Since exposure to germs is supposed to increase our immunity from illnesses, is it true that being a GFE escort would lead to a better defense against colds and flus?
I used to get at least one cold per year, but after a few years of being an escort, I *never* get sick (though this could be because of/in addition to the fact that as an escort I get more sleep and have less stress than I did before)
Any armchair physicians (or real physicians!) have any intel?
I'm not an expert in these matters by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know something.
What you are suggesting is known as adaptive immunity. That exists, but in your situation as an escort, highly unlikely.
There are generally 2 things your immune system is fighting, bacteria and viruses. They are very different.
Bacteria are living cells very much like the cells in your body, but much simpler. Enzymes within the bacteria are chemical reactors that, when the bacteria come in contact with the cells in your body, can interact with those cells and "feed" the bacteria through chemical reactions. Simply put, the bacteria eats, grows, and splits (ie: multiplies). A bacteria is alive and is thus fragile because it needs a host to stay alive.
Viruses are very different. They are much much smaller (like a tenth smaller) than the cells in your body, so small that a regular microscope cannot see them. All a virus is, is an envelope of membrane and a coat of protein that surrounds genetic instructions in nucleic acid. It is not alive without a host, in fact, it remains dormant for a very long time. The enzymes in viruses do not carry out chemical reactions like in bacteria, instead, they inject the genetic instructions into a host cell in your body they've attached to. The host cell's enzymes carry out the instructions through chemical reactions the way bacteria would. Because viruses can stay dormant for a very long time without a host cell, they are hardy and can withstand a hazardous environment.
As a human being, your immune system is constantly being attacked by both bacteria and viruses. As an escort, you are more likely to come into bacteria in quantities that have any effect in places in your body that you do things without condoms - such as, hopefully, only your mouth. As for viruses, clients might have left them behind in your bed or furnishings, etc., and will remain dormant for a very long time - ie: weeks or months. Even washing your sheets, spraying down your furnishings with cleanser, etc., will not kill viruses.
A bacterial infection stands the most likely chance of immune adaptation without some form of external intervention as you would making yourself immune to a virus by getting a needle of antiviral medication. Orally, I doubt that foreign bacteria is likely to survive because the environment in your mouth is hostile to most bacteria except the oral bacteria of others - which usually is not hazardous anyways. So for this reason, talk of an immune adaptation to bacteria where oral sex is concerned is pointless. The only kind of immune adaption possible to bacteria in sex is the adaption your vagina or anus would have to foreign bacteria in large enough quantity, for instance, from having bareback sex. But since you're not having bareback sex, that is not worth discussing.
So that leaves us with viruses - and what about your adaptive immunity to that? There's nothing as a sex worker that would make you especially more immune to it, because human beings cannot really do anything to make their immune system adapt to it except usually by external intervention or some form of natural mutation. In fact, as an escort you are more prone to being attacked by viruses than most any other person unless we are talking about people who work in the medical field who see lots of people every day.
So if it is true that you think your immune system is better since you have been doing sex work, I would suggest that it has nothing to do with your body being able to increase its immunity due to more exposure. It is very much more likely due to:
a) being happy about getting sex
b) being more health conscious because you are interacting intimately with strangers
c) being more conscious about dirtiness in your environment, leading you to clean and wash more often, which reduces bacteria, which lightens the load to your immune system so that it can fight viruses
Does this make sense?
n.b: this should also provide an explanation that Volpina Vance was asking for.
