Constant illness - what's good for immune system?

[SausageAndEggSandwich]

Before a bout of Covid end of August I was never ill - I'd maybe have a sniffle once every couple of years.

Since getting over that I've had a throat infection and now a cold with a dreadful cough

Willing to try anything - hit me with your suggestions

I know my immune system is depleted after covid 2 months ago. I’m just not bouncing back from illness like I used to.

what probiotic gut things are you recommending? I already have a varied plant rich diet, etc

It's not crass to describe damage, which may or may not be temporary, to the immune system as "compromise"

And bottom line is that we don't know how long it lasts (as time passes, studies can cover longer periods, and each time it finds a longer duration still ongoing)

Nor do we know what the long-term effects might be, especially if people have covid repeatedly (say a couple of times a year, every year)

What helps? Well good nutrition helps everything, otherwise not much, other than avoiding new infections (FFP2 and higher grade masks and ventilation being the key interventions)

I had Covid a few months ago, and have recently been diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome as a result. It's not life-threatening, but wow is it life-altering.

I'd love to say that a clean, nutritrious diet and vitamins have helped, but I struggle to keep even meal replacement shakes down due to the constant nausea and lack of appetite. Also not helpful: people coming into our overheated sardine tin of an office riddled with bugs, including Covid. I work for the NHS too, which does add insult to injury!

When you’ve lived with someone so immune compromised they had their entire immune system shut down by chemo you really appreciate what being immune compromised is and nothing helps that.

When you are a bit run down and picking up colds after covid, which almost everyone has had, then some healthy living tips might help. It’s just not comparable to me and I’ve had a pretty rough dose of covid and the subsequent picking up of viruses myself. I wouldn’t declare myself immune compromised though.

Fire water at the first sign of illness.

1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp garlic
1 tsp lemon juice
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 tsp honey

Mix with hot water, stir and drink. It's a bit like spiced broth. I swear it makes me better quicker.

This is worth a read :

Explain the huge number of people with Shingles post Covid. Explain the huge waves of RSV post Covid. Explain the global rise of TB again. Your head is in the sand.

I think that it's well recognised both that different conditions or treatments produce differing types and levels of immune compromise.

There are no "sides" here - immune compromise is a difficult thing to live with, wherever on the scale of it you are

No-one else is comparing, only you. You can minimise SARs-Cov-2 all you like with terms like "picking up colds", but the science is clear, post Covid Immunity dysfunction is rea,l and damage is cumulative with every infection. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2319417023000872

@BrokenBrit perhaps compromised was the wrong term given how it's technically used for people who for example are undergoing chemo.

However COVID doesn't just run you down a bit. Previous poster mentioned TB and shingles, to which I'd add strep A, all of which are on the rise and target people whose immune systems are weakened.

Just last week a study showed that kids who had caught COVID were more susceptible to RSV than those without previous COVID. See screenshot below. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10582888/

All the more reason the failure to try and prevent infection and reinfection is going to come back and bite us badly.

I fully endorse this, apart from the 6000 steps. Find your level of exercise where you don't feel knackered the next day. I can only do a few hundred yards walk - less if uphill - but I do half an hour of yoga stretches every day. I'm slowly getting stronger but I've come to know my limits. Sadly I won't be running like I used to any time soon. Pushing yourself to do exercise when you feel like the OP does can be self-defeating.

I agree with you but it's absolutely impossible to avoid infections when you have children at school. My children seem to bring a new cold home every couple of weeks and I always get it much worse than everyone else.

That's where all you can do is lobby the school for better ventilation. Because it's really likely that you are not the only family that is struggling with repeated illnesses (sickness related absences from both schools and workplaces are up, and it's getting unaffordable, both for individual families and for the wider economy)

Plus of course thinking about ventilation in your home, and making sure you have risk assessed and mitigated all your other contacts.

This isn't about aiming for some pie-in-the-sky zero covid. Rather slowing the rates to lessen accumulated damage to the body (it's not just the immune system that covid harms)

@SausageAndEggSandwich I struggled on, but ended up at GP yesterday with the sore throat from hell (dribbling at night because so painful to swallow) She listened to my chest and says I've also got pneumonia. Your illness has a similar course to mine, so please get checked out

Oh no @thankyouforthedayz that sounds awful. I hope you start to improve soon

For me I'm feeling a lot better. I started taking some of the supplements recommended on the thread and also making sure I was doing all the other stuff like sleep, water, vegetables, fresh air and so on. Two weeks on I feel like a new person. I even went for a run tonight. First time I've actually wanted to do that for a month - it was hard work, I've lost so much fitness but it felt good to be exercising.

I'm not getting complacent though. It's a long way until Spring. I've got some masks on order for the next time I'm somewhere indoors with strangers.

Great news OP! Hope your journey back to good health continues.

@SausageAndEggSandwich that's great news! I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I now swear by prebiotic drinks! I haven't had a single sniffle since taking them, and have two, snotty young kids. I'm also a primary teacher, so surrounded by bugs, but I feel really healthy! Here's to a healthy winter for us both hehe.

Sleep
Fruit and veg
Water
Fresh air
Deep breathing through your nose is also very important