posted
I have a massive cold! Is it true that getting a cold is a good sign? why is it good??
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- I don't think it's ever really a good thing but it's part of being human.
Some say with lyme they never get colds but others report they catch the slightest thing and it turns worse.
A lot has to do with who you've been around. If we resist certain colds, we may have had that strain in the past.
I don't think getting a cold, even after a long period of not having any, is any sign at all. It's another infection that we have to fight and there is always stress to the body.
Just because an immune system can muster a fight with a cold virus still does not mean it can recognize and squelch lyme, if that's what you wonder. Borrelia spirochetes contain something like a magic immune blocker, of sorts, allowing it to hide and fool the immune system.
Now, with a fresh cold, there is hope that maybe the immune system will remember what it is that it is supposed to do but I'm not sure just how much that hope becomes reality.
There were years where I never got a cold but still had lyme. And, there were also blocks of years when I used to have bad colds all the time, that never helped me fight lyme.
Regardless, it's a bummer to feel worse the week before a beautiful holiday. Hope you feel better soon. Do nourish and nurture. Enjoy the lights and sounds of the season. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanks for your response. I acutally spoke to my LLMD and she said that having a cold is a great sign that my immune system is starting to react again.
I am going to take it as a great sign. I hadnt gotten a cold in the 2 yrs Ive had lyme so I am going to take it as a sign that my body is starting to work again! Yipee
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, having a cold isn't good, BUT, it is a sign that your immune system is reacting to viruses it's exposed to, so it's a great sign, but colds are never good. I hope you feel better soon!
I didn't start getting colds until I started getting well. When I'd get sick, I'd be twice as sick for twice as long as anyone else. Then eventually it got down to the "normal" range. Now, sometimes I fight them off and don't even catch them at all.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
LOL Of course having a cold isnt GOOD lol. But I would rather get a cold and know that my immune system is reacting to viruses then not get a cold and know my immune system is not working properly lol!
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have not had a cold in the year plus that I was treating for lyme. I still have not? I was aroudn everyone who was sick and slept in the same bed as my husband while he hacked away but never caught it.
I think your llmd is right that it is a sign that your immune system is working better now.
-------------------- Diagnosed with chronic neuro lyme 12/10 after 30 years of vertigo.2 tick bites in 3 yrs from upstate NY. Was on omincef for nine mths..zith and rifampin stopped.Remission~ All the pain and symptoms are back and I am not treating now with biaxin. Posts: 788 | From New york..queens | Registered: Nov 2010
| IP: Logged |
lymeboy
Unregistered
posted
I have not gotten a cold or the "flu" in years. Last time I did was before my Lyme symptoms blew me out of the water.
IP: Logged |
posted
This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Sorry, but I have problems with cognition and understanding things.
If my immune system isn't working properly because of the Lyme, wouldn't it stand to reason that I would get LOTS of colds? If my immune system can't fight off the germs, I should get sick more often I would think.
I can't remember the last time I got a cold. But my kids and husband are sick a few times a year now that the kids are both in school. Can someone help me understand why this is?
-------------------- Untreated Lyme for 25+ years. Two kids, too much pain & fatigue, no hope of ever being able to treat. Posts: 310 | From Northeast | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by MamaBear11: This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Sorry, but I have problems with cognition and understanding things.
If my immune system isn't working properly because of the Lyme, wouldn't it stand to reason that I would get LOTS of colds? If my immune system can't fight off the germs, I should get sick more often I would think.
I can't remember the last time I got a cold. But my kids and husband are sick a few times a year now that the kids are both in school. Can someone help me understand why this is?
It is a little hard to understand so I will try to explain.
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?
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
yeah, that makes sense but if i'd rather have no symptoms and be a carrier than have symptoms.
so if my immune system is weak i dont get sick and if i have a strong immune system i get sick.
yeah, makes no sense but i get it. lol
-------------------- 3 months Doxy 8 months of Tetra 7 months of Biaxin/Plaq. 4 months Doxy/Biaxin/Plaq. 5 months Biaxin/Plaq. Back on Doxy/Biax/Plaq On the road to recovery. Trying to make people Lyme Aware....... Posts: 289 | From R.I. | Registered: Jun 2009
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by erikjh1972: yeah, that makes sense but if i'd rather have no symptoms and be a carrier than have symptoms.
so if my immune system is weak i dont get sick and if i have a strong immune system i get sick.
yeah, makes no sense but i get it. lol
yes, its kind of crazy how it works. Although I would rather have my body fight off the virus then have it just circulating around my body!
Posts: 574 | From Out there somewhere | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
I read somewhere that Lyme uses the same pathway as a cold would, and Lyme will trump a cold every time, so when the Lyme isn't occupying the immune systems pathway is when it is freed up to react to a cold.
You know there are so many theories on this stuff, I don't think anyone knows for sure. I haven't had a cold since I was first infected. I am feeling good these days, probably to be knocked on my butt with a bad cold soon. (I hope!)
Posts: 845 | From Northeast | Registered: May 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow, that is interesting. Thanks so much for explaining that!
So it sounds to me a little bit like how we get sicker when we are treating Lyme & co, because the toxins that are caused by the now dead bacteria are worse than the symptoms they were causing when they were alive.
-------------------- Untreated Lyme for 25+ years. Two kids, too much pain & fatigue, no hope of ever being able to treat. Posts: 310 | From Northeast | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Not only have I not gotten a cold in probably 15-20 years, I have not gotten any of the flus or "bugs" my kids & hubby have brought home. I should be knocking on wood right now...
I always told people if they needed a babysitter for their sick kids (home from school or daycare due to being sick) to call me because I don't get sick.
Try explaining that one to people! I am sick daily for years, but I don't get "sick"...
-------------------- Down on her knees, she wept on the floor. This hopeless life, she wanted no more. Dead in the mind and cold to the bone, She opened her eyes and saw she was alone. ~Seether Posts: 427 | From Rhode Island | Registered: May 2011
| IP: Logged |
Hambone
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 29535
posted
I have my first cold right now in almost 7 years.
I am sooo miserable
Achooooooooooooo
Oh my gawd, I forgot how awful a cold can be.
[ 12-30-2011, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: Hambone ]
Posts: 1142 | From South | Registered: Dec 2010
| IP: Logged |
Hambone
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 29535
posted
Interesting article explaining how a cold indicates the immune system is working.
IN early fall, a few weeks after the start of school, cold viruses wing their way from one young nose to another and thence to families and the workplace, infecting people at three to four times the rate at other times of year.
And so the cold season begins and, with it, the relentless sneezing, coughing and sniffling that continue well into winter.
Most of us come down with at least a couple of colds a year; children get up to a dozen. But we all know people who seem never to catch one.
What�s their secret? Do they have extraordinarily robust immune systems, and the rest of us, pathetically weak ones? You might think this was key, given the number of nutritional supplements, cold remedies and fortified cereals on the market that purport to augment the immune system � often with the help of vitamins, zinc or ginseng � and by so doing stave off colds.
But science and experience don�t back this up. On the contrary, if you�re keen on tamping down your own cold, �boosting� your immunity may be the last thing you want to do.
To understand why this is so requires a bit of knowledge about how colds work. There are more than 200 cold viruses, the most common of which are rhinoviruses (from the Greek �rin-,� for �nose�).
When you encounter a particular strain, your body eventually produces antibodies to it, which remain on hand to quash that virus the next time you�re exposed. But with so many flavors of cold virus circulating, there�s always a new one to catch.
From the look of it, these ubiquitous cold bugs are mischief-makers in our bodies. For decades, people thought this was the case � that the runny nose, sore throat and sneezing we experience with colds resulted from the destructive effects of the virus itself on the innocent cells of our noses and throats.
After all, flu viruses work this way; they destroy the cells of our respiratory tract, wreaking havoc in our airways.
But, as medical science has realized over the past few decades, the most prevalent cold viruses in fact do little direct harm to our cells. In one experiment in 1984, researchers at the University of Copenhagen performed biopsies on nasal tissue taken from people suffering severe colds, then did the same after the subjects had recovered.
To the scientists� surprise, none of the samples showed any sign of damage to the nasal tissue. Further vindicating the viruses themselves was another study around the same time showing that rhinoviruses infect only a small number of cells lining the nasal passages.
Here was a new insight in cold science: the symptoms are caused not by the virus but by its host � by the body�s inflammatory response. Chemical agents manufactured by our immune system inflame our cells and tissues, causing our nose to run and our throat to swell. The enemy is us.
Indeed, it�s possible to create the full storm of cold symptoms with no cold virus at all, but only a potent cocktail of the so-called inflammatory mediators that the body makes itself � among them, cytokines, kinins, prostaglandins and interleukins, powerful little chemical messengers that cause the blood vessels in the nose to dilate and leak, stimulate the secretion of mucus, activate sneeze and cough reflexes and set off pain in our nerve fibers.
So susceptibility to cold symptoms is not a sign of a weakened immune system, but quite the opposite. And if you�re looking to quell those symptoms, strengthening your immune system may be counterproductive. It could aggravate the symptoms by amplifying the very inflammatory agents that cause them.
In any case, the supplements, remedies and cereals that claim to strengthen immunity (and thereby protect you from colds) do no such thing. It would be one thing if by some magic they made your body produce antibodies to any particular virus. But they don�t.
And though some of these products contain ingredients that have been shown in studies to affect elements of the immune system, there�s scant evidence that they bolster protection against infection by cold viruses. No one knows which immune agents � other than antibodies � accomplish that.
There�s another intriguing paradox here. Studies suggest that about one in four people who get infected with a cold virus don�t get sick. The virus gets into their bodies, and eventually they produce antibodies to it, but they don�t experience symptoms. It may be that people like this are not making the normal amounts of inflammatory agents.
It seems counterintuitive, but there it is: People with more active immune systems may be especially prone to cold symptoms. So getting a cold may be a positive sign that your biochemical defenses are working normally � a glass-half-full view of getting the sniffles.
Jennifer Ackerman is the author of �Ah-Choo!: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold.�
Posts: 1142 | From South | Registered: Dec 2010
| IP: Logged |
sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
Interesting... Thanks.
It would be interesting to study this further. I don't know if I had/have Lyme or not. I still don't know if my diagnosis is correct.
I haven't been around as many people as I used to when I was well - so, exposure may contribute to that. When I have gotten colds, I've been more ill than others & it takes me longer to get well. This is also how my father was. I recently found out that his father had typhus in the early 1900 - so, it may be epigenetics? I have always been like this.
My mother rarely got ill with colds but she did get cancer. It seems interesting what RC1 posted that Lyme may share the same pathways as a cold. I don't know how that would work, technically.
I know people who get ill from colds but fight them off quickly. Maybe this is a strong immune system? It seems that having the cold or flu virus does not do any damage to the body - so, go figure that?
Many people who do have Lyme may get a bad cold when they are first exposed. This can also be the case of being first exposed to herpes. It may be true of other things like mycoplasmas or other viruses - Epstein-Barr, etc... All of this is very complicated... It's hard to know for sure what is actually happening.
It might be interesting to comepare this to people who have syphilis since it is another spirochete. They are very different so I don't know if anything useful could be observed from all of this.
Maybe if our immune system wasn't fighting Lyme we would be well & this all would be a non issue...? Maybe the people who's immune systems are fighting it are the ones who are ill & others may have Lyme but it doesn't affect them? If this is the case, then the tests would not mean anything. It would really be about the type of immune system we have & whether it mounts a response. The more it mounts a response, the more ill we become. If the outer surface protein keeps changing - we are constantly fighting it.
That's deep... Maybe this is why Dr. McDonald found spirochetes in people's brains who had Alzheimers? It may just lie dormant in some people & they have no idea they actually have it...? We don't know if it's actually causing Alzheimers, though...
I'd really have to study this much further. Just some speculations on my part here based on what I have studied. I am no scientist!
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
| IP: Logged |
Marz
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3446
posted
Hate to be a party pooper, but I just don't buy the immune system improving thing.
Have a cold now--first in five years. And coincidentally after I've given up abx since Sept. and still have lyme.
I believe those of us who are older and lyme patients don't get as many colds because we've had so many in our life already. If I get one I figure it's a variety of virus I haven't been exposed to.
I have my repertoire of things I do when I'm getting one. Netti pot, juicing apples, carrots and lots of garlic, oreganol every couple of hours.
I was negligent this time and started all that too late.
The pharmacist here said half the town has the flu, both stomach and respiratory and colds. Said he's never seen anything like it before.
Posts: 1297 | From USA | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I hope you feel better soon!![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[bow]](graemlins/bow.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic