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Relative to my non cycling friends, i eat more heathily, get more sleep, drink less, work fewer horus and do more exercise. Yet i seem to be ill more often, about once every 1-2 months. Had the flu recently, barely got over it then got a cold. The after affects are the real pain, as it really seems to affect my fitness for a week or two after i get better. whats going on??
is it cycling? i commute by bike every day (20 minutes each way), could the cold weather be doing it?
It's your name.
Every time you say it, it sounds like a sneeze.
Nope, you just have a gay immune system 🙂
even tho you eat well, you may still need more vitamins 'n stuff. also riding everyday, work etc. you may just be run down, body not really able to recover properly
You may have become run down, got ill, then not recovered properly. So your immune system is still struggling.
Try actually cutting out all exercise for a couple of weeks. This will give your body time to relax properly, and recover fully. It may take longer, but it could just be that you need to rest.
I'm finding too, that I have viral things one after the other and getting quite down about it as it's affecting my motivation to get out on my bike. I take some supplements like vitamin C and Zinc but, I still feel constantly exhausted. Like the original poster, I can't understand how those around me who lead a supposedly less healthy life don't seem to get half as sick. 🙁
I don't think you're iller than an average sedentarytfatbastardwithkids like me
Suppose you may notice it more as I'd have to be pretty poorly to notice a downturn in my ability to eat crap & watch tv
take a rest, have some chocs. I do
Agree with RudeBoy you have to give your body time to recover. It's a pain not being able to get out but worth it once you have fully recovered. 🙂
sleep and rest and hydration is key.
I have been taking a mixture of vitamins in the run up to xmas and new year, plus I have switched over to green tea.....touch wood, I have managed to escape it all......but then I could just be lucky?
Had a few people tell me to switch over to green tea.
Rest is usually a good option, take a week or so off from exercise...
For the 2 weeks over christmas i literally did no exercise whatsoever and thats definitely helped.
I think it might just be that i'm noticing it more than lazy friends as i'm doing more exercise. I think my friends definition of feeling 'ok' is being able to get up at midday and switch the xbox on.
do vitamin tablets help at all?
Get the Flu jab it will make you ill but you'll benefit in the long run
Agree with RudeBoy
Don't do that! You'll set a a dangerous precedent!
Did you really have flu of was it just manflu? Real flu is a serious illness that will keep you in bed / off work for a couple of weeks.
My guess would be that you are not getting more ill but merely are noticing it more. a couple of colds each winter is common.
Cold weather will not make you more ill. Old wives tale
I have a lousy diet and pay no attention to proper nutrition, yet I never get ill, and have not missed a ride due to illness in 12 years. It does not seem to be hereditary, as both my kids often get ill. So I suppose it's down to attitude :o)
Sorry rudeboy but I'm going to have to agree with you as well 😯
Stay off the bike, including the commute until you feel 100%. A few years ago my GP poleaxed himself for 4 weeks simply by getting back on his bike too early after a bad cold.
And no, vitamin tablets are a waste of money if you have anything like a reasonable diet
Wash your hands more often and stop touching your nose you dirty bugger. You don't pick up colds from being sneezed on you pick them up from being sneezed on then touching your mouth and nose.
Hand wipes and no snot searching, you'll be fine..
or some men are just wimpish over a sniffle? 😉
IGMC
Definitely fit people notice being ill more than unfit. If you're normally hovering around a 10 on the fitness scale, and the illness takes you down to 2, its like being hit with a brick. If you only ever float around 3 normally, 2 doesnt seem so bad!
You don't pick up colds from being sneezed on you pick them up from being sneezed on then touching your mouth and nose.
Not sure thats entirely true. If someone sneezes on you it's highly likely to end up in your nose and mouth. Just as much as if someone sneezes on your hand and you touch your mouth/nose. However you could pick up non-sneezy bugs from doing those things, so its still good advice! Being ill is good anyway, builds up your immune system for later life.
[i]A few years ago my GP poleaxed himself for 4 weeks simply by getting back on his bike too early after a bad cold. [/i]
I would have thought in evolutionary terms such a fragile creature could not survive...
I would have thought in evolutionary terms such a fragile creature could not survive...
I was once warned by a person in the US not to exercise within 2 weeks of a cold ending, as they had (at a high level, triathlon person) and ended up with a pacemaker due to some sort of damage caused. No idea how, im not a medical doctor.
There is a link between exercising when you have a respiratory infection and cardiac damage / sudden adult death.
From what I know ( and its only vague) this is when people push themselves too hard with an infection. IME moderate exercise with a cold is good, hard exercise is bad.
i'm pretty sure the cold weather does have an affect, at least on flu[url= http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12808-cold-weather-really-does-spread-flu.html ]newscientsist[/url]
hard exercise is bad.
I'm quite safe then :o)
The nutritionist at work (don't ask) recommends taking large doses of Vitamin C either as soon as you think you're getting a cold / flu and afterwards to speed recovery.
He's a proper doctor and everything (and not of the McKeith variety) as well as being the nutritionist / diet advisor for a number of England sports teams amongst other things so I tend to take his advice.
It works for me.
recommends taking large doses of Vitamin C
article in latest ST suggests this results in bounce-back quasi scurvy when you stop...
The vit C thing IIRC has absolutely no proven basis. Woffle - ask your nutritionist for actual evidence this works.
I found this very helpful as I was going through the same problem - seems I was over doing it and exercising too much too soon after an illness.
I take loads of vitamins and eat well but since taking on board the advice (especially the not exercising above 60% MHR) things have been better.
[url= http://www.olympics.org.uk/omi/documents/OMI/Avoiding_Winter_Illness.pdf ]Avoiding Winter illness[/url]
Also there is a good Winter riding mag from Cycling Plus in the shops now which has some good advice in also.
Vit C does work you just need a shed load when you are ill - up to 10,000 mg per day. Also don't stop taking it suddenly as you'll get problems due to reverse scurvy.
A friend of the family is a nutritional scientist for the government and is always passing on interesting info on this sort of thing which you don't hear from conventional sources.
Bushwhacked - ask him for the evidence - this has been debunked I believe.
It is another one of those odd "nutritionist" ideas that have become accepted despite all the evidence pointing the other way
""It is now fairly clear that for preventing colds, vitamin C has no worthwhile effect,"
"The many studies done in the last 30 years clearly prove that daily vitamin C supplements, whether 100 mg or 5,000 mg, do not prevent colds and provide, but only for some people, only a slight reduction in duration and severity of colds. "
[url] http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/colds.html [/url]
"Despite the popular belief that vitamin C can cure the common cold, the scientific evidence for this is conflicting. A few studies have suggested that taking vitamin C supplements when you are exposed to a cold virus or when you first have symptoms can shorten a cold or even prevent one. Other research has shown that vitamin C supplementation has no impact on a cold's severity or length, but it can significantly reduce how often a person catches a cold.
Vitamin C may only be useful in case of a cold if you have low levels of this nutrient to begin with. The likelihood of success may be very individual -- some people improve, while others do not."
[url] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002145.htm [/url]
"Taking vitamin C every day does not prevent colds for most people. People will not recover from a cold more quickly if they start to take vitamin C when the symptoms of a cold start. Taking vitamin C every day could shorten the amount of time you are sick with colds by a very small amount."
"Authors' conclusions
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the normal population indicates that routine mega-dose prophylaxis is not rationally justified for community use. But evidence suggests that it could be justified in people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise or cold environments."
[url] http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab000980.html [/url]
We did experiments at university which quite clearly showed the more Vitamin C you take the more Vitamin C rich pee you get 🙂
Yup. Take a gramme a day and you pee out most of that. You cannot absorb anything like the 10 gramme dose suggested above.
i got ill a lot last year and since taking a multivit everyday and stopping smoking in february i haven't been ill once,don't know whether its the vitamin,the smoking or the not putting my hands near my mouth as much{when smoking} thats done it but i'm happy
Did you really have flu of was it just manflu? Real flu is a serious illness that will keep you in bed / off work for a couple of weeks.
There's a great test to see if you've got flu or manflu.
You look out of the window and see a £20 note. If it's flu, you wouldn't go and get it.
I thought I'd had flu before, until three years ago when I [i]actually[/i] had flu. I had a week off work spent laid on the sofa. I answered the phone once and was wiped out for a good half an hour afterwards.
TJ, Hi 😀 My understanding of the references you have posted are that for some people, in some circumstances, Vitamin C [i]can[/i] have a positive impact on the onset and or duration of colds. Would that be an accurate somethingion?
based on that test, I've never had flu. In fact when I had [b]polio[/b] I'd have got the £20 note. If I'd been allowed out 🙁
Jojo - not the way I read it.
I would say that in occasional extreme circumstances (arctic warfare / polar exploration type stuff / soloing strathpuffer) there may be a slight benefit. for the vast majority of us in the circumstances we find ourselves in it is of no benefit and certainly there is no benefit in taking mega doses - no extra benefit was found with doses over 250mg / day and the evidence for any benefit is slight and contradictory anyway.
The cochrane review is probably the best as it is a metastudy.
""Authors' conclusions
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the normal population indicates that routine mega-dose prophylaxis is not rationally justified for community use. But evidence suggests that it could be justified in people exposed to brief periods of [b]severe[/b] physical exercise or cold environments."
Vit C worked for me so I'm sticking to it.
Compared to my next door neighbour (Same age, two kids similar age at same school / nursery, similar lifestyle) who doesn't take Vit C - when we had the same bout of flu that lasted three weeks he was bed ridden for two weeks and I was only unable to get out of bed for a couple of days although the effects lasted for same period.
Not scientific but from my experience it gives me benefit so you can advise me of all the research you like but how do we know how reliable these studies are?
This is quite funny now - bit like which tyre for off road riding - which vitamins for less illness - surely depends on your circumstances / situation!!!
I find Vitamin B helps with general lethargy and run-downness...
Vit C worked for me so I'm sticking to it
this is how primitive religions work 🙁
of course, there ARE no advanced ones...
Bushwhacked - you did not have flu. Factamundo. You had manflu / viral infection. Flu is a serious illness that debilitates you for weeks
I think a huge metastudy by respected scientists is as near to proof as you can get.
"Flu is a serious illness that debilitates you for weeks"
thats not what it says on the nhs website. nor wikipedia. there are different types too. and i thought flu WAS a viral infection.
my symptoms were similar to bushwacked: completely wiped out for 3 days and could barely get out of bed, then drained of energy for the next 2 weeks.
i'm pretty sure this is whats called "flu". from here:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Flu/Pages/Introduction.aspx?url=Pages/What-is-it.aspx
"you should begin to feel much better within five to eight days"
Flu is a viral infection of course. There is only usually one or two prevalent types each year but there are many many variations.
There are also many "flu like viruses" which would be [i]my guess[/i] as to what you had as the symptoms you describe do not seem severe enough to be actual flu.
Of course everyone reacts differently to illness and diagnosis from internet descriptions is highly inaccurate.
"my symptoms were similar to bushwacked: completely wiped out for 3 days and could barely get out of bed, then drained of energy for the next 2 weeks."
sound s like a severe cold to me - not flu.
Considering the Doctor diagnosed it as Flu then I'd go with his opinion rather than your "jump to conclusion" diagnosis but thanks anyway Dr TJ.
Anyway - I was explaining the benefit of Vit C when used on myself not debating what I had...
Thanks for your clarification Jeremy. 🙂
Vit C worked for me so I'm sticking to it
I was unconvinced but now that I've seen actual anecdotal evidence I'm off to Boots to buy a barrow load of vitamin C.
Bushwhacked - I am a nurse not a doctor.
In 30 yrs in healthcare I have never had flu, never seen anyone get it and don't know anyone who has.
Loads of folk claim to have flu but very few have had it.
perhaps you did and your constitution allowed you to recover very quickly.
There is no real diagnostic test anyway for it - its a balance of probabilities after history diagnosis.
going back to a bit of route cause analysis, the original post asked why do they suffer more frequent bouts of sickness, and I'd guess that it will relate to the intensity of the exercise you undertake. you say you commute 20mins each way. I wonder if you are taking these 20mins at a relaxed pace (<80% max HR) or at a harder pace (>80% max HR) - and if the latter, then you will find your immune system is being suppressed due to frequent high physical efforts, without a good level of endurance/base workouts that help your body become prepared for the hard efforts.
- Cue loads of "Meet the Parents" jokes.... 😀"I am a nurse"
Only messing - Not sure which health professional to believe then but anyway - as MisterT says perhaps doing too much is the root cause and the link I posted was very useful.
I like the TJ wiki facts tag - the thing is those reference I quoted are all respectable scientific publications - peer reviewed and so on I think.
Oh god - I'm actually finding myself agreeing with TJ. Is this an illness? Is there a link to a website I can check please?
Flu = rare - GPs are as bad as anyone for telling you you've got "flu" when you've got a bad cold. Makes people feel better about how crap they feel
Vit C = waste of time assuming you have a relatively healthy diet (doesn't stop me eating more oranges when I feel a cold coming on though)
As for manflu - this completely different and VERY serious ;o)
does lager have vit c in it? ❓
Yes, if you put a slice of lemon in it!
Healthy [i]and[/i] nutritious!