Why do people get affected by flu differently?

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I don’t get sick too often, but i just recently caught a bug that has given me a sore throat, congestion, cough and fever, the full package. However, my partner who lives with me hasn’t gotten any of this. I try to be careful in terms of spreading but I feel that symptoms like sore throat, cough affect me a lot more than it does when my partner gets it. Same happened when we both got covid. My symptoms were pretty bad when compared to my partners. Is it just a naturally better immunity for bugs causing these symptoms or is there more to it? How can I build my own immunity against this?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Most, if not all, of the symptoms you feel are from your body’s immune system, not what the virus does to your body. So you having a more severe reaction is more about how your body responds and fights the virus. Your body might induce a higher fever because that is what it thinks it needs while someone else’s body might interpret the virus differently. It could also start fighting the virus earlier or later effecting the severity of the symptoms.

That’s how vaccines work. They prepare the body so it can fight the virus earlier and prevent more severe symptoms. So someone who was vaccinated or previously exposed to that virus would likely have less severe symptoms.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Yes for the love of god someone explain why my husband gets hit hard with any bug he gets, and I’m just sitting over here with zero symptoms. I tell him it’s because of my superior immune system, and will continue to do so until someone offers a better explanation…possibly even after.

Anonymous 0 Comments

So a stronger reaction is because of a weaker immunity system? Or they are not necessarily related?
Maybe eating vegetables is key.