Since your ME/CFS onset, have you caught the Cold & or Flu more or less frequently?

[livingwithcfids]

Maybe it's just me but I haven't been sick with the actual cold or flu in 3 years, despite feeling like I have the 24/7 flu.
Prior to developing ME/CFIDS I usually caught the flu or cold maybe once a year.

So I am interested to know: Have you been more or less sick since the onset of your ME/CFIDS?

If you answer "More Flu's & Colds", how frequently do they occur?

If you answer "Less Flu's & Colds", why do you think that is?​

 

[Ocean]

I'm not sure if I get more or less colds and flus but I definitely get them. If my husband comes home with a cold or flu I'll catch it.

 

[taniaaust1]

Im more normal (maybe??) with that now that I have ME/CFS. I was an extremely abnormal child ..to healthy (I didnt have ME/CFS back then) who actually NEVER got sick (except Mono as a teen). I never got colds as a child.. never missed day off of school with a cold/flu or normal childhood things such as chickenpox.. I never caught thou everyone else did.

Looking back I think I must of been TH2 dominant as a child which protected me from colds/flu but at the time I didnt have ME/CFS.
Maybe for some of us.. its a TH2 dominant state which makes us susceptable of getting ME rather then ME causing the TH2 state.

 

[SOC]

I caught everything that came my way.

 

[sickness]

In the year following my Glandular fever (my trigger) I thought that I caught a lot of colds, but it actually could have all been my ME. Since then, I could probably count the number of colds I've had on one hand. That's in 14 years! Even when everone around me has them, I don't usually get them.

Sometimes I feel as though I am getting a cold, but it never eventuates. Having said all that, I do have a cold at the moment, lol. However, it has been really very mild, as the few I have had have all been.

I agree with Tania, that it probably has to do with TH2 dominance. I certainly seem to be a lot more susceptable to bacterial infections than viral ones.

take care, ness

 

[searcher]

I'm just like Tania- I never got colds as a kid. I don't remember ever having to take a day off school due to being sick. Starting in college I got colds and bronchitis all the time. My frequent cold and flu symptoms lasted for about 15 years until I got CFS, and I haven't gotten a single cold since I had my initial crash. I also think this is related to Th2 dominance and that a lot of my symptoms are due to my immune system overreacting to external immune stimulanst (pathogens, molds, etc.)

 

[Valentijn]

I got a flu once when I was 6, then pretty much nothing til I was 25 or so and started getting sinus infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.

When I was 14 a nasty flu went around school, and a teacher asked our class who hadn't caught it ... I was the only one out of 30+ students.

No colds or flu since I got full onset of ME/CFS in February of this year.

 

[meadowlark]

Growing up in an extremely snowy part of Canada, I used to get terrible colds all the time. But since my gradual onset ME/CFS became full-fledged in 2000, I have had no colds at all. That said, when there's a cold or flu going around, my glandular fever does get worse. But the contrast, then and now is still remarkable.

I have no idea why this would be. I got those Ds in high school science for a reason,

 

[Enid]

Less flu and colds since ME onset - in fact none - might be due to being housebound but suspect whatever infections involved in ME somehow take precedence over the flu/cold viruses. My onset was persistant sore throat but with no cold or flu.

 

[Waverunner]

I catch every cold virus around.

 

[justy]

Hi, i havent answered the poll as my history is slightly different to others. I started with a long period of catching very tiny little thing going and not being able to fight them off, ending up on antibiotics for secondary infections for over a year at one point. Since then it has changed and i now hardly ever get a cold or flu, but do get lots of stomach bugs.

At one point i was too afraid to ever go out or have people round in case i got sick.

 

[klimt]

I haven't had a cold or flu in a long long time. My M.E. onset was periods of little consciousness, I would literally just fall asleep for three or four days straight, It felt very virus-like but not like a cold or flu at all.

I think I haven't had a cold because my immune system is overactive. In a bad relapse (with full body spasms + Fibromyalgia flare) my NK cell levels are through the roof! And the rest of my immune system is pumped up to the higher limits.

I don't know if this means that my body handles a cold/flu virus easily because it is pumped up/ and trying to fight a more serious infection... or whether the cold/flu virus just does what it wants because my immune system is haywire anyway.

But yes, I feel like I have a constant cold/flu 24/7 as it is anyway!

 

[Chris]

I did not get a cold or flu for the first four years of ME; I seem to be improving slowly, and did get a cold last month--and got through it faster than my grandson, from whom I think I caught it. So maybe...? I have been taking AHCC for a while now, and maybe that is helping rebalance my immune system? Just a hopeful hunch... Chris

 

[Dufresne]

I can't remember ever having the flu (been ill since childhood), so it seems I've enjoyed some sort of immunity to this kind of infection, despite my fair share of colds and recurrent streps. Then a couple months back I contracted a bug which had me nauseous and vomiting for a day. Interestingly this was followed by a 24 hour, 90% reprieve from ME/CFS symptoms. This has, for me, concretized the idea that my energy problems are caused by an immune response or unhealthy cytokine profile. Is this a shift from TH2 to TH1, or the other way around? Is it an appropriate response that's not able to eradicate infection? I don't know. Does anyone know the typical immune response to a flu with regards to TH1 and TH2 balance?

 

[snowathlete]

I got ME/CFS at 27 and am now 30.
I had a mild cold about one year in and got through it quickly. While i had it i felt better from the ME/CFS symptoms. Since then, no colds or anything.

Before i got ME/CFS i got colds and flu all the blimin' time. Many a christmas was ruined for me with Flu. As a child i got colds, flu, tonsilitus all the time. It was insane how often i was ill. I also got Mono severely in my teens, twice!

Great post by the way - can we have it as a sticky? The poll is a surprise, i thought it would be about half and half, but clearly a greater proportion, like me dont get stuff, either at all, or as bad as they used to.

I have wondered the last few years, if there was a killer bird flu or something that swept the globe, i wonder if we ME/CFS sufferers might be the only ones to survive. Then we could poor all the gov't resources into research. Shame, there wont be anyone to pay taxes to pay for it though...

 

[cfidsurfer]

Pre ME: Sick 2x a year like clockwork. Post ME: Haven't cought a cold or flu in 11yrs

Ever since I got mono-(which turned into ME) in 2001 I have never caught a cold or flu or strep ect...! I'm not complaining. I have told my GP, he said it is a "good thing" and blew me off. I have to agree with him, i like not getting sick, but it is relevant to my illness; he didn't seem to get it.

And when you feel like you have a daily combination of a: concussion / bad hangover / flu / sleep deprivation / and an over all sub-human vibe going on for 11 years straight ...............

.............lost my train of thought, better stop before going into ramble or rant.

 

[*GG*]

Im more normal (maybe??) with that now that I have ME/CFS. I was an extremely abnormal child ..to healthy (I didnt have ME/CFS back then) who actually NEVER got sick (except Mono as a teen). I never got colds as a child.. never missed day off of school with a cold/flu or normal childhood things such as chickenpox.. I never caught thou everyone else did.

Looking back I think I must of been TH2 dominant as a child which protected me from colds/flu but at the time I didnt have ME/CFS.
Maybe for some of us.. its a TH2 dominant state which makes us susceptable of getting ME rather then ME causing the TH2 state.

Perhaps you got quit a bit of sun also?, Vitamin D is supposed to be good for illness.

GG

 

[Frickly]

I don't think I can answer on the poll. In the early years of my illness it was a relapsing remitting kind of thing and I was sick all the time. In the last few years, since my illness turned from relapsing to a constant thing, I never get sick. No colds, not even a sore throut. I started LDN about 2.5 months ago and have gotten two colds so hope I am having a shift in the immune system. Good question by the way.

Edited to add that I have three kids so don't think this is a case of not being exposed.

 

[Alesh]

I had caught everything the first 5 years or so, now it is slightly better but still I often catch a cold virus, before the onset I almost never had a cold.

 

[Alesh]

Who of you had BOTH the sudden flu-like onset AND more colds & flus since your ME onset?