Does a Strong Immune System Make Colds Worse?

Not everyone who is infected by a cold virus actually shows symptoms. In fact, people who seem to experience symptoms like a sore throat and stuffy nose more often may actually have more robust immune systems!

Hosted by: Olivia Gordon

----------
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:

Kevin Carpentier, Eric Jensen, Matt Curls, Sam Buck, Christopher R Boucher, Avi Yashchin, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
----------
Sources:

[angrynoodletwentyfive]

I rarely get sick... but when I do I get violently sick...

[Wrathful_Scythe]

Haven't had a cold in years. Just like me, my immune-system is one lazy entity.

[tippib]

I wish my immune system would chill the hell out sometimes. Not every little thing that comes along means you gotta blow up my lymph nodes like party balloons.

[akki]

"Sore throat and stuffy nose are actually caused by your own immune system"

Me: It be your own homies

[honeydew]

this reminds me of when I was deep into an eating disorder and would never get sick aka show symptoms because my immune system was weakened, now that I'm doing better any time I catch a cold I'm thankful for my immune system even if it's annoying at times haha

[reptylus]

This would explain how I seem to have the sniffles almost all year round, but never caught anything bad enough to actually allow me to skip work.

[TheFrancardAdventure]

ok now i know that my body is just bitching and overreacting

[roy]

"My immune system isn't strong. It's smart"

[LadyAneh]

I do not often get colds, but when I do, I feel absolutely horrendous. 😷

[godsofwarmaycry]

This made me really happy. I thought I had a terrible immune system, but now I see it's probably not so bad.

[xWood]

But sometimes a strong immune system can be too strong and cause autoimmune diseases.

[SnowblindOtter]

*YES* having a stronger immune system increases the severity of 'symptoms'. The stronger your immune system is, the more aggressive its reaction to infections becomes.

[Pedantia]

Sometimes logic can be cruel.

-Pedantia Science channel

[thecrippledpancake]

Who’s watching with a cold right now? 🙋‍♂️ 🤒

[dereklam]

Severe respect for people who willingly got a cold for that study

[Sciencerely]

From an evolutionary perspective, the influenza virus is truly amazing. It's genome consists of 8 different segments (comparable to chromosomes) which can be reassorted independently. This means that two influenza viruses can shuffle around their chromosomes when they both end up in the same cells. Influenza also has an enormously high error rate. As a result, an immune system is not able to recognise influenza within 5 years of the last infection (Amazing right? I plan to do a video on that myself soon!). Since I'm a biologist, feel free to ask me anything about that topic!

[What]

The tables have turned. Those of us always getting sick are now the one's who knock

[ashknoecklein]

I used to get colds all the time until I taught children for a couple of years, and now I never get them. Does this mean that my immune system just gave up?

[richardbidinger]

I hardly ever get sick. Everyone at my job gets sick and passes it around, but I never get it. The way I know I'm coming down with something, is when I have trouble sleeping for a couple of days, along with a headache, without any apparent reason. After that, I'm sick for anywhere from two to five days. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it kicks my butt. My co-workers get annoyed because I never seem to get what they have, but I have multiple health issues because of my age and bad genetics that more than make up for it.

[juliafelicione]

This isn’t necessarily true - reactivity and “strength” are different - an immune system can be highly reactive and weak at the same time (for example, autoimmunity), or it can be minimally reactive and weak (leukopenias, AIDS) and same goes for when the immune system is “strong” aka is fighting off pathogens well (i think that’s what you meant by strong?) source: i both have an autoimmune disease and study auto inflammatory conditions as a grad student. Would love to chat more about this!