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Opioids Never been sick while using opiates..something to this?

V

VisceralChems

Bluelighter
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
88
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CO
Not just me, but the three people I know who use on a consistent basis have NEVER been sick (e.g. common cold, flu, etc.) while taking opiates on a regular basis (for last 1.5 yrs). Not only that, but I travel quite a bit, and this is usually a SURE way to get sick...but not in last 1.5 years except for one couple week break I took early on in use. Coincidence?? Anyone else have similar experiences / thoughts?

Cure to common cold = opiates (wouldn't that be nice?? :))
 
Interesting but everyone's body chemistry isn't the same.......although, now that you brought up the aspect of not getting sick while on opiates sounds about right for me as well........

I know I got sick once a while back didn't want to even think about taking my prescribed norcos for back pain.
 
Might be pure luck, but when I abused opiates I rarely got ill. I get what you mean about airplane travel because I got the flu bad once doing that even though I had the shot. Opiates seemed to change that though. Even when my kids were having the flu I didn't catch it. Who knows?
 
Yeah I think it's more because your high, or dope sick, constantly going through those ups and downs, you just don't notice common colds and shit like that. But it's not because heroin boosts your immune system or something, hah.

But I have experienced the same thing as well, many people I know same thing. Never notice being sick when on opiates.
 
I am not saying it "boosts" your immune system per say, but this is sounding more and more like it isnt coincidence either ... perhaps being on opiates creates a biological environment where typical viruses and bacteria cant thrive.

If I were in the medical community, I would be looking into this...
 
opiates as antibacterial medicine? why not, that's my new excuse!

I'm with you though, I haven't been sick in a few years and have been using opiates frequently throughout that time.
 
Lol - not trying to give excuses, those are easy enough as it is!

However, I guess a good experiment would be while in a period of non-use, and after getting sick, take some and see what happens!
 
This is fairly common, at least in my experience with younger addicts (under 30, myself included). I would love to see a study on it. I have gone years without a sniffle, and have discussed this with many others who reported the same. I don't think it's just because you're high or dopesick - as personally, I'm in touch with my body enough to feel slight changes and I also have never been the type to get fucked up all the time, to the point where I wouldn't notice.

Edit: It doesn't make sense though, especially since heavy opiate use is supposed to suppress your immune system (or at least I've read that it does).
 
Alright, its official, I am applying for a grant from the govt to obtain large amounts of opiates for research purposes.
 
Wasn't it Keith Richards who called heroin "the cure for the common cold"?

When I heard that I had to agree...I don't catch colds on opiates...only runny nose I get is from wd and that goes away soon as I'm right..

I'd be willing to help in that research study lol..
 
LOL...

As much as I love opies, they are NOT a cure for the common cold or any physical illness, and they certainly don't prevent them!!!

What people don't realize is, no matter how long you've been using/addicted to opioids, your never really "normal", I mean it feels that way. but, if you we're ever "normal" then quitting, or at least cutting down wouldn't be a problem.

Believe me, I was in MMT, when you're taking 80-100mg a day, your not "sober". Not high by any means, but not normal.

My point is, you can still get crap like a cold, but you'll pretty much ignore it.

Also, remember that opioids are both a cough suppressant, and they are anti-diarrheal. So they're go two of your most common symptoms, right there.

Finally, NORMAL PEOPLE ARE ALMOST NEVER SICK. That is the whole point of being sick. Only to us drug addicts does it seem like going a few months without feeling sick is a fucking miracle.

The simple fact, is that the reason most of us are addicts is that we simply cannot/will not tolerate feeling bad, EVER.(until we have to...) that we numb ourselves up is not a statement of our health, and if anything, contradicts the notion( I mean, if we feel that goddamn bad all that time, we ever got to a point of needing that 80mg of methadone a day, we must be in pretty poor health, eh??
 
citizenuzi said:
This is fairly common, at least in my experience with younger addicts (under 30, myself included). I would love to see a study on it. I have gone years without a sniffle, and have discussed this with many others who reported the same. I don't think it's just because you're high or dopesick - as personally, I'm in touch with my body enough to feel slight changes and I also have never been the type to get fucked up all the time, to the point where I wouldn't notice.

Edit: It doesn't make sense though, especially since heavy opiate use is supposed to suppress your immune system (or at least I've read that it does).
Click to expand...

No offense, but the idea you can "detect" any change in you're body when your high is ridiculous.

You understand that opioids reduce/eliminate ALL SENSATIONS OF PAIN, physical, and mental.

Going years without getting sick is great, but even if true, isn't exactly a statistical impossibility.
 
I have done some further digging, and actually founds some archived similar threads. It appears that 85% of respondents report similar experiences in never actually getting (or at least feeling) sicknesses like the common cold or flu. About 10% reported getting sick once or twice, and 5% stated they got sick all the time. Some common explanations:

1) As Lorne has stated, the theory is that you DO get sick, but that you just dont feel it due to the physical state you have put yourself in, as well as side effects of the drug itself. However, even if this is true, if you can take opiates and not even know you are sick, who cares?

1.2) A hybrid, and very logical ideal includes one post by bben that states, "opiates are potent immunosuppressants so they may very well prevent the normal response to bacteria/virus we feel as sickness. It prevents elevated cytokines and nitric oxide production in response to sickness among many other actions. This immunosuppression combined with greater analgesia makes it no huge shock that opiate no only block the bodies response to sickness from immunosuppression but also masks it through pain killing and a general mood boost."

2) Other theories involve changed body PH, or changed body temperature.

3) My obscure observation is that it could also align with a common internet "cure for the common cold" that presumes you get most sicknesses via the ear canal instead of more commonly though routs. Since for me opiates seem to affect my inner ear and wax production, maybe something it it...who knows.

In the threads I read it is also interesting to mention that some brought up the fact that morphine was previously sold as a cure to the common cold 100 years ago, and another posted noted that some places with heavy opiate habits (I believe he stated India at the time of writing) had public acceptance that opiate users were virtually immune to colds.

Here is one of the links in case you are interested like I: http://www.bluelight.org/vb/archive/index.php/t-548596.html

P.S. I am definitely not claiming they make you healthier!!! I am just wondering if they don't create a physical environment that is unfavorable for bacterial and/or viral infections. I do also concede the possibility of symptoms just being masked, though I have a hard time with accepting this. The "statistics" of experience are quite interesting.
 
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Lorne??? said:
No offense, but the idea you can "detect" any change in you're body when your high is ridiculous.

You understand that opioids reduce/eliminate ALL SENSATIONS OF PAIN, physical, and mental.

Going years without getting sick is great, but even if true, isn't exactly a statistical impossibility.
Click to expand...

I have to diverge with you a bit here. I personally got to a point where I was using to maintain "normalcy" (though I realize this was not a true base state), and very much felt sensations of pain, both physical and mental.

Though muted, even a moderate-high doses of oxy (100mg+/-), do you not feel a pinch, a stubbed toe, heartbreak? If so, how is it impossible to detect change? Your perception may be altered some, but that doesn't mean you cannot detect some of these things. Though that does not necessarily mean I disagree with your overall conclusion.
 
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I never got sick on opiates either, tho I attribute that to being in my 20s-30s and doing a physically demanding job (waste water operator) that exposed me to probably every known disease to man, in weakened strains. It' pretty much impossible tho to get diarhhea or a bad cough when you're doing 1-2 bundles a day. I will say my weight fluctuated wildly, from a low of 123lbs to a high of 248 (Im 5'10", medium build). You kinda cant eat much on opiates, unless you are also on an AAP, like Zyprexa, then you will balloon up. My teeth are shot to fuck from all the puking I did (anticipation puke, near OD puke, withdraw puke, you name it, Ive thrown it up), so while I never got bug sick (like flu) from opiates, my health definitely suffered from them (not even counting HepC which is not from the drugs themselves, rather the method in which I took them: irresponsibly).
 
i totally noticed this too. i went the longest time without getting a single cold. i used to get 1 or 2 every winter. i just got over the first cold i can remember having within any recent years.
 
The biggest tell tale sign of having a cold is feeling like shit, i.e general malaise. If you are high on Heroin, you guys, you wont be able to tell you are feeling like shit. It is NOT the cure for common colds, LMAO.

Also how old is everyone here, I'd say mostly in their 20s so not exactly the demographic to get sick all the time, from a statistically view point.
 
There might be something to this. I don't think I've been legitimately sick the last 5 years that I've been doing opiates. My friend also claims this and he says same thing with his friend. I used to get the flu once a year around December. Shit is definitely weird.
 
If anything opiates are suppressing your immune system, which is why you don't ever feel sick, infections are running rampant but your body is ignoring them. Most of the symptoms of feeling sick are caused by your body fighting the infection, not the infection itself(think fever, runny nose, sputum in your lungs, sore throat from inflammation, vomiting and diarrhea to expel infections from your GI tract, etc. etc.) these are all triggered by your bodies immune system in an attempt to fight the infection, not the infection itself.
 
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