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How can I improve my rubbish immune system? (Read 10951 times)

seankenny

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How can I improve my rubbish immune system?
November 25, 2014, 09:02:27 pm
I suffer from a terrible immune system, getting several colds and bouts of flu every year. Each bout means many days of feeling terrible, hacking cough, lots of phlegm and no desire to do anything. I'm always amazed when people get colds and kick them within a few days. They always seem to linger with me for a week, which as well as the general life-hassle of illness also punches massive great holes in any training regime I try to follow.

Any thoughts on how I can improve my immune system? I don't smoke, hardly drink,eat plenty of fruit and veg...  otoh I do live in London which I find quite stressful and probably don't get enough sunlight.

Sasquatch

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sleep?

seankenny

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sleep?

It probably needs some improvement, but I usually get at least 7hrs a night, unless I've been to the wall when I very annonyingly struggle to sleep well.

Lopez

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I do live in London

If you do, don't take the tube or bus. Packed London transport, without ventilation and a few hundred people from all nationalities packed in armpit to armpit is the virus equivalent of an all expenses paid stag party in the Spanish Costas.

Cycling to work is a double win in that you avoid the herds and the gentle exercise should help boost the immune system. (You may be doing already for all i know...)

krymson

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eating well after climbing  - intense exercise temporarily suppresses the immune sytem, and filling back the tank right afterwards seems to minimize that.

besides sleep which you mentioned, you might look into more of the :lets_do_it_wild:.

tomtom

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Probiotic Yak Semen...

Or get a Kitten :)

More sherioushly for me this has always been linked to stress/working too hard. The classic 'get ill when you go on holiday' when your body starts to catch up with what your mind is trying to get it to do. City life is tough for stress - as above re tube - but it's also very easy to have disturbed sleep, sub optimal living conditions etc...


battery

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Kiwi fruit are supposed to be good for boosting immune system. For me it's about diet generally, making sure I eat well for me (my body likes little and often but not everyone is the same).

When I do feel the early signs of a cold I take barroca to help fight it off.

jwi

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I have the same problem as OP (probably due to having many allergies), and I wish I could give some non-obvious advice.

Sleep well
Eat well, mostly greens, no inflammatory foods
Wash your hands like you have OCD

tomtom

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Kiwi fruit are supposed to be good for boosting immune system.

10 times the vit C of an orange apparently.. though vit C being good for immune system is probably codswallop (as long as you are already getting enough)

lagerstarfish

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Wash your hands like you have OCD

and don't touch your face

Oldmanmatt

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Kiwi fruit are supposed to be good for boosting immune system.

10 times the vit C of an orange apparently.. though vit C being good for immune system is probably codswallop (as long as you are already getting enough)

Most of that excess VitC gets pissed out. Literally money down the drain.

SA Chris

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I very annonyingly struggle to sleep well.


I get that too
How about a general multivitamin? As others have said, I think living in close contact with others all the time doesn't help. Do you get enough sunlight during the week? And get outdoors on weekends, or tend to go to the climbing wall if not on the rock?

lagerstarfish

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I now avoid decongestants - they seemed to make my colds last longer and develop into bad coughs

I've had fewer chest infections since avoiding decongestants





Eddies

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Your diet has the biggest impact of your health over any other one thing.

Cut out as much refined sugar (junk) from your diet as you can and eat as much whole food as you can.
Don't bother with supplements as they are just that... all your nutrients should be coming from your food.

Quality sleep and regular consistent exercise are also essential for good health.

I was diagnosed with Chrones disease four years ago and have been on immune suppressants ever since, despite this I have had far fewer bouts of illness since as I improved my lifestyle dramatically to offset my low immune system.

seankenny

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Thanks for all the advice chaps. Basically, it seems more of the same is in order, with extra efforts to get more sunshine and finish climbing training earlier - leave work on time, very structured sessions, more training at home. And move out of London at some point, which isn't going to be possible for the foreseeable future. Habrich, how on earth did you manage to climb well whilst getting colds all the time?!

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More sherioushly for me this has always been linked to stress/working too hard. The classic 'get ill when you go on holiday' when your body starts to catch up with what your mind is trying to get it to do. City life is tough for stress - as above re tube - but it's also very easy to have disturbed sleep, sub optimal living conditions etc...


+1 for this.


STRESS KILLS
If you can, try to live with less stress.


For various job and home life reasons the amount of stress in my life dropped off significantly last may. Since then my general health and sense of well being have been much better than before, training has been more effective and recovery from hard sessions faster...My hair has even started to grow back pretty unexpected at my age.


dont let others dump their stress on you.


good luck
 :)


New Jersey

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I can certainly relate to bouts of illness having a negative impact on my training.

I have too much sugar in my diet, not enough exercise or sleep and my after training meal could be healthier.


hamsforlegs

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I've had huge problems with this over the years.

I moved from London to Vancouver for a couple of years and things massively improved. On return, though, I have managed to retain quite a lof of this benefit by carrying over some of the lifestyle changes that I made on leaving London.

The things that seem to count are:~
- Better diet (ie more fruit and veg)
- More sleep
- Less cardiovascular exercise in the winter and/or when tired

This last was a suprise to me, though it shouldn't have been really. We had a car for the first time when we moved to Vancouver, and I realised the massive toll that had been taken on me in London by cycling, running and schlepping around the place every day in all conditions. I did an absolute ton of running, skiing etc in Vancouver, but didn't rely on this for ordinary commuting and daily tasks, and I felt so much fresher and less tired.

Now back in London I still walk a lot, but I take care to be a bit, well, lazier, in my day-to-day habits, particularly when I'm tired or the weather is wet. This seems to help a lot.

skelf

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Work out how many days a week you can train without gettting run down and stick to that. For me it's 2 days in a row or 3 if i'm lucky. (during the working week i.e. 8 hours of work + training). I know lots of people wo can climb and run on alternative days with minimal rest, i'm not one and it's 2/3 max before i need a night infront of the telly. Ie.e the old adage of listen to your body...

Try to get back home fairly early after a wall session so that you can start to wind down and get a decent nights kip. Climbing & training for climbing gets you psyched and you arn't going to get much sleep if all you are thinking about is how the gains you have made on the campus board will result in you crushing every single bit of rock in sight just as soon as you get a dry day at the weekend. Don't be afraid to skip a wall session and train at home if it fits into your life better. (Fingerboarding, Flexibility, Anatgs, Core etc)

Take a daily "sports" multi vit over the winter. (Extra vit D, C, MAg etc) Eat Well, try not to drink too much or if you do save it for the weekend why you can have a longer sleep.

Echinacea washed down by some real OJ is good for when you start to get that sniffly sorehead just on the edge of a cold feeling.

All of the above has helped me over the last few years as i got really run down training too much for a while. HTH

skelf

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Forgot - if it's dry at lunchtime make sure you getoutside for some sun and either a run / walk.

siderunner

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Interesting topic.

Having moved to Sydney from London 18m ago I definitely notice an improvement, though I still got one pretty awful cold here. It's hard to escape when these are contagious and people still come into work.

One thing I've started doing is eating out much much less. I used to get sandwiches made every day, now I take my own wraps and fruit (thanks to my wife making them, I confess!). I think that's a fairly significant source of flu germs removed ...

Post training diet surely makes a difference, I now have yesterday's leftovers within 20' of leaving the wall; I used to have 3 pints and a bag of crisps at times in London.

If you're a real skinny emaciated climber type then you could try putting on a bit of extra weight over winter (train heavy?!).

Like others above I struggle with the total training volume thing. I've been doing a weekly routine of run/wall/run/wall/rest/outdoors/rest for the last few months, with 1-3 of the training days having additional 1hr abs/body weight circuits/bouldering before work. I'm feeling pretty beaten psychologically and am taking 3 days off right now. If it was winter I'd probably have a flu ... I think the circuits and running are depleting me even though I feel they don't count as they're at 4/5 intensity.

I keep re-reading 9/10 on this ... My conclusion is my approach is ok, provided every 3rd or 4th week I have an easy and less focused 'fun' week (started yesterday!) to recharge the batteries (glycogen store) and to let the finger niggles heal. I'd be interested to hear how others approach it, as I definitely tend to get obsessed and err on the side of overtraining...

Stubbs

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Echinacea washed down by some real OJ is good for when you start to get that sniffly sorehead just on the edge of a cold feeling.


There's some evidence to support echinacea working to reduce the effect of colds, but no evidence for vitamin C or orange juice having any impact.

skelf

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There's some evidence to support echinacea working to reduce the effect of colds, but no evidence for vitamin C or orange juice having any impact.

In five trials with 598 participants exposed to short periods of extreme physical stress (including marathon runners and skiers) vitamin C halved the common cold risk

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub4/abstract

I'd say borderline overtraining for climbing counts as extreme physical stress, and it seems to work for me. (Never tried just echinacea just washed down with water so no points for a controlled study here then !)  As i see it if you are getting run down you are not getting enough of something, be that rest or some nutritional need, so it's up to the OP to figure out what.

seankenny

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It's been great to see that I'm not the only person to suffer from this. Not that I would wish a rubbish immune system on anyone! But still, I think I do a lot of the right things, but probably need to work on sleep and stress a bit...

Steve R

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A lot of this sounds familiar so thought I'd share my experiences.
Recently, I've been forced to spend a few days in an all too familiar position for me this time of year - on my sick bed, sweating and shivering, drifting in and out of watching darts with general delirium/fever/confusion thrown in.  A bad cold and two bouts of flu based grimness (complete with lingering secondary infections) either side of Christmas so far.  As far as I can tell, I've got a pathetic immune system so have read this thread with interest.  Compared to freinds and family, I seem to get ill disproportionally often and ,when I do, it tends to be more serious (ie. running fever) and lasts for longer.  This seems unfair as lifestyle-wise, I should rarely get ill - no stress, good sleep, nutrition, excercise, etc. etc. etc. 
Anyway, worried I sound like a hypochondriac now but just trying to give some background that others can realte to.
Having ruled out lifestyle/nutrition factors, I'm trying to find anything else I can do?  I've arranged to have blood tests to see if there's anything underlying or deficiencies?  (this really did make me feel like a hypochondriac). 
Also, this looks interesting http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study-finds.html. 
Hope you've had a healthier start to the year than me!  Good luck not getting ill too often this year

 

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