I would say that the last few years, every cold or flu that I had morphed into some nasty infection; why is that?

Secondary infections may be due to a weakened immune system.

Makes sense.

My mother has trouble with that. The docs said each attack leaves a little residual damage and it gets to be a cumulative thing. Don’t screw with it. (Kind of like a rubber with holes in it).

Weakened immune system. Back in the olden days, before antibiotics, it killed people.

If I had a patient getting secondary infections all the time, I would be running blood panels to check it out, unless I knew they had an existing problem that made them prone to them. (like missing lymphnodes or spleen)

Stress, depression, lack of sleep, alcohol, poor diet, no excercise or too much excercise…. it all takes a toll and makes it harder to get over viruses that should only last 24 hours. Age too, I`m afraid, but we can`t do much about that one.

I found a good link for you,

http://mastersinnursingonline.com/2009/top-25-ways-youre-wrecking-your-immune-system/

Some say once you get something like pneumonia, your lungs are never the same. I don’t think it is necessarily true, but I think it could trigger months or years of a weakened state. Secondary infection from colds is actually very rare. They used to give everyone antibiotics in case a cold might become a bacterial infection, and thank goodness they did away with it. Well, most doctors did.

Your immunity is probably a little low, and I think you likely are catching viruses and bacterial infections that simply are more serious, rather than it being a cold turning into something. Try to take more precautions not to catch illnesses if possible.

@Jude You’re no longer in the classroom are you?

I think it’s the aging factor. I am almost 52, hardly “old”, but yep, I have really noticed the last few years that it is taking longer and longer to bounce back when sick. I have officially reached the phase of my life now where if someone tells me they are sick I avoid them like the plague, pun intended until they are well over what ails them.

I had some crazy virus in the middle of the summer the year before last that wiped me out for 3 weeks. It was all I could do to just drag myself out to tend to my yard and animals.

I take tons of vitamins, rest well, have little stress in my life, doesn’t matter, the old body machine just takes longer to come back after it takes a hit.

@Jude

Sounds like you may need more vitamin C in your diet.

@Coloma

Simply getting older does not necessarily mean getting slower, or weaker, or taking longer to recover from illness. I’ll soon be 69 ( they tell me that should be a very good year! LOL! ). As you know, I have cancer and diabetes. The only time I notice that I’m slowing down is if I fall off my diet and eat something that’s not good for me… like ice cream! SIGH! ; ))

Hints: Eat right. If you smoke, stop. Get age-appropriate exercise. And keep a positive attitude!

Its the overuse of antibiotics. We prescribe them for everything, even if it isnt a bacterial infection. This both weakens our immune system whilst making these infections much stronger.

@CaptainHarley

I agree 100%, just saying I have noticed a bit of a jumping off place, it happens. :-)

Are you getting the flu shot? Assuming your MD thinks it’s ok, it might be a good idea to make it a regular thing every year.

@gorillapaws I’ve never had one. I guess that it’s time to start..

@Jude : Oh, Sweetie, I know in the last few years you’ve sustained devastating personal loss, and had a lot of stress in general. That can have a very negative effect on your immune system as well. (I speak from personal experience, here). You really need to go the extra mile to take care of yourself, get enough rest, remember the vitamins, etc etc etc, what everybody has said. You’ll have to work harder to get over stuff, and being in school won’t help, but take the extra measures. This won’t last forever.

Right @JilltheTooth

Extreme emotional duress wipes out your immune system. It’s no “accident” that prolonged stress bring on all sorts of physical issues.

I had a therapist I saw after my emotionally draining divorce process some years ago that told me she was convinced some personal stress in her own life had led to her having a bout with breast cancer within a 2 year frame of the stressor.

Stress IS the #1 killer..it truly is, it can induce all sorts of dis-ease that manifests itself in a seriously compromised immune system.

What I learned from Anthropology this semester is that humans greatest enemy are viruses. They are always mutating.

Several things.
Allergies have increased along with air pollution.
Most antihistimes have some sort of steroids which weaken the immune system.
We eat more crap and exercise less.
Medications have either been watered down or people are over medicated for simple matters and they lose the chance to let their own bodies build antibodies against what is making them slightly ill.
Viruses mutate.
Steroids in our food.
People also don’t follow through on their medications like they are suppose too.
Worst crap invented is the 5 day antibotic. You get enough to just get you over the worst of it but it never really kicks the crap out of the virus and it mutates and comes back stronger than before.
I tried the 5 day crap pill for broncitus. I caught it 3 times in two year. Finally a doctor (not my usual doctor gave me something stonger the 4th time I caught it. He told me that having it that often was probably due to my medication not being strong enough. I had been sickly the whole 2 years. In 3 days of stronger antibiotics, I felt 10 years younger. By the 10th day I felt like dancing in the street.
I had to pay for the stronger antibotics because my insurance only covered the cheaper one. It was 100 bucks and each pill was worth every cent.

There are a lot of good suggestions here. Seeing a doctor about this would likely be helpful. As mentioned above a healthy diet, adequate exercise, fluid intake and sleep are important to maintain good health. Also avoiding stress and negativity is important.

@Pandora You have a good answer but I think that you made a type-o. Of course you know that antibiotics don’t work on viruses.

@Pandora I assume you are talking about a zpack when you say 5 days of antibiotics. That drug has a long half life and lasts in the body longer than say penicillin like Pen VK, or Amoxicillin. It is actually working for several days past your last pill. Trouble is it only works if it is the right drug and the right dose, like any other antibiotic. You probably wound up eventually on something Levoxin, or maybe just good old Augmentin. My guess is none of the doctors, even the one who gave you the better drug, did a culture. Right? They just guess. They just guess and prescribe what they always prescribe.

Possibly you had some other low level infection for a long time, and that is why the 5 day drug worked on your worst sympoms, but the other magical pill worked on other crap in your body.

My advice is really start to learn the medications that work well for you and in what doses. Of course with each bacterial infection it needs a specific med, but you can start to recognize the symptoms of each illness and what drug you prefer. You might not get sick like that again for 5 years.

And, @gondwanalon is right it wasn’t a virus, it was a bacterial infection.

@Jude A flu shot might be worth considering since you are getting sick a lot. You have probably seen me on other Q’s, I don’t get the shot myself, but I would definitely consider if I felt I was at more risk of catching the flu, or becoming very ill from it. Just know that the fou shot only works for the flu. It will not help with colds or bacterial infections.

I also think @JilltheTooth made a really good point, you have been through a very stressful time. Do what you can to pamper yourself. Most of all get plenty of sleep. I get sick a lot when my iron is low, maybe check that next time you are at the doctors office.

@gondwanalon Yes, it was a typo. I usually will read my stuff before I hit answer but I really wasn’t paying it any mind. I know antibiotics don’t work on viruses but blood work always came back for bacterial. It wasn’t till I got the good stuff that I finally got off this repeating cycle.
@JLeslie, I know what they say about the 5 day pack but it really never made me get 100 percent better. But I would agree that some medications just don’t work for everyone. Even when I would go back two weeks later the doctors would just give me the same crap that didn’t work the first time or I would hear. You have to give it time. I think 2 years was enought time. It wasn’t till I saw a different doctor and told him of my history that he said I needed to go on better medication and it finally did help. I haven’t caught broncitus since then and that was over 10 years ago.

@Pandora Lesson #49 don’t take something that doesn’t work again and again. Lesson #50 sometimes you have to tell a doctor you want a diffierent drug.

There are not many blood tests to show whether something is bacterial or viral. Only if you test positive for something like Mono for instance, and that would not require an antibiotic, so you did not have that.

Also correction, I see I wrote levixon, should be levoquin.