Why some people don't get the flu

[Chemisse]

Why do some people end up in bed feverish, hacking and sneezing for days from the flu — when others seem to never get sick?

To answer that question, University of Michigan researchers did the first study of its kind: They infected 17 healthy people with the flu virus and discovered that everyone who is exposed to the flu actually is affected by it, but their bodies just have a different way of reacting to it. Half of the study participants got sick; the other half didn’t notice a thing.

“Many people might conclude that if you are exposed to a virus and you don’t get sick, it’s because the virus didn’t stick or it was so weak, it just passed right through your system and your system didn’t notice. That’s not a correct notion,” says Alfred Hero, professor at the University of Michigan College of Engineering and author of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal PLoS Genetics.

He continues, “There is an active immune response which accounts for the resistance of certain people getting sick, and that response is just as active as the response we all know and hate, which is being sick with the sniffles, fever, coughing and sneezing. It’s just that the responses are different.”


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44275043/ns/health-cold_and_flu/#.Tl1gwF14Kxc



Pretty interesting. I get the flu once every 10 or 15 years, which makes me pretty nonchalant about getting a flu shot. I usually get one cold a year, and a bad stomach bug once every 3 to 5 years. My husband, on the other hand, gets whatever is coming through - every time.

It looks like this study gives us a glimmer of insight into the differences between people and their immune responses.

[postulater]

1. Good info

I took an aspirin about ten years ago just to see what it did. Don't get sick really.

[virgogal]

2. Husbands do seem to catch more than wives,especially "man colds".

[Chemisse]

7. LOL! It would be interesting to see if there was a gender difference

in immune response, or if any perceived difference was actually a behavioral thing. I know my husband enjoys being babied when he is sick but I am very uncomfortable with letting other people do things for me.

[virgogal]

10. You may have seen this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ

[Chemisse]

12. No, I hadn't. That's really funny! n/t

[Demeter]

3. Youngest Daughter Has the Flu Right Now

Elder daughter and I have stomach flu...I think we may avoid the upper respiratory infection by enduring the diarrhea, instead. And it wasn't painless, either.

[Chemisse]

8. Ugh. That sounds miserable.

[HockeyMom]

4. Virsus

I know not the same thing, but many years ago my husband, older daughter, and infant daughter came down with a very nasty stomach virus, and I didn't get it. I think I may have had it years before. My daughter's doctor seemed to think that I might any developed an immunity to it since I was the only one in the household not sick. To make a long story short, he told me to continue nursing my baby daugther because of that. He seemed to think I would pass on antibodies to her. She was fine in 24 hours. It took days for my husband and older daughter to get better.

[Chemisse]

9. One of the many benefits of breastfeeding!

Your baby lucked out I guess, having you as a mom.

[kestrel91316]

5. Well, duh. I knew as much 35 years ago while studying for my BS in Microbiology,

which included no small number of classes in virology and immunology.

The MEDIA thought everyone's response should be identical. No one who knows jack shit about any virus would think that.

[Chemisse]

6. Well if you read the article, there is just a bit more to it than that.

There is a question about the role of antioxidants, and some peculiar behavior of the immune system even in people who don't get sick.

[SheilaT]

11. I had flu several times in my youth,

probably including one of the Type A flu's, which are the worst ones. Think the 1918 pandemic. I know that I was around for the last two big Type A epidemcis, the Hong Kong flu of 1968 (don't recall getting sick then)and the Asian flu of 1957, which I think I may have gotten. In any case, I seem to have a very good immunity to just about everything out there at this point in my life.

Oh, and during my marriage it was my husband who got sick a lot, while I almost never did. The one main exception was some kind of a nasty but short-lived virus of some kind that involved being very nauseated and a lot of vomiting for about 24-36 hours. It went through all four of us, and was the ONLY time all of us got sick from the same thing.