How has CFS affected your immunity?

[keepswimming]

I'm curious about this after reading different posts on this forum. Some people seem to feel they have an overactive immune system, and they get colds/other illnesses less often than before they had CFS. Other people feel their immune system is low so are more likely to get ill...

Personally since getting CFS I haven't had many other illnesses - I only had one cold this winter, however the cold I did get completely exhausted me!

What have been your experiences?

 

[Jessie 107]

Since having me/cfs I have not had a single cold or flu.
I have been ill for around 5/6 years.

 

[Treeman]

I've got hypogammaglobulinemia and ANA and TPO auto antibodies. So some parts under acting other parts over reacting. Get lots of colds and more severe then others with the same cold.

 

[Pearshaped]

I guess one group is a subset and the other group is a subset?

or does this change with severety? that would be thing for researchers to look into..

In the beginning of my ME I catched literally everything.The more severe I became the less colds/flus I got.

Also interesting,My ANAs were very high many years before getting ill[1:1280,later years 1:820]
once I got ill after several infections my ANAs were only 1:320
and now after 4,5 years of ME its only 1:160.
Go figure.

 

[godlovesatrier]

I got sick a reasonable amount before I got ME. I got sick more often after getting ME. But now I work remotely and am no longer in an office I get sick less often.

However when my cellular energy dips, my immunity dips and sometimes simply having low cellular energy causes flu like symptoms that can be severe without being sick at all. So it's a hard one to answer really.

Also the first 2 years I took siberian ginseng every day, which allowed me to get sick but continue doing my normal activites. After 2-3 years I stopped it. Then over the course of the next 12 months I gradually worsened, to the stage now where I am back on it again. It's occured to me that the ginseng increase th1 immune modulation and massively increases cellular energy and immune strength, which could have caused certain aspects of the ME to go into remission, only to come back once I stopped it. So I am taking it now long term to see the overall effect on immunity, which to be honest so far has been fairly good.

 

[stefanosstef]

I get one virus/cold each year but I almost never get fever past 37-37.5 Celcius, contrary to what was happening before ME/CFS got worse.Sometimes it's just my nose and throat and no temperature elevation.

 

[ljimbo423]

I'm curious about this after reading different posts on this forum. Some people seem to feel they have an overactive immune system, and they get colds/other illnesses less often than before they had CFS. Other people feel their immune system is low so are more likely to get ill...

My immune system is very high and I haven't had a cold or a flu in 10-15 years or longer. I use to think, in fact I KNEW, I was catching colds or flus once or twice every month, year round. Even though, at the time, I rarely had contact with people or left my apartment.

What I've learned in the last few years is that they were actually ME/CFS flares, not colds or flus at all! When I get really stressed out for days at a time or I really over do it physically, my ME/CFS flares and feels just like a cold or flu.

So for some reason ( the million dollar question), overdoing it physically causes my immune system, which is already high, to go even higher and that causes my cold and flu symptoms.

These cold and flu symptoms (actually ME/CFS flares) use to last 7-14 days. Now they never last more than 24 hours and only happen every couple of months or so, when I physically push myself too hard for too long or get really stress out for days on end.

So they clearly were never colds or flus, although when I get them, even though they never last for more than 24 hours, they feel exactly like a cold or a flu. I get excessive fatigue, sneezing, mild coughing, aches and pains and just feel absolutely miserable, just like a cold or a flu.