lansbergen
Senior Member
- Messages
- 2,512
I do not know what a strong virus feeling is. Can you explain?
Since your ME/CFS onset, have you caught the Cold & or Flu more or less frequently?
- Thread starter livingwithcfids
- Start date
I do not know what a strong virus feeling is. Can you explain?
stridor
Senior Member
- Messages
- 881
- Location
- Powassan, Ontario
Last cold was 2011, the one before 2008, then 2004....the reason that I remember them is that when I get one, it is nasty.
MeSci
ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
- Messages
- 8,234
- Location
- Cornwall, UK
Do you mean that you only get that when you think you have a virus? I get tired and sore eyes and mild headaches on and off much of the time, and see them as ME symptoms (or maybe occasionally hay fever or dust mite allergy). I get many cold/flu-like symptoms much of the time, usually indicating that I have overdone things. ME symptoms are largely due to a persistent/recurrent immune response, apparently in the absence of an active infection. Cold/flu symptoms are also due to our immune response.
I do think there may be subtle differences that could distinguish ME symptoms from respiratory infections, such as a different type of aching, perhaps, and some people reckon that if they produce a lot of nasal secretions it is a proper upper respiratory infection. I don't think a sore throat is usually good evidence, as I get these when I don't think I have an upper respiratory infection. Sometimes I think they are due to stale secretions draining from the nose or ears. They may contain irritating/inflammatory microorganisms or their debris, but I wouldn't regard that as infection.
paul80
Senior Member
- Messages
- 298
It's hard to explain feelings but it's like a heavy feeling in your head.
paul80
Senior Member
- Messages
- 298
No i can get sore eyes/head without virus but only if i'm not resting them enough.
Normally when i don't have a virus i can sit at the computer till about afternoon (if i've had good rest and sleep) before i need to go lie down. But when i have a virus i can only get up for about an hour before i need to go lie down. I spend most of the day in bed just getting up for short periods. It feels like my body is using some of the small amount of energy i have available to fight the virus so all the parts of my body get sorer quicker than normal.
When i first started getting viruses often, i didn't realize it was a virus because i lack a lot of the common virus symptoms. Initially i just thought my m.e was getting worse but i would get better after about a week and go back to "normal". But after a while i noticed it always happened when a virus was going around my family.
I actually feel better about it now because i know the virus will go away, where as before i was always worried it was permanent. But i still really want to find a way to protect against viruses.
- Messages
- 20
No colds and flu.
stridor
Senior Member
- Messages
- 881
- Location
- Powassan, Ontario
My reply above was in 2014. In 2015, I tested positive for mycoplasma and HHV-6. Got those cleared up by the end of the year and then had a bad cold last year. I'd have to say that the further I advance with recovery the more susceptible I am to viruses.
Snow Leopard
Hibernating
- Messages
- 5,902
- Location
- South Australia
I've been catching almost everything going around. 2016 was particularly bad for me and I also had a bad bacterial infection in dec-jan that has set me back (either the infection or the antibiotics too?).
meandthecat
Senior Member
- Messages
- 206
- Location
- West country UK
I used to get colds like anyone else till the ME struck then nothing for 7 or 8 yrs. As I began to improve I got my first cold and even in the midst of sneezes and coughs there was hope. Sad isn't it, I was happy to have a cold.
I now get the odd cold or flu'y thing but not as bad as those around me.
It could of course be that my false illness beliefs have been modified by the profound and caring treatment that I received, not, and I no longer have to big it up. Perhaps they could teach me to float in the air and fart rainbows!
In a post-truth world anything can be believed, but gravity has a way of re-asserting itself.
I now get the odd cold or flu'y thing but not as bad as those around me.
It could of course be that my false illness beliefs have been modified by the profound and caring treatment that I received, not, and I no longer have to big it up. Perhaps they could teach me to float in the air and fart rainbows!
In a post-truth world anything can be believed, but gravity has a way of re-asserting itself.
Jesse2233
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,942
- Location
- Southern California
Have been improving with mHBOT and now have my first cold since onset a year ago. Before I would get sick 4-5 times a year.
Mel9
Senior Member
- Messages
- 995
- Location
- NSW Australia
Revisiting an old thread because I have my first cold in years! Feel horrible but the aches and pains seem very different from ME CFS aches. And I have a fever! (37C) for me is at least 2deg hotter than normal. Is this a sign I am on the mend?
The results of the majority here, match my experiences. Since CFS/lyme hardly any colds, and in a number of times I'd be the only person in the office to not get the flu which I found bizarre given how I was run down so often. I can appreciate the TH2 dominant theory accounting for this. I am also highly reactive to lots of chemicals, mold, foods, pollution but at the same time the blood tests I had on my immune system had me at HIV equivalent. All markers (CD4/CD8, nuetrophils, T cells, NK cells, etc) were down at bottom of the range or below normal.
Recently though things have changed. I have had 4 colds/flu in the last 6-7 mths more than in the prior 18 yrs and I really want to know why. Something has shifted in my immune system and despite the succession of colds I am seeing this as a good thing, though I'll get tired of it by year end if I have to go thru 20yrs of colds that have been dormant in my body. The only things that I can think has changed me has been working outdoors and a spell on high dose Vit D and Vit K which sent me down hill badly earlier in the year. I am going to see if my lymphopenia has changed, but am looking online to see if others went thru this as part of a recovery process.
- Messages
- 23
No difference that I can tell. I have religiously worn n95s for the past several years, and run HEPA filters constantly. Prior to 2019 I definitely got sick more often but isolating has largely protected me from infectious disease with the exception of my '23 COVID infection which gave me ME in the first place
I had a viral infection onset. I do not get colds or flu anymore, however I may have a slightly runny nose or enlarged lymph nodes. The thing is I get almost total relief from ME symptoms when that happens, k=like if the family have a really bad flu, I don't get it, but have energy and no PEM at all. I'm very curious if anyone else experiences that? I had breast cancer in 2013 and for nearly 3 years I was back to pre-ME normal, then it gradually returned and I am now moderate. I believe it was the immunosuppression from the chemotherapy that did it. The ME symptoms I have can be described as having the flu permanently - aches, temperature dysregulation, no energy, unrestful sleep... but if I am exposed to a virus, they go away!! Any immunologists out there?
Same here. I've seen two immunologists in the past and asked them about this improvement in symptoms with a cold virus. They are aware of the phenomenon in a subset of PWME but could not offer an explanation.
- Messages
- 10
It may be of interest that I raised this very topic with Dr Bhupesh Prusty at the 2023 Invest in ME conference in Cambridge. In his research he showed that people with milder covid infections were more likely to develop long covid, the reason being that their immune systems were already responding to latent herpes family viruses and consequently were more 'primed' to deal with incoming viruses. The consequence however was a greater likelihood of immune escape by said viruses after an immune challenge.
I noted that Dr Clancy, in conversation with Dr John Campbell, commented that very large numbers of top athletes get infectious mono at some point in their training programs - intense exercise is an immune challenge. When I heard that I wondered if that is why so many people with ME seem to be the hitherto active outdoor types, not the couch potatoes.
Having read some of the other posts on here, I think there is a progressive aspect to ME, at least in a sub-group, which is less rarely commented upon or researched. In the first phase, this group catch everything going. Eventually the immune system becomes exhausted and, given the failure of the adaptive immune response to mount effective, targeted responses the innate immune system simply puts up a generalised inflammatory response - result the ME gets worse, but you stop catching things. That's been my experience anyway.
I noted that Dr Clancy, in conversation with Dr John Campbell, commented that very large numbers of top athletes get infectious mono at some point in their training programs - intense exercise is an immune challenge. When I heard that I wondered if that is why so many people with ME seem to be the hitherto active outdoor types, not the couch potatoes.
Having read some of the other posts on here, I think there is a progressive aspect to ME, at least in a sub-group, which is less rarely commented upon or researched. In the first phase, this group catch everything going. Eventually the immune system becomes exhausted and, given the failure of the adaptive immune response to mount effective, targeted responses the innate immune system simply puts up a generalised inflammatory response - result the ME gets worse, but you stop catching things. That's been my experience anyway.