Colorado isn't for everyone (Denver, Boulder: spring break, high school, college)

[seethelight]

Originally Posted by djohnmd

Living in Boulder will make any person sick!

In your opinion, which obviously isn't shared by everyone. Try and be nice.

[treedonkey]

The confusing the to me though, is that many seniors move to Arizona or other arid places BECAUSE it's dry and that somehow helps their breathing and such. Everyone is different, but I also wonder if it was maybe the pollen that got seethelight, not just dust or dryness. Any case, sorry for your health problems, OP. Hopefully it will go better for you now.

[seethelight]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

The confusing the to me though, is that many seniors move to Arizona or other arid places BECAUSE it's dry and that somehow helps their breathing and such. Everyone is different, but I also wonder if it was maybe the pollen that got seethelight, not just dust or dryness. Any case, sorry for your health problems, OP. Hopefully it will go better for you now.

I think it's a combination of the altitude, the dust, low humidity and different pollens than I am used to. I also have had over 12 operations in the past few years. It seems that my cartiledge is disappearing from many of my joints. I have been trying to research the realtionship between altitude and cartiledge loss. I did find one article indicating there was a link, but I can't find any more information. Also it's possible that if I was living somewhere else I may have the same orthopedic issues, but my gut tells me otherwise.

[Neditate]

Back in the 1800s people came to Colorado for their health. Boulder had a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients:
Mount Sanitas was named after the sanitarium which was located just east of the present trailhead. The word sanitarium was derived from the Latin term sanitas meaning health. Seventh Day Adventists established the Colorado Sanitarium (also known as the Boulder Sanitarium) here in 1895. The Sanitarium provided general medical care as well as treatment for tuberculosis.

Following a trail to the West for good health seems a rather different motivation than the search for riches, religious freedom, adventure, or finding a new home, yet thousands of ill people came to the Rocky Mountains for just that reason. Denver resident P. T. Barnum observed, “People come here to die and they can’t do it.”(1 (http://www.bcr.org/cdp/exhibits/westerntrails/health/index.html#1 - broken link))
In 1873, Isabella Bird, an English woman who climbed Long’s Peak, said, “Colorado is the most remarkable sanatorium in the world…the climate is considered the finest in North America … consumptives, asthmatics, dyspeptics, and sufferers of nervous diseases are here in the hundreds of thousands.” 2 (http://www.bcr.org/cdp/exhibits/westerntrails/health/index.html#2 - broken link)
One of the most famous seekers after a cure for his recurring tuberculosis was F.O. Stanley. When he came to Colorado in 1903, Stanley, at age fifty-four, had a grim outlook on life. His family doctor in Maine ordered him to seek a new climate or he would soon die. Stanley had invented the first steam car in 1897, and he arrived famously in Estes Park in a Stanley Steamer auto, after negotiating the wagon road up the St. Vrain Canyon.
The Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium was established in Boulder in 1894. According to its brochure, it was thirty miles from Denver “at the foot of the Rockies” and open all year. Initially begun as a tubercular sanitarium, it soon became popular among people not afflicted with TB, but desiring the healthy lifestyle led by the Seventh-Day Adventists. As the advertisement for the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium stated : REST CURE: Many People are victims of tired, worn-out nerves, and are I need of special attention. The Rest cure given under proper supervision is very effective. The Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium is especially adapted and equipped to serve this class of patients.
BCR - CDP Western Trails: Health Trails (http://www.bcr.org/cdp/exhibits/westerntrails/health/index.html - broken link)

[Count David]

I can't put my finger on it, but I've so far had a major problem with August.

I've been here two of them (Augusts) so far, and each one was equally as hellish.

August 2007, I had a persistent, painful cough that I couldn't get rid of no matter what I tried. It even kept me up at night and made it difficult to speak without breaking out in cough.

August 2008, I had a terrible cold, that I couldn't kick. Itchy eyes, phlegm, sore throat, etc.

Both were gone come September too.

Generally, I hardly ever get any kind of sick. I find it weird, however, that August is the time of year that gets me.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

The confusing the to me though, is that many seniors move to Arizona or other arid places BECAUSE it's dry and that somehow helps their breathing and such. Everyone is different, but I also wonder if it was maybe the pollen that got seethelight, not just dust or dryness. Any case, sorry for your health problems, OP. Hopefully it will go better for you now.

Years ago, it was thought that the dry mountain air was good for the lungs. In fact, all mountain air was beleived to be beneficial. In Pennsylvania, there were TB sanitariums in the mtns where people from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were sent to recover from TB. Some of these people DID get better, but it wasn't the mountain air, it was the cleaner environment and the rest that helped. (This was before the discovery of anti-TB drugs.) But yeah, Colorado was a haven for TB sans. Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge started as a san. In fact, when I worked there (more than 20 yrs ago), they still had a tent from the origional san on the grounds as a sort of museum.

[MtnFlyer]

I haven't spent much time up around Boulder or Denver as to me that defeated the purpose of being in Colorado, but have spent a good deal of time down south around Durango, Pagosa Springs, and Wolf Creek. I guess I didn't notice summers being bad, or any appreciable dust, however having spent more than a few summers in the Texas anything less than 90 degrees is a wonderful summer.

Good luck on your return to New England. I love Durango and have seriously considered relocating there next year, but it's a tight battle between there and New Hampshire. That area of New England seems to offer it all.

Are you returning to Massachusetts?

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

I can't put my finger on it, but I've so far had a major problem with August.

I've been here two of them (Augusts) so far, and each one was equally as hellish.

August 2007, I had a persistent, painful cough that I couldn't get rid of no matter what I tried. It even kept me up at night and made it difficult to speak without breaking out in cough.

August 2008, I had a terrible cold, that I couldn't kick. Itchy eyes, phlegm, sore throat, etc.

Both were gone come September too.

Generally, I hardly ever get any kind of sick. I find it weird, however, that August is the time of year that gets me.

I had something in August, too. I felt absolutely fine, but I lost my voice for over a week. Just about the time I was ready to give in and call my doctor, I recovered completely. I wonder if the decrease in respiratory illnesses in September is related to the slight rise in humidity that arrives with Colorado's monsoon season.

[Katarina Witt]

The monsoon season usually hits in July. This September has seen a good bit of rain; it seems like we're getting the rain we should have gotten in July and August.

I work in a pediatrician's office, and like clockwork, the week after school starts, kids start getting sick again. They are all cooped up in the classroom sharing germs. Hoarseness, or laryngitis, is caused by the same virus that causes croup in kids.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by Katiana

The monsoon season usually hits in July.

I learn something new everyday. I always thought it was at the beginning of fall, but you got me on that one.

Now that you've brought it up, what is the incubation period for the virus that causes croup? I think my bout of laryngitis did in fact correspond with the beginning of school. Isn't living with three-foot-tall germ factories an adventure?