If you manage to avoid most colds/bugs what’s your secret?!

[C1239]

If you hardly ever catch a cold or bug what’s your secret to having a good immune system and staying healthy?!

I honestly think it's just genetics.

I'm not particularly fit, I don't eat great, don't take multivits etc. I'm not anal about cleaning, probably a bit lax. Have 3 kids and work in a primary school - so it's definitely not the no kids/being around kids thing here,

Luck! I'm never ill - average 1 mild cold every 2 yrs (DH has a bad one every winter, and I never catch them), no stomach bugs or any other common ailments.

I'm physically fit (run 5x a week), with a healthyish diet, but probabaly dont quite average 5-a-day veg, so not likely to be super-rich on vitamins.

No kids, but work in a people-facing job, so plenty of exposure to random members of the public.
Only wash hands when I need to (ie - not excessively), and certainly don't use hand gel these days.

I think I just have a strong constitution.

It's interesting you say that. I never get colds either and have always put it down (jokily) to eating lots of onions and garlic!

I'm vegetarian, walk a lot, and never buy anything that claims to be antibacterial. Washing is just soap and water, and I don't wash clothes/cloths/towels on a hot wash (following up on a recent thread about nuking knickers to kill pathogens). Windows are open in our bedroom all year round and clothes are dried outside.

I used to work in open plan places and very rarely got ill

Now have three dc

Constitution being strong is just luck of the draw I think - genetic maybe

I think it's luck and nothing more.

I last had a cold in 2016. My diet is largely atrocious, I drink too much, I take no supplements and I go to bed so late that I get about 5 hours sleep a night, max. I am completely laissez-faire about hygiene and spent the entire pandemic rolling my eyes at friends that were sanitising their clean hands constantly and wiping and quarantining their shopping.

The only healthy thing I do is go to the gym a lot.

It's just luck. My diet's not great, sleep

Nose bacteria apparently! So maybe not a lot you can do!

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180926111001.htm

Teaching small children for decades.

I say luck. I get every bug going. A cold is never mild for me, I get fevers, debilitating headaches and bad sinuses for weeks. Dh gets all the bugs but much milder. Dd2 is somewhere between him and me.

Dd1 on the other hand will be the last one standing with the cockroaches. I have known her to be properly ill (as in needing calpol or time in bed) 5 times in her life - chicken pox, 2 x noro and 2 flu/cold bugs. She's 13 now so I reckon that's pretty good going. Same environment/diet as the rest of us.

Arg, my phone took on a life of it's own!
Definitely luck.
Diet not brilliant, sleep awful, low iron but still I never get viruses. Never even got covid when all my colleagues and family did 🤷‍♀️

Genetics and washing your hands. As a family, and extended family, we are rarely ill.

Personally, I have maybe one cold a year, never have tummy bugs, haven't had Covid. I kiss and hug everyone, eat a bit of everything, a normal balanced diet, but actually not that many fruit and veg, meat and fish and salad mostly, and don't worry about over-cleaning. I have one or two alcoholic drinks a week. I don't exercise, I am slightly overweight. We have a cat. I do spend quite a lot of time outside in the garden, in the sun, without suncream, pottering about and getting mucky. I only take multi-vitamins in the Winter.

Genetics and I wash my hands a lot, keep kitchen and bathrooms clean. I try to keep outside every day whatever the weather and time of year. I'm rarely ill and haven't had Covid unless I had it asymptomatically before we were testing regularly. Also I'm not exposed to the bugs and infections kids bring home from school.

I try to spend time outside, not keep outside!

Playing out a lot when I was little, kissing earthworms, rolling around in freshly mown grass or HUGE piles of leaves in the park.

We had dogs growing up.

We aren't huge clean freaks. We don't take multivits, don't have especially healthy lifestyles <shamefully>

I survived three years at uni on baked beans, ryvita and cottage cheese, with the odd mars bar for essay-writing energy! Healthiest three years of my life - not a sniffle nor a scratch.

A mucky childhood is what I'm basing it on. I'm rarely I'll now, work with kids, have a primary-aged child, used public transport throught the pandemic.

We have a dog now, and DS is never ill.

Since wfh and not going on the packed train I seem to not get colds now. I was always ill before covid. I am in 2 days a week now but get a bus that is not too packed. I don't put my central heating on much either. Have a real fire and use a galor gas heater when working in one room in the day.

2 kids
Working with kids
Wine most of the week
Bit overweight
Don't wash my hands religiously
Vit D, zinc, magnesium and vit C when I remember

Don't remember when I had bug before, no colds, covid last Christmas

I've been a teacher for bloody ever. My first year of teaching I was ill constantly. Since then (touches wood) very very rarely.

I think so much of it is just luck. I'm rarely Ill - one cold a year and haven't had a sickness bug since my 15 year old was a baby (touch wood!) I'm a good 5 stone overweight, walk a fair amount but don't get any other exercise, and am
definitely lax when it comes to cleaning!

I think a lot of people probably over clean these days and it must have an effect on immunity. The likes of Mrs Hinch have made us think we need to be throwing bleach around all the time.

Eat healthily and work out. Don’t shy away from people with colds etc and don’t take any unnecessary meds. Done.

Avoid children! Walking petri dishes, bless 'em
Wash hands regularly
Masks

I used to be a hospital social worker. I was on the wards most days. Wards with all sorts of horrible bugs; C Diff, MRSA, winter vomiting etc. Never got anything. Didn't have a cold for over 20 years. None of us in the office did.

As soon as I retired I caught everything going.
I think I previously had a cast iron immune system.

Red wine 🍷

100% this. I can count the number of illnesses I’ve had in adulthood on one hand. House growing up was filthy (still is tbh).

I am much cleaner as an adult but not in terms of the extreme anti baccing some seem to be into. Don’t use hand gel unless unavoidable. Good old soap and water.

I think it’s luck/genetics.
I have 2 children and work in a primary school. I’m hardly ever ill with anything and it usually passes pretty quickly. Had not a single symptom at all with covid. Dc are 10 and 7, 10 yr old hasn’t had a sick bug for years, 7 yr old has never had one. They get the odd mild cold, that’s pretty much it. Also both had covid and had no symptoms except eldest having a headache for a day.
My parents have always been healthy, and my grandma just died aged 100 - she was well until a couple of weeks before she died, wasn’t even on any medicine for anything.
I exercise but have a pretty poor diet and don’t get anything like enough sleep, hence my luck/genetics answer!

I'm antisocial