooth infection (possibly still there), and possibly the flu during his life? How is this an amazing immune system?

15

Much more importantly how is it NOT a grave karmic error to brag on your good health? It seems like begging for a life lesson to me. :::shiver:::

16

So far, I’ve had amazing karma. :: piano falls on head ::

17

I tend to be :dubious: in general about anecdotes wherein people boast of their superior immune systems, partly because this is a staple of antivax ideology (“My kids and I never get sick because of our naturally superior immune systems due to diet/supplements/avoiding GMOs/innate superiority to all you fools who need shots and drugs”).

A lot of these reports probably involve selective memories, good luck and instances where people had mild or subclinical infections and thus believe they never got sick at all. I don’t think I’ve ever had the flu (despite only getting flu shots over the last decade or so) and haven’t had any colds (at least, ones worth mentioning) for a half-dozen years. This doesn’t rule out mild infections I attributed to fatigue or other factors. I don’t think there’s anything special about my immune system (sometimes I wonder if close contact with germy Labradors and all the soil organisms I encounter through intensive gardening have revved up my immune system to cover all potential assaults, but probably not.

Uh-oh…I hear Snickers really blow up your T-cells. :eek:

*also worth noting: having a strong immune response can be a bad thing. For instance, the recent H1N1 flu had a disproportionately negative effect on previously healthy young people (compared to typical influenza), because their immune systems apparently reacted so strongly it produced especially deleterious effects. This “cytokine storm” cause by immune hyperactivity is also believed to have had a significant role in deaths from the 1918-19 Great Influenza, where there were heavy casualties among healthy young adults.

18

Right.

I’ve had the flu maybe 2 or 3 times in my life (42yo). A cold maybe a dozen times. I got the chicken pox when I was six, and otherwise, no real infections (tooth or otherwise) to speak of. Does this put me in the same bracket as the OP?

19

You may have included strep throat as a cold… cold is really the symptom of runny nose and a cough, and strep can do that when it starts up in the sinus…

If you are getting antibiotics for a cold, you are getting them to clear up strep, which is a deadly disease as it gets into the blood and causes blood poisoning, arthritis and heart disease… amount other more obscure issues. (eg UTI )

20

I also seldom fall sick. Things changed for me since 2010 when I lost 22 pound and gave up on sugar, trans fat, processed food and took up healthy living as part of my life. Since then, I have noticed a dramatic improvement in my health. No major fever for the last 5 years, very few colds and best part is I didn have to take a single dayoff from work in the last 5 years. I have 120:80 Blood pressure, TG/Cholesterol in the normal range and blood sugar in the <6 range (even after a meal). But recently I did a C Reactive Protein test which is supposed to measure your body’s general level of inflammation and the result came at 3 mg/L which is a little high. Any comments on this?