I´ve just caught a cold. This doesn´t seem to happen very often, so I guess I am probably still in the stage where the immune system is overactive (I´ve only been ill for two years). When I do catch a cold I notice that the general ME symptoms (aches and pains, unrefreshing sleep) I have increase. I assume that other people experience the same phenomenon.
So here is my question: does this tell us anything about ME? I know that these symptoms are very general ones, but is this pattern (of increasing aches and pains and unrefreshing sleep after catching a cold) seen in RA patients, for instance?
One of the problems here is that I´ve forgotten what it is like to have a cold without having ME, although I am sure the effects are more severe now - I don´t feel like doing anything when I get one now, whereas I used to still be able to go to work, etc., before I had ME.
Is it too simplistic to say that the cold makes an already overactive immune system even more overactive? Is there a more specific effect that colds have on the immune system (on the gut, say) that might mimic the immune changes in people with ME?
Any one feel up to tackling this one? It requires more thought (and looking things up) than my aching body and brain will allow today.
So here is my question: does this tell us anything about ME? I know that these symptoms are very general ones, but is this pattern (of increasing aches and pains and unrefreshing sleep after catching a cold) seen in RA patients, for instance?
One of the problems here is that I´ve forgotten what it is like to have a cold without having ME, although I am sure the effects are more severe now - I don´t feel like doing anything when I get one now, whereas I used to still be able to go to work, etc., before I had ME.
Is it too simplistic to say that the cold makes an already overactive immune system even more overactive? Is there a more specific effect that colds have on the immune system (on the gut, say) that might mimic the immune changes in people with ME?
Any one feel up to tackling this one? It requires more thought (and looking things up) than my aching body and brain will allow today.