Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/...freakishly

INTRO: For years, Melanie Musson’s friends have marveled at her superpower: staying healthy no matter what germs are making the rounds. Colds and flu felled plenty of Musson’s dormmates in college, but the viruses always seemed to pass her by. “I never got sick once,” she says. “I got about five hours of sleep a night, I finished school in three years, and I worked 30 hours a week throughout. My best friends labeled me ‘the machine.’?”

Musson’s ironclad immune system also set her apart at her first job. While she was working at an assisted living facility, her co-workers succumbed to a stomach virus that was running rampant. Undaunted, Musson offered to cover their shifts. “There I was, the brand-new employee, getting as much overtime as I wanted. I wasn’t worried that I’d catch [the virus], because it just doesn’t happen.”

While the rest of us battle seasonal flu, chronic allergies and back-to-back wintertime colds, Musson and other immune masters glide through with scarcely a sniffle — something University of Pittsburgh immunologist John Mellors sees all the time. “People get exposed to the same virus, the same dose, even the same source. One gets very sick, and the other doesn’t.”

It’s only natural to wonder: Why do some people always seem to fall on the right side of this equation? And could our own immune systems approach the same level with the right tuneup?

Doctors have noted natural variations in the immune response among people since Hippocrates’ time, but the reasons remained elusive for centuries. New research, however, is starting to illustrate just how your genes, habits and past disease exposures affect the character and strength of your immune response. These discoveries are helping to define the parameters of a race in which people like Musson have a head start — and others have much more ground to cover... (MORE)

The big question is this: does being more immune than the other guy lessen ones chances of carrying a virus and passing it on? Not knowing you’re carrying might make you more dangerous to the population(Survival) than someone who is sick.

Then again, could a sick individual be more of a danger to themselves? No doubt evolution has played a huge role here. When a predator selects a sick animal as prey how does it know? A lion for instance chooses a sick wildebeest from a herd of a million. Pheromones? Did we once possess that ability? Do viruses et al produce recognizable smells? If someone sneezes, we back off.....I don’t think humans can tell if it’s viral or allergic.

Something I've considered and probably does need researching is the effect of "Homoeostasis" on virus transmissions.

For instance a person can be surrounded in their home by their own filth (dust created from their dead skin cells, bacteria from what they touch or breath upon). That particular filth though is actually an extended Homoeostasis, an area where old cells have died or are dying and should any foreign entities surface they might find it hard to survive due to the potential of necrosis caused by interacting with the dead and dying homoeostasis environment.

This is of course a double edged sword, for instance an environment where one person lives is attuned to them (for better or worse), but when you are dealing with a family environment or the environment of strangers it creates potentially other complications (such as allergies)