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The theory about Lyme patient not catching cold (virus)

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Posted 1/31/2019 1:15 PM (GMT -5)
Hello everyone,

I've read several blog and post on this subject and one theory seem to emerge from others:
Our immune system has been disabled, hence why we don't ever feel like getting cold/flu: our system dosen't fight it off.

This bring a major interrogation.
If our system dosen't fight back and rid of viruses it get infected with, does it mean those viruses just keep not only building up, but adding up in our system?

The thought that we are a living incubator for every virus/bacteria around is scary to me.

Post Edited (Alxander) : 2/1/2019 9:05:12 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 1/31/2019 2:12 PM (GMT -5)
I don't buy into that....if our immune system is so low...then wouldn't we get sicker?

Why are we concerned with the elderly getting the flu with their lower immune function? Because they get really sick and can die.
They certainly get symptoms.

IDK what the answer is....maybe there are different components of the immune system that are at play.
Posted 1/31/2019 2:35 PM (GMT -5)
I've heard that theory a lot too, that people with no cold symptoms are the worst off because it means their immune system doesn't know/do anything about the virus. I'm not sure I buy it, I mean you may not get inflamed but you will certainly feel the fatigue etc. that comes with being run down. I dunno.
Posted 1/31/2019 3:26 PM (GMT -5)
I had longer and worse seasonal winter colds (sick, runny nose, bad headcold ect) during my time with lyme.

After ABX ending in 2016, I'm much more healthy as far as colds go. I had a cold-virus last summer (rare), but none this winter that lasted or developed into a full contition, 3 days at most. And people are hacking all over the place up here.

I have documented low immune cells and immunoglobulins still after lyme "healed" . Its Immune damage. Many prob have this but did not bother to test for it and ignored the "givaway" of continuous low cd57 even after being "cured".

Aparently the B and T cells I have left do their job.

Post Edited (astroman) : 2/1/2019 9:37:50 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/1/2019 7:55 AM (GMT -5)
Do you mean resilience to cold? like not feeling temperatures correctly? That would be a type of neuropathy and yes it is a strange symptom I have experienced.

Or do you mean, cold like rhinovirus, or the common cold?

If the latter then I have been affected with months-long colds/flu at times, since having Lyme n Cos. It seems I pick up every little bug except when I'm in tip top shape and strictly dieting, and getting adequate sleep.
Posted 2/1/2019 10:10 AM (GMT -5)
Yes, I'm talking about the virus and not the feeling of temperatures. smile

There's too many people noticing that since getting infected with Lyme and co, they couldn't catch a cold/flu anymore. That phenomenon is documented in many online posts from users, including me.
On the other hands, there is those that seem to suffer from increased severity of viruses, which also seem like a common complain.
This one make more sense to me in term of logic with the immune system.

My best personal hypothesis (not scientific at all), would be that:
- Borrelia does make one more vulnerable to all viruses since it's **** the immune system up.
- There must be a specific co-infection that has the ability to hijack things up to make their host invulnerable to virus/cold, which could be detrimental to the co-infection survival itself.
I know that I have bartonella. Not sure about Babesia...

Yes, I'm a sci fi person. ;-)
Posted 2/2/2019 12:25 AM (GMT -5)
Well, sci fi is science fiction lol.

Can you explain your second point? What do you mean by making us invulnerable to viruses, and how would that be detrimental to the co-infection? I don't really understand your theory.
Posted 2/2/2019 1:19 PM (GMT -5)
Well, it could be that the infections (including borrelia) affect different peoples' immune systems differently. That's what the animal models of Monica Embers and Nicole Baumgarth seemed to show, there was a wide variety in the types of immune dysfunction caused by borrelia burgoderfi (that's the main infection they studied). So maybe the infections have a variety of iterations in how they distort/depress the varying components of peoples' immune systems, and these varying iterations could explain why people have different responses to colds/viruses. Plus other factors like coinfections and immune system genetics (amongst other things) may play a role in determining the particular flavor of how (or whether) the immune system gets distorted.

Post Edited (sebreg) : 2/2/2019 11:22:04 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/2/2019 1:33 PM (GMT -5)
This is why I like testing when its available, less assumption.
Posted 2/2/2019 11:33 PM (GMT -5)
Yup, I haven't gotten "regular sick" since before I went down in Dec. 2017. Since then, not a single cough, runny nose, nasal congestion, head cold, etc. My LLMD told me once I start getting "regular sick" again may mark the end of my current illness with bart/babs.
Posted 2/3/2019 10:14 AM (GMT -5)
I’m trying to get over a mega sinus infection. I thought I was done with them since I regularly had them before being diagnosed, but still had Lyme disease. I’ve had Lyme disease for almost 17 years. I would say there’s no evidence to back up that we can’t get a cold or sinus infection. I’m living proof.
Posted 2/5/2019 10:08 AM (GMT -5)
No evidence as in randomized controlled trials, but I agree with the original poster. I have seen many many people that do not get colds anymore after the tick bite. I am one myself. Put me in the group of those who used to come down with cold/flu/strep annually, then never after the tick bite. Skeptics would say its just a coincidence.

To collect "evidence" of this would be difficult and expensive. Guess we will have to count anecdotes. lol
Posted 2/5/2019 11:45 AM (GMT -5)
It would be interesting if more people such as myself had immune class cell levels tested, and several times for a pattern or baseline.

And then even more interesting if the Lyme Drs actually knew something about this and made this somewhat "normal" testing for lymies instead of ending it at the CD57 test, which is only the tip of the iceberg.

Then compare these findings with upper respiratory illness / or lack of.

Not too difficult.
Posted 2/5/2019 12:57 PM (GMT -5)
To weigh in on the other side: I've gotten 2 colds in the year and a half since I got Lyme. That's a normal amount for me.
Posted 2/5/2019 1:00 PM (GMT -5)
Sebreg hold a strong explication that it might simply be that the virus load/nature AND each of immune system is so different for each person, that it explains why there's no one rules fit all when it comes to cold and flu like viruses.

That being said, I still find it curious that so many people just seem to be unable to feel a cold virus or flu. It's not just a granularity in the symptoms intensity... it really seem like you fall into one of the two bucket: "Immune to Cold" OR "My colds are worse!".

Which is why I was contemplating the far fetched hypothesis that:
Case 1: one of the infection (let's pretend Borellia) is the one making people immuno suppressed and more vulnerable to viruses. This would explain the complain of more long and painful cold/virus + longer recovery since getting victim of Borellia.
Case 2: The idea that another infection (Bartonella or Babesia for example), highjacks a few parameters of the immune system, on top of Borrelia, making us unresponsive (immune?) to a few viruses (unlike those ONLY affected by Case 1).


I even heard the theory that one of those bacteria hate heat, so they prevent us from catching things that might get us with elevated temperature such as the flu.
Anyways, I'm really just being curious here... smile
Posted 2/5/2019 1:26 PM (GMT -5)
Pre lyme I rarely got sick - the odd cold I got wouldn’t set me back - wouldn’t miss work because of it.

Flu? Maybe once every 10 years.

Since lyme - no change
Posted 2/5/2019 1:35 PM (GMT -5)

astroman said...
It would be interesting if more people such as myself had immune class cell levels tested, and several times for a pattern or baseline.

And then even more interesting if the Lyme Drs actually knew something about this and made this somewhat "normal" testing for lymies instead of ending it at the CD57 test, which is only the tip of the iceberg.

Then compare these findings with upper respiratory illness / or lack of.

Not too difficult.

Totally agree.
Posted 2/5/2019 1:38 PM (GMT -5)
Girlie - lucky you, seems like you never been one to be annoyed with colds much. ;-)

On my hand, I used to get 4-5 colds a year, for as long as I can remember.
So far, 8 months after being bitten, 0, which is just very surprising for me.
Posted 2/5/2019 3:17 PM (GMT -5)
Some persons with lyme have a ramped up super inflammed immune sx ...this is why i think I did not get sick ...it may have burned out or been suppressed by bart but initially nothing could phase it. ..anyway caught a cold today and its not that much fun
Posted 2/5/2019 3:40 PM (GMT -5)

Alxander said...
Girlie - lucky you, seems like you never been one to be annoyed with colds much. ;-)

On my hand, I used to get 4-5 colds a year, for as long as I can remember.
So far, 8 months after being bitten, 0, which is just very surprising for me.


Well if I got a cold 4-5 times a year...maybe I would be annoyed with them!!!
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