Why is it that my 79 year old mother has never had a cold or the flu?

Here are some secrets of super health people.

1) Exercise vigorously
2) Take care of your mouth
3) Eat apples and broccoli and drink green tea
4) Stop worrying about getting sick.
5) Increase your vitamin consumption
6) Stop believing in being sick
7) Meditate
8) Make more friends
9) Think happy
10) Wash your hands—a lot
11) Get a lot of sleep

Did your mother do any or many of these things?

The older you get, the more cold viruses you become immune to. “Your body learns to fight off a particular kind of virus every time you get an infection, which is why you get fewer colds as you get older”

The same reason my 93 year old mother has smoked a pack of cigarettes everyday, since she was 16 and is in general good health. No blood pressure medicene or lung problems.

Funny you should mention the snake bite and immune system. I had an elderly neighbour back in New Zealand. She was very spry and chipper. She told me that she never got colds or flu either. She had suffered from some sort of cold or flu as a small baby, but when she was a toddler she at a bunch of garden snails. She gave the snail-eating credit for never suffering from a cold or flu from that day on. The immune system is a mystery. There could be something to your snake bite theory. Who knows?

I never get colds and have never had the flu. I’m not a germophobe, and I live healthy. I believe these are the reasons I stay immune. Being exposed to so many nasties actually makes your body bulletproof. Sure, I know some people are just more sickly and so my style wouldn’t suit them, but I thought I’d share, just the same. I’ve also been to the amazon and Madagascar doing relief work out in the boonies – didn’t catch anything though. :)

30 years old and never been sick.

She probably isn’t exposed to many germs. However, lots of things boost immunity. Drinking a sufficient amount of alcohol apparently boosts immune system resistance a bit. I try to have a few beers a week, and almost never get sick.

good genes

Well, that would depend on a number of things. First, was she always disease-free, or did she only develop the immunity after the snakebite? Also, could she be experiencing a placebo effect (because she believes that the snakebite protects her, the belief produces a therapeutic effect)? If neither of these apply, then she probably just has good genes.

@bolwerk Really? Where did you read that?

My dad never got sick either and he ate poison ivy to show off as a kid. LOL

@lonelydragon: it’s something that’s being looked into by researchers these days, and is by no means certain. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17922947 for example discusses it. (Other benefits of alcohol consumption are pretty certain, like in the case of cardiovascular health. Of course, that could itself affect immunity, I would guess.)