Vegan Immune System

[haisuli]

... vomits to my face when I'm sleeping (btw, nice way to wake up ).

Some people would pay for that.

One reason might be that I work with waste water and being often exposed to these kind of pathogens could help to keep good immunity against those bugs. If I get some splashes to face etc, it usually just leads not more than few extra s(h)itting sessions in toilet. But on the other hand, I never have had much of these bugs. Last time I got vomit disease 3 years ago from work trip to Russia. (Visited local waste water plant and ate salad in restaurant.. both could have been the reason)

[DB]

I used to not get sick.

Then I got kids. Holy crap. Then again, I've never been good at germ-free hygiene. Either way, I'd wager that 70% of the illnesses I've had in the last 10yrs have been since I've had kids.

HA! Tell me about it. Kids are like little virus generators. Add to that a new country, we moved to Austria from the States 5 years ago, and we get to experience a full range of strains we've never encountered nor built immunity against. We get sick a lot more now than we ever did before.

To your question, my wife and I used to take all sorts of things to boost our immune system. Echinacea, vitamin C, vitamin D, Goldenseal, homeopathic this and that, assorted teas, you name it, we tried it. Then we stopped. Absolutely no difference in frequency or length or severity of being sick. We don't bother anymore. I say save your money, get plenty of sleep, and wash your hands a lot.

[Marcel]

Yeah, DB--I have tried a few of those things.

I guess it seems there's not much to do but ride them (the colds, etc.) out. The reason I mentioned it in the first place--aside from culling data from those in the know--is that I seem to be remarkably susceptible to the germs so much more than my peers doing the same work. My wife, also vegan, rarely and if ever gets sick at all. So, we've got the same diet doing the same work with drastically different results.

Another thing I haven't mentioned is that wearing a type of cotton, surgical face-mask is quite common here in Japan. Virtually everyone wears one during the winter and early spring months 24/7. It's mainly for allergies but also used for colds. Not many foreigners wear them (they're just kinda weird) but some do mention that they've had to deal with less colds by wearing them.

I'm not sure that I want to go there. I'll start with the extra hand-washing and see what happens!

[Gelert]

Such masks are allegedly most effective if you are the person with the cold.

I'm pretty sure that on the whole the evidence for any kind of protective effect from such masks is negligable compared to other measures such as handwashing and so on. It's why for the most part during pandemic influenza scares, governments push the handwashing message.

[Marcel]

Gelert,

To be perfectly fair, the main reason folks here wear the masks are for allergies. Seems as though sometime in Japan's history cedar trees were over-planted and never harvested because of cheap Chinese cedar imports, so the result is a massive allergic reaction all over the country (this is what folks here say, anyway). What IS true is that many Japanese people do suffer from some kind of allergy (you just can't fake that kind of red-eye and sniffling) in Spring and early Summer.

Foreigners, who do NOT suffer from the allergic reaction, have suggested that their cold and flu symptoms are seemingly diminished as a result of wearing the masks. I'll never know for sure as I don't expect to start wearing them anytime soon.

[powerlifer]

I mostly use my own formulas of different herbs, medicinal mushrooms such as reishi ill take a course of a few times a year.

I like andrographis over echinacea for its anti-viral and immune boosting properties. Sometimes ill use 50mg of zinc citrate(best for absorption) with my main meal.

[Gelert]

Gelert,

To be perfectly fair, the main reason folks here wear the masks are for allergies.

Interesting stuff!

More info about their protective qualities than you'd ever want to know can be found here http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr619.pdf

[xrodolfox]

I'm going to get some masks. This is the first year I've ever had allergies.

Either I'm cleaning and weeding more often, or I'm getting a mask. Right now, I'm leaning towards a full face gas mask.

[Alistar]

My children are probably a bit older than some of yours, but when they were younger I used to get sick all the time getting whatever they'd bring home. For the last 4 or so years I've been strangely resistance to colds and flu etc. Even when they bring them home from school I rarely seem to get them. Sometimes I get a scratchy throat for 2 days but then it goes away. My partner works in a pre school and she is the same. Her exposure rates would be relatively high. All her younger work mates are dropping like flies and she remains the only one unaffected...
We eat reasonably healthily but are not over the top. We love our sweet treats etc
So I've decided(in ignorance) that perhaps having all those colds and flus when the kids were young has improved the efficiency of our immune response? I'm as surprised as anyone, as I've always had a pretty average immune system.

But I would agree with Gelert, that probably the main reason you've been getting sick quite often would be due to all the slightly different strains of colds etc over there.

[Gelert]

I'm going to get some masks. This is the first year I've ever had allergies.

Either I'm cleaning and weeding more often, or I'm getting a mask. Right now, I'm leaning towards a full face gas mask.

Why stop there? Get yourself a one piece, positive pressure double HEPA filtered Category "A" suit, for less than $3k...why not get two, one for the missus as well*.





*Not suggesting owt, but there's apparently a niche "speciality" involving such hermetically-sealed suits. For once the "how" mystifies me as much as the "why" of such things.

[beforewisdom]

I've only found two things to consistently have a positive effect in regards to colds.

1. Aerobic exercise tends to make me feel better for a few hours when I have a cold.

2. Naps and more sleep. I recover from colds more quickly when I sleep more. If I take more naps and/or sleep more when I feel a cold coming on I can often avoid getting the cold.

I've been a vegan for a long time. It seems like I only get a cold or feel like I'm getting near getting one about 1-2 times a year. That only happens if I have been short changing myself on sleep or being in close quarters with someone who has one.

[fredrikw]

1. Aerobic exercise tends to make me feel better for a few hours when I have a cold.

I would be very careful doing any kind of exercise when having a virus infection. Elevated heart rate can lead to a spread of the infection to your heart muscles. Effects of a heart muscle infection ranges from having to refrain from any training for a couple of months to you actually dying from it. These are of course extreme cases, but it happens often enough for taking it quite seriously though, I have several friends who have managed to get away with the mild version (ie no training for 6 months). A friend of mine who's a physician has seen a couple of the fatal ones when working at a emergency room here.

[beforewisdom]

Why stop there? Get yourself a one piece, positive pressure double HEPA filtered Category "A" suit, for less than $3k...why not get two, one for the missus as well*.

The suit also looks like it would be effective for completely safe sex, not to mention birth control.

[etherspin]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Yeh, being in Japan sets me up for all kinds of whacky bugs. Add to this that I teach kids, a LOT of kids. Add to this that if an adult comes down with something, one-to-one lessons places us in close proximity for an hour--sometimes longer. So as far as exposure to bugs is concerned, I've got it GOING ON!

Which returns me to the original point of immune system boosting. There are hand sanitizers virtually everywhere in Japan. Since the Bird Flu emerged everyone here freaked and you can't pass a door frame without a handy dandy table and sanitizer at your service. I suppose I could use 'em more often than I do (they dry my skin).

Any other tips are more than welcome! Thanks a bunch to all thus far!

thats it,working in a school will do you over! and a special school , wow! the kids don't realise there is a problem with coughing/sneezing near you, or rubbing their nose on your arm!

[xrodolfox]

The suit also looks like it would be effective for abstinence, since no one would go near you while oyu wear it.

fixed.