4 ms·

This is just something to think about. After I was called back in to the office and started seeing people more often I came down with what I would have sworn wa

This is just something to think about. After I was called back in to the office and started seeing people more often I came down with what I would have sworn was covid three times. Absolutely the worst flu-like symptoms I'd ever had that I could recall, each affecting me in a novel way, but negative on covid each time. They could have been false negatives, of course, but I suspect I just hadn't been training my immune system for many months and it wasn't prepared to handle the normal cold or flu viruses I would normally be able to handle otherwise. Since that period of time, I haven't come down sick since. Not saying that covid is nothing to worry about, but it's something you might want to consider down the road. I don't know your situation or what health concerns you might have, but being too protective can have it's downsides as well.

Reki 3y ago
There is no scientific evidence for being able to "train your immune system". There is plenty of evidence the opposite happens. Covid especially can cause permanent immune damage.
- ryathal 3y ago
  There's actually pretty good evidence that being overly clean and sterile is bad for an immune system. Yes, getting exposed to highly dangerous diseases like Ebola, polio, measles, small pox, etc. is bad, covid with a vaccine doesn't really rise to that level.
- godshatter 3y ago
  We have an innate immune responses and adaptive immune responses. Innate immune responses look for common attributes of certain pathogens and then trigger an adaptive immune response if needed. Adaptive immune responses are highly specific to certain pathogens and can provide long lasting immunity to some of those pathogens, such as measles. How would vaccines work if we only had innate immunity? So being exposed to certain pathogens can trigger a lasting effect, the length of which depends on the pathogen. If that effect has gone away or lessened severely over many months then it makes sense that only the innate immune response would be available against those pathogens, and the adaptive response would need to be learned again. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21070/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21070/
  - maxerickson 3y ago
    For stuff like colds, the adaptive response is typically hampered by genetic change/drift in the virus rather than lessening of the response. Of course the ability to produce the not quite right antibodies is still often valuable.

Reki 3y ago

There is no scientific evidence for being able to "train your immune system". There is plenty of evidence the opposite happens. Covid especially can cause permanent immune damage.

ryathal 3y ago
There's actually pretty good evidence that being overly clean and sterile is bad for an immune system. Yes, getting exposed to highly dangerous diseases like Ebola, polio, measles, small pox, etc. is bad, covid with a vaccine doesn't really rise to that level.
godshatter 3y ago
We have an innate immune responses and adaptive immune responses. Innate immune responses look for common attributes of certain pathogens and then trigger an adaptive immune response if needed. Adaptive immune responses are highly specific to certain pathogens and can provide long lasting immunity to some of those pathogens, such as measles. How would vaccines work if we only had innate immunity? So being exposed to certain pathogens can trigger a lasting effect, the length of which depends on the pathogen. If that effect has gone away or lessened severely over many months then it makes sense that only the innate immune response would be available against those pathogens, and the adaptive response would need to be learned again. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21070/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21070/
- maxerickson 3y ago
  For stuff like colds, the adaptive response is typically hampered by genetic change/drift in the virus rather than lessening of the response. Of course the ability to produce the not quite right antibodies is still often valuable.