The secrets of people who never get sick
Some lucky folk claim to never get a cold or take days off work. Can we become more like them? C. Rasmawany -10/02/17
Every now and then one pops up at work, down the pub, in the park, outside the school gate, or in your own family’s mythology.
The person who claims never to get sick. Colds brush past them without leaving so much as a sniffle. They laugh in the flushed face of flu, spray hand sanitiser in the rheumy eyes of infection, and never take a day off work.
They appear to be superhuman, with the kind of kickass immune systems the rest of us mere ailing mortals can only dream about as we dissolve another 1,000mg vitamin C tablet and hope for the best. What are their secrets? Can we become more like them? Do they even exist?
Our unparalleled genetic diversity makes generalisations about stronger or weaker immune systems meaningless. It also throws into question the benefits of all the products out there claiming to boost our immunity; antioxidants, vitamin C, hot lemon and ginger tea, garlic, echinacea, or wheatgrass. Do any of them work?
So why do some people simply seem to be better at fighting infection than others?
Some comments to (dis)agree:
- “The bottom line is that we simply don’t know,”
- “Keep your scepticism wrapped around you like a cloak.”
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