Don’t know about you all, but more than a couple `healthy as a horse’ friends of mine have been knocked on their asses by some cold or flu-like nastiness. As they’ve dropped, I’ve been doggedly fighting my Caribbean victim-blaming impulses.
‘You sick? You en eating nuh oranges?!’ or `I en tell you to wash you hands?’ is what I’m thinking as I hear ‘Yeah. There’s something going around’ or ‘Hey, have you tried _____ (fill in the blanks with the personality appropriate remedy here; i.e., zinc pills, a Vicks rub-down, Buckley’s, sweating it out, Echinacea, chicken soup, lemon tea and/or ganja tincture) come out of my mouth.
My initial response lingers. And an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, though. And you have to wonder why not everyone exposed to a pathogen gets or stays sick.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has a simple sensible answer: Stress. Chronic stress releases makes the immune system less responsive. And, stressed people are about twice as likely to get sick once exposed to cold or virus.
That’s all the more reason to relax and avoid drama. Or to not be an emotional vampire your damn self.
***eats orange***
…It’s strictly coincidence that everyone except me’s fallen ill.
April 15, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Very useful blog. Keep up the good work.
April 24, 2012 at 4:57 am
I like the helpful info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently. I am quite certain I’ll learn plenty of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!
April 27, 2012 at 8:09 am
thank you!
April 27, 2012 at 8:10 am
Thanks Janella!
August 11, 2012 at 10:12 am
I absolutely love your blog and find most of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for. Does one offer guest writers to write content in your case? I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating on a lot of the subjects you write with regards to here. Again, awesome weblog!
August 11, 2012 at 12:10 pm
I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz respond as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. cheers