why do i feel great when i have a cold?

[dazzammm]

Hi,

when i have a cold all my symptoms disappear and i feel full of energy and GREAT! anyone else experience this or has an explanation.

it could be psycological (got other things to worry about), physical (too tired to "put up my defenses" or immune system is in hyperdrive), dietry (gone off my food so am removing a sensitivity), medicinal (stuffed full of paracetamol) or something else?

 

[msf]

You´re a masochist?

 

[minkeygirl]

I've heard its because our immune system is actually fighting something.

 

[Marco]

Great isn't it?

 

[Never Give Up]

Catch more colds!

 

[msf]

Haha, you´ll have to start picking up and using people´s handkerchiefs.

 

[msf]

Or start hanging around in classrooms. I´m not sure which is less socially acceptable.

 

[Tammy]

Yes............I have experienced feeling much better when I have had a cold which is once in a blue moon.

 

[rosie26]

You need to follow winter around each year and move to wherever it is winter

I have noticed some cold strains do make me feel better as well. I don't know why that is.

 

[rosie26]

Actually, a good place to catch a cold is the waiting room at the doctors. I've caught quite a few from there.

 

[digital dog]

I very rarely get a cold but when I do I feel a lot better. I feel ill with the cold but all my other symptoms go. I've heard this a lot.
I think it must be that our immune system is fighting something and actually working.
Perhaps LDN will work for people who feel better when they have a cold?
That is my hope.

 

[Woolie]

@dazzammm, I think this is a really interesting puzzle. I have felt loads better with a cold (although doesn't happen very often), and also when I've had hay fever.

There are two possibilities. The first is that we don't get these things in the first place until we get a period of remission from our illness. So in other words, the cold isn't causing the better health, its a result of it.

The second possibility is that the immune reaction we have to the cold/hay fever actually somehow suppresses the immune chaos causing the CFS symptoms, at least for a while.

I'm favouring the first possibility right now. Seems to fit best with my experiences. I've actually tried to give myself hay fever (by sniffing grasses !), and can't seem to bring it on at will. Never tried sitting around in a hospital waiting room to catch a cold, though!

Of course it could be a bit of both. We might need a brief remission to catch the cold, but then while its in progress, we enjoy some protection for a little bit longer than we otherwise would without the cold.

 

[dazzammm]

thanks. Some people mentioned that the immune system is actually working as it should during a cold. so what is it doing the rest of the time for CFS sufferers? do we rarely get colds too?

 

[Research 1st]

Hi. Maybe you don't have a cold when you feel better, after all, this is a paradoxical reaction you're reporting.

To know, you'd have to run an FBC (full blood count) to separate the 'feeling' of a cold from actually having one.
Also high levels of cytokines (can make you feel infected) and also allergic symptoms (such high IgE).

A cold, literally means the common cold.

You may have a chronic infection of another type, that for whatever reason, interacts with your central nervous system causing a phenomena you experience. It could also be something neurological, immune activation of another kind affecting how you sense your body and the environment.

 

[dazzammm]

You may have a chronic infection of another type, that for whatever reason, interacts with your central nervous system causing a phenomena you experience. It could also be something neurological, immune activation of another kind affecting how you sense your body and the environment.

im sure its a cold cos the wife caught it and she said she had a cold and she MUST be right ;o)

 

[snowathlete]

This is quite common. I wish there was proper research into it. I haven't had a cold for ages and ages but early in my illness I had a cold and the days j had it I was much better. A very quick turn around and then a very quick decline when it was gone.
There has to be good clues to what causes our symptoms here and I really think it would be worth researchers exploring.

 

[Research 1st]

Perhaps levels of hormones alter.

I've heard people with severe ME can feel more energetic for a number of hours, before they crash with an infection (This is sitting on the sofa, not post exertion crash).

Cortisol rises with infection.

 

[lansbergen]

I've heard people with severe ME can feel more energetic for a number of hours, before they crash with an infection (This is sitting on the sofa, not post exertion crash).

That is one of the things I noticed and wich makes it very hard not to overdo when you feel better.

In my opion in my case it always was reactivation of the same infection. Before the moment I felt better the immune system was responding and seemed to win but that was misleading. It only was the silence before the storm

 

[Woolie]

@Research 1st, @lansbergen, I'm really interested in what you say (although I know we're getting a bit off-topic here). I've also experienced this "calm before the storm" feeling - where you have extraordinarily good health just before a big crash.
It usually lasts only 1-2 days for me, though.
The cold/hay fever induced remission lasts longer for me.

 

[Sidereal]

Perhaps levels of hormones alter.

I've heard people with severe ME can feel more energetic for a number of hours, before they crash with an infection (This is sitting on the sofa, not post exertion crash).

Cortisol rises with infection.

Excellent point. I have experienced this also.