Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 23:28:19 -0500
From: "Mike B." <yahoo at omniphile.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: paying people to get sick (flu study)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On 1/28/2014 11:31 AM, Tamar Lindsay wrote:
> They should find people who don't generally get the flu
> and test their DNA.
I think the variation might also be explained by past exposure.  I think
that the more flu you get early, the less flu you get later. It's like
your immune system learns to recognize the general virus type, and can
then recognize variations on it quicker.

When I was a kid I'd get the flu all the time. Less as I got older. Got
a really bad one when I was about 19...but I beat it in 7 days, when
most people needed 10.  In my 20s I got the "24 hour flu" a couple of
times, but generally it only lasted about 8 hours (full day for others I
worked with).  Since then I think I've had the flu once, back in the
mid-90s.  Lasted a couple of days.  I've never gotten a "flu shot".

I think that environment has an effect too.  Since I've started working
at home (14 years ago), and keeping the thermostat set in the mid-60s in
the winter, I've had fewer colds.  I think that going from warm house to
cold outside and back gives the rhinovirus a better shot at getting in,
and obviously the more contact you have with other people, the more you
get exposed.

I wonder if these trials are taking into account such variations in
their test subjects?  By excluding older folks they are also excluding
the "most experienced" immune systems.

-- Mike B.