Right now, my little sister (I say little but she's 21), is home from uni for the holidays, and 3 weeks of prac teaching. It'll be amazing if we don't kill each other. We get on, don't think we don't, but at the same time we fight like cats and dogs alot of the time too. One wrong word can set H off into a bad mood and a bad temper. To make this worse, this year seems to be her beligerent and hostile phase, (something I don't think I went through to the extent she is), and seems to have hit her rebelious phase a little late. She's in her 4th year of uni but this year seems to be the year she's lost her head. Partying 4-5 times a week, not knowing what time she's getting home, the girls she lives with being on an alcohol ban and her flat being inspected everyday because another of her flatmates complained about it not being cleaned (she lives on campus), laying in the middle of the road, drunk, at 4am! It's not like her. Now I know everyone is entitled to party and have a good time, but mum and dad are paying for her to be at uni, so they're not impressed.
Anyway... the reason for this entry as opposed to me professing my love for all things Biggest Loser...
She's sick. Right now I can hear her, down the hall, coughing like she's trying to expel her lungs. This happens. Everyone gets sick. But lately, I've been running into more and more people who are sick all the time. H is sick at least 3-4 times a year (although she does get hayfever so that has something to do with it in the warmer months.) Another girl I work with has been sick about 5 times this year and it's only the 4th month of the year. Everything from whooping cough to a cold. You name it, she's probably had it.
This lead to a discussion on sickness the last time I worked with her (what else do you have to talk about at 5am?) She was talking about how it was only her 4th Friday shift with the department because she'd been sick so many other times. Which led me to say (stupidly in hindsight) that I don't get sick.
Ever!
But it's true. I don't. The last time I was really sick was in 2005. My first year of uni. My boyfried at the time, J, and I were home for the Easter holidays. We went to a party for a school friend of mine's birthday. I felt fine when we got there. By the end of the night I was sick. Physically. I thought maybe I had food poisoning, and settled in for a night of cramping and generally feeling horrible (I've never actually had food poisoning so I have no idea what it's like). It wasn't feed poisoning. By the next morning I was still being physically sick but there were also... other... things. Anyway. It took me about 3-4 days to get over it. 3-4 days of me not being able to eat anything besides ice blocks and vegemite on toast (the best thing for an upset stomach). 3-4 days of reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, and sleeping. Then J caught it and cried like a baby until we took him to the on call doctor to get him a shot to make him stop throwing up. Sook.
Anyway...
Before that I think I was about 7 and was sent home from a Brownie camp in Sydney because of how sick I was. Mum and dad had to come and get me and I didn't want to go home. I wanted to stick it out. But in the end the adults won out (I managed 2 days before I gave in and let them call my parents). It wa a good thing they did. All I did was lay on the couch in a pile of blankets and watch cartoons, my trusty toast and vegemite, and ice blocks close at hand. Then the other girls caught it. Oops.
Point is... I don't get sick. Sure I get the occassional cold, but other than that I don't get sick. Even with a cold it's some vitamin c, garlic and horseradish tablets, and I keep going.
But all this running into sick people has made think. Why do some people get sick more than others? What is it about some people that make them susceptible to illness than others? (I should probably point out that I'm not allergic to anything either. H calls me an anomaly because she's allergic to bees and a penicilin equivalent. I've also never had the chicken pox even though it went through my extended family I was close to at the time, my primary school, and then 3 times through the college I was living at while at uni.)
I have always thought (and science seems to be catching on) that all this germ killing we do is actually harming us. If children are kept in a bubble, away from anything that might make then sick, how is there immune system supposed to know what it's supposed to fight and what is harmless? It's one of the reasons I think allergies are on the rise too. It's why these antibiotic superbugs are in existance. It's why, I think, so many people (young people in particular) are getting sick.
Now, I'm not saying don't vaccinate. I actually think that you are stupid if you don't vaccinate your kids. If you can protect them from something like the chicken pox from killing them, why wouldn't you. But it's things like wiping everything down with an antibacterial wipe that I can't understand. We didn't and we survived.
I remember, growing up, doing things like playing in the dirt and the mud. Playing touch (and sometimes tackle) football with my cousins and friends. Swimming in rivers and dams and lakes as well as the pool. Playing with the dogs, then running my hands under water and saying they were clean then going to have something to eat. Climbing (and falling out of) trees, and riding my bike. Learning to rollerskate (and later ice skate).
As kids, on the weekends and holidays, we had breakfast and were then sent out to play. We would come back to someone's house and have lunch. Then go play and then go home for dinner. And it was fun. Getting dirty and having fun was what being a kid was all about. It wasn't about computer games or the TV. Sure, H and I had an Atari when we were little, then later, a computer. But we never played it. Only on occassions we couldn't go outside. And even then, only sparingly. We would draw, colour, read books, watch movies on days were were stuck outside. We never wanted the latest PlayStation, or XBox. We had friends who had them, and we would use theirs, then come home. Even now, the only gaming console we own, as a family, is a Wii. And I still can't use it (unless it's the WiiFit or something similar) for too long without getting bored. It's the way we were raised.
Back to the sickness...
I believe, in my non scientific taught brain, that this is the reason kids are getting sick more often, and with superbugs. Is it any surprise that superbugs thrive in streile environmnents. It's why staph was only found in hospitals. Bugs, viruses etc, just like us, adapt to their surroundings. If you keep throwing antibiotics at a bug, it's going ot get stronger and more resistent to the drugs we use to beat it.
It is, I think, common sense.
I believe we need to go back to not worrying too much about germs and bugs. Obviously take care of things like cuts and other wounds. Cover then during the day, let them air out at night. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough. If you've got something contagous, or a cold etc, stay at home for a few days and get better. Have a shower everyday and clean yourself, wash your clothes, clean your house. But don't wipe up every spill with antibacterial wipes. Don't worry too much about using anything other than soap and water. It's actually the best cleaning method there is.
If you let yourself, and your kids, be exposed to these sorts of, relatively harmess, germs, they will acutally get sick less. If you stop pouring medication down their, and your, throats everytime you get the sniffles, you and they, will be sick less often. Your immune system needs something to fight against to get stronger. It's the use it or lose it scenario. If you don't use your immune system, when something big comes along, it won't know what to do.
A lot of this comes down to exercise and nutrition too. If you look at healthy people, people who don't get sick, they tend to exercise and eat well. Now you don't have to be perfect, but even just 5 serves of veggies, 2 serves of fruit every day will go a long way to helping you feel better, even if you don't get sick. Some exercise, even walking for 30 minutes a day, will get your heart pumping and lift your mood. It will make you feel better.
And this eating better and exercising (especially outdoors) will expose you to new things, prompting your body to assess it and decide if it's harmless or harmful. It will make your immune system work and do the job it's supposed to do.
So my view on this*:
- Don't worry about germs so much. Keep things clean, but not evey spill has to be wiped over with an antibacterial. Leave these for the medicine cabinet.
- Don't get medication unless you really need it. There's nothing you can do for a common cold, just rest and take care of yourself. Doping yourself up on anything other than asprin is just wasting your money.
- Eat well. Make sure you get a variety of fresh foods in your diet everyday.
- Exercise. Outdoors if you can but a gym is just as good. Even just 30 minutes a day. Get your heart pumping and your blood moving.
I hope this has led you to think about your own life and what you do, or don't do within it. It did for me.
D xo
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