Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)

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Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• As fall falls upon us, we’ll surely see a spike in respiratory infections. However, it doesn’t have to be entirely a lottery!

  • Today’s main feature looks at what makes someone more or less likely to get sick, and how we can modify those factors to increase our chances of getting through it all unscathed.

• We know that 10almonds readers don’t just want to look younger, but ideally to be younger, biologically speaking.

  • Today’s sponsor, Qualia Senolytic, are offering a potent supplement product that targets and eliminates senescent cells, meaning the ones that get copied forward are the younger cells.

• Today’s featured recipe is for spiced pear & pecan polyphenol porridge; a tasty treat with layers of extra benefits.

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

Things Many People Forget When It Comes To Hydration

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Wildcard Wednesday

Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)

Some people have never yet had COVID (so far so good, this writer included); others are on their third bout already; others have not been so lucky and are no longer with us to share their stories.

Obviously, even the healthiest and/or most careful person can get sick, and it would be folly to be complacent and think “I’m not a person who gets sick; that happens to other people”.

Nor is COVID the only thing out there to worry about; there’s always the latest outbreak-du-jour of something, and there are always the perennials such as cold and flu—which are also not to be underestimated, because both weaken us to other things, and flu has killed very many, from the 50,000,000+ in the 1918 pandemic, to the 700,000ish that it kills each year nowadays.

And then there are the combination viruses:

Move over, COVID and Flu! We Have “Hybrid Viruses” To Contend With Now

So, why are some people more susceptible?

Firstly, some people are simply immunocompromised. This means for example that:

• perhaps they have an inflammatory/autoimmune disease of some kind (e.g. lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes), or…

• perhaps they are taking immunosuppressants for some reason (e.g. because they had an organ transplant), or…

• perhaps they have a primary infection that leaves them vulnerable to secondary infections. Most infections will do this to some degree or another, but some are worse for it than others; untreated HIV is a clear example. The HIV itself may not kill people, but (if untreated) the resultant AIDS will leave a person open to being killed by almost any passing opportunistic pathogen. Pneumonia of various kinds being high on the list, but it could even be something as simple as the common cold, without a working immune system to fight it.

See also: How To Prevent (Or Reduce) Inflammation

And for that matter, since pneumonia is a very common last-nail-in-the-coffin secondary infection (especially: older people going into hospital with one thing, getting a secondary infection and ultimately dying as a result), it’s particularly important to avoid that, so…

See also: Pneumonia: What We Can & Can’t Do About It

Secondly, some people are not immunocompromised per the usual definition of the word, but their immune system is, arguably, compromised.

Cortisol, the stress hormone, is an immunosuppressant. We need cortisol to live, but we only need it in small bursts here and there (such as when we are waking up the morning). When high cortisol levels become chronic, so too does cortisol’s immunosuppressant effect.

Top things that cause elevated cortisol levels include:

• Stress

• Alcohol

• Smoking

Thus, the keys here are to 1) not smoke 2) not drink, ideally, or at least keep consumption low, but honestly even one drink will elevate cortisol levels, so it’s better not to, and 3) manage stress.

See also: Lower Your Cortisol! (Here’s Why & How)

Other modifiable factors

Being aware of infection risk and taking steps to reduce it (e.g. avoiding being with many people in confined indoor places, masking as appropriate, handwashing frequently) is a good preventative strategy, along with of course getting any recommended vaccines as they come available.

What if they fail? How can we boost the immune system?

We talked about not sabotaging the immune system, but what about actively boosting it? The answer is yes, we certainly can (barring serious medical reasons why not), as there are some very important lifestyle factors too:

Beyond Supplements: The Real Immune-Boosters!

One final last-line thing…

Since if we do get an infection, it’s better to know sooner rather than later… A recent study shows that wearable activity trackers can (if we pay attention to the right things) help predict disease, including highlighting COVID status (positive or negative) about as accurately (88% accuracy) as rapid screening tests. Here’s a pop-science article about it:

Wearable activity trackers show promise in detecting early signals of disease

Take care!

Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible

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Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between plums and nectarines—we picked the nectarines (click here to read about why), as did only 26% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

Recipes Worth Sharing

Spiced Pear & Pecan Polyphenol Porridge

Porridge doesn’t have to be boring; in fact, it can be a real treat. And while oats are healthy by default, this version has extra layers of benefits:

Click below for our full recipe, and learn its secrets:

One-Minute Book Review

The Autoimmune Cure: Healing the Trauma and Other Triggers That Have Turned Your Body Against You – by Dr. Sara Gottfried

We’ve featured Dr. Gottfried before, as well as another of her books (“Younger”), and this one’s a little different, and on the one hand very specific, while on the other hand affecting a lot of people.

You may be thinking, upon reading the subtitle, “this sounds like Dr. Gabor Maté’s ideas” (per: “When The Body Says No”), and 1) you’d be right, and 2) Dr. Gottfried does credit him in the introduction and refers back to his work periodically later.

What she adds to this, and what makes this book a worthwhile read in addition to Dr. Maté’s, is looking clinically at the interactions of the immune system and nervous system, but also the endocrine system (Dr. Gottfried’s specialty) and the gut.

Another thing she adds is more of a focus on what she writes about as “little-t trauma”, which is the kind of smaller, yet often cumulative, traumas that often eventually add up over time to present as C-PTSD.

While “stress increases inflammation” is not a novel idea, Dr. Gottfried takes it further, and looks at a wealth of clinical evidence to demonstrate the series of events that, if oversimplified, seem unbelievable, such as “you had a bad relationship and now you have lupus”—showing evidence for each step in the snowballing process.

The style is a bit more clinical than most pop-science, but still written to be accessible to laypersons. This means that for most of us, it might not be the quickest read, but it will be an informative and enlightening one.

In terms of practical use (and living up to its subtitle promise of “cure”), this book does also cover all sorts of potential remedial approaches, from the obvious (diet, sleep, supplements, meditation, etc) to the less obvious (ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, etc), covering the evidence so far as well as the pros and cons.

Bottom line: if you have or suspect you may have an autoimmune problem, and/or would just like to nip the risk of such in the bud (especially bearing in mind that the same things cause neuroinflammation and thus, putatively, depression and dementia too), then this is one for you.

Click here to check out the Autoimmune Cure, and take care of your body and mind!

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday full of wellness,

The 10almonds Team