The secrets of people who never get sick

Some lucky folk claim to never get a cold or take days off work. Can we become more like them?Every now and then one pops up at work, down the pub, in the park, outside the school gate, or in your own family ’s mythology. The person who claims never to get sick. Colds brush past them without leaving so much as a sniffle. They laugh in the flushed face of flu, spray hand sanitiser in the rheumy eyes of infection, and never take a day off work. They appear to be superhuman, with the kind of kickass immu ne systems the rest of us mere ailing mortals can only dream about as we dissolve another 1,000mg vitamin C tablet and hope for the best. What are their secrets? Can we become more like them? Do they even exist?“I hardly ever get a cold, bug or infection,” says Lore Lucas, a 97-year-old Jewish refugee and Holocaust survivor who has lived in Glasgow since 1946. “I never drank or smoked, I sleep well and I like a little rest during the day, preferably in bed, or rather on the bed … just shoes off.” What about her diet? “I have been known to have a great dislike for cheese,” she replies, “and I really do not like the Scottish specialities mince, haggis, or porridge.”Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - January 24, 2017 Category: Science Authors: Chitra Ramaswamy Tags: Health & wellbeing Life and style Immunology Medical research Biochemistry and molecular biology Science Source Type: news