Why is my DH always ill?

[welby123]

In the past 12 months he's been ill a lot. He seems to pick up every single bug going. Usually cold/flu type symptoms with high temperature. He's currently not well at the moment, he's feeling sick and got the body aches. It was only 2 weeks ago he had D&V.

He never used to get ill (once or twice a year max maybe) so I'm wondering what has changed as I'm starting to feel a bit concerned about him. Should he see a doctor or is it just one of those things? His diet could be better but he's not really unhealthy. He used to go to the gym a lot but he stopped when he had a really bad viral infection a few months ago and never got back into it.

Anybody any experience of this?

Lyme disease.

That's me. I was recently told by 2 different doctors that having many illnesses, especially inflammatory ones, mean viruse are, depletes the amount of a substance called NAD in our bodies. The less of it we have the harder it is to fight new infection, its also difficult to make and takes a long time so once you're low in it you get stuck and every illness gives you a further hit. It's even worse if you have underlying conditions of take daily meds which can interfere with its production. I had a drip of a high dose ( which was somewhat un pleasant) to give me a boost and I do think it's helped.
It's still a developing thing but there does seem to be evidence that this is the case. I am fastidious about hand washing/ cleaning etc and try to keep away from obviously Ill people but if youre susceptible its hard. Id definitely look into NAD+ Improving foods, wear a mask in crowded places like trains and keep washing/gelling those hands to help until he's better. It's really miserable when you always have something, makes you feel doubly rubbish so I sympathise with him.

This has always been me since I had glandular fever as a student. I have secondary school age kids and post Covid the germs seem worse as well so I'm still picking them up.

I've had all the blood tests several times and the only thing that showed up was vitamin d so I do supplement.

I find stress is the biggest issue tbh. And there is a bit of a pressure if you are always sick to battle on through. You don't take time off work or you feel judged (I still remember a particularly catty woman at work commenting on me being pathetic). You feel like you are letting people down or not pulling your weight. So you are on edge, you don't sleep well as you are coughing or sick. Maybe feeling like you are always trying to catch up etc. it becomes self fulfilling a bit I think.

Ideally I suspect that the answer would be some kind of 3 week German spa/rest cure. In the absence of that, blood tests, vitamin d and early nights.

I could be from your children depending on their age. Before having my daughter I was sick about 4 times a year. The year she started child care I had 22 separate illnesses! This year has been much better with 12 so far. I did go see my gp and have some blood tests but no specific cause was found, apart from a deviated septum and bone spur. Which may make me more prone to sinus congestion.

No answer to OP's question, but the comments and suggestions on here are very useful . I've also had a patch of being ill with far more items than usual and wish I had a solution!

I wouldn't introduce anything new in his diet , eg vitamins, until blood tests have been done. You don't want to muddy the waters for the medics.

Has anything changed at work? Desk sharing for example. Is he catching bugs from a co worker? Is he washing his hands frequently with soap? Is shared equipment at worked cleaned regularly?

My teen was like this and was eventually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME, which is believed to be a postviral syndrome and is similar to many people's experience of Long Covid.

Your DH might want to have a quick read of CFS symptoms and make a mental note to explore that further if he has any of those symptoms or if he later goes on to develop them. Many CFS symptoms are nonspecific, but a few are fairly distinctive.

Has he had the Covid jab and boosters?