Out of the three in my household, I’ve always been the most prone to catching colds. I will admit before that I didn’t eat the healthiest foods or exercise, so I thought that was the problem. Whenever the cold went around I was sure to get it and boy do they kick my butt. My brother and my boyfriend never get sick. Or when they do it’s so short lived it’s pathetic. I was down with a 105 degree fever for 4 days once, my boyfriend caught it when I got better but he was completely recovered 6 hours later. So here’s my question. I’m much healthier now. I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, I get good amounts of sleep every night and I run 2-4 miles at least 5 times a week. The cold made it’s rounds and I wasn’t really worried but I’m sick! It started with a scratchy throat two days ago but I stuffed myself full of food packed with vitamin C and it went away. Today it came back with a vengeance and hit me like a brick wall. Are some people’s immune systems just really weak and exercise and a good diet won’t help? My brother and boyfriend eat the same food and work out as well but they rarely ever get sick even being around a biohazard such as myself. It would be really sad to think that in my efforts to be healthy, I won’t get the perks of having a stronger immune system.
From Harvard Health:
Simply put, healthier lifestyle does not necessarily mean better immune system function.
I don’t doubt the OP’s statement, but I will note that this time of year I am hit with allergies and hay fever that often have all the symptoms of a cold. Sneezing, scratchy throat, watery eyes, etc. Then they go away, then they come back, etc. All the leaves will fall off the trees and lie on the ground and rot, and that will add migraines from the mold to my delightful hay fever. It won’t clear up until we have a hard freeze.
So is the OP sure it’s a cold?
Purely a personal anecdote, but— I noticed that often the first sign of a cold would be when I woke up with a scratchy, dry throat. So I tried to keep my throat from dying out (the idea being that maybe mucus membranes do a better job of fighting off infection if they’re kept moist), by taking at least a sip of water before bed and whenever I’d wake up in the night, and by making an effort to sleep with my mouth closed. I seem to be sick less often now, though that may just be coincidence.
As I understand it, stress can impact your immune system, as can lack of sleep. Are you sleeping well? Have you been under a lot of stress?
You may just have a weak immune system. I would discuss it with your primary care physician and see if he/she feels testing is appropriate in your case.
Yes I’m sure it’s a cold and I don’t have allergies. I don’t get scratchy or watery eyes, stuffy nose or any symptoms of allergies that occur during fall and spring. Everyone I know starts to get sick and inevitably, it finds me.
I thought it was just because my immune system was naturally weak since I have a pretty healthy lifestyle. It’s a little unfair as my mom and my brother have excellent immune systems.
I do have a lot of stress in my life being a college student. But I’m still on summer vacation so there’s not really a whole lot going on in my life that’s stressing me out. Admittedly, I do get sick a lot easier during the school year. I also get lots a sleep, sometimes too much, paying back my sleep debt. But never less than 7 hours a night.
You don’t mention whether anyone else has caught this same new cold that you now have. If not, then you have no real comparison of how it has affected you vs anyone else.
Not all colds are the same, there are hundreds of different cold viruses that have different effects on you. The cold I got a month ago came on really slowly over a week or more, hung around for another week, and I still have the cough from it. Usually I’m over a cold in 5 or so days.
BTW good on you for adopting a healthier lifestyle; while it may not save you from colds it’s worthwhile for other reasons, so keep it up!
No cite, but I’ve heard that a lot of mild illness may be caused by having too good of an immune system, rather than a weak one. Most of the discomfort of a cold and the like is due to the immune reaction rather than anything related to the virus itself. Those of us with over eager immune systems may be more likely to ge the full blown runny nose, fever, etc.
Being a student, however, is probably the real dealbreaker. Being trapped in a small space with a few hundred random people over the course of a week- many of whom have recently been trapped in confined spaces with hundreds of other random people- will get you sick like nothing else.
I’m going to guess on this.
You’re a “her” and your Boyfriend and Brother are "him"s.
Your brother and boyfriend are far dirtier than you could ever possibly be, they
touch dirtier things than you do, then scratch their nuts, then pick their nose and
then eat with those hands.
You probably use hand sanitizer everywhere, and even if you don’t, you don’t
put yourself into dirty situations as much as they do.
Their immune system is a well oiled functioning machine, going all the time and always at the ready.
Yours is like the replacement NFL refs, they were just sitting around and now that they have to perform they are running around like a bunch of clowns, and don’t know what to do.
2 anecdotes, friend of mine decided to breed. They decided they were going to
raise a “dirty” child. They allow nothing “anti bacterial” in the house and they let the kid play in all the dirt and garbage he wants and don’t freak about cleaning his hands. The kid is 1.5 years old now, and the doctor got concerned that they hadn’t brought him in due to illness yet.
My old lady, a school teacher, was a hand sanitizer nazi. Drove me nuts, I wanted to shove her hand sanitizer up her ass. She was always sick, which
meant she had to use more hand sanitizer. Then her dad got sick and she took
6 months off to take care of him, and she had to change his diapers. After that,
she figured screw it. All last school year, with no hand sanitizer dispenser at the ready, she never got sick… really sick, a quick sniffle here or there, but nothing major.
Me, I’ll take and then eat anybody’s outdated food. If there aren’t marshmallows in the milk, I’ll drink it. The old lady threw a few packs of
Boudain(rice based sausage with pork liver) in my work bag a few months ago.
I didn’t need anything in the bag and didn’t realize she had done that, so it sat in my truck for 3 days, 100 degree days. It didn’t stink, I still ate it, and it was GOOOOD!
Already been said, but lack of good sleep on a regular schedule and stress can really get you sick. The combination of the 2 is pretty deadly.
Sleep good, don’t stress and live dirty, you’ll be fine.
An aside, I’ve noticed that people that don’t just deal with the public but deal with the public and touch cash money tend to get sick quite a bit. Bartenders
even more since they have to touch your dirty money and all the things your mouth has been drinking out of.
Q) Can the severity of a sickness (like the flu) be influenced by how it was spread / caught?
During flu season we a told to be careful about avoiding touching our eyes, mouths, etc.
That’s not as to avoid a more severe sickness, it’s to avoid sickness completely.
Do you bite your nails/pick your teeth/pick your nose? Not washing hands before doing any of the above or eating is a really good way of picking up everything going.