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First cold for 10 years! Good news?

Messages
40
Hi, today, i have a cold for 1st time in 10 years. I know Professor Pinching said that this can be a sign as your immune system maybe getting back to normal.

Any experience from people who suddenly have a cold for the 1st time after having ME for a long time? Did you experience a better period after the cold has died down?

I would like to hear from people who don't catch everything going preferably, as i know some people catch everything going, while I seem to be the opposite.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
In my case it wasn't good news. I suddenly switched from a "catch nothing" into a "catch everything" phase after about 10 years of having ME. Mine was an acute viral onset.

The first person I remember speculating on what this could mean was Dr Cheney in the late 80's. He thought that it might be a sign of some of his patients recovering but I don't think that this was it in the end. Not had a chance to ask him though.

It does appear that for long termers there can be this change but I don't know what it means.

After my first cold it then became a succession of colds and flus each winter after that. It seems to have gone slightly back the other way for me now.

I've had ME for over 30 years.
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
I have my second cold in two or three months after not getting them for the first seven years so I'm not yet sure what it means but clearly my immune system has changed significantly. No better from ME yet though...
 

lansbergen

Senior Member
Messages
2,512
oday, i have a cold for 1st time in 10 years. I know Professor Pinching said that this can be a sign as your immune system maybe getting back to normal.

What do you mean by a cold?

For me runny nose is a good sign and dry cough a bad sign.
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
@cornwall13 (county coincidence?!) - I appeared to catch a bad cold or flu in hospital in December after being given an antiviral (acyclovir) and an antibiotic (ceftriaxone). Until then I had not had a cold or flu for many many years.

I haven't noticed any clear difference since having this, but live in hope! One difference that occurred either shortly before or after the cold/flu is in my polyuria. Since at least 1999 I had had polyuria that responded to desmopressin, so was presumably due to an intermittent lack of vasopressin, which has been reported in ME/CFS. But I am getting much less polyuria now, and what I do get doesn't usually seem to respond to desmopressin, so is presumably solute-driven. I had developed this additional solute diuresis some years ago, but after the desmopressin-responsive type.

My theory about the solute diuresis is that it is driven by the excessive lactate that I produce in my muscles (and brain?).

More on this theory in my blog.

I did have an 'almost-cold' earlier last year but not the full-blown thing.
 
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Thinktank

Senior Member
Messages
1,640
Location
Europe
I've not had a cold since the onset of this disease, whatever it is.
The only time i got a fever was during the first few days of my IV ceftriaxone treatment for lyme disease and after my first shot of GcMAF. The GcMAF really kicked my immune system in gear, a little bit too much though. My serum cytokines were off the scale, probably an IRIS reaction. Not gonna try that again. :ill:
 

Hope78

Senior Member
Messages
112
Location
Germany
According to my tcm practitioner a cold is a good sign, IF the pathogens were killed by the IS and then excreted via nasal mucus or cough (not a dry cough, it has to be productive). Only getting a sore throat and then...nothing..is not good. There are ideally several phases of a cold which have to be run through.
 

Old Bones

Senior Member
Messages
808
Any experience from people who suddenly have a cold for the 1st time after having ME for a long time? Did you experience a better period after the cold has died down?

I would like to hear from people who don't catch everything going preferably, as i know some people catch everything going, while I seem to be the opposite.

I used to get one severe cold a year. Since ME (almost 30 years), I get one less-severe cold every seven to ten years. I actually enjoy this experience, in a perverse sort of way. Because, for a short period of time, I feel like a "normal" person with a cold. Initially, I interpreted my rare colds as positive -- a sign that I was recovering. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. Over the years, some of my ME symptoms have become less severe (I don't feel as crappy). But, I am no less functionally-impaired, with some activities easier, and some much more difficult.
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
I used to get one severe cold a year. Since ME (almost 30 years), I get one less-severe cold every seven to ten years. I actually enjoy this experience, in a perverse sort of way. Because, for a short period of time, I feel like a "normal" person with a cold. Initially, I interpreted my rare colds as positive -- a sign that I was recovering. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. Over the years, some of my ME symptoms have become less severe (I don't feel as crappy). But, I am no less functionally-impaired, with some activities easier, and some much more difficult.
I used to get colds at first, and feel good, then I stopped getting them.

I am hoping (fantasising?) that healing my leaky gut will take/is taking me back through the stages of illness until I come out healthy. So far things seem to be going in the right direction, although the road is bumpy. I know that some people are vocal critics of any suggestion that this illness can be healed naturally, but there are credible mechanisms by which this treatment might work. I look at them in this blogpost.

I expect the last thing to improve to be energy levels. That would be soooo nice.

I am completely open to the possibility that my theory (and those of others who have proposed similar things) is wrong. But things have definitely improved overall.
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
According to my tcm practitioner a cold is a good sign, IF the pathogens were killed by the IS and then excreted via nasal mucus or cough (not a dry cough, it has to be productive). Only getting a sore throat and then...nothing..is not good. There are ideally several phases of a cold which have to be run through.
You had me puzzled there. Pathogens killed by Islamic State? Then I realised you meant immune system. :lol:
 

Hope78

Senior Member
Messages
112
Location
Germany
Pathogens killed by Islamic State? Then I realised you meant immune system
Haha, for a moment I got really frightened, like "omg, what did I write" (as English is not my first language) :D
 

Old Bones

Senior Member
Messages
808
I am hoping (fantasising?) that healing my leaky gut will take/is taking me back through the stages of illness until I come out healthy. So far things seem to be going in the right direction, although the road is bumpy.

@MeSci I, too, was hoping that healing my leaky gut would be helpful, not only for ME, but also my collection of auto-immune illnesses. I started last June, and was initially optimistic when a few of my digestive symptoms improved.

Are you listening to/watching the "Heal Your Gut" summit on-line this week? Most presenters recommend exactly what I've been doing -- gut healing foods (especially meat/bone broth), fermented foods, and probiotics as described in Natasha Campbell-McBride's GAPS diet. Unfortunately, this has blown up in my face, big time. Because, it has made a previously-mild histamine issue severe. These days, the itching, burning, swelling is making me quite miserable, not to mention a worsening of my POTS. So, gut healing is on the back burner for now, while I try to determine what I can eat to settle my very angry body.

In general, I agree with your approach of healing "naturally", and it seems many experts, these days, do as well. I just wish I didn't have the mast cell complication.
 

roller

wiggle jiggle
Messages
775
would be interesting to know how this cold-resistance relates to allergies?

particularly also, when ppl get every x year a flu - if there were allergic reactions in the months +/-
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
Are you listening to/watching the "Heal Your Gut" summit on-line this week? Most presenters recommend exactly what I've been doing -- gut healing foods (especially meat/bone broth), fermented foods, and probiotics as described in Natasha Campbell-McBride's GAPS diet. Unfortunately, this has blown up in my face, big time. Because, it has made a previously-mild histamine issue severe. These days, the itching, burning, swelling is making me quite miserable, not to mention a worsening of my POTS. So, gut healing is on the back burner for now, while I try to determine what I can eat to settle my very angry body.

In general, I agree with your approach of healing "naturally", and it seems many experts, these days, do as well. I just wish I didn't have the mast cell complication.
No, I'm not watching the online summit.

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences. My leaky-gut diet is a vegan version. I don't know whether that would be any better for you or not.