Partner rubbish immune system

[Jupiterthecat]

It is the winter months and we have two young children who are always bringing home colds and bugs etc. We've all recently had a cold, mine passed as did the kids within a few days but my husband is now on day 7 and developed a fever and feeling worse so we now think it's sinusitis.

My husband has the worst immune system not helped by the fact he's asthmatic and coealic and also follows a strict vegan diet (the rest of us all eat meat). I know his immune system isn't his fault but I find myself unreasonably annoyed and how frequent he gets ill and how much worse it gets. I've asked him to look into good supplements as he's probably deficient in B12 (common in a vegan diet) and asked him to go to the doctors for blood tests too. He hasn't done any of this and is never proactive unless I push him. I've also suggested even reconsidering his vegan diet given his health concerns to even include the occasional egg.

I just get down about often he is ill and he gets everything going and then has it much worse. I don't know what I expect from this post, any advice from people in similar situations and just a vent!

Getting bloods done is an important first step and very easy for him to sort. Years ago I was coming down with numerous illnesses, usually colds that would land me in bed for a week. I worked in a hospital so everyone just put it down to that. It was only once a locum GP actually reviewed the last few years of blood tests I’d had done that it revealed I had chronic neutropaenia, which was the reason why I came down ill so often and so severely. There was no reason found for it despite being under haematology for years.
I’m not necessarily suggesting your husband has anything like this, but it’s worth a general health check with the GP. Also, what’s his sleep like? Sleep deprivation/poor sleep can really impair your body fighting things off.

If he wanted to, he would…
he can be sick all he likes but no let up on him doing his share of chores, care, etc. Why is he not taking reasonable steps to look out for his family? What does his employer have to say about the absences?
Practically speaking, daily vitamins and diet swaps might help, and as pp says a trip to the GP, but the biggest part for me is the attitude of not doing what is in his power to keep well.

I should add when ill he generally doesn't languish in bed. He'll still be hands on with the kids and housework despite me telling him to rest more! And he's not off sick much as he'll just work from home generally.

His sleep is OK, thankfully both our kids are good sleepers and sleep through. Sometimes up with the baby but not often. I'll definitely nag him to get bloods sorted, we're lucky we have am excellent GP surgery.

Are you all taking a vitamin D supplement as everyone in the UK should between Oct and Mar?

If not, time to start that only your partner's could be a more general vitamin supplement.

After long COVID, my oh became bed bound after catching any cold. Just exhausted mostly and took ages to recover even after his symptoms disappeared. I was desperately researching things that help as by that time he had been in bed for 20 weeks out of 18months and we had two toddlers.

I found that there were a number of supplements that had been trialled that had been shown to be affective. B vitamins, zinc, vitamin D, pro and pre biotics.

I found a probiotic yoghurt that has nearly all of these (it was actamil immune support but that's not the only one). He's been taking them ever since and barely been ill. I think he's had maybe two colds in 3 years and they were 'normal' colds without lying in bed for days.

You might be able to do something similar will pills or other supplements if he doesn't want the dairy, we did try that first but it's a pain to take pills and kambucha all the time. The little bottles was much easier to do regularly.

Is he on any medications for his celiacs or asthma that cause him to be immunocompromised?