We tend to think of the immune system as a Boolean did I get sick or did I not get sick? Which makes sense for the most part, because most of the time if you are around lots of people sharing things, you do get sick.
But maybe immune systems are more of a gradient, like contracting a cold is binary but how sick you actually are, as in how much the symptoms of that strain are affecting you, is actually quite variable. I ask because there was a huge big bad contagion at my place and I was the only one to not get sick, so I pumped myself full of vitamin C and zinc and was careful to wash my hands a lot. Like, maybe the disease did reach me (there were a couple instances where I was sure sharing that plate or such and such definitely was The Point Of Transferrence) but the moment it hit my zinc’d up system it just doubled up and filled my blood with cold dead cold cells (harharhar).
Similarly, I had a piano teacher who said she never got sick because lots of grubby little kids were always playing her piano. Is it possible in both examples we were actually sick, but didn’t exhibit many symptoms because our immune systems were on high alert? In the piano teacher example, it only makes sense if she’s boosting her immune system as much as I was. Unless she has a naturally incredible immune system. How realistic or practical is “immune system boosting”? Do some people have naturally better immune systems, excepting auto-immune disorders or hypochondria? If so, how much variation is there? Can it be fortified? Like the mythical iocaine resistance (I know poison is a progressively lethal thing) is it false to assume that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?
I mean, just how nebulous is the immune system to present-day science?
No, seriously, if you or someone you know from a knowlegeable background can answer these questions I am seeking non web-md.com answers.
Also long time no see haha. Pardon?
Escape! Escape! 