Sick in paradise?

[Lokahi]

Forgive me if this post seems void of reason, but I sit here in northern California suffering and being miserable from an upper respiratory infection - common cold - I just can't imagine being in paradise and ailing so. Tell me it doesn't happen there or at least with any "madland" frequency.

[Royall]

I've been here for 14 months and haven't had a cold yet. I'm not around a lot of people like I used to be though.

Royall

What goes around comes around!

[Robin C]

Like Royall, I haven't been sick since we moved. I think it has more to do with life style change than location. I'm not around as many people, eat more veggies and have less stress.

I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that I've seen more people with colds. I keep my distance.

Hope you feel better soon.

Robin

[Carey]

Going back to school, I am around a lot of people, & haven't had a for over 1 1/2 years here. That said, I have seen a lot of people with colds, and there is one student in my Geology class that has had a sinus problem all semester 9she didn't know she had allergies....but...this is the same building that has a lab cabinet that was nested by termites & clinkers that fall out of the vents....
I do know that some people with allergies & such are much worse off here, and some are better off and some are at not changed one way or the other.
Aloha, Carey

[Kapohocat]

I was healthier when i moved to the Big Island than in LA... so after many years of being healthy here (and living under 400' elevations), not being healthy came as a shock. Pnuemonia, then staph, then pnuemonia, then staph - 18 months this went on - then we moved from Hi Acres to Kapoho and I quit my stressful job at the same time. For me, the upper elevations while I like the temperature, cant handle the mold and mildew.

-Cat

Knock on wood! 11 months healthy.

[JerryCarr]

The only cold I have had since moving to Hawaii was when some rude woman sat behind me sneezing during a movie in Hilo. I would have moved, but the show was sold out and there were no other seats. My Kaiser doctor says flu outbreaks do happen here and recommended getting a flu shot, so I did, being over 50.

I used to get pollen allergies like clockwork every year in Georgia. Thankfully the flora is so different here that I have not had any problems. I have heard, however, that some people who had no pollen allergies on the mainland develop them here.

Cheers,
Jerry

[Hotzcatz]

And then there is the vog. That is usually good for a few stuffy noses here and there.

There have been a few colds and flu bugs going around at school (my DH teaches) as well as some sort of eye infection. They do seem to have the ukus cleared up since it has been about a month since that outbreak.

I don't think we get quite as many of the flus and things as Oahu does. They have more tourists bringing in odd diseases and different colds and flus from all over the place. We still get a lot of influx of outside germs, but less so than Oahu, at least IMHO.

[Les C]

I've gotten a cold from my wife, who apparently picked it up while visiting in CA a couple months ago. Otherwise, no other colds/flu in the 10 months we've been here.

I grew up in Honolulu and, although I did get colds/flu, I never had any hayfever type allergies. After about 13 years of CA living, mostly in the Bay Area, I developed pollen allergies. They became worse over the next 20+ years. I'm happy to say that I haven't had any respiratory allergy events since moving to the BI. However, I have been getting some minor rashes on my hands and forearms. But not as bad as a case of Poison Oak. I first suspected mango skin and sap, although I never used to react to the stuff, having grown up with productive Pirie and Hayden trees in our backyard on O'ahu. I did recently try a new variety, Mapulehu, from So. Kona after which I first noticed the rash. But I've been getting short bouts of the rash with no mangoes in sight.

By the way, mango belongs to the sumac family (Anacardiaceae) which also includes Poision Oak (Rhus diversiloba) and the other Rhus genus, Poisons Ivy and Sumac. This family also includes cashew and Ginko biloba. The allergenic compound that is responsible for the rashes is urushiol. I have eaten cashew fruit as well as the nuts with no rash reactions. I guess it's the shell of the cashew nut that contains the urushiol.

It's possible that I developed an allergy to mango skin getting reactions to Poison Oak in CA. I brought back some Technu from CA (I couldn't find it in HI). It's a cleaner that specifically neutralizes urushiol. It certainly dried out the skin in the areas of inflammation.

Here's some reference pages
http://poisonivy.aesir.com/faq.html
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph9.htm

Oh, and my wife told me about a former co-worker in CA whose husband returned from India recently with a cold or flu and gave it to her. It's the human-in-airplane vector.

Les

Edited by - Les C on 11/17/2006 11:45:29

[oink]

Brazilian Pepper(Christmass Berry) sap give a fair number of people a poison ivey type rash.

S. FL Islander to be

Edited by - oink on 11/17/2006 13:20:09

[malolo]

quote:

---

...the human-in-airplane vector.

---

Not to gross anyone out or anything, but I was told once-upon-a-time that a tiny glob of Neosporin up each nostril prior to boarding helps with the all too common "I-get-sick-every-time-I-hop-on-a-plane"-syndrome.

And y'know what?
It's true!