When I was a young boy I would get sick pretty regularly (headaches, fever, nausea, the works). Now that I’m a grown man I rarely experience such extremes. Instead I find myself in more of a long term state of vague apathy and shittiness.
That makes me wonder if my immune system truly has improved, or if I simply lost touch with my feelings.
I don’t eat as much dirt and worms as I did when I was a kid, I think that might be part of the reason.
As much?
Technically any amount less is not as much
I saw a kid licking a bus window the other day.
Gotta feed that nostalgia now and then. Gotta say though
Dirt and worms for dinner 🤤
I’m struggling to find the charts but yes, frequency of illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses is high in children and seniors and low in adults (unless the adult is often around a child or senior). It’s because the immune system is strongest in adults and weakest in the very young and very old.
If you don’t hang around kids or seniors, you’ll rarely ever get sick.
I feel like I am more often sick than when I was a youth, but it’s probably the three kids I have in public school contributing to that.
Before I had my daughter I was never sick, thought my immune system was strong. Then she started school and I got sick every freaking time she got a little bit sick. Turns out my immune system is crap, I just wasn’t in contact with sicknesses that much.
If you are wondering “perhaps I am just as sick just as often but I can’t feel it” the answer is very likely No, that’s not the case.
As others pointed, immune systems are stronger for adults, and children have poorer hygiene habits meaning chances of getting sick skyrocket.
That’s exactly what I was wondering, thank you.
Kids touch everything, are around more people than you, and those people are also kids who touch everything. They’re also not as good about covering their face when they sneeze or washing their hands.
Not only touch, but also lick.
If, as an adult, you have a kid and send 'em to daycare…you’re probably going to be getting sick “pretty regularly” again! (It’s worth it, but it does suck.)
The shit we caught when the babies went to nursery was mad. I’d never even heard of these things in humans! Slapped cheek, hand foot and mouth, noro and rota viruses? All that stuff was coming in to the house suddenly. Yikes.
Around my 30s, I would get sick a lot because I took public transportation. Also the air quality in the city I lived was really bad. I lived near a major road so car fumes was a normal smell.
In my 40s, pandemic taught me to wash my hands better. I have a lot better habits. I moved to a city where the air was way better. I now reduce situations where I’m in like funky situations where I can get sick.
I went from being sick 15-30 days a year to like 1-5 days a year. It’s been a crazy transformation.
I don’t get sick as often, but my head hurts and I feel like trash much more often.
Drinking enough water?
Almost never.
I have a solution for you
You’re probably going to recommend I get enough sleep and cut down on stress too, huh?
Possibly because you go out less, around a smaller set of people and/or aren’t doing as many gross / close things as younger people.
Speak for yourself, I’ve noticed being sick a lot more as an adult. That said, between vaccines and just generally not dying to diseases, we do gain some immunities throughout childhood, which serve us well through our adult lives. As adults, we likely also spend less time among lots of people, as school children do. Goodness know that the start of school always ushers in a host of illnesses as the kids return to the ~petri dish~ school. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve noticed a drop off in illnesses. If you don’t have kids and don’t hang around lots of other people on a regular basis, you may not get sick as much. With a built up immune system, said illnesses probably aren’t as bad either.
I don’t understand what you mean about feelings. But we definitely are in much deeper contact with other humans. When I was younger I lived on the countryside, with very few people to exchange illness with. It’s the complete opposite today, and I’m still sick way less often. So I would say my immune system improved
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Ive been sick a lot less as an adult. I’ve pretty much not been sick at all since covid changed my hand washing protocol (not sure what else to attribute it to).
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One of my kids gets a lot of fevers and headaches. He also is a very picky eater, and doesn’t drink enough water. (We’re working on both of those.)
My other kid is not so picky, and rarely has fevers or headaches.
You can probably tell I have an opinion on the nature of these correlations.
