Viewing 32 posts - 1 through 32 (of 32 total)
  • Improving My Immune System
  • DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    Is there a way to do it? I’d consider myself to be healthy – don’t drink (the odd glass of wine or pint when I go out for lunch etc), don’t smoke and eat decent food (no processed sh*t).

    Since my little lad started nursery in September though, he’s had a few bugs all of which I seem to have caught from him but they’ve ended up knocking me out for 2 or 3 days at a time…

    Is there owt I can do? Off to the docs this morning and going to ask about the flu jab etc but is there anything I can take (vitamins etc?) to help?

    Cheers
    Dave

    Android
    Free Member

    Boarding school?

    Loads of fruit, if I feel a cold comming on drop some extra vitamin C. Then try to ignor it and just carry on. (or MTFU as they say)

    ollie
    Free Member

    Try taking Zinc tablets, Since I’ve been taking them I seem to have avoided a lot of colds and bugs the rest of the family get and when I do catch something It’s usually gone within a couple of days.

    Our two year old has just started play school and seems to come home with a different bug every week so It’s inevitable that I’ll catch something as will you regardless of how healthy you think you are.

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    MSP
    Full Member

    Don’t over sterilise your life, a lot of people, especially parents keep too clean a home environment, which actually weakens the immune system.
    I live in squalor and filth, and have an immune system like a thermo nuclear reaction 😉

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    If you have a balanced diet as you suggest you do I doubt supplements will really help, but I know there are plenty on here that will disagree with me.

    Will they give a healthy adult a flu jab?

    I reckon it is simply inevitable – new parents generally do pick up loads of bugs when kids go to nursery etc.

    grievoustim
    Free Member

    i used to take vitamin c, zinc etc at the first sign of a cold (based on advise from an article in a mag)

    However a recent article on Lifehacker.com went through basically everything I was taking and said there was little or no evidence for any of it making a significant difference (including vit c)

    I don’t know what to believe now

    I seem to have got ill alot over the last 2 winters (missed a ride last night due to not feeling well)

    I have had a stressful personal life for a while – and that doeasn’t help

    I am now going to try and make an effort to get more sleep – I like to stay up late in the evenings (as I feel like I am maximising my “me” time”) – but I am wondering if this is not helping

    I’m going to try my best to get 7 or 8 hours a night for a few weeks and see if things improve

    Shandy
    Free Member

    I’ve been taking vitamin C for a couple of years but this winter I’ve been taking Glutamine and it has made a big difference, my wife and kid have had a couple of colds already and I’ve been fine.

    Torminalis
    Free Member

    don’t drink (the odd glass of wine or pint when I go out for lunch etc), don’t smoke and eat decent food (no processed sh*t)

    I think that this is where you are going wrong. If you submit your body to a constant barrage of abuse then it tends to adjust its operational parameters to account for a little hardship and then a mere virus will be lost in the maelstrom of liver and kidney activity.

    I would advise half a bottle of whisky and 20 B&H to start you off.

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    If your diet had little or no vitamin c in it, I have no doubt supplementing it would be beneficial.

    But as we eat good, healthy balanced diets, I really see no reason to supplement with expensive tablets.

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    I’ve been taking vitamin C for a couple of years but this winter I’ve been taking Glutamine and it has made a big difference, my wife and kid have had a couple of colds already and I’ve been fine.

    In the interest of balance, my wife takes multi-vitamins, iron and vitamin c regularly. I refuse to take any of it (in the interest of a quiet life I will take vitamin c if I am in the middle of a really bad cold). But my wife has no more nor no less colds than I get. Sometimes I am worse than her, sometimes I get nothing and she is hit sideways.

    IMO the whole lot is rubbish and a waste of good money.

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    Just been to the docs and he said theres nothing concrete to suggest that taking extra vitamins etc help. He did start going on about some kind of lab on Salisbury Plain that was setup in the 40s to find a cure for the cold and is now a (suspected) germ warfare type place! Ace!

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    So what was his suggestion then? You get carted off to this research lab for a series of invasive tests for the greater good?

    scottidog
    Free Member

    Eat loads of garlic and you will never get ill. Fact!

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Why? Will the germs not want to get to close to your smelly breath?

    anc
    Free Member

    Your kids are doing you a favour passing these bugs on, that in itself will help your immume system. It gets better mate honest, its always bad for a couple of years with young kids. Eventually your body and theirs sorts itself out and you pick up far far less. Don’t get sucked into the suppliment con, if your diet is balanced and heathly and your not claiming a pension they are a total waste of money.

    Moses
    Full Member

    Take the kids to nursery & expose yourself to lots of bugs, it’s the only way. Go to places where you’ll meet lots of unwashed other people.

    I spent three years working in a sewage treatment plant, breathing it in, & I never had a cold in all that time.

    By the way, there’s nothing suspected about the Porton Down site. It certainly deals with germ & chemical warfare (countermeasure) research. It’s next door to the PHLS labs which were separated off a few years ago. The cold research work has now ceased, they realised it just wasn’t worth the effort.

    snowslave
    Full Member

    Dave, it just comes with the territory of having a kid at nursery. Noel’s in a melting pot of disease and has no immunity yet so will pick everything up and bring it home to share. You’ll therefore be exposed to this stuff cos he’ll bring it home.

    I’ve never read this in a report or anything, but just seems to happen to everyone. It stops being an issue afterna couple of years I seem to recall?

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    I’ll just have to put Noel in one of those plastic bubble things Steve. Seems easier than putting myself in one.

    woody2000
    Full Member

    I feel your pain Dave 🙂

    When I moved in with Mrs W2K (NHS Physio), I was ill for about 2 years with all the bugs she carries around dealing with the great unwashed. Then Jnr W2K Mk1 and Mk2 came along and the process has begun again, though I suspect that’s as much to do with sleep deprivation as anything! Get out on your bike, and keep away from the filthy beast as much as you can 😉

    Mounty_73
    Full Member

    With me I find that eating a good balanced diet, plenty of fruit & drinking green tea helps a lot.

    It doesn’t stop me from catching colds etc, but it does shorten the time period massively, I get the colds/bugs, but they generally only last a few days instead of weeks.

    My neighbour is a food nutritionist and she swears by green tea. 🙂

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    My neighbour is a food nutritionist

    One word…

    Gillian McKeith

    Mounty_73
    Full Member

    Gillian McKeith

    Just googled her…..she looks like she needs a good meal ! 😉

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    McKeith is a charlatan. Google “bad science McKeith” if you want to know more

    Mounty_73
    Full Member

    Google “bad science McKeith” if you want to know more

    Arrrr now I recognise her face……….the poo lady !

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    she looks like she needs a good meal

    She is probably allergic and/or phobic to a good meal.

    (Sorry, but you have to be watching ‘I’m a Celebrity’ to get my attempt at humour).

    🙂

    trout
    Free Member
    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    LOL excellent. I shall point my wife in the direction of that article the next time she insists I have vitamin c because I sniffled a bit.

    Shandy
    Free Member

    I’ve been taking vitamin C for a couple of years but this winter I’ve been taking Glutamine and it has made a big difference, my wife and kid have had a couple of colds already and I’ve been fine.

    In the interest of balance, my wife takes multi-vitamins, iron and vitamin c regularly. I refuse to take any of it (in the interest of a quiet life I will take vitamin c if I am in the middle of a really bad cold). But my wife has no more nor no less colds than I get. Sometimes I am worse than her, sometimes I get nothing and she is hit sideways.
    IMO the whole lot is rubbish and a waste of good money.

    Has she tried Glutamine? Have you?

    I started it after reading positive reports on another forum and seeing it recommended in the Joe Friel book as a boost for the immune system under heavy training.

    FunkyDunc
    Free Member

    “Just been to the docs and he said theres nothing concrete to suggest that taking extra vitamins etc help. He did start going on about some kind of lab on Salisbury Plain that was setup in the 40s to find a cure for the cold and is now a (suspected) germ warfare type place! Ace!”

    So basically he was telling you to go away and not waste his time?

    Wasn’t there a recent report that said exercise was the best way to try and avoid colds?

    Mrs FD takes zinc and selenium tablets, apparently given to cancer patients to boost their immune system.

    william
    Free Member

    A good mental attitude helps, just refuse to get ill and you are less likely too.

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Has she tried Glutamine? Have you?

    No (unless any of her snake-oil multi-vitamins have it in) and no, but I am happy to assume it will be of precisely the same effect as any other dietary supplement to be honest.

    juiced
    Free Member

    i take cold showers ( going through to hot showers) after rides often.think i read it helps the immune system. Not sure if it helps the though as i am presently ill, although this is the first time in a very long time i have picked up a bug.

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