Opiates and the immune system

[spacejunk]

hey folks,
i am currently laid up with the flu, or something similar.
not pleasant in the middle of a western australian summer, and i am having a lot of trouble shaking it. have already had a week off work, and i felt worse today than i did at the start of the week. sweats, nightmares, headaches, lightheaded - no fun.

this is the second time in under a year that i've had an illness like this (involving fever that lasts for over a week - quite debilitating to say the least) and i'm wondering if it is a coincidence or somehow related to my drug use.
i am a fairly strong, healthy, active young person.
besides using opiates every day and some pretty appalling sleeping habits, i consider myself to be fairly healthy.
i don't eat shitty processed food, smoke, drink or party excessively. i vape a bit of weed, but besides my use of various orally administered opiates (mainly pod tea, PST or codeine) i don't use as much as i did in my early 20s, for example. i haven't used intravenously in over a year.

i know there are a lot of myths regarding junkies never getting colds or whatever, but i am quite aware of the evidence that suggests that opiates can compromise your immune system. have i just managed to pick up a couple of gross flu bugs, or is it possible that opiate dependence increases the likelihood of succumbing to these things?

it is probably worth mentioning that i've had a couple of really stressful things to deal with in the last month or two, and there are of course many factors to take into consideration in such matters.
it just freaks me out that i don't seem to be getting better, when these things used to always blow over after a week or so.
maybe it is just all the freaky strains of influenza getting around?

i would like to hear other people's thoughts and experiences, cheers.

 

[poledriver]

I've been lucky so far this summer and haven't got sick at all, but when I get the flu I dose up on vitamin C, like Ultra Potent - C in a powder form mixed with water or juice. I personally cant see anything wrong with what you take or eat or do and at a guess you probably nailed it saying you have been dealing with some very stressful things.

potent c powder

 

[jaurk]

I'm actually interested in this too, if anyone knows anything about opiates directly (or indirectly?) affecting the immune system.

 

[chugs]

i would like to hear other people's thoughts and experiences, cheers.

i recently got sick in oct/nov. extreme fatigue, cold/hot sweats, no temperature, strong nausea, and this weird right side abdominal low level pain/discomfort. I had it for about two weeks and then it went. Had a bout for a few days in December and then another about just last week.

I went to the ER the first time because at one stage I would just pass out on the couch..... i could barely walk 20 metres. Coupled with a sunday night there wasn't anywhere else to go. Anyway ultrasound and bloodwork later the DR couldn't find anything wrong. no stones, no blood in urine, no inflammation values i.e. ALT... anyway I saw another four doctors after that they all claimed it was just a reallly bad virus and that one such illness had been going around at least in Sydney.

with the third bout of this illness i finally demanded a pathology on my blood. here i was fearing that i had Hepatitis. Everything has come back negative. though the test said i did have glandular fever at one stage. so in the absences of any other evidence i would say its glanduar fever.

to the OP perhaps thats what you got. ask for some bloods to be done.

 

[Stato]

^^^ Ah, That reminds me.. I had glandular fever, with tonsillitis on top...

Terrible terrible illness, and I had lots of vomiting going on. My tonsilitis never went away and 9+ months after originally contracting glandular fever and getting over it, I actually had to then have my tonsils out, they never decreased in size from golf balls (less than 1cm gap between them and basically almost blocking clear view to the back of my throat).

I do remember a lot of discomfort in my throat, a general feeling of sickness, lack of energy, the usual flu symptoms... But it took a lot longer to get over. (2-3 weeks from memory)


I was not on opiates at the time though. Definitely get yourself a blood test, and if you have any discomfort in your throat/sinuses maybe they can take swabs at the same time there and test that...

I'm just getting over an extreme cold/flu which left me sleeping all week, knocked out. A 3 day course of azithromycin (500mg) and I'm feeling better..... Although I wonder if that's just me getting over it. I had symptoms of a cold appear last sunday.

Of course, not a lot of my post here is relevent to your topic, my apologies. This is what happens when you let someone on ampehtamines sit in front of a keyboard....

 

[spacejunk]

funny you should mention glandular fever, chugs - i spoke to some friends from work (who got sick at the same time as me) and they are both still sick, and have been diagnosed with glandular fever.
so my paranoia got to me once again - they love teaching us to fear all drug use, and making us think it will cause all manner of problems.
stato, i had a similar experience with my tonsils, and if i hadn't had them removed ~7 years ago, i'd think it was tonsillitis. some ugly fucking illnesses, i'll tell you what. thanks for your replies, gentlemen.

 

[Crankinit]

they love teaching us to fear all drug use, and making us think it will cause all manner of problems.

This is one reason why it's such a pain to bring up drug use with doctors, as soon as they know you use drugs, or even have done so in the past, they automatically jump to the conclusion that your problem is drug related and no longer consider other causes, even if those causes are more likely.

Back when I was bouncing around between doctors trying to get treatment for my back pain, I made the mistake of admitting to stimulant use to one of them, and he immediately became fixated on the idea that it was caused by smoking contaminated meth and wouldn't consider other possibilities... Possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard from a doctor

 

[spacejunk]

^ that is so fucking true.
i really really resent having to lie about my drug use to doctors. it's my fucking health, and their fucking bad attitude, but they're so brainwashed by their various propaganda machines (government, pharmaceutical company etc) that they tend to believe all that bullshit.
which is ridiculous - you'd think they'd know better, but i guess a lot of doctors come from very high and mighty moral places. never met a pot head, let alone understood that some people would rather take stimulants and go dancing, or whatever, than take fucking antidepressants for the rest of their lives.

what's the difference between drug dealers and doctors anyway? they both sell drugs and they're both rip-off merchants.

i remember meeting the anaesthetist before i had my tonsils out, and he turned to me at some point, looked at me over the top of his spectacles and said,
"now, you don't take any illegal drugs do you?"
of course i said "no"
and he sort of said "no...i didn't think so" with a thinly-veiled hostility.

i find this attitude offensive.
if i'd said anything, he would've no doubt made a big deal out of it, and this was back when i used to just smoke a bit of pot and drop acid. there was an implicit instruction there for me to say "no", which is potentially dangerous.

i wouldn't have a problem with medical people if such a high percentage of them weren't such cunts.

 

[Divine Moments]

what's the difference between drug dealers and doctors anyway? they both sell drugs and they're both rip-off merchants.

To start with, doctors don't directly make any money from prescribing you something (as opposed to not prescribing anything, or prescribing something else). They also don't set the price. The vast majority do have your health in mind; there are very few that would intentionally do something unnecessary just for money, and even fewer that would do something dangerous for money.

i wouldn't have a problem with medical people if such a high percentage of them weren't such cunts.

Fair point, just remember they aren't all

 

[spacejunk]

yeah, good call. please excuse my feverish late-night off-topic ranting.

 

[Christ!]

hey folks,
i am currently laid up with the flu, or something similar.
not pleasant in the middle of a western australian summer, and i am having a lot of trouble shaking it. have already had a week off work, and i felt worse today than i did at the start of the week. sweats, nightmares, headaches, lightheaded - no fun.

this is the second time in under a year that i've had an illness like this (involving fever that lasts for over a week - quite debilitating to say the least) and i'm wondering if it is a coincidence or somehow related to my drug use.

i know there are a lot of myths regarding junkies never getting colds or whatever, but i am quite aware of the evidence that suggests that opiates can compromise your immune system. have i just managed to pick up a couple of gross flu bugs, or is it possible that opiate dependence increases the likelihood of succumbing to these things?
.

Really hard to say if it's a coincidence or your opiate dependence that might be making you more susceptible.


I've been really lucky over the last 4 years with not getting ill...have had one cold 2 years ago. Have been on opiates the whole time. I've been a smoker for quite a while now and don't even find myself getting the usual coughs and chest colds that all my smoking mates seem to get. Even when I was hammering the bongs multiple times a day my lungs seemed to be mostly fine apart from coughing up some stuff occasionally.

When I was a kid I got sick pretty regularly, had bad glandular fever and bad flus...used to get so delirious with a high temperature I'd think my hands were swelling up and I'd try to get a knife to cut them off (so my parents tell me), also used to start believing that my parents were aliens and would viscously refuse any panadol or whatever meds they tried to give me.

The worse flu I had was right after I had been stung on balls by a bee...was probably 5 or 6 and playing in the paddling pool outside with some neighbour kids, figured out it felt nice to trap water in my shorts and then stand up and let it drain out....somehow ended up with my shorts off and looked down to see a bee in the process of stinging my scrotum. I screamed so Mum came out and took me inside...didn't realize it at the time but I'm actually allergic to bees. My ballsack must have swelled up 400% it's normal size...it was a terrifying experience and then the next day I came down with the flu. One of the girls who was playing in the pool with me that day who I'm friends with still occasionally gives me shit about it, can't believe Mum didn't think privacy was a good idea and had her come to the doctor with us. Very embarrassing in primary school but kind of funny now.

Anyways.....

I always make sure not to be in the path of people who are sick, or touch things that they've touched. I'm not obsessive about it but I think it helps, along with eatting healthy, exercising etc. which spacejunk you already seem to be doing.

 

[chugs]

funny you should mention glandular fever, chugs - i spoke to some friends from work (who got sick at the same time as me) and they are both still sick, and have been diagnosed with glandular fever.
so my paranoia got to me once again - they love teaching us to fear all drug use, and making us think it will cause all manner of problems.
stato, i had a similar experience with my tonsils, and if i hadn't had them removed ~7 years ago, i'd think it was tonsillitis. some ugly fucking illnesses, i'll tell you what. thanks for your replies, gentlemen.

yeah the paranoia today has been absolutely terrible. my father was just diagnosed with possibly having MS. so i've been reading up on it and of course lo-behold after getting Glandular fever i discover there is a link between MS and glandular, with MS being hereditary. 8-|before that i was fearing that i had killed my liver with some badly done CWE or that I had contracted Hep B or worse C. i'm so over being sick and paranoid.

so i've had two bouts of since coming down with glandular fever which apparently can happen. still got the myalgia. grrr.

it struck me though that with using opiates that the stress of withdrawals might affect your immune system. Over the last 6 months I've gone through some pretty shit regular withdrawals as we got on the gear, and then off for a week or two before we get on. I had a break when i got sick though for about 2 months.

 

[Mr Blonde]

I remember reading that opioid receptors are expressed on immune system cells... here is an abstract discussing the topic. It seems as though there isn't a lot of information to date in this area.

On an anecdotal level, it's hard for me to tell if I got more sick when using opioids more frequently, as I have a compromised immune system in the first place that results in increased infections anyway. I get sick pretty frequently, particularly respiratory illnesses.

 

[spacejunk]

thanks mr blonde, i might do some further science journal research myself when i am back to full health.
as it stands, my opiate use has been relatively enjoyable - i haven't been forced into degrading situations or a great deal of (withdrawal) sickness because of it. yet, anyway.
i think that if a clear link was shown between opiates and compromised immunity - especially in light of flu pandemics and such - i would have reason to reconsider my use. at this stage, 'getting clean' is not really a priority (it sounds quite frightening) but i would probably look at things differently if there was some firm evidence that it is seriously compromising my health.
i am sick at the moment, but two friends of mine came down with the same thing, and they're not junkies, so perhaps i'm just taking on the drug-fear that society teaches us from such a young age.