Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

rachel.fast.ai

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 202 posts

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#121

Post by unlikelytomato »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #83
legohead wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I became allergic to Yellow 6 randomly. I would get extreme abdominal pain, even went to the ER a couple times and got a CT scan once due to the severity of the pain. I broke out in hives, tongue would swell, etc. I eventually figured it out after having a reaction to Cheese Doritos but not Cool Ranch (the only ingredient difference was Yellow 6). I tested it on some other foods with Yellow 6 and confirmed it. So I s…

I’m dealing with a similar thing with poultry right now. If I eat it too frequently, it gives me ridiculous, flu and allergy-like symptoms. However, now that I’ve basically eliminated it from my diet, I can eat it on occasion without much issue. It took me forever to figure out because poultry is often a filler meat.

I am very close to the same conclusion. Every time I travel, things return to normal. I always eat chicken at home and never when I travel. I tried eliminating everything else I could think of because chicken was such a reliable staple for me for so many years. My symptoms seem more mild. mostly GI and not much systemic presentation

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#122

Post by slowmovintarget »

renegade-otter wrote: post #60
lkrubner wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad to say, the fecal-oral cycle of infection remains common in the USA, with the most common areas of spread being restaurants although hospitals were sadly guilty of this until recently. And for any gastrointestinal illness in the USA, the single most common cause is Helicobacter pylori. Back in the 1980s and 1990s researchers mostly associated Helicobacter pylori with ulcers, but since then the research has expand…

The one thing that shocked me after moving to the States was how no one washed their hands before meals. It's just not a thing.

It's a thing in our household. Everyone washes hands before eating. When we go to restaurants, we order, then take turns washing hands. I guess it depends on where in the U.S.

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#123

Post by _pfco »

renegade-otter wrote: post #95
tomlue wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

weird, I've lived in the US most of my life and I think pretty much everyone washes their hands?

When people walk into a restaurant - fast food, slow food - especially before COVID, do you see people go to the bathroom to wash their hands before the meal? That never happens.

I usually carry a bottle of hand sanitizer to clean my hands before meals. I started doing this even before the pandemic, to avoid getting sick with the common cold.

A good number of people do this in my city: when I go on public transit, I see a fair number of commuters with a hand sanitizer bottle clipped to their bag with a carabiner. Many people also have a bottle in their pockets or purse.

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#124

Post by modeless »

nradov wrote: post #119
jph00 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen any research to support that contention -- rather, everything I've seen suggests you don't get coronaviruses like colds once off, so you don't "get it over with". Instead, they can weaken your immune system and these viruses can stay around for years, as discussed in the article.

The article is a mix of half-truths and speculation with a few random facts sprinkled in. It doesn't represent any sort of scientific consensus. Don't take it too seriously. Infections with typical rhinoviruses and coronaviruses build adaptive immunity to those viruses (as well as those that are genetically similar). This typically reduces the severity of subsequent infections. They didn't stay around for years. When…

> The article is a mix of half-truths and speculation with a few random facts sprinkled in

I could say the same about your comments here. What's your evidence?

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#125

Post by aszantu »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #90
aszantu wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/cutestuff/FoodDepressionConundrum Been collecting for a while. Latest success was supplementing with a probiotic specifically for oxolates. Prepare the gut with l-glutamine and silicea if you go that route

Have you tried taking an anti-acid or acids reducer? I was getting a rough depression after eating certain foods. My/my doctors current hypothesis is my liver was producing too much bile acid and triggering a condition known as bile acid malabsorption. This would basically wipe my gut out. I couldn’t absorb nutrients correctly so my mood and energy levels would drop. I now know it lasts a few days if I goof up my die…

antacids just made my body ramp up making more bile. I eventually started taking betaine HCL, which helps when I have reflux or pain in the stomach. Seemingly a lot of bugs survive the stomach acid these days. Started taking the betaine when I went on carnivore diet and saw undigested meat in the stools.

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#126

Post by aszantu »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #90
aszantu wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/cutestuff/FoodDepressionConundrum Been collecting for a while. Latest success was supplementing with a probiotic specifically for oxolates. Prepare the gut with l-glutamine and silicea if you go that route

Have you tried taking an anti-acid or acids reducer? I was getting a rough depression after eating certain foods. My/my doctors current hypothesis is my liver was producing too much bile acid and triggering a condition known as bile acid malabsorption. This would basically wipe my gut out. I couldn’t absorb nutrients correctly so my mood and energy levels would drop. I now know it lasts a few days if I goof up my die…

but I'll add your suggestion to the repo when I touch it next time, seems like a good pointer in possible conditions

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#127

Post by ein0p »

ransom1538 wrote: post #9
Xcelerate wrote: post #4

I don’t know enough to comment on the Hygiene / Old Friends hypothesis, but anecdotally it seems like almost everyone I know now has an allergy or autoimmune disorder of some sort. After giving birth, my sister suddenly developed something similar to celiac disease (but not quite the same; I don’t think doctors ever figured out exactly what it is) to where she can’t eat grains and a few other types of food as well. I…

IHMO An old myth, I believe: Your immune system needs something to fight, otherwise, it starts finding problems that aren't.

I had terrible grass and pollen allergies until I started mowing my own lawn and gardening without gloves. Exposure therapy is a thing. It works at least for some people.

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#128

Post by bjoli »

Xcelerate wrote: post #4

I don’t know enough to comment on the Hygiene / Old Friends hypothesis, but anecdotally it seems like almost everyone I know now has an allergy or autoimmune disorder of some sort. After giving birth, my sister suddenly developed something similar to celiac disease (but not quite the same; I don’t think doctors ever figured out exactly what it is) to where she can’t eat grains and a few other types of food as well. I…

It is one of the reasons I agreed to get pets. Kids growing up in households with pets have fewer allergies.

I wasn't prepared for how much I'd fall in love with him though.

Some of my fondest memories are of my son playing with our dog. At night my dog would sleep by the feet of my son, and if he woke up he would simply turn around and use my dog as a pillow. I found them sleeping like that or spooning a couple of times a week.

Our dog made our house dirty in about the same way a two year old would, but more spread out. His fur was 10cm long and would dispense dirt, soil, bugs, small branches and so on for several hours after a walk despite us literally vacuuming him.

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#129

Post by bjoli »

TexanFeller wrote: post #87
autokad wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use to get the flu 1 or 2 times a year. I started going out in more crowded areas, going to pub, etc, and I haven't had a cold or flu in 4 years. I don't know the article knows as much as they think they do about health, because using muscles also damages them. I been nursing a bicep injury for the last 4 months. I get its not a prefect analogy, but nothing is, else it would be the same thing I don't think people s…

I did this for covid. The second my vaccine kicked in I dropped all precautions and started staying indoors with as many people as possible for as long as possible, basically trying to never go a day without a small exposure. I’ve tested for infection a number of times and a university study tested my antibodies periodically for a year and I’ve never had a detectable case. Continuous exposure to small amounts of the…

So, another anecdote: I have COVID right now. I have had a bunch of self tests at home, and have tested myself every single time I have had any kind of cold or fever.

Despite me getting on a crammed bus every morning and afternoon to go working in the same room as about 80 other people 4 days a week I didn't get COVID (that I know of) until now.

Sometimes we are just lucky. Maybe the vaccine worked better-than-average for us. Maybe the route of infection works less well for us. Maybe we had it without noticing it at all

Re: Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle

#130

Post by iamthejuan »

aszantu wrote: post #73
Xcelerate wrote: post #4

I don’t know enough to comment on the Hygiene / Old Friends hypothesis, but anecdotally it seems like almost everyone I know now has an allergy or autoimmune disorder of some sort. After giving birth, my sister suddenly developed something similar to celiac disease (but not quite the same; I don’t think doctors ever figured out exactly what it is) to where she can’t eat grains and a few other types of food as well. I…

https://github.com/cutestuff/FoodDepressionConundrum Been collecting for a while. Latest success was supplementing with a probiotic specifically for oxolates. Prepare the gut with l-glutamine and silicea if you go that route

Probiotics is also that comes first in to my mind.
Post reply on HN