I’ve just recovered from the first proper cold I’ve ever gotten since I fell ill with ME/CFS six years ago. The first 3-4 years I never once felt even a wisp of a cold/flu coming on, and the last couple years maybe twice I felt under the weather like a cold was coming on but it never did. The ME immune activation or general disease process seems to prevent it. Prior to ME, I would get a cold every year or two, just average like everyone really.
Not sure why I got a proper and good cold now that lasted over a week, but I’m happy I did because after the cold turned the corner and started improving I experienced a complete disappearance of all my ME symptoms.
I mean ME completely and utterly gone. If it weren’t for the cold symptoms still affecting me I would’ve felt totally amazing, but even with it I distinctly felt that I was ME free and otherwise healthy again.
Not even during my best days on the keto diet do I ever feel even close to like the ME is completely gone, just some significant symptom improvements.
My cold symptoms were really strong and debilitating on their own during the first half of the cold, so I couldn’t tell you if the ME symptoms went away during that time.
Given what I experienced for the first time and can say for certain, I would hazard a guess that the reason the ME temporarily goes away, at least in my case, is because as the immune system finishes killing the cold virus it sends strong signals to reduce activation and ramp back down. These signals also seem to turn off the chronic immune activation that appears to be major (or the only) driver of ME.
For those interested in metabolic dysfunction changes, I even did a one day experiment during this time where I ate a lot of carbs on purpose. Normally this would cause major PEM to the point that the next couple days I would be totally bedridden. It did nothing!
Not sure why I got a proper and good cold now that lasted over a week, but I’m happy I did because after the cold turned the corner and started improving I experienced a complete disappearance of all my ME symptoms.
I mean ME completely and utterly gone. If it weren’t for the cold symptoms still affecting me I would’ve felt totally amazing, but even with it I distinctly felt that I was ME free and otherwise healthy again.
Not even during my best days on the keto diet do I ever feel even close to like the ME is completely gone, just some significant symptom improvements.
My cold symptoms were really strong and debilitating on their own during the first half of the cold, so I couldn’t tell you if the ME symptoms went away during that time.
Given what I experienced for the first time and can say for certain, I would hazard a guess that the reason the ME temporarily goes away, at least in my case, is because as the immune system finishes killing the cold virus it sends strong signals to reduce activation and ramp back down. These signals also seem to turn off the chronic immune activation that appears to be major (or the only) driver of ME.
For those interested in metabolic dysfunction changes, I even did a one day experiment during this time where I ate a lot of carbs on purpose. Normally this would cause major PEM to the point that the next couple days I would be totally bedridden. It did nothing!
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