For some reason, I seem to find myself getting sick much more often than any of my friends or family. Fortunately, these sicknesses usually don’t amount to anything more than your average head cold or sore throat, but nevertheless, my metabolism just never seems to be able to keep up. This whole thing has never really made sense to me. I’m an 18-year-old male, in high school I played 2 sports and worked out very often, I got a good amount of sleep and I definitely ate well. To top it all off, last week I got pinkeye for the third time in the past 10 months.
To tackle the question of why I get sick so often, I decided to do some basic research as to what could be making me sick. The article attached here lists off several reasons that people get sick. It touches on matters like oral health and dirty hands- neither of which pertains to me. In fact, my friends often ridicule me for being a germ freak, feeling the need to wash my hands before and after everything. After going through everything, the only section that sounded somewhat familiar to me was the section that touched on the sensation of having allergy like symptoms without having any reported allergies.
The condition that the article touches on in that section is called nonallergic rhinitis. According to the Mayo Clinic Staff (2016), nonallergic rhinitis can include factors common in an average head cold such as runny nose and congestion. In addition to this, there are no signs of actual allergic reactions in nonallergic rhinitis, which clears up the matter concerning how threatening the condition really is.
So why is it that I am cursed with this and so many of my friends are not? Obviously I can’t officially diagnose myself with the condition, but my symptoms seem to match pretty closely to the listed effects. For starters, my father has pretty bad post-nasal drip. He is always clearing his throat and coughing phlegm, which could definitely be at the base of the problem. According to The Mayo Clinic Staff (2016), constant weather changes in things like humidity and temperature can also contribute to the problem. I am from Maryland, and Maryland, like Pennsylvania, definitely experiences all four seasons. Weather in Maryland is extremely volatile- one day it will be 80 degrees and sunny and the next day it’ll be 63 degrees and rainy. In addition to that, the article above also talks about the effects of dry or dirty air. Like I said, I live in Maryland- just 20 minutes outside of DC. I worked in DC this summer, and took the beltway to work every day. There is plenty of smog, and the air is not very clean. So, although millions of other people living in Maryland and DC don’t suffer from nonallergic rhinitis, I think it may be safe to say that weather along with air pollution and unfriendly genes may be the major contributors to my problem. All in all, I suppose the only thing I can really do is keep eating healthy, exercise, and live a healthy lifestyle in hopes of combatting sickness.
Image found HERE.
After reading your blog, I found it very interesting that being sick all the time could be due to a chronic allergy illness. I always contribute being sick to large amounts of stress, lack of exercise and sleep, and some poor eating choices. In the beginning of your blog, though, I did see that you thought your metabolism was to blame for you always being sick. I do not think that could be to blame at all because the metabolism controls hunger and digestion. The only cause of sickness from a bad metabolism I can see contributing would be an outside factor of 1. not eating enough or 2. having a metabolic disorder that makes you constantly feel sick. A metabolic disorder would not make you have a runny nose and sore throat, though. But, not eating enough could definitely contribute to a weaker immune system due to not receiving enough nutrients.
Something that stuck out to me is when you said that your friends criticize you for being a germ freak. In actuality, a reason you may be getting sick is because you are too clean (yes its possible). When you are constantly using germ-x or avoiding contact with people, you aren’t building up your immune system to fight off germs, relying on medicine or other solutions. Here is an article describing the negative effects of germ-x and being “too clean” and the killing of good bacteria http://www.10news.com/news/study-hand-sanitizer-also-kills-good-bacteria
Wow actually so happy to read this article. This is my second year at college and I get sick at least once a month. I was already sick the first week at the start of this semester. The Health Center will constantly check my symptoms but I am usually left with unexplained answers as to why I am constantly sick. I clean my room constantly and take many vitamins to try and prevent the problem with no avail. My mom actually also has very bad post nasal drip and being from New Jersey, we both experience allergy like symptoms with the change of weather, but i have never tested positive for any type of allergies. I should probably look into this matter more but I am just gonna go ahead and informally diagnose myself with this as well. Great read, I plan on taking the time to learn more about this. Here is an article explaining more of non allergic rhinitis that I hope will help confirm or deny whether this is the cause for always getting sick.
Patrick, I’m so terribly sorry that you get sick so often! You may have just been born with a bad string of luck or poor immune system unfortunately. I wonder if this could be something genetic? It sounds like your father may deal with something similar. I don’t get sick that often, knock on wood, but neither does the rest of my family. Here’s an article that may be thinking something similar. Our ability to fight of disease may be genetic. Hope you feel better soon! http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266746.php
I’m sick all the time, so I found this super interesting. I always push it off to lack of sleep (even though I get a good amount) or stress, but maybe this is the real problem for me. I’ve never heard of this before so it might be something I’ll look into.