Do what? I mean I was sick at least 8 times this year with the common cold, including now. Now I'm getting really tired of this. I've always had a relatively weak immune system, so I guess it's natural for me to be sick more often - to a certain extent.
But this is beyond ridiculous, I eat healthly, exercise regulary, and still, I know that even If I breathe with my mouth open in the winter once or twice in open air I will certainly get a cold.
Does anyone have any idea, how to stay healthy the whole year - or your whole life?
I mean an idea beyond the ususal: eat lots of vegetables, fruits, rice, low-fat meat, lots of OMEGA-3, whatever, all of those are done. What next? Maybe I should eat less - I usually feel better during sickness when I'm hungry...although I'm not overweight at all. I'm really lost here, if I google it, too many results come up - and my doctor is clueless as well... hm.
Ideas?

Sleep with window open - especially on cold days. Of course you have to have all that's needed to keep you warm in bed though.

Colds are spread by a virus, so most of the crap people talk about makes no difference. Wash your hands a lot, and never touch your eyes or nose with your hands. Those make much more difference than diet or vitamins or whatever people talk about.

yudantaiteki Wrote:Colds are spread by a virus, so most of the crap people talk about makes no difference. Wash your hands a lot, and never touch your eyes or nose with your hands. Those make much more difference than diet or vitamins or whatever people talk about.

This is the only good advice you're gonna get, so this might as well be the end of the thread. The only other one is obvious--try not to be around people who are sick.

do you get more than 8 hours of sleep? do you wake up naturally?

getting good sleep has been the most helpful to me, though generally i'm disease immune. i do things like eat undercooked beef and chicken because i'm too lazy to recook it. -_-;

ironically the only time i got food poisoning was when i went to japan for vacation two years ago.

That's just not true. Yes, colds are a virus, but you also need a healthy immune system to fight them off.

Of course you should do the necessary hygeine stuff to prevent colds, but if you have a poor immune system, when you do catch them, you'll experience them in a worse way than someone with a strong immune system, and they'll take longer to leave.

Less stress and good sleep are probably the best things to do after eating correctly, and this is something you're resolving at the moment, so it's probably too early to get worried about this. Think about it again in another year.

According to some sources, too much excersise can be bad for your immune system. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/injur...munity.htm
Also, testosterone is thought to be an immunosuppresant, so this could also play a role in the excersise thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_syst...regulation
Moderate excersise is good for it though.

I dunno, avoiding contact with germs is pretty much impossible I think. Do you wash your hands every time you use a computer, after handling money etc? What if you work at a school. You'll be surrounded by little germ factories. When you're in good health your body just fights the germs off and you don't even notice unless there's a nasty one going around.

I'd say:
plenty of sleep.
Generally not being stressed/exhausted. So long exhausting gym routines are probably bad.
Eating a lot fruit/vegetables.
Plenty of water.
Occasional sunlight.
Fresh air.

are all important.

nadiatims Wrote:I dunno, avoiding contact with germs is pretty much impossible I think. Do you wash your hands every time you use a computer, after handling money etc? What if you work at a school. You'll be surrounded by little germ factories. When you're in good health your body just fights the germs off and you don't even notice unless there's a nasty one going around.

The cold virus enters your body through your nose and eyes, so as long as you avoid touching your nose and eyes when you're out in public, you can reduce the chance of getting the cold virus into your body.

Of course it's not possible to prevent 100% of infections, and it's still possible to get a cold through airborne transmission.

nadiatims Wrote:I dunno, avoiding contact with germs is pretty much impossible I think. Do you wash your hands every time you use a computer, after handling money etc? What if you work at a school. You'll be surrounded by little germ factories. When you're in good health your body just fights the germs off and you don't even notice unless there's a nasty one going around.

It's true that you get germs on you all day, and that can't be helped, and you're gonna get sick sometimes. There is a limit to the helpfulness of washing your hands--you get diminishing returns after a certain point, and if you do it obsessively it can lead to health problems with your skin.

There are certain times where it is especially important to wash your hands; for example, any situation in which you can get fecal-oral exposure. That's why you should wash your hands after going to the bathroom or after changing a diaper. You should also wash your hands after dealing with sick people to any degree. You should also wash your hands in situations where you could give germs of fecal-oral exposure to others, such as when feeding children or preparing food that will be eaten without cooking.

It's true that the general state of your immune system is important, but the problem is that everything that affects your immune system is so wishy-washy. Thus, the best general advice that can be given about your immune system is 'maintain your general good health.'

So the grand total of useful advice is:
Wash your hands periodically (especially when dealing with sick people or being around feces)
Don't touch your face with your hands
Try not to be near sick people
Maintain your general health

That's really about it.

I know from your other threads that you are suffering from depression which is known to weaken the immune system. So, I would say that once you get that taken care of your physical health will improve naturally on its own. But, also as long as you have depression your immune system is going to be in a weakened state really no matter what you do.

In Japan, the government's recommendation is to wash your hands upon returning home and to gargle water (often with antimicrobial drops added). People also wear masks to prevent spreading or catching colds while in public. Also, try to refrain from touching your face as the behavior is unhealthy and a bit uncouth.

I remember seeing an interesting device on TV once. It was a syringe with an attachment that went into/against one nostril and allowed one to flush their nose with water (maybe a weak saline solution). The water went in one nostril and came out the other so long as one closed the passage between their nose and mouth like when diving.

Oniichan Wrote:In Japan, the government's recommendation is to wash your hands upon returning home and to gargle water (often with antimicrobial drops added). People also wear masks to prevent spreading or catching colds while in public. Also, try to refrain from touching your face as the behavior is unhealthy and a bit uncouth.

I remember seeing an interesting device on TV once. It was a syringe with an attachment that went into/against one nostril and allowed one to flush their nose with water (maybe a weak saline solution). The water went in one nostril and came out the other so long as one closed the passage between their nose and mouth like when diving.

Gargling water, even with antimicrobial drops, does not help prevent sickness. Neither does wearing masks to try not to get sick (it only works in the opposite direction--masks can help you from spreading your own germs to others). Every culture has ideas about how to prevent sickness that ultimately don't do anything. These are examples.

Flushing your nose with water, I'm pretty sure, would also be ineffective.

(Incidentally, I asked a very smart Japanese friend of mine why he wears the masks sometimes to try to prevent getting the flu during flu season. He responded that he knows that it doesn't really work, but he likes that it makes it feel like everyone is fighting the flu together.)

Well to prevent catching a cold, a cheap N95 mask would probably work fine. As for the nose thing, I think it was designed with allergen removal in mind.

On gargling:

http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-tr..._help.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16242593


As a remedy:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cold-remedies/ID00036

Do you have a job?

Getting sick has to do with both DIET and HYGIENE.
Germs are EVERYWHERE in the workplace.

I'm a bit of germaphobe (fear of germs, I made that word up).
So I go a little overboard.

EVERY morning (especially if it's a shared space), remove everything off your desk/cubicle (if you have one) and wipe everything clean with some type of spray/Lysol/Pine Sol/eco-friendly cleaner/whatever. No joke. All my co-workers get sick and I don't.

If haven't already, CLEAN your keyboards (at least once a week). They are one of the worst
offenders when it comes to spreading viruses/bacteria/etc in the workplace.

Anytime, you come from outside into your building/office,
go to the bathroom and WASH your hands. You are bringing
in germs from the outside.

Be VERY careful with door knobs, faucets, and any type
of handle that you have to touch with your hand. They are among
the most dirty, bacteria-filled surfaces out there. People NEVER clean
them. I usually wrap my hand with the end of my shirt and then use my hand.

When I come back to my apartment, I wash my hands,
take a shower, and CHANGE into a fresh set of clothes. I'm
afraid of all the germs that have gotten on my clothes
throughout the day.

There was a recent health study that revealed that cell phones
are DIRTIER than toilets. Putting your mouth/finger/face on a
cell screen(especially smartphones) is dirtier than doing the
same thing with your toilet. People always touch their cell
phones and NEVER clean them....ewwwww. Use a microfiber
cloth with a few drops of water to clean your cell phone a
few times a day.

As for your diet, I'd suggest adding variety to your vegetables.
Try to eat different veggies every day for 7 days. Something I
like to do is use Urban Organic (home delivery of fresh organic produce).
I copy their list of veggies and that becomes my shopping list for the week.
(http://www.urbanorganic.com/view/this_week).

Oh, and if you haven't done so, WASH all your vegetables when you get
home. People have been touching your veggies at the supermarket (when
they are picking fruits and veggies). You have NO IDEA where their hands
have been. Wash everything with hot water thoroughly.

If possible, make your own lunch everyday. Germs are everywhere at cafes and buffets (spit
falling into the buffet food when people are talking,people scratching themselves while standing next to food, employees with bad hygiene).

If you're really paranoid, I'd also get a Verilux UV-C Sanitizing Wand. It's a UV light that
kills 99.9% of germs by placing the lamp close to their surfaces for a certain amount of time (depends on the virus/bacteria you're trying to kill). Here's a Youtube video of it in action:

OK. I know I'm a little crazy.
But I also never get sick and everyone around me does.

Even if you don't get sick, you can become a carrier
and get someone else sick (and maybe one day it'll
come back to make you sick...lol).

do you go to sleep at 3am or something? lol.
I hear that going to sleep early, by early I mean 10pm, boosts your immune system and allows your brain to release growth hormones and all that good stuff that it wouldn't release if you went to sleep after 2am.

so anyways you should try that if you go to sleep late.

^^ um... i wouldn't advise anyone to become that OCD. Putting that much effort into eradicating germs is probably worse than the occasional cold.

i think just being a generally hygenic person is good enough, when combined with the right lifestyle (assuming you don't have HIV, aren't having chemotherapy, etc). Germs cause illness, but you don't have to see them as dirty or disgusting, or something to be afraid of.

btw, i rarely get sick either while everyone around me does, and i don't go around opening doors with my sleeve or cleaning my mobile a few times a day.

EDIT
p.s. we need more people like you in hospitals though chamcham. If you work in a hospital, i hope you do care as much as chamcham does...

I would say don't spray with spray/Lysol/Pine Sol/whatever..... because they have mad chemicals that's bad for you (neurotoxic, etc,etc)... you shouldn't be inhaling that or touching that every day. don't be air-pollutin with that shit

just use white distilled vinegar for the germs... it's cheaper and safer and probably more effective. yes it smells like a salad for 3 hrs but it's so much better for your health

White distilled vinegar is a popular household cleanser, effective for killing most ... effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs, due to its level of acidity.

don't tell me you're too much of a germaphobe that you only trust the toxic cleaning products

I went the other direction and made friends with bacteria.

I make my own kombucha (2gal/week) and eat a lot of yogurt. The bacteria in my stomach lining are made of stainless steel.

I also never get sick while everyone else around me does.

As a public health professional, maybe I can provide some insight.

All of the advice about frequent hand-washing, not touching your face, staying away from sick people, etc. has been great. Good hustle! Also, make sure you get your yearly flu vaccine, if you can.

Raschaverak - do you have asthma or some other kind of chronic upper respiratory condition? This will often make you more susceptible to upper respiratory infections. Also, if you live somewhere with particularly bad air pollution, this will cause you to be sick more often. My best friend is an asthmatic who lives in Beijing, and she is sick with colds and flu ALL THE TIME.

Another thing to consider are your tonsils. Do you still have them? The friend mentioned above had to take a semester off in college because she was constantly chronically sick and weak. She saw multiple specialists (one doctor even insisted on testing her for HIV, even though she had never been sexually active or taken drugs with needles) and no one could figure it out until she went to the ENT, who diagnosed her with "chronic cryptic tonsillitis." Basically, her tonsils were formed in a way that constantly harbored and unleashed repeated infections on her (we're talking ten episodes of strep throat in one year). After having them removed, she was fine (except for her yearly flu).

If you really are exercising regularly and eating a well-balanced diet like you say, then I suggest you look at other factors. A major one (which has already been pointed out here) is sleep. Also, you might look into alternative forms of exercise which are less intense - they say yoga is very good for maintaining good body function, particularly the immune system. I am not sure there is much scientific evidence to back that up, but it can't hurt, I suppose.

Oniichan Wrote:I remember seeing an interesting device on TV once. It was a syringe with an attachment that went into/against one nostril and allowed one to flush their nose with water (maybe a weak saline solution). The water went in one nostril and came out the other so long as one closed the passage between their nose and mouth like when diving.

This is just a positive pressure variant on the Neti Pot; I use a neti pot every so often. It's very good for flushing out mucous and clearing the sinuses when I have a cold or allergies (and also seems to get out irritants that cause the hay fever) but I don't think it does much to actually prevent colds. Once the cold virus is in your nose you really don't have much time before you become infected; unless you could see the exact moment you got the virus it would probably be too late.

I usually follow the regimen recommended by commoncold.org -- a first-generation antihistamine and ibuprofen every 12 hours. That usually does a great job at clearing up most of the symptoms.

Cardiovascular exercises for 30 minutes a day. At least 3 times a week. It needs to vigorous enough to raise your pulse and make you breath a little hard.

Stress suppresses your immune system, and it does a whole lot of other nasty stuff, the science of which is compellingly detailed in the book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. You'll have more to worry about than the sniffles if you don't get it under control. Combine stress management with a good diet and regular exercise and you're going to be as healthy as you can be. If you're taking any synthetic drugs, then try doing a bit of background research on them, since they can have worse long-term side-effects than the stuff mentioned on the instructions. I'd do the same for flu vaccines if you're planning to follow that recommendation, too.

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I haven't had a cold (sore troath, coughing and sneezing, running nose) the last two years. Used to have a cold around November, and then a strong one around February. To top it off it seems my system grew allergic to the cold virus, so I had a nasty allergy at about the same time or shortly before! Swollen tongue, swollen whatever-that-thing-is-at-the-back-of-my-mouth-that-dangles-down.

I noticed enough of a pattern to confirm myself that enough Vitamin D cured it.

Of course you don't want to take medical advice from random blogs. So I did some research, and eventually decided to try high doses of Vitamin D, after I read the toxicity on Wikipedia:

Wikipedia Wrote:(...) sustained intake of more than 1250 micrograms/day (50,000 IU) can produce overt toxicity after several months

The trick is, multi vitamins are worthless for this. Most resources I read recommending Vitamin D as prevention for the cold suggested doses of 2500+ IU per day.

The last multi vitamins I bought have 5 μg, I think that's ~200 IU, and they cost upwards of 15 €!

The "D-Cure" supplements I bought cost 4 € and have 4 doses of 25000 IU!

Take one per 10 day as a base prevention that's a minimum of 2500 IU per day.

Take one per week at those times you know you used to get a rough cold.

If you suspect you are starting a cold (headaches, fever...) then you can safely take one high dose (25000 IU) for a couple days, and BOOOM it's gone. I did this once.

I don't mind so much to feel weak for a few days. I mean, I never went to a doctor for a cold. Just took an aspirin for fever, and then sometimes pills for the sore throat.

The thing that sucked about colds, is that my nose would run for days, and then it would be red, ache, and then get scars because of rubbing it all the time.

So screw the cold. 4 € a month o_O ...

Could probably even skip prevention and just take a 25000 IU dose for a couple days when a cold shows up. But I read that Vitamin D can also lift mood during winter (link) so figured I'd take it through the winter.

PS: The most thorough articles I read about Vitamin D and Influenza also suggested getting a blood test to verify if you have enough or too much. I don't take anywhere near as much as they suggsted, as I wrote above the most I take on a regular basis would be 25000 / 7 (one high dose per week) which is less than 4000 IU. And as soon as spring comes back and there is more sun, I stop it. Use your head. I am not a doctor..

PPS: Then again, I also went to India for 3 months in 2010. Maybe I gained a +10 permanent skill increase to Immune System. Who knows. Haha. Just joking! More seriously.. if you want to try this I believe it's very safe, but it also will take a couple year before you can really attest that it works for you. Although some people get colds during the summer too, so that gives more opportunities to see how well it works.

Or you could just make sure you get some sun each day. Step outside during your lunch break. Move your desk next to a window.

IceCream Wrote:According to some sources, too much excersise can be bad for your immune system. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/injuryprevention.

I don't think many of us are capable of doing continuous high-intensity endurance workouts for over 90 minutes, so we should be okay on that end. =)