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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 17 of 17. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by dreamer on January 21, 2001, at 11:24:29
I used to get alot of colds and flu being a smoker but since taking various SRI's i can't catch a cold in fact i havent had one for six years or more.Sometimes i think i need a good clear-out due to congestion caused by smoking.
Is this healthy,does seretonin give me a super mega immune system,or am i so unhealthy that the virus just thinks no way i'm not going in there.
Any feed back appreciateddreamer
Posted by mars on January 21, 2001, at 13:05:11
In reply to Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by dreamer on January 21, 2001, at 11:24:29
dreamer, i shouldn't laugh, but i did get this fleeting image of cold viruses shouting to each other "run away! run away!" like in monty python.
Mood is tied to immune system function, isn't it? I certainly get more depressed if I get the flu. Maybe you've been feeling better, and that's feeding back into your general state of health.
just a very unscientific thot....
mary
> I used to get alot of colds and flu being a smoker but since taking various SRI's i can't catch a cold in fact i havent had one for six years or more.Sometimes i think i need a good clear-out due to congestion caused by smoking.
> Is this healthy,does seretonin give me a super mega immune system,or am i so unhealthy that the virus just thinks no way i'm not going in there.
> Any feed back appreciated
>
> dreamer
Posted by stjames on January 21, 2001, at 16:58:13
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by mars on January 21, 2001, at 13:05:11
People who are depressed do have more illnesses
but I don't think you can make a tit for tat cause and effect between seretonin and illness. Depression is a far more complex process than just seretonin.James
Posted by JohnL on January 22, 2001, at 4:36:34
In reply to Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by dreamer on January 21, 2001, at 11:24:29
> I used to get alot of colds and flu being a smoker but since taking various SRI's i can't catch a cold in fact i havent had one for six years or more.Sometimes i think i need a good clear-out due to congestion caused by smoking.
> Is this healthy,does seretonin give me a super mega immune system,or am i so unhealthy that the virus just thinks no way i'm not going in there.
> Any feed back appreciated
>
> dreamer
Hi,
All I know is that in the last 5 years or so I haven't had a cold or the flu. It seems when almost everyone around me is getting sick, I just breeze right through it all as if I'm somehow off limits to germs. In the 5 years however I've taken a lot of different medications. Almost all of them did have some kind of serotonin enhancing characteristics. The one I've taken the longest is Remeron 7.5mg (half the minimum dose), and second would be Prozac (mostly 20mg day). I've sometimes wondered if the anti-histimine effects of Remeron had anything to do with it.I have no clue, but it is an interesting topic. Now that I've said this, I'll probably catch a cold! Knock on wood.
John
Posted by SLS on January 22, 2001, at 9:18:03
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by JohnL on January 22, 2001, at 4:36:34
I have no idea if serotonin itself has the ability to resist infection.
Depression itself very often impacts negatively the immune system.
Depression probably produces a suppression of the immune system or make the body more vulnerable to infection via different routes. There is a relationship between the brain and the endocrine systems that it controls or influences. One of the major ones is known as the hypothalamo-pituatary-adrenal axis. It seems that this system becomes perturbed during depression and results in a chronically elevated level of cortisol secretion by the adrenal gland. Cortisol is sometimes referred as a "stress" hormone because it normally appears as a reaction to stress. However, in depression, it seems that the adrenal glands never shut down their production of cortisol when the external stress is resolved. One of the roles that cortisol plays is to suppress the immune system. Chronically elevated secretion of cortisol probably allows someone to become chronically vulnerable to both infection and cancer.
If a serotonergic antidepressant reduces depression, the immune system is allowed to recover and increase one's ability to fight infection. This is at least one explanation that includes the indirect influence of serotonin on the immune system. Someone more knowledgeable than me can address the details of how this occurs. Perhaps cortisol inhibits the division of stem cells. Maybe the influence of the brain is more direct.
Sorry. Just some more babbling.
- Scott
Posted by allisonm on January 22, 2001, at 11:50:51
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by JohnL on January 22, 2001, at 4:36:34
Interesting question. I have had very few colds in the last few years -- when everyone around me has gotten sick. And I just thought it was all of the orange juice I was drinking, or the chlorine in the pool! Most of the drugs I take don't act a lot on serotonin, though (Wellbutrin, Neurontin, and previously Remeron)
JohnL's observation is interesting too. I noticed when I stopped taking Remeron I had a wicked sinus headache the next day.
Posted by Noa on January 22, 2001, at 11:59:36
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by allisonm on January 22, 2001, at 11:50:51
Robert Sopolsky, in Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers talks about immunity and depression. It is a good (and entertaining) book.
Posted by Ted on January 22, 2001, at 13:57:30
In reply to Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by dreamer on January 21, 2001, at 11:24:29
I still get *LOTS* of colds, mostly because I have a 5-year-old virus factory in preschool. However, I do get over them quicker now.
I haven't had flu for 6 years, but I get flu shots, so that doesn't really count.BTW: I have been on SSRIs for 1 3/4 years.
Ted
> I used to get alot of colds and flu being a smoker but since taking various SRI's i can't catch a cold in fact i havent had one for six years or more.Sometimes i think i need a good clear-out due to congestion caused by smoking.
> Is this healthy,does seretonin give me a super mega immune system,or am i so unhealthy that the virus just thinks no way i'm not going in there.
> Any feed back appreciated
>
> dreamer
Posted by dreamer on January 22, 2001, at 20:38:45
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by Ted on January 22, 2001, at 13:57:30
Thanks all
MMMmmmm it's a puzzle and probably far too complicated for me.I suppose when i cease my current medications for the new still hot from the lab wonderdrug the transition will alert all viruses that there's fresh prey to be had.dreamer
Posted by Kaarina on January 22, 2001, at 21:26:55
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by dreamer on January 22, 2001, at 20:38:45
I don't know if an antipsychotic would fit in with the seretoin? Yet when my father was on one he never got sick. Now that he wasn't on one he has caught the same colds that are going around. It's not just him, also a friend has said that the residents at his work, a transition house, never get sick. This population is on medication,(antipsychotics, antidepressants, etc) and probably a percentage of them are still mental ill with depression or whatever illness they have. It's probably the medication.
Posted by TomV on January 22, 2001, at 21:58:08
In reply to Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by dreamer on January 21, 2001, at 11:24:29
> I used to get alot of colds and flu being a smoker but since taking various SRI's i can't catch a cold in fact i havent had one for six years or more.Sometimes i think i need a good clear-out due to congestion caused by smoking.
> Is this healthy,does seretonin give me a super mega immune system,or am i so unhealthy that the virus just thinks no way i'm not going in there.
> Any feed back appreciated
>
> dreamer
When I was on meds for about a 1 1/2 yr period (mostly SSRIs) I noticed something very strange... I hadn't sneezed the entire period I was on them, and I really don't have any other health problems that would cause this. Once I got off the meds, guess what? Finally a sneeze. It felt almost foreign, like a little baby noticing something for the first time.
Posted by mars on January 23, 2001, at 3:23:07
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by stjames on January 21, 2001, at 16:58:13
i don't believe the vague thing i said implied any "tit for tat" relationship between serotonin and illness - i was too crapped out at the time i replied to dreamer to start searching for information, but at least i did take the care to use the phrase "feed back", which to me at least implies a somewhat more complex process.
i know i haven't been able to clearly express it, but i am aware that depression involves more than serotonin. My father, a PhD in pharmacology, sent me articles for many years; it's frustrating to me how much i've forgotten, but i haven't forgotten everything. My family also is susceptible to immune system disorders, and it looks right now like i have Reiter's Syndrome, an ankylosingspondylopathy. I'm tuning in to the noradrenaline channel right now, since i'm on reboxetine =;)
i'm also curious about any possible ties between my first breakdown and the severe case of mononucleosis i had (followed some months later by a period of high stress and heavy exercise - and i have typically had high cortisol levels anyway). my cognitive abilities are too hog-tied by depression to do much right now, but i keep trying....
and, by the way, i hardly ever get colds or flu.
best,
mary
p.s. i did find some links that may or may not be relevant. i think this is a very interesting thread.
http://www.msu.edu/user/chenhao/pnijour.htm
http://www.unmc.edu/pubs/synapse/fall98/story8.htm
>Mood is tied to immune system function, isn't it? I certainly get more depressed if I get the flu. Maybe you've been feeling better, and that's feeding back into your general state of health.just a very unscientific thot....
mary
> People who are depressed do have more illnesses
> but I don't think you can make a tit for tat cause and effect between seretonin and illness. Depression is a far more complex process than just seretonin.
>
> James
Posted by dreamer on January 23, 2001, at 19:42:57
In reply to Re: Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by mars on January 23, 2001, at 3:23:07
Hello Mary
Thanks for the sites ,doing a bit of research slowly,i find it hard to maintain concentration whilst reading these days.dreamer
Posted by stjames on January 23, 2001, at 20:00:42
In reply to Another strange related item, posted by TomV on January 22, 2001, at 21:58:08
>
> When I was on meds for about a 1 1/2 yr period (mostly SSRIs) I noticed something very strange... I hadn't sneezed the entire period I was on them, and I really don't have any other health problems that would cause this. Once I got off the meds, guess what? Finally a sneeze. It felt almost foreign, like a little baby noticing something for the first time.James here.....
Many AD's are antihistamines (or effect) and anticollernergic. The TCA's are often more effective for allergies than traditional antihistamines.
james
Posted by Noa on January 24, 2001, at 12:21:31
In reply to Another strange related item, posted by TomV on January 22, 2001, at 21:58:08
That doesn't sound so strange to me, and I would think (layperson's guess here) that it is related less to a *need* to sneeze but more to some sort of disconnect in the neural pathways for sneezing, kind of like the way ADs interfere with orgasm.
When I was on Prozac years ago, I couldn't cry at all, even when I wanted to.
Posted by Amy2001 on January 24, 2001, at 16:07:12
In reply to Strange but does seretonin prevent colds,flu?, posted by dreamer on January 21, 2001, at 11:24:29
I must say you all are lucky. I have been taking Prozac for the past few months and I just had a wicked cold that took two weeks to get over. I must agree with the ideas of depressions effect on weakening the immune system. Perhaps your immune system has just had the break it needed to keep you healthy and chase those "bugs" away.
Amy> I used to get alot of colds and flu being a smoker but since taking various SRI's i can't catch a cold in fact i havent had one for six years or more.Sometimes i think i need a good clear-out due to congestion caused by smoking.
> Is this healthy,does seretonin give me a super mega immune system,or am i so unhealthy that the virus just thinks no way i'm not going in there.
> Any feed back appreciated
>
> dreamer
Posted by mars on January 24, 2001, at 16:28:16
In reply to Re: Another strange related item, posted by Noa on January 24, 2001, at 12:21:31
Noa, that sounds right to me. I didn't have an orgasm for two years, but I just stopped worrying about it. I was off Effexor when I could again, and I noticed I was sneezing (I have a ridiculous sneeze, so it's something I remember).
I'm on Effexor again, not sneezing but still coming :)
mars
> That doesn't sound so strange to me, and I would think (layperson's guess here) that it is related less to a *need* to sneeze but more to some sort of disconnect in the neural pathways for sneezing, kind of like the way ADs interfere with orgasm.
>
> When I was on Prozac years ago, I couldn't cry at all, even when I wanted to.
This is the end of the thread.
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