Why some people don't get the flu

[seabeyond]

Many people might conclude that if you are exposed to a virus and you don’t get sick, it’s because the virus didn’t stick or it was so weak, it just passed right through your system and your system didn’t notice. That’s not a correct notion,” says Alfred Hero, professor at the University of Michigan College of Engineering and author of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal PLoS Genetics.

He continues, “There is an active immune response which accounts for the resistance of certain people getting sick, and that response is just as active as the response we all know and hate, which is being sick with the sniffles, fever, coughing and sneezing. It’s just that the responses are different.”

Hero, along with scientists from Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, studied participants’ gene expression to watch how the immune system reacted to the flu virus. The analysis reviewed 22,000 genes and 267 blood samples, and used a pattern recognition algorithm and several other methods to discover the genomic signatures associated with the immune response in people who get flu symptoms and those who do not.

They found significant and complex immune responses in the people who got sick and the people who didn’t. Scientists noticed changes in their blood 36 hours before some people actually felt sick. Although they understand that some people’s immune systems resist the virus, they still don’t know how or why that happens.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44275043/ns/health-cold_and_flu/

[sfpcjock]

1. My secret cold and flu "cure" is just this:

Gargle with rather warm salt water at the first sign of a cold. Repeat it every hour until you feel fine. It usually fixes the "scratchy throat" immediately, btw.

If you use like Celtic Sea Salt from Amazon it works even better--and you can cook with it.

[oldlib]

11. I think that what helps me

is to gargle with a mouthwash at bedtime, and again the first thing in the morning. I'm not sure that this is a solution, although I have not had the flu in years.

[Lucinda]

12. Great tip!

I've used salt water for sore throats for my entire life, but never thought of gargling at the beginning of a cold. I do use zinc though. Thanks for the info!

[sfpcjock]

28. These people don't miss a trick.

Yes I do that, too! I take half a Zicam zinc lozenge--seems to be sufficient, and will repeat it every 4 hours or so. Basically, with these two tips I don't ever get sick now. I know that sounds wierd, but I used to get lots of colds. There's no other reason why being older would make me more immune, I don't think ;)

Thanks.

[LWolf]

2. I rarely get the flu.

I can't say "never." I remember some bad go-rounds in my teens, and I will come down sick once every several years as an adult.

I was interested to read about everyone being infected, but some not getting sick. When everyone around me is dropping, I might get a scratchy throat or stuffy nose for a few days, or feel generally under the weather. My symptoms are always milder, and of shorter duration, though, than everyone else's.

I've attributed my apparently above-average immune system to a couple of things:

Being a teacher, I've been exposed, repeatedly, to so many more things than much of the rest of the population. My immune system has had decades of regular work outs.

I have a mild case of psoriasis, which involves and over-active immune system. The condition itself is related to immune system misfires.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Before I went to China twenty years ago, two friends

invited the members of our tour group over to see the slides of their trip. One of them was a retired elementary school teacher.

She said that in their tour group, everyone got sick at least once, except for her and another retired elementary school teacher. She hypothesized that forty-plus years of classroom exposure to children had brought her in contact with every known virus and microbe.

[tblue37]

15. Actually, that is probably the case.

I ran a home daycare for 18 years, until my younger child went off to college. It is known that most people develop immunity to colds by the time they reach their 60s, because there are only about 200 rhinoviruses, and once you've had them, you don't get them again. In my case, exposure to the walking germ factories in my daycare meant that I achieved my immunity to colds before I was 45!

My boyfriend at the time, though, was always catching stuff, so I assume I was a carrier.

My kids were often sick in grade school, because of all that exposure, but by the time they reached junior high, neither of them ever had a cold again. They are 32 and 30 now--and still never get colds, no matter how sick everyone else in their workplaces might be.

[LWolf]

29. Yes.

We've had abundant opportunity to build that resistance. :hi:

[Brickbat]

3. As far as I know, I have never had the flu. I get colds, and sometimes I get a virus that puts me

out for a day or two, or I get that thing they call "viral strep" which makes no sense, but I never get the week-long flu extravaganza. I never get the flu shot, either. Knock wood.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. Same here. I was just thinking about it this morning whilst reading

the first article of the year in the paper telling us it's flu shot time. I don't remember ever having the flu, ever. I have 3 grown sons who have also never had it. as you say, knock wood!

My little brother is a strep carrier, so I went thru a few bouts as a kid, but never as an adult. I tell him I built up an immunity to him :P

Interesting other little bit.. my gram on mom's side is a TB carrier (since WWII) yet none of our (quite large) family has ever gotten it. I wonder if that's related :shrug:

[SoCalDem]

4. I have never had the flu..ever and have never had a shot either

My husband has had it many times:(

I am rarely ever sick from anything..I attribute it to having spent my childhood years as a "free range/barefoot kid" raised across the street from a jungle (Panama)..

I even drank water from a hose in Mexico & never got sick, while others in my group were violently ill and were abundantly careful..

[NNN0LHI]

5. I don't get the flu often at all but when I do it almost puts me on my death bed

At least I always feel like I would rather be dead?

I think I have had the regular flu only 3 or 4 times my entire life. But those times were real rough.

Lived through 3 pandemics now in 58 years.

Don

[get the red out]

6. I've never had the actual flu

I used to never get the shot either but my husband and sister protested and now I get the shot and everybody is happy.

I had one Grandfather survive the flu in 1918 and the other Grandfather survived smallpox. There are some tough genes in my ancestry.

[seabeyond]

8. i am with yawl. never had the flu. never got the shot.... nt

[JuniperLea]

9. Don't get sick, don't get shots...

I had what I thought was a cold a year or so ago, but I think it turned out to be a bad allergy attack.

I had a very bad case of the Hong Kong flu when I was 12, and haven't been sick since. Sometimes I feel like I'm coming down with something, but by the next morning I'm chipper again.

I've always felt there should be a study on people like me! Good to see it's being looked into now.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. I haven't gotten full-blown flu since I instituted a couple of practices a few years ago

1. Not touching my face or eating unless I've washed or sanitized my hands

2. Taking daily doses of Vitamin D

3. Taking zinc and a nap at the first sign of a scratchy throat, followed by a trip to an Asian restaurant for spicy food.

I still get colds, but no illnesses of the type that I used to get frequently, the ones where you're too weak to get out of bed.

About two years ago, a severe respiratory infection swept through my choir. I was the only person in my section who escaped unscathed (and we sit close together).

In fact, I haven't had a flu shot for three years, and I haven't gotten the flu. When I DID take flu shots, I used to get the flu at least once a year.

Go figure.

[eilen]

14. I never took the flu shot

until one year I got the flu. I honestly didn't think I could get it but that year I was working an office job rather than a clinical one (go figure). After that I always get the flu shot. I have not been sick since. Of course. I am exposed to almost every virus and bacteria at my job in the hospital, esp. the resistant ones. It is unbelievable how many people don't cover their mouth when they cough and sneeze. I am always washing my hands. I like Lydia's approach. But spicy food at an Asian restaurant? That is asking for stomach issues for me.

That does not mean that I don't occasionally get some intestinal flu once and awhile. Those are pretty brutal but generally don't last more than 24 hours.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. I'm fucked. I got both Legionnaire's Disease and swine flu.

Vote me most likely to be Patient 1 when World War Z begins.

[uppityperson]

17. As one who gets lung issues after having even mild flu, I get the vaccines,

I also educate people to what the flu is and isn't. Too often have heard someone with a gi virus say they have the flu "even though I got the shot!", too often people say no, they just had a mild cold and now are coughing for several weeks, "couldn't be the flu".

I've had respiratory system complications enough times that I get the vaccine annually along with avoiding touching my nose or eyes, eating well, taking extra vitamins, adequate rest, water, etc.

Nice to see this research. Some people do get it easier than others. It'd be great to figure out a way to help us not.

[progressoid]

18. "they still don’t know how or why that happens."

OK

[seabeyond]

22. i know....

lol lol

[xchrom]

19. I get vaccinated. Nt

[laundry_queen]

20. I used to always get sick.

Constantly. Growing up I was always catching multiple bugs every year. When I was diagnosed with asthma in my teens, my asthma doctor - after I had a bad bout of bronchitis - insisted on a flu shot. I didn't get sick for several years after that even though I didn't have another shot. When I had kids is when I started to get sick all the time again. Every time one of my kids enters kindergarten it is the worst. One year I had several major flus/lung infections/strep. The next year after that was the H1N1 year so my doctor insisted on the vaccine since I'd landed in the hospital the year before w/a lung infection. Then last year I had the flu shot again. I haven't had the flu since the initial H1N1 shot, and have only had 1 cold. So the vaccine seems to work well for me. I find it odd that it has stopped all illnesses, not just the flu. I wonder how the vaccine manipulates the immune system? The public health nurse here told me they add an adjuvant to the flu vaccines that is supposed to 'stimulate' the immune system into producing antibodies. Apparently it revs up my immune system for more than just the flu strains in the vaccine.

[InvisibleTouch]

21. There's a big influence of mind and attitude on the immune system, too.

I used to always get several colds and flu each winter. The first year I didn't, was the year I had a daily morning paper route, with no back-up person, and realized that I just couldn't afford to get sick. I didn't get sick once that year - and after that, almost never. So I believe there was some mind-over-matter influence. There are of course other possible explanations: an increased amount of exercise from all that walking, could have strengthened the immune system. And also, as we get older, we're less and less susceptible because we've already been exposed to a lot of the bugs that are out there, and the immune system knows how to deal with them the second time around. The reason the common cold is so catching is that the virus mutates rapidly, so the version that your system knocked out last year, is not the same one it has to deal with this year. Still, there are lifestyle- and diet-related ways to strengthen the immune system, and they do help.

Another thing to keep in mind is that we often get sick when we "need to," in the sense of having to emotionally or physically take a break from the daily grind. If we won't give ourselves the rest we need, our body finds a way to force it upon us. Or vice-versa: the unremitting stress grinds down the immune system and makes it easy to catch a bug.

[Xithras]

23. Add me to the list of people who has never had it, and doesn't get the shot.

If I've ever had the flu, it was in early childhood when I can't remember it.

I do catch colds and have suffered from various other bugs, and I've had allergies all my life, but I seem to be immune to the flu.

This has caused a few debates at work (I'm college faculty), where there are annual drives to get everyone vaccinated against the disease. I have always refused, because my existing immune system apparently does just fine, and I have an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" perspective to the whole thing. Why muck with my immunity by adding artificial pharma to the mix?

[seabeyond]

24. agree. nt

[hunter]

25. My great aunt never got the flu.

During the flu pandemic of 1918 she delivered medicines and other supplies on her bicycle to the very sick and dying.

A few years past her hundredth birthday her body finally wore out and quit working. But to the very end her mind was sharp and her immune system strong.

Alas, I don't have those genes. My lungs can turn any common cold or flu into a raging pneumonia or a smoldering bronchitis that lasts for months.

[4_TN_TITANS]

26. I am one of those people....

Haven't have the flu or a flu shot in over 20 years.

[watercolors]

27. Never have had a flu shot, never have had the flu!!

I guess my husband & I must be immune. We eat healthy, lots of grapefruit & juice ( from our tree, we freeze the juice ) & we excersice 3-4 four times a week, & sleep well! In our mid 70's. I can't remember any of our children getting the flu either as children or adults.