Worried about getting sick/germs??

[Sea_Star]

Hi all! Are any of you worried about being slightly immunocompromised/suppressed (even if you're not on medication), and thus worried about picking up every illness known to mankind? I just got hired as a scribe for an emergency room and questioning if this is ok...i'm not on meds since I've felt fine, but if my Dr. wants to put me on meds...then I'm thinking about how it might hurt me :/ My mom is a doctor and has really instilled a form of hypochondria in me lol!

But aren't there ER nurses and doctors with HIV and really suppressed immune systems? Does Crohn's not cause immunosuppression, just the meds??

Thank you!

 

[rrhood1]

As far as I understand it, Crohns is an autoimmune disease which means your immune system is in hyper-drive and starts attacking your body as well as any infections, etc. When you take some of the Crohns medication, it suppresses your immune system (sometimes down to none). Before starting the biologics, I didn't catch anything - no flus, no colds - felt horrible all the time but no virus/bacterial infections. I worked in a medium size office including meeting with the public and just had to be really careful when someone was sick. Don't touch my eyes or face, use hand sanitizer, wash regularly. Didn't find I was getting sick more than before. Mind you, when I did get the flu it was horrible compared to before and required antibiotics. I think being careful and aware will help you protect your health. And if you do get a flu or cold, be proactive and see the doctor sooner rather than later.

 

[theOcean]

rrhood is right -- Crohn's basically causes your immune system to work too hard, and it recognizes part of yourself as foreign and attacks it. I found that before I went on immunosuppressants, I actually got sick more often because my Crohn's was so active it compromised my immune system anyway.

Once I went on immunosuppressants, I actually stopped getting infections and viruses all the time and felt way better. I've only gotten sick once since being on them, and that was catching a cold from my SO.

Just try to be aware of your environment and keep clean! I'm a bit of a germaphobe anyway (and have been even before getting diagnosed) so I'm always careful not to touch things in public because of germs, and wash my hands as soon as possible if I do. Maybe even keep hand-sanitizer on you if you can if you're worried.

 

[Sea_Star]

rrhood: That's what I thought-that having an overactive immune system would fight off anything lol, but I guess not.

theOcean: I'm a germaphobe a little bit too, though the worry has gotten worse since being diagnosed lol. I can't help to think of the colon as a giant magnet for anything germy out there haha.

When I was on 6MP I felt so wiped out at first, but I guess your immune system equalizes out the meds over time.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I am a germaphobe too but we gotta live our lives. I carry hand sanitizer. I don't touch anything in a public bathroom. I have napkins in my pocket or grab one in the bathroom to open/close doors and faucets.

 

[theOcean]

...That's actually a really good idea for doorknobs. When I'm in public I usually try to grab my sweater or coat to try and open it without touching it -- was almost considering getting gloves to wear but thought that would be silly. Napkins seem much more reasonable!

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Yep and they are free at every fast food place haha.

 

[Orchid]

If a doorknob is made of brass or silver it's not as much of an issue as you'd think, they'll kill bacteria on themselves within eight hours or so.

 

[kiny]

But aren't there ER nurses and doctors with HIV and really suppressed immune systems? Does Crohn's not cause immunosuppression, just the meds??

Thank you!

People with crohn's disease have innate immunodeficiencies in specific genes that relate to bacterical detection and autophagy.

On average people with CD get a lot more infections than controls...is this because of the medication...some people have suggested this is because of the innate immunodeficiences too. It's hard to check because people with NOD2 and ATG16L1 mutations tend to be on medication since their CD is usually quit severe.

 

[kiny]

As far as I understand it, Crohns is an autoimmune disease which means your immune system is in hyper-drive and starts attacking your body as well as any infections, etc.

That isn't true.

For that to happen you would require a self-antigen to be discovered, which in crohn's disease this has never been found.

A chronic immune response will cause intestinal damage, this happens in intestinal TB, in Chronic Gr. Disease, etc, it does not require a self-antigen, oxidative stress alone is enough to cause havoc on an organ. (which is why people with infections are often treated with immunosupressants like imuran, ironically)

Our immune system is not in "hyperdrive" either. We tend to have issues with handling of intracellular bacteria, tend to have macrophage deficiencies, the autophagy step is compromised because of the ATG16L and IL23 gene mutations and there is a lack of cytokine recruitment during infections.

We are pretty much the opposite of "hyper active". In fact a groundbreaking study years ago showed this in practice. when you infect a person wit crohn's disease with E Coli in their arm, they have a lot of issues clearing that bacteria while controls do not.

A considerable amount of people with crohn's disease don't just have a compromised innate immune system, many, as I have, have ideopathic lymphopenia.

There is a considerable amount of confusion and misinformation surrounding crohn's disease that are nothing short of myths. how this came about I don't know.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2806%2968265-2/fulltext

 

[kiny]

an overactive immune system

If we did have an overreactive immune system that would be nice, we'd be the envy of the world and everyone would want to know how we do it.

What has been theorised is that our adaptive immune response tries to make up for our innate immunodeficiencies, but what is more likely is that we have issues controlling bacterial antigens, maybe compounded by dysbiosis, and this results in chronic inflammation.

Immunodeficiencies tend to lead to chronic inflammation and infections, both hallmarks of crohn's disease.

As far as categorising crohn's disease, many studies that have researched crohn's disease in depth from an immunological standpoint instead of clinical, would be put us in the same bracket as diseases like chronic granulomatous disease, which not surprisingly, is also an immunodeficiency disese, and gets routinely mistaken for crohn's disease.

These people also get infections, they often have inflammation that resembles what crohn's disease patients have, and they have symptoms that often mimmick crohn's disease.


How all this misinformation about crohn's disease came about, how it is an autoimmune disease or that we attack our intestine, etc...I have no idea how all that happened and who started perpetuating these, frankly myths, but they have been on the internet for a few years now, and it's a shame, because if people don't understand what we have, there will never be recognition for our disease.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

If a doorknob is made of brass or silver it's not as much of an issue as you'd think, they'll kill bacteria on themselves within eight hours or so.

But in a public restroom it's constantly getting re-germified.

 

[kiny]

At the very least they should try to keep people with crohn's disease out of hospitals when it's not necessary, infections are the main cause of mortality amongst crohn's disease patients, while this isn't the case at all for UC.

 

[Crohn2357]

People with crohn's disease have innate immunodeficiencies in specific genes that relate to bacterical detection and autophagy.

On average people with CD get a lot more infections than controls...is this because of the medication...some people have suggested this is because of the innate immunodeficiences too. It's hard to check because people with NOD2 and ATG16L1 mutations tend to be on medication since their CD is usually quit severe.

Sometimes I think that in nature, people with crohn's disease could not survive. They would be "eliminated" in evolutionary basis. But I think the main subject is that If people live a "natural" life(meaning at least, human life far before industrial revolution), would these gene mutations occur or get dominant? Something recently published about it:http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/01/neanderthals-dna-legacy-linked-to-modern-ailments/
Did these genes become more dominant in time? What are the cause of these mutations? Some people with crohn's disease have this disease in their old age, if they didn't experience major events causing gene mutations in their near old ages, how did they get this disease? Haven't they ever met a trigger pathogen in their lifetime before?
A lot of parameters have changed rapidly after industrial revolution in human generations, so human body. We can not know all of them but we can suspect about them. Just an example: Researchers have found roles of vitamin d in immune system, as a result of "modern" life style, most people become vitamin d deficient. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100823172327.htm We don't know the impact of this situation. It is just a little example; or maybe not.

 

[joeyme1]

I always use my shirt to open the door at my son's preschool. Nobody has noticed, yet.

 

[Trysha]

Good Handwashing is a very significant barrier to catching an infection.
I wear cheap dollar store gloves on public transport and throw them in the wash regularly.
If necessary to touch door handles or anything else I use a tissue followed by handwashing when convenient.
Returning to the house the first thing I do is wash my hands with a good liquid soap solution..bar soap can pick up germs and I never use it.
Antibacterial soaps have been shown ineffective and even hazardous to health.
Good frequent hand washing is the mantra of the day.
It has become so routine I don't even think about it---just Do it.
Trysha