WTH has happened to my immune system?? A rant.

madpeacock

After YEARS of never getting sick, aside from the breast cancer, of course, all of a sudden everything is going wrong. Right before New Year's I felt incredibly tired and had a pretty impressive cough. Went to urgent care, and had a positive flu test and bronchitis. Never had any flu symptoms or fever. Felt better, and cough went away. Now, barely three weeks later, I am coughing, sneezing, hot and cold, and basically droopy. A scratch on my foot has gotten gunky. A fingernail is trying to lift up (no, I never had chemo, so no residual from that). And on the TMI side, pretty sure the strong-smelling urine has something going on there too. 

I eat an extremely healthy diet and take an arsenal of supplements. I run, cycle, and teach an aerobics class. Literally, I have not been sick in at least five years, but now I'm catching everything that blows by in the wind. When I go to my primary care, they have to dig my chart out of storage because I have no ongoing chronic illnesses and never get sick. 

I have chronically low RBCs and WBCs, but I wonder if the WBCs have gotten even lower, thus causing all of this ridiculousness. I posted in this forum to see if anyone had any ideas to share...and basically just to rant.  Sigh...sniff...cough...

flannelette

Hi - I wonder what's in your arsenal of supplements? I don't know much about them and take very few, but I do make my own astragalus tincture (dried astragalus roots in vodka) and have been really successful in stopping colds and flu over past 4 years.

the latest was about a week ago - everybody here has a whopper flu/cold lasting about 3 weeks. I was in the car, suddenly felt a cold/flu coming on, went home, took my tincture immediately, and a tranquilizer, and fell asleep, slept 12 hrs,  more doses, sleeping, keeping quiet, in 3 days the flu that had threatened disappeared. works nearly every time if you catch it right away. tincture redcipe as per Susun Weed. I would not buy anything from a store to do this as you have no idea of its potency, but home-made you know what went into it. astragalus is almost totally harmless, by the way, according to what I've read...worth a try?

mary625

A little off topic, but my naturopath has me on astralogus which she says is for cardiac support. Just to clarify, I think it is the same thing as English Hawthorne.



For my immune system, she has me on something called AmlaPlex that I don't take because it looks and smells nasty in my opinion. It's my understanding that if you get the fruit that is called the Amla but something else in Hindi, that is also good for the immune system. It can be found in Indian grocers.

madpeacock

Thanks for the tips! I already have astralagus in one of my blends. Not sure what is up, but I already have an appt with my integrative medicine doctor next week, so I'll get his thoughts. He's pretty good at puzzling out these type of problems. Meanwhile, today I have to get on a bus with 30 8th grade chamber orchestra students for five hours to chaperone an overnight trip. Oh boy. 

mary625

I realized that what I have is NOT astralagus. It is cratageus or English Hawthorne.

flannelette

yup - hawthorne for heart

Carola32

Mary625,

You can find a much nicer way to have amla fruit. It's like a paste and is called Chyavanprash. It has antioxidant properties and is strengthening. I had a teaspoon twice a day when I was in India last year to recover from treatment, and am taking it ever since. Guess it exists as powder too. Then there is Triphala; three fruits which strengthens the immune system, heart and also helps with transit. Ayurveda has helped me very much, and I'm happy you know of it. You should try and take it!

Take care,

Carola

mary625

Thanks, Carole. We have a lot of Indian stores in this area, and I will look there for this product.