Are we all growing sicker?

I know this sounds like paranoia and scaremongering, but I, my family, my work colleagues and just about anyone I come into contact on a daily basis has been ill more often, and for longer, during the last 6 months than we ever were before.

Personally, I have always had an incredibly good immune system. I've probably taken 3 sick days in the 8 years since I started working. But for the past 6 months, despite being 24, a regular gym goer and having a healthier diet than I ever have done in my life, I've had a mild cold for most of the last 6 months. I'm talking colds, 'sniffles' and flu here - nothing too serious!

I don't know what to put this down to but it's not my imagination. A lot of my work colleagues have made similar observations and I have regular conversations with my Mum about how she's had a cold for 6 months and just can't shift it. We all seem to have just learned to live with it but this is definitely the most prolonged peroid of mild sickness I and those around me have ever battled.

Anyone else have similar findings?

I can relate. Flus, colds don't mitigate in the worst of scenarios two weeks or so. But last for months now. It is not normal and depressing for those that have to experience it.
It was only a matter of time before the massive number of planetary shark, fish, mammalian, bee, and bat deaths started to trickle in to the animal population.

[edit on 7-4-2008 by jpm1602]

I've not been sick for ages!! Although I do feel a bit rough today. I'm blaming me mate from the pub,who had a bug of some kind. I've been trying out the old mind over matter thing. I'm going to see if I can fight this off by convincing myself that i'm not sick.

I am not sick,I am fine

Personally from my view I think people are living in "Super sanitized environments " too much , myself and my son are unvaccinated and stay healthy and happy even though my poor husband who is a schoolteacher is constantly ill.

i and my child also spend a lot of time outside and in nature , and i believe that helps us stay healthy.

Just my opinion.

most people around me are always ill , and it seems like they are ill forever and then a few more days.
*sighs*

me and my son seem pretty immune.
I will keep and EYe on this , seems interesting enough.

I've noticed the same thing here as well. People I know who used to never get sick have been ill 5 or 6 times in the last 6 months or so. I got the worst flu bug of my life in the last 6 months plus other more mild illnesses and I am usually very healthy.

I nerver get sick personally, but my girlfriend tends to get a bit ill quite often..

I tend to live a healthy, ie. eat different kind of foods, exercise on a regularly basis, get a decent amount of sun, stay out of places that is heavy poluted. And it seems to work for me..

My girlfriend she could do with loosing a few kilos, and actually, she did that a year ago (Well, now they're back - hehe) by execising, and her health got really improved. So, for most people its reflected in their lifestyles IMO.

Of course, this goes by assuming 'normal people', and not some with cronic disorders.

Try oregano oil(the kind you can put under your tongue).
It's helped us avoid the doctor for the winter except once, when I ran out and my son had a middle ear infection.
I have three sons, two in school and one who just turned three.

Originally posted by survivalwoman
i and my child also spend a lot of time outside and in nature , and i believe that helps us stay healthy.

Good for you!

I spend a lot of time walking, stay clear of pollution, don't smoke, don't drink, and like I said before, am a regular gym goer with a healthy diet. The only thing some critics might be able to pin on me is that I'm vegan (in my opinion, the healthiest diet I've ever had). My veganism doesn't, I believe, have any relevance here because I've been so for over 4 years and it's not just me with my vegan diet who has been more ill over the last 6 months than previously.

Thanks for all the replies. It's intriguing to know that a few people have found the same thing. If it were anything more serious than a cold, I'd be truly concerned. Instead I'm just confused and perhaps a little suspicious. If, overall, people are sicker more and for longer, there must be a reason for it. Are we subjected to more undesirable food additives than before perhaps? Is it related to the changing climate?

Originally posted by survivalwoman
Personally from my view I think people are living in "Super sanitized environments " too much , myself and my son are unvaccinated and stay healthy and happy even though my poor husband who is a schoolteacher is constantly ill.

i and my child also spend a lot of time outside and in nature , and i believe that helps us stay healthy.

Just my opinion.

me and my son seem pretty immune.
I will keep and EYe on this , seems interesting enough.

I agree about your super sanitized statement, we tend to sanitize everything around us that we don't get our bodies a chance to build a stronger immune system.

I do have a question for you which I hope you can answer.

I know some women get easily offended with this subject and it's probably due to guilt but I need to ask you if you breast fed your child?

I'm sure there are many other contributing factors but I truly feel the development of a healthy immune system starts with whether a child was sufficiently breast fed.

reply to post by Cythraul


Actually I'm as healthy as I have ever been and the same goes for most people I know. Although a friend of mine is sick very frequently but I just put that down to a weak immune system.

Interesting. I wasn't necessarily expecting unanimous agreement on this, I just wanted to see if anyone else had similar observations because for me and those around me, it's totally unexplainable. Like I said, I've had an incredible immune system throughout my life and bang, all of a sudden it's weak.

reply to post by Cythraul


Have any new chemical plants been build near where you live or work in the past year? Also try to get the reports on water quality from your water company. And compare them with before you started to get ill.

No nothing big has changed where I live. I checked recently to see what was added to my tap water because of concerns over fluoride. Nothing going on there. I don't have any serious health issues - it's just mild colds and it barely inconveniences me. I just find it interesting that everyone around me is suffering this minor inconvenience. My best guess is that the British weather has been particularly unpredictable and odd lately.

That is very true. I live right across the canal (the Netherlands) and the weather here has been very odd too. We had a ton of snow at easter, than a lot of sun and now it's freezing at night again. Very weird. And I don't know if it's global warming or global cooling, and I really don't care which one of the two it is. But it sure is a ####.

reply to post by Cythraul



Take ginger, ground or raw, as often as you can.
(Ginger/cinnamon "tea", for example, is wonderfully invigorating, and there is no virus or bacteria that can resist them.)

Clean the air in your environment by using PURE essential oils (instead of "air fresheners").

Avoid physicians.
(Do you think it's a coincidence that, according to certain USA statistic data, the number of deaths DECLINES whenever there's a physicians' strike?)

And don't dwell too much on health issues. :-)

Try oregano oil(the kind you can put under your tongue).

Or the kind that you put ON your tongue, along with a slice of pizza.

Yes, oregano is very good, too.
(But to me, ginger is still number 1)

reply to post by Alxandro


Its okay , I have no shame my kid got the boob milk up until he got teeth , and i was the only one of my mothers children that got it , unlike a lot of parents my age i thinks its best if he gets out , plays with and eats a little dirt. Other parents look at me with disgust and hatred for it , but i really do belive it is best for him , their kids roll around in chemical ladden carpets , mine gets a good dirt bath.

But he's happy healthy and has only had a dr visit for a spider bite and that was done and gone in a week.
Just me
S

I started taking all fruit juice,anti -oxins about 6 months ago,I was always getting sick,after taking it I can honestly say I haven't so much as sneezed since,and all the flu's and cold weather weve had,so something to it

reply to post by survivalwoman


That's kinda what I suspected, congrats.

Funny how we are conditioned to shield ourselves from the natural stuff while basking in the wrong kinds of bacteria and chemicals.

I would suspect there is also something to be said about insect bites too and the beneficial aspects their venom.

It's just you who are getting sicker.

I caught the sniffles off a car salesman the other day, but I haven't been SICK almost all my life.

I hate people and their unhygienic lifestyles. There is NOTHING healthy in being exposed to disease all the time.

Look at every 100 people on the street. 90 of them do not wash their hands after going to even public toilets, five of them wash their hands, and five of them eat food off the ground.

I have spoken.