Bernieboy

Like it.

Howard Jenings

Same thing here, we were never ill in the UK except for the odd cold. Since moving here the kids seem to be constantly ill, one even spent 10 days in PMH with a lymph node infection, I have had swine flu and the wife has just has come off steroids for a chest infection which the antibiotics did not clear. I suppose working in a school puts us into contact with most illnesses going around so hopefully our immunity will build up soon, it is costing a fortune in medicine!!

Japonica

Not just viruses, but bacteria too. Every environment has microflora of local bacteria, allergens, whatever. Many people can carry various bacteria they're used to totally asymptomatically. But once you get to a new environment, it's a whole new set microbes. Our GP said it'll take about a year for things to settle down.

With us it's been allergens. Both kids have developed hay fever (not only in spring but fall!) since moving here. They never had environmental allergies back home.

koalakim

Yep, different bugs. Likewise my Aussie mate caught Chickenpox within a month of moving to the UK!

I hadn't had a cold in the UK for years and my first year here had 2 colds and the flu - all bad ones as well. Then I've been okay since then but now have second cold in a month....must be run down as not had any time off for months although not sure if UK trip will count as holiday (too much running around and stress from trying to please everyone!).

Hang in there I'm sure the colds will get less and less - unless you work with kids of course!

Pollyana

I had shingles within a few months of moving here. Took me the best part of a year to get over it. And I reckon it was about 5 years before I really felt healthy here

kporte

Where to start!?

Pollyana

True, you can outdo the lot of us

kporte

Me and Framac! He actually died for a bit, I just nearly did!

Pollyana

New BE Award maybe...."Who Fought Australia and Won......"

billabongbunyip

Never heard that one before?

You must have some weird diseases flying around in Perth!

Could it be anything to do with the weather or pollen count?

We use to have terrible chest & sinus problems when we lived in Victoria due to a combination of dry heat and dust storms, but these health problems vanished after we moved to Sydney.

Trying building up your immune system by juicing things like kale, spinach, cucumbers, parsley, celery, green peppers, watercress, carrots, lemons, and spicing up the juice with things like powered cayenne pepper, ginger and garlic. I started daily juicing early last winter and have not been ill since.

You could also take a supplement like Olive Leaf Extract, Cats Claw or Astragalus.

Also a cold blast of the shower as a last minute rinse sounds awful (especially in winter) but it get really help to protect you from flu etc...

This site recommends cold showers but I can’t do that. I just have a last minute cold rinse and it really seems to help protect the immune system:

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/showers.html

.

Pollyana

You may not have heard it, but it is true, been told it by more than one medic. The germs over here are different, as are germs in every other country, so if you have a weakened immune system you are ore prey to picking up things your body isn't used to. Having had a few years of ill-health when I arrived, I know only too well that it took my immune system a long time to get used to things.

billabongbunyip

One more thing I will recommend.

I don’t do it myself – I don’t need to since I started making my own green leafy vegetable juices.

But everyone I know who does it, raves about it.

They all say they have not got sick since they started the daily use of a neti pot.

http://www.yatan-ayur.com.au/neti_pots.htm

May look a bit yucky, but better than having to resort to antibiotics every few months.

Cheetah7

Yep, my lung specialist told me this on my last appointment.

You move to Oz and everything is hunky dory initially, my asthma all but disappeared.

The second summer and I have developed allergies to everything, one mozzie bite makes my arm swell up, my glands swell up and I feel shit. I have developed a severe allergy to cockroaches - I never knew you could be allergic to those. Just 4 minutes into the allergy test, my arm swelled up and I started wheezing and they had to wash my arm to get the allergens off and give me antihistamines.

I have caught strep throat twice resulting in being really ill with it and this summer I have felt run down as though I am getting a cold but its not quite coming out.

Doctor said this is normal and will take some time to build up antibodies and that being in a new country brings new germs.

Can't wait till I feel 'normal' again though, I have had a tickly throat for over a week, the sniffles yet no full blown cold.

billabongbunyip

I realise that germs are different in different countries.

But you (I) tend to imagine this more in areas that widely vary, say a small hamlet in rural China and Milton Keynes.

So when the Op said "local viruses", I wasn’t thinking Australia wide. I was thinking of some strange lurgy roaming the suburbs of Perth, singling out and attacking poor innocent newly arrived migrants.

The weather has a lot to do with I am sure. I spent a year in Australia and was never sick. And I spent a number of months in hot and humid Darwin just before departure. Within 48 hours of lading at Heathrow, I came down with tonsillitis & bronchitis, which took weeks to shake.

I think my body went into shock from leaving beautiful hot dry weather.... to cold, overcast and dank, within such a short period of time.

But I really recommend juice therapy, as I have found it helps you recover quickly if you do catch something, and protects you against catching further lurgies.

http://www.internethealthlibrary.com...ce-therapy.htm

In previous years my immune system was generally very weak and I often seemed to be ill.

But last year I was the only person at work who didn’t get a flu vaccination, and ironically the only person who didn’t get flu.

So doing things to strength your immune system is a great idea, from my own experience last year. Which I plan to repeat this year.

WA grows wheat and wheat areas are known for dust storms. Dust storms blow into Perth. And dust storms are known to irritate the lungs of people who are sensitive. So maybe that is the issue for the OP?

Gas masks are meant to be in fashion (!!!!!) - so maybe the OP can start a new trend in Perth.

http://www.bouncingredball.com/wp-co...-mask-girl.jpg

ozhappy981

We must be the exception - or maybe it's because we don't have kids and are therefore never exposed to any school/kindy germs. We've been here in Perth 2.5 years and not been sick at all. Not a single cold

I used to get lots of colds in the UK. Each time I went into London on the train/tube, I'd have the sniffles the next day.

But here we've been amazingly healthy. I put it down to the warm dry weather. We are more outside all year round and more active.