Just wondering if there's anyone else who isn't catching everything that's going around now? I haven't been sick all winter,n ot that I"m complaining, but I thought that those of with Lyme have a low immune system and would be catching viruses easily~
Posted by gingerteacup (Member # 36208) on :
I read that we catch less because of overactive immune systems, forget where though. I almost never catch anything.
Posted by Larae30 (Member # 35220) on :
Yeah this is the first winter I've gone with no sinus infections, colds, flu etc... in a long time. Strange. Could it have to do with abx too?
Posted by BuffyFan (Member # 34679) on :
ginger, very interesting! Larae, I didn't get my yearly nasty sinus infection...I know people that have been sick continuously all winter.
Posted by amk33 (Member # 13206) on :
I don't get sick, either. Just feel like crap from lyme all the time. If I do catch a cold, my lyme symptoms are actually better during the course of the cold. Strange.
Posted by Dogsandcats (Member # 28544) on :
I am not out in the public as much as others. Limits my exposure....And I am probably building a better immune system than I ever had before Lyme, eating better, etc.
Go figure.
Posted by shannon12 (Member # 36149) on :
Yes, this is crazy!!!, I have not even had the slightest cold, since I got the lyme disease, so confused.
Posted by 'Kete-tracker (Member # 17189) on :
That's a small side-benefit for many of us who've been "innoculted" with "BB", BuffyFan. Our immune systems are all fired up fighting these unknown forms of Lyme & various background co-infections, so our immune "soldiers" are in good fighting shape. So when a peasley little rhino-virus comes along, you might only notice it as sniffles one evening & it's gone the next day. More often, the contagious infection is stopped in it's tracks before it can even get going.
***I have been sick with the flu *0* times since the winter of 2005-06 (when I was VERY ill with Lyme) with only 1 or 2 one-day colds over these last few years! I've been in Lyme "remission" for over 5 1/2 years now, with 1 minor relapse (early 2007).
But, honestly, I'd trade a yearly bout with the flu- AND maybe 2 or 3 colds each year- to just ONCE wake up with NO peripherial neuropathy (fuzziness of limb extremities) OR muscle twitches in my left elbow (& a couple other spots) or 'brain zings' from time to time. To wake at 7AM & stretch & feel GOOD again? OMG, what a sweet dream. But atleast I have all my energy back. ;-)
Posted by sickmate (Member # 31502) on :
I also wish id get a cold again. Feel so much better when i get one.
Posted by bcb1200 (Member # 25745) on :
I heard it the exact opposite. Lyme negatively effects the immune system. Our immune systems are not functioning well at all. When you get a cold, the symptoms you get are from your body fighting the germs.
But with Lyme, the immune system isn't efficient (like its drunk or sick) so it doesn't fight these viruses and other common illnesses. They just pile on and get buried.
Some feel it is a goOd sign when you start catching colds again as it means you immune system is now functioning more normally.
Posted by 'Kete-tracker (Member # 17189) on :
bcb- I have heard similar but I don't entirely go w/ that. Lyme DOES negatively affect the immune system in the sense that it is taxing it. But when you're over the acute stage of the disease & getting energy back (the last to return, unfortunately), you're body then turns to remaining bugs & viruses.
Many of us have these... co-infections that are hard to identify, or not even known at this point. Whatever I have is in the background (only really noticeable when waking) & I believe this is what's responsibe for my ability to avoid bugs that take everyone else at work down for a few days.
Also, as one's energy returns, exercise becomes easier... which is IMPERATIVE to do if you want to avoid relapses. It does so many beneficial things- it helps keep the Lyme at bay AND get's the overall body functioning healthier, incl. the immune system!
I bult up to exercising moderately hard every Other day for as much as an hour while i was recovering (see Burrascano guidelines), but did stretches an hour long every day come the summer, like kayaking, as I built up my endurance.
With Lyme, as I've researched it, the human immune system simply has a tough time "seeing" tne bugs (see: 'Lyme bacterium cloaking') & the body's primary weapon, our large white blood cells (the CD-57 subset) known as "natural killer cells" are not as available as their production is suppressed in Lyme victims, for reasons that still aren't fully understood. This "CD-57 count" does rebound as the BB infection is knocked down w/ [abx] treatment.
By the way, a good news item, from 2009, on this phenomena of cloaking, involving the tick's own saliva, is here: www.hhmi.org/news/fikrig20091120.html Posted by sickmate (Member # 31502) on :
I want to back what bcb wrote - theoretically and practically: the sicker i am the less i get a flu.
Posted by whitmore (Member # 28721) on :
I've just finished my second week of LDN (1 mg only) and have just got my first cold in years. I'm kind of excited that it might represent a re-awakening of my immune system and the LDN might be doing its job!
Posted by Spindleshanks (Member # 32556) on :
I agree with bcb also. Our immune response is what causes the symptoms we have during a virus.
The virus is not causing the symptoms. So if your not having symptoms your not having a proper immune response.
There is a new study that I read relaying this phenomena. I think it was posted in a thread on this site. I can't remember but I have also heard this many times before being dx with Lyme.
Posted by cocowyo (Member # 36286) on :
Darn it. All these years I thought I had a super-duper immune system because I rarely get sick :-)
Posted by jackie81 (Member # 27031) on :
Taken from Wikipedia--
People with stronger immune systems are more
likely to develop symptomatic colds.[23] This is
because the symptoms of a cold are directly due to the strong immune response to the virus, not
the virus itself.
People with less active immune systems�about a
quarter of adults�get infected with the viruses,
but the relatively weak immunological response
produces no significant or identifiable symptoms.
These people are asymptomatic carriers and can
unknowingly spread the virus to other people.
Because strong immune responses cause cold
symptoms, "boosting" the immune system increases cold symptoms".
So what it is saying is the symptoms f a cold are actually from your immune system fighting the cold off.
They say that if your immune system is weak then you can be infected with the cold but you will not get the symptoms of a cold because your immune system does not fight it off thus causing the symptoms of a cold...make sense?
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
so...if i get sick i pass it along but don't necessarily have the symptoms, right??
but i was dog sick last year with bronchitis/pneumonia and thought i was about to die...took me weeks to get over it.
my immune system is shot.
Posted by 'Kete-tracker (Member # 17189) on :
I agree, Spindle, that the immune response is... ahem, responsible for the symptoms associated with "catching" a virus, flu or otherwise.
However, if the immune system is in a constant state of stimulation, *I* believe the initial "invasion" by the virus bugs themselves is thwarted much more quickly, hence any symptoms are milder & more importantly, don't last all that long.
Again, as I haven't had a flu & hardly any colds in Years now, I have to explain it Somehow, & the remaining [parasitic] Lyme &/or co-infection(s) I have- causing enhanced immune system "virility"- is the only reasonably logical conclusion I've been able to come up with. Posted by sickmate (Member # 31502) on :
Since i feel so much better when i have flu: do you think i should try to get a cold on purpose?
Posted by gigimac (Member # 33353) on :
The first (started in August 2010) year I was sick, very sick with lyme I never got a cold, etc.
This year, my second winter with lyme, I have gotten sick many times. The only difference between this year and last is I am on abx.
Maybe you start catching colds and stuff again as your lyme load decreases? So weird.
Posted by erikjh1972 (Member # 20964) on :
well i havnet had a cold since early treatment 2 years ago. super bowl sunday woke up with a sore throat and had a cold for a week. progress??? idk. i do fell a hell of alot better than 2 years ago. i'd like to think my immune system is getting better, we shall see i suppose.
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