Do you know anyone who, Never Gets Sick, or colds, or flu...???

[Sourdough]

Do you know anyone, or have you ever heard of anyone who never or almost never gets sick...? It seems like a reasonable starting point for survival. I wonder if people just expect that they will be sick several times per year.

What do you know about the correct number of times to be ill per year...?

[Rick]

Well, you got me on this one. I don't know if you're playing with us or not.

I think there are a lot of factors involved. Age, immune system resilience, medications, proximity to others and practicing good hygiene.

[crashdive123]

What do you know about the correct number of times to be ill per year...?

Ummm.......my personal goal is 0. Anything above that and.....well you get the picture.

[Ole WV Coot]

If you work outside in all kinds of weather seems like you don't get sick with flu like symptoms. Personal experience only with the men I worked with for years. There is a trade off, bad back, knees, arthritis etc. but some of this may come from sleeping in a truck.

[Catfish]

I can't say I never get sick, although it doesn't happen often. I had a stinking cold last month, and a stomach bug about 2 years ago but other than that, nothing really in the last few years.

Can't say what the secret is, but I eat a reasonably healthy diet and spend as much of my spare time as I can outdoors. Don't smoke, drink in moderation (OK, not always in moderation), take a daily multi-vitamin and uh, that's it.

[Sourdough]

So my question is if you add all the times per year you are Yuckie, from hang-over to bird flu. Give me a number. How many times???

Maybe being sick is good, maybe each years flu is a new strain that you became resistant too.

What if you got sicker than a dog, the day after you got dropped off in the wilderness, by a seaplane. Do you carry survival sickness stuff?

I find it interesting that we obsess about the knife, the rope, the survival gun, the loincloth; and yet it seems the most probable malady might be sickness................

[Sam]

Hopeak, I carry medicine Ibuprofen, Imodium, and Benadryal tablets for the odd iccyness. I usually give them to other people. Last time I went to the doctor was for stitches. I don't smoke, had a beer at X-mas last year and don't eat right. I just don't think about being sick. My dad worked out side all his life and he did not seem to be sick, my granddad was the same way. So maybe it's genetic. I have a first aid kit in my gear every day.

[bulrush]

The average (large) company gives an employee 5 sick days per year.

My dad almost never gets sick. He smokes and says the smoke must kill all the germs. He'll go 10 years before he sees a doctor. I think he was just raised never to go to the doctor.

I don't usually get sick. I might take 2 sick days per year. But this year was a bad one for (coughing) flu (influenza). I took at least 6 days off this calendar year so far.

[Rick]

Becoming resistant to bacteria is certainly doable but many viruses are able to mutate quickly enough that you can't develop an immunity. One of you medical folks can elaborate if you wish.

I would guess two or three weeks a year, Hopeak. Not all at once but one good cold will eat up a week. And remember, I've got four grandkids running around here all under 7. Everything they get we seem to get.

I do carry a first aid kit with me that has stuff to relieve discomfort if I get sick in the woods. Of course, that only needs to help me until I get a few miles home not across two hundred miles of tundra.

[crashdive123]

I am in people's homes every day. Sometimes there is somebody in the house that is sick. The biggest precaution I take is washing my hands - alot. It's probably been 6 or 7 years since I've been laid up with a cold or flu. I don't know if it's the precautions I take or luck. Either way, I'll take it.

[MCBushbaby]

I never got sick for a full 8 years before I caught some kind of GI infection last month and had to go to the emergency room. 2 saline bags and a hefty ER bill later and I'm still kicking. Aside from the GI fluke, what's my secret? Glass of OJ a day and NO flu shots. Wash my hands? nope. Go through Lysol like it's water? nope. Dust frequently? Heck no! Avoid sick people like the plague? nope. Guess my youth immune system keeps it kicking

[Alpine_Sapper]

Activity, mental outlook, and stress have a lot to do with it. Slow down your activity, get a gloomy disposition, and add a wife,some kids, a housenote and a handful of unpaid bills in the mix and it can lay you low on a regular basis. *shrug* Everybody is different, but a healthy balanced diet and regular physical activity go a LONG way to keeping yourself healthy in all regards and getting rid of all that pent up stress.

Like Mitch said, Vitamin C is a very good preventative. If(when) you feel it starting to come on a couple days of vitamin c/echinacea combo will strip mine all that crap out of your body, unless it's something pretty significant, and then you're going to get sick anyway.

[nell67]

At work we use wireless headsets for drive thru,and I NEVER put one on with out spraying it with Lysol,someone is always sick there,and I think that is a big part of it,they just pass it around because they wont take the time to disinfect the headsets.
I also keep a bottle of hand sanitizer with me because of that and the customers who come through coughing all the time,I always sanitize my hands after handling the money,because you just never know where its been or who had what when the handled it.Guy paid for his food with a $20 that had blood all over it once,told him to lay it on the counter,and used rubber gloves to place it in a plastic baggie,sent it to the bank to be destroyedthen bleached the counter AND my hands after taking off the gloves.

[JRJ]

I never used to get sick until my little girl reached about 1.5 years old. I swear she is the harvester of every germ and sickness all in a sweet little lovable package.

She always gets me in the mouth, eye's or nose. I know it sounds ridiculous but somehow it happens. She likes to turn around and sneezes directly in my eye ball. Her other assault is somehow jamming her finger in my mouth or nose right after it left her mouth.

If it wasn't my own child I would have forbidden her to ever enter my house.

I measure how strong an immune system is by how FAST it takes to get over being sick, not if they get sick.


-JRJ

[Rick]

Well, JRJ, here's the secret if you catch a cold. It takes seven days to get over it if you medicate yourself. A week if you just let your immune system tackle it.

[Ridge Wolf]

I don't get sick.. but then, I stay away from people.. more or less a loner. Athough I do have allergies in the Spring.

[Rick]

Sending Ridge a virus....hitting enter....there!

[JRJ]

Well, JRJ, here's the secret if you catch a cold. It takes seven days to get over it if you medicate yourself. A week if you just let your immune system tackle it.

I usually get cold symptoms for 2-3 days, spike a low grade fever for a few hours and I clear up.

My wife takes at least a week, closer to two and so does my daughter before their symptoms disappear.

[dilligaf2u2]

Colds and flue! Never. Not in the last 30 or so years. Then again I acclimated myself in the fall for winter and in the spring for summer. I do have arther. Broke my back more then once. So that puts me down from time to time. But colds and flue has not done me in for some time.

In case you must know, Sweat Lodge. The norsmen would prepare for winter with a Sauna! Try it some time!

Don

[Alpine_Sapper]

Well, JRJ, here's the secret if you catch a cold. It takes seven days to get over it if you medicate yourself. A week if you just let your immune system tackle it.

Yeah, but sometimes with a bad cold, medicating those symptoms is the only way to tolerate being at work when being at home you'd be just fine.