What do you do to not catch colds/flu/chest infections??

[getmesomewater]

For months I get one a cold or chest infection am well for a week then bam pick up something else ! I must have a awful immune system!! Apart from the norm diet, exercise & everyday hygiene... what do you do to ward off being ill? ?

I don't know! I wear a mask in crowded places, and wash my hands regularly.
Don't eat particularly healthily, although I am practically vegan. Take multivitamins. Walk a lot.

I had covid at the start of the year but wasn't really unwell with it. Have avoided catching all colds, flu etc. circulating despite DC having had coughs/colds.

Many viruses can dampen your immune system for a period following the illness, and there's growing evidence that covid is rather good at doing that, and that it can last weeks/months.

So yes, your load of infections could easily mean that your immune system is (temporarily) a bit crap.

I'd say the two most important things to do are
a) eat a good and varied diet (or patch your diet with a multivitamin if in straitened circumstances)
b) actively avoid getting infected with anything else for a few months - wear a mask if you have to go into enclosed indoors spaces, keep away from symptomatic people (and ask them to keep away from you) - and I mean symptoms of anything, not just covid. Improve the ventilation in your home (perhaps be more selective in who you ask round) and consider getting an air filter; and support those lobbying to make schools safer (investing in ventilation and filters etc)

I hope you can step off the treadmill of one damned thing after another and hope you're properly better soon

I think it's predominantly luck/genetics. I'm a primary school teacher and rarely catch anything. Maybe my immune system is good because I've been exposed to a lot of germs, although I have colleagues who pick up lots of bugs. I used to eat very healthily but now I am so busy with ft work and kids that I have let that slide a bit. I do barely any exercise or anything in the fresh air and I don't get much sleep as I have work to do at home until late at night.

I have two dc. One catches everything going and one catches almost nothing. The one who catches everything has a more varied diet and more access to fresh air and exercise than the one who doesn't so I really think it is just luck. Both take vitamins and pro-biotics.

I give my sicklier child metatone tonic if she seems to have been knocked badly by a virus and it seems to help perk her up a bit. Otherwise, good hand hygiene and maybe limiting social contact.

I think it’s luck.

I’m one of those people that never gets a cold. I had covid in July but it didn’t make me unwell.

I don’t eat healthily or get enough sleep. I drink no water nor ever eat fruit. The only supplement I take is magnesium. I have a colleague who is obsessed with health, nutrition and keeping a spotless home - yep, she’s ill constantly.

We have our bedroom window open all year round. That might help 🤷‍♀️

We take vitamin D. We wore FFP2 masks in indoor crowded places and public transport from February 20 for 2.5 years, and never caught a cold. The one time, I didn’t wear a mask, to eat breakfast in a hotel, I caught flu. Stopped wearing masks in September and got my first cold, since February 20.

I don’t know how people think FFP2 masks don’t give protection?

High dose vitamin d and vitamin c daily has decreased the number we catch off the children. Sleep is also important and avoiding alcohol.

I haven't had a cold since September (albeit a bad one which turned into sinusitis!), and that was my first one since before lockdown. I'm a primary school teacher and have two young, snotty children, so it's a miracle I've avoided it this winter! I take daily vitamin D, so maybe that helps. I also boost my iron (I have low ferritin) with spatone iron sachets.

keep washing your hands
sleep well

Work in a school.

garlic and onions?
fresh air

Because they reduce your immunity over the long term, just look at your post for evidence!

Since reading about it during covid I now use boots dual defence nasal spray before I am out on public transport or in crowded places/bars/restaurants etc.

I read some of the clinical research on it and it has really good results - think it was a 50% reduction in chance of catching viruses. Seems to work for me - I've been out with family where everyone else has caught colds/flu and somehow I've avoided it. Quite often I feel as if I might be 'harbouring' an infection with a sore throat or the sniffles, but then it never comes to anything, which suggests to me I've only had a minor viral load/ infection and have successfully fought it off.

Because they reduce your immunity over the long term, just look at your post for evidence!

I was constantly ill with middle ear infections and tonsillitis from the age of 3; and the sinus infections started in middle childhood. I had my tonsils out at 7, and my sinuses washed out at 16 (although that only worked for 3 years). I had colds so badly, as a child; a school doctor told me I didn’t have the health to live in this country. He said I needed to live by the Mediterranean!

Decades of exposure to colds and flu has done nothing for my immunity; before Covid and mask wearing.

@Binfluencer the notion that you need to be exposed to viruses to stay healthy is absolute nonsense. The way to stay healthy is precisely to stay healthy and avoid illness, not to get sick. You don't build your immunity to cholera by catching cholera for example. Hence we have clean water/water filters. Masks are air filters

www.salon.com/2022/12/04/does-your-immune-system-need-a-workout-the-science-behind-immunity-debt-explained/

@ThaiDye

I don't read sources other than peer reviewed medical journals, for anything medical.

Exposure to disease is the basis of immunity, hence vaccines.

My mum has been on chemo for the past 6 months, she swears by Vicks First Defence

She uses it before meeting people indoors and has managed to escape everything, despite inadvertently being exposed to COVID and the flu!

@Binfluencer I also follow peer reviewed science. There's a difference between building immunity through vaccines and through actual infection. Infection brings with it the risk of serious illness and with covid, damage to immune systems as per my previous post, and multi-organ damage, heightened risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes. Other viral illnesses also can cause lingering after effects and increased susceptibility to bacterial infection.

Personally think it's entirely down to immune system.I have a so so diet, very minimal exercise, am very overweight, go out with wet hair all year round, never use hand sanitiser, never taken vitamins and don't pick up anything. Was really unwell in 1994 with laryngitis and other than odd snotty noses or mild head colds I haven't been particularly unwell since certainly never experienced being laid up in bed with an illness. Never had flu, never had stomach bug, etc etc (although am off to touch some wood now haha) my kids are like me as well thankfully.

My old boss swore by taking 1000mg Vit C daily, which I have done for years now too. I have the 500mg chewable spaced out through the day. I also take Vit D and high strength garlic.

DH and I haven’t had any colds/coughs/viruses/covid since the pandemic started. DH is super fit and healthy and works outside. I, on the other hand, am overweight, unfit, have a crap diet, suffer from high anxiety/stress and have a few mild health conditions. For me, I put it down to;

• Losing 45kgs through fasting throughout 2020 (and I have kept the weight off through this too, despite my diet needing an overhaul in 2023)
• Drinking just plain, still water and 3 litres of it everyday, without fail (I don’t drink anything else, no caffeine or alcohol)
• Taking a myriad of supplements (mainly for my health conditions), including a multivitamin, turmeric, high dose of vitamin D and K2 (3,000 iu) as I have had a deficiency before. I have IBS, so I also take a daily probiotic, which really seems to help. I’ve had loads of bloods done over the past few years and all my results come back within a good range so they must work for me (despite me having an autoimmune disease)! 😬

Since the pandemic started I have had loads of hospital and dental appointments, visited a chiropractor weekly (so close physical contact with someone who was in close contact with lots of different people daily) and had 2 operations! So I count myself very lucky that I haven’t caught anything on top of my existing issues, especially as I had my wisdom teeth out under GA this week and getting a cough right now would be disastrous! 😬 I should add that neither of us have had any vaccinations, including flu either (I’m eligible because of my BMI). We also haven’t been particularly cautious around mask wearing when it’s not been a legal requirement either 🤷🏻‍♀️ All my wider family seem to catch anything and everything and most of them have had covid more than once!

10 years ago I was fitter, lighter and generally healthier (and obviously younger) and I went through a period where I was just picking up bug after bug! I had tonsillitis twice in quick succession and then chest infections, it was absolutely awful so I do sympathise with you. Hope everyone that is currently ill feels better soon 💐