Is your immune system stronger?

[xJJx]

Does having a number of autoimmune issues mean you actually have a strong immune system?

[bluebug]

Nope.

It means your immune system is weaker as your body is attacking itself. In other words your body is thinking another part of your body is a foreign agent that needs to be eliminated.

People who are thought of in layman’s terms of having a strong immune system don't have any diseases or conditions where their body is attacking itself. In addition they rarely get ill from other viruses, bacteria or fungi.

This means for example they rarely show symptoms from catching the common cold which is a virus which mutates regularly. It is believed that most adults in the Northern Europe get common colds about 10 times a year. Those with "strong" immune systems catch the cold but don't show any signs or symptoms of having it. There as if you have a "weaker" immune system including an autoimmune disease you are more likely to get ill in a way that shows from it.

[Helena877 in reply to bluebug]

I was wondering this just the other day!

It's funny because there are a few of us in my family with autoimmune diseases and we rarely catch a cold or the flu. I always get tummy bugs but fully recover in less than a day even with something dreadful like the Noro virus. It's like I get it all in one hit and my body fights it off like crazy.

This article suggests having an autoimmune disease 'could' super charge your ability to fight off regular bugs and that idea definitely resonates with what I see in my own family.

autoimmunemom.com/immune-sy...

[bluebug in reply to Helena877]

It depends what the autoimmune disease is. Remember there are a wide range of diseases.

[dang in reply to Helena877]

Same here! My thyroid antibodies are through the roof but I can't catch a cold no matter what. Everyone around me is sick all the time, I'll get a tickle in the back of my throat and the feeling you get when you're just getting sick, then even later in the day I'm over it while my family will be stuck with the cold for the next week. All winter they've been sick, I haven't gotten sick once... been like this my whole life getting a cold only every few years.

I always assumed that my immune system is over active which is the reason for me not getting colds but also having Hashimoto's.

[maggi999 in reply to Helena877]

Yes, that's my experience as well, those members of my family that have autoimmune conditions rarely catch colds, flu etc. Autoimmune conditions are a stronger that normal reaction to something that the immune system regards as a 'foreigner', but in doing so, it weakens the body as it attacks the body tissues.

[Helena877]

True. My friend has Crohn's disease and was/is on immunosuppressants. She caught everything going this past winter.

[Hidden in reply to Helena877]

That's the immunosuppressants

[xJJx]

I have not had a cold for years either .

[BadHare]

My friend never caught colds or had flu, etc, till after RAI treatment for Graves.

[Abby2003]

I thought it was just me! I have been surrounded by, and nursing, sick adults and children at home, colleagues at work and friends all winter and not caught a thing (touch wood).

I thought it was just good luck but perhaps not and there is some credence in this theory.

Long may it last 😁

[BlueMundo]

In my household (touchwood) I'm the only one who doesn't get the colds and bugs that everyone else suffers with. I'm the healthiest chronically ill person I know!

[posthinking01]

Whow - I used to be in contact with people with streaming colds and as you say get a tickle up my nose as if the virus was there and then nothing................mylate Mum used to say I was probably a carrier then...............I think you are right - if you have an auto immune condition it can be helpful - but that's about the only way it it............rest of it is rubbish.................

[JanW]

Interesting my family went down with flu this winter but I was the only one who didn't, weird because ana's high. The article Helena 877 put through was also interesting.

[Kalicocat]

I'm the same, haven't had a cold in 3 years, and then I was cold free for 2 years before that. I thought it was from taking Vitamin D as that is listed as one of the effects of an optimum vitamin D level.

[bluebug in reply to Kalicocat]

I was going to come back and mention most of the posters on here are taking vitamins and minerals supplements to ensure they have more than adequate levels. So when you are presented with a cold virus your immune system is strong enough to fight it.

In regards to norovirus I've never had it even in the sickest periods of health, and part of the reason I believe is basic hygiene e.g hand washing. (Of course now I will come down with it.)

[Helena877 in reply to bluebug]

Yeah sure I take them - but for 38yrs I rarely supplemented at all. I've been like this for life.

[blondpalomino]

I have hashimoto's and I don't often get a cold, but I do get allergic rhinitis, which is like hayfever all the year round,my immune system is fighting everything!

[CCSP-27]

Mine too ! Hashimotos although first Endo says not enough antibodies to call it Hashi !!!

Now what's all that about !!! Either you've antibodies (of whatever quantity) or you don't

Am I wrong ?

Other A I diseases too - Rheum Arthritis, Sorgens (sp ? ...the eye one) Asthma and Bronchiectasis, Acid reflux and awful Gord, Pylori in my gut (treated but not gone yet), an odd sort of Odema in my legs and last but not least Allergic Rhinitis.

Do you think maybe I qualify !!! 😏

Seeing new Endo next week - here's hoping for a change of ......something .....anything !

And lest I forget.....undiagnosed multiple brain lesions which I firmly believe are a form Neuro Vasculitis , another A I disease !