If you've managed to fix an utterly broken immune system...

[SnuggleBuggleBoo]

PLEASE tell me how!!! I feel so absolutely at the end of my tether. My immune system has never been great but since my first batch of Covid in 2020 it's just just non-existent. I've had a graveyard cough for 5 bloody weeks now, and before that there was always one thing or another.

I get 4+ hours of fresh country/coastal air every day
I always get my 5 (or 6 or 7! a day
I drink masses of water
I get enough sleep (when I can, without symptoms of the latest lurgy disturbing me)
I get some mild exercise in each day, usually just powerwalking with a bit of running. Admittedly nothing very intense. I'd be in the sea more if I weren't ALWAYS BLOODY ILL!!!
I wash my hands
I take a daily multivitamin, use first defence spray, dose myself with echinacea, and lately have been spending ££££ on 'Moju shots' (from what I can work out, juice with added vitamins and a couple of additional spices) that will supposedly fix everything.

I just can't keep going on like this. Every occasion for the last 3 years has been destroyed by my crappy health. I feel like writing to my MP or going on a protest march or something!!

Following. Mines not bad but could always be better!

Just keep doing what you're doing. Make sure your overall diet is good, rather than relying on supplements.

And cross your fingers.

One of the effects of covid is to dysregulate/dampen the immune system, and the duration is unknown (evidence still emerging, but rather pessimistically I'm afraid, as time passes the longest known duration keeps getting longer). And it's a risk each time you get covid.

So do your very best to avoid repeated covid infections - mask indoors if you have to be in poorly-ventilated proximity to persons of unknown exposure status (and always on public transport and in healthcare settings)

Vitamin D, take at least 10ug all year round. Read up on quercetin too, some recent studies suggest it can support cardiovascular health and immune health. Eating a healthy diet is great, fermented foods like yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi are all great for your immune system and gut microbiome, 70% of the immune systems in the gut so keeping that part of your body in tip top condition can help. Wash your hands religiously!

I would focus on gut health. Do dome reading about this. Kefir and the like as pp has said.

Stress? Mine was shot to pieces because of stress and I didn’t even realise I was stressed!

If you go in the sea often, are you near a sewage outfall? There might be some nasties in the water with all the rain we've been having.

Other than that, I'd say are you actually getting enough rest, like proper slowing down nothing more exerting than a crossword rest, it's so easy to overdo activity during recuperation and managing fatigue during recovery is important especially for something like long covid.

Disclaimer, i don't work for aptimel

My husband had long bouts of long covid rendering him bed ridden. It was like everytimr he caught something his system siezed up and overreacted leaving him breathless (asthmatic) and exhausted.

Like you I was looking for reliable sources of info about a treatment we could use. I found that there are a few studies showing supplements that do have an effect. Then found that most of these were in Actimel immune support probiotic drinks in those little bottles. He started taking them before Xmas and hasnt been ill beyond a mild cold since.

Obviously it could be a coincidence but we are both pretty sceptical people and have taken the attitude that it can't hurt.

Fyi the supplements were...zinc, b vitamins (b12 I think), vitamin d, pro and prebiotics if you want to source them elsewhere.

I'm keto so don't take them but I'm looking for a low sugar alternative for myself.

My immune system is shot to pieces due to a chronic blood cancer. Things that work for me :1. Get enough sleep. 2. supplements (vit B’s and D, Zinc and magnesium). 3. Caffeine, alcohol and stress are sleep thieves, I avoid. 4. Improve gut health - eat a rainbow Etc 5. Rest up and allow body to recover.

Post menopausal. And while I still pick up the occasional bug, I seem to recover faster.
I left the NHS. Less exposure to circulating diseases.
I take magnesium & (now) sleep well.
I exercise every day. Religiously.
I lost weight.
I started listening to podcasts about gut health and reduced processed foods, giving up my coke zero habit. For the last 2 months I have almost eliminated UPF completely.
I take vitamin D supplements.

Do you have enough protein? It's essential for a good immune system.

Make the first thing you put into your body after a fast ( nighttime sleep) really count.

kefir protein etc

and I swear by vitamin d

Meditate and journal it is important to actively track recovery and if you take a note each day will see the incremental improvement - when you are trying to build up it just feels endless and a slog but you are improving just need to catch the successes and remember recovery is not liberal you will sometimes take the proverbial two steps forward one step back but overall making very very slow progress.

Linear not liberal

My health took a bad turn last year. Since I've been having to swallow too many tablets I went for sprays and chewable so the strengths are slightly different.

Multivitamin chewable and a separate Vit C chewable - for children.
Vit B12 spray
Iron spray.
Vit D & K spray - the D is 3,000. (Healthy people are advised to take 1,000).

I felt a lot better but still ill after 3 months. Nine months later I'm just on the two chewable and the Vit D when I remember.