First, what this chapter is doing is dispelling the myths. Getting you to understand the reality of it all. Because if you believe something is true that isn't, what you don't know CAN hurt you, and has been.
"If you don't have symptoms, you are healthy"
I am going to show you how this myth is not true first. Because it is the easiest.
Look in any paper, in the obituaries. And you will find at least one person, who dropped dead of something, heart attack, stroke, etc, and was reported to be in "perfect health". If they dropped dead, were they really in good health? Even though they had no symptoms? Of course not, they were not healthy. And you will find people like this in almost every paper, almost every day.
Or how about when someone develops some serious symptoms within a couple of weeks, and they go to the doctor, and find out they have cancer. Before those couple of weeks, when they got the symptoms, were they healthy? Obviously not. Just because you don't have symptoms, doesn't mean you are healthy.
Now, because this might leave people a little fearful, that they might die at any time, I need to address something here. It is all a matter of scale. Technically, you will not just suddenly die without any symptoms. You will have symptoms first, it is just that most people take so many symptoms, as the status quo. They see so many symptoms, as just part of life, part of getting old. And they are not.
For instance, low energy. Low energy levels are a symptom from your body. A symptom you are low on health. And many people just ignore it, because they write the symptom off as part of life, part of getting old, or whatever reason. When people are sad for no real reason, this is a symptom, and it does NOT have to be full blown depression, but just sadness. That is a symptom many people will also just write off. Headaches, back pain, neck pain, arm or leg pain, not being able to fall asleep within minutes, cranky in the morning, bad eye sight, etc, etc are more symptoms telling you that you are not healthy. The list of symptoms that we as humans, generally write off as something else other than our body telling us we are not healthy, goes on and on.
Now, your body will always give you symptoms before you die. I promise. It is just that, like I talked about earlier, many of the symptoms you have, you don't even realize are symptoms. You just think that is the way it has to be. Like lack of energy, or not being fully awake and ready to go in the morning, or not being in a good mood most of the time, etc. Those are all symptoms, that most of us ignore, because either we don't realize they are symptoms, or we think there is nothing the medical profession can do about them.
Not having symptoms does NOT mean you are healthy.
"If you have symptoms, you are sick"
Now I am going to show you how this big myth is NOT true either.
If you were choking on food, wouldn't you want to cough? It is a symptom that the body uses to get stuck food out of the airway or lungs. It is also a symptom that the body uses to get mucus and other garbage out of the lungs that it does not want - like during a cold.
If you get food poisoning and you throw up every half hour for hours or even days, do you want to stop throwing up? Yes, because it is no fun, but it is necessary for you to live. Does it seem unreasonable that even if you don't have food poisoning, that throwing up might be a defense mechanism of the body?
By now, most people understand that a fever is a good thing. That the body creates the fever to help fight off sickness. Your body is creating the fever, voluntarily raising your body temperature. The fever is generally not a reaction to your environment, but the body's actions it takes to deal with the environment you have given it. Your body purposely gives you a fever for numerous reasons, and some we probably don't know yet. And here are a couple.
With higher temperatures:
- Many bacteria die, they cannot hack the change in their environment. Kind of like a penguin in the desert.
- Chemical reactions happen quicker and your body's response time is decreased. Remember in chemistry class, mixing stuff in the beakers and when you increased the temperature, the reaction happened quicker.
- P-54, interleukins, bradykinins, leukotrins and other chemicals are released in the body. These chemicals are responsible for killing cancer cells in your body. I don't know about you, but I like that.
What about brain damage? I can almost hear you thinking that. Here is the scenario that almost ALWAYS happens when brain damage occurs from a fever.
The person, usually a child, gets a fever. The loving parents have been told this is bad and try to lower the fever-cold washcloths or aspirin. The fever goes down. On Day 2, since the body created the fever to help heal, it raises the body temp, but a little higher to make up for lost time. The parents then give the child Tylenol. The fever goes down. However, on Day 3 the fever goes up even higher, because, again, the body is trying to heal with the fever. So, the parents give extra strength Tylenol. By this time the bacteria have done extensive damage and the body is getting "frustrated" trying to fend off the bacteria and having a hard time without the fever. So Day 4, the fever goes way up, the parents get excited and bring the child to the ER. The doctors "know" how a fever is "bad" and give prescription strength fever suppressant. Day 5, the body needs a fever, the bacteria are winning, and as a last ditch effort the body is left with two choices? death or brain damage. So what do you think the body picks? The body raises the temperature to a level that causes brain damage, and the bacteria or whatever, are finally under control.
It is not always this exact scenario. However, when brain damage is associated with fever, it is almost ALWAYS first suppressed chemically or with something cold. Fever is good. Fever is a symptom of your body healing, being healthy.
When someone has diarrhea, there is a high number of cancerous cells found in your poop. Sometimes 50% increase in cancerous cells. So if your body is getting rid of extra cancer cells with diarrhea, maybe that is a good thing. I know it is not fun. But maybe your body is actually healing and cleaning house. Which is a good thing.
Bladder infections. Anyone who has had one, knows how much fun they are NOT. But maybe the symptoms of bladder infections are your body healing. First, having to go to the bathroom all the time. If there is no urine in the bladder, the bacteria will have no food. With no food, the bacteria die. Then there is the pain and discomfort. This just lets you know there is something wrong. It is a message from your body. Fever often goes with bladder infections. And we already talked about all the benefits of fever. One of which, some more bacteria just die. Then there is usually some blood in the urine. The body kills bacteria a couple ways in the body. One of the ways is through direct contact with cells in the blood. They float around the blood, killing foreign things they bump into, including bacteria. But the problem is, you have no blood inside the bladder. No direct way for the body to kill the bacteria in the bladder. So your body opens up the walls between the cells, and lets some blood in. And in that blood, hordes of white blood cells, that kill the bacteria. It is like flood gates of an army being opened. The army comes rushing through and all the little cells kill the bacteria in the bladder. Ingenious the body is.
Teething symptoms, symptoms of ear infections, and many more symptoms are often your body healing. Many symptoms, with a little knowledge of the body, can easily be explained as above. Can be explained in how they are symptoms of the body healing.
So just because you have symptoms, does NOT mean you are sick.With higher temperatures:
One of my most favorite stories. Trees.
Imagine if you will, it is fall, and the leaves are starting to change colors, and some leaves are starting to fall from the trees. And out there in a group of trees, one of the trees, Ed the tree, notices the other trees leaves are turning colors. And Ed the tree cringes and says, ?eeewhh, get away from me, I don't want to catch what you have? to the other trees. And not matter how hard Ed the tree tries, it eventually "catches" what the other trees? have and even Ed's leaves begin to change colors. Then Ed the tree, notices that some of the other trees? leaves are falling off. And this time Ed is going to really try, and Ed the tree is not going to catch what the other trees have, because Ed does not want to lose his leaves. But, try as Ed the tree might, Ed still "catches" what the other trees have, and Ed the tree loses his leaves as well.
You are probably laughing to yourself, because how silly Ed the tree is. All trees that live in climates with seasons, leaves change color and fall to the ground every fall. Trees are part of nature. They do that.
Well, let me ask you a question. Are you part of nature? Are we as humans, part of nature? Or are we separate from nature? Of course we are part of nature. We are mammals, just like all the other mammals on the planet. And just like everything else in nature, we as humans go through cycles with the seasons as well.
When the climate shifts from hot humid air, to dry cold air, you need a different lining of your lungs, to adapt to that new environment. You need different chemicals in your body to survive. You need to change, to adapt to the upcoming different environment. And when your body is not healthy enough, this change in your body gets expressed as a cold. You cough, and cough, and sneeze, and blow your nose, over and over again, to get rid of the old lining of your sinuses and lungs, that were designed for summer, to get the new lining ready to deal with the upcoming winter air. If your body is healthy enough, it can do this without you missing a beat. That is why some people never get the cold, and others, who get the cold, only have it mildly, and can go about their day to day activities with no problem.
Some people then say, I always get my colds in the spring, or I never get colds, as trying to prove, that colds are not a natural cycle of nature. Well I ask you this, have you ever seen a tree in the winter with leaves? I have. Have you ever seen a tree lose its leaves in the spring? I have. Have you ever seen a tree that never loses its leaves? I have. We are part of nature. You worrying about catching the cold or flu really is as silly as Ed the tree, not wanting to catch the colors changing, or the leaves falling off.
The trick is, having enough health, so when it is time to change, you can do it with minimal discomfort and symptoms.
I love that little story.
So we know that not having symptoms does NOT mean you are healthy, and having symptoms does NOT mean you are Sick.
This goes to show that the medical symptoms and disease care system is masquerading as health care. Eliminating symptoms and disease does not make you healthy. And since the medical symptoms and disease care system only tries to eliminate symptoms and disease, they are not actually health care. They are in fact medical symptoms and disease care. So if you don't have symptoms or disease, there is nothing they can do for you. They do nothing to increase your health.
Now I want to address the other two myths that are left. Getting old means you automatically lose your health and there are particular things you have to do to be healthy and well, and you already know you cannot or don't want to do those.
I don't blame you. If I had to do something I didn't want to, or give up something that I really liked, without anything else I really liked to replace it, I would probably not want to be healthy either. I mean for real, who would? I think this is one of the biggest reasons why so many people say they want to be healthy, but then do nothing about it. Because they think being healthy means some certain thing, they do NOT want to do.
Here is one of the biggest secrets about being healthy and well
EVERYONE is Different! There is no one diet, there is no one exercise program or way of doing things that is right for Everyone. You know, along with everyone else, that we are all different, but yet, almost NO ONE takes this into account when they dish out recommendations or diets, or programs, or anything.
You are a special and unique individual, just like everyone else.
I think that sums it up best as anything.
We are all different, and yet the very fact we are all human, gives us some similarities. And most people assume we are all the same, when it comes to recommendations and guidance. In fact, most people just recommend what worked for them, and their unique person they are. Assuming it will work for everyone. Which we all know, is not true. You have been there done that, and some things you tried, actually made you worse then before you did them.
You do NOT have to do certain specific things to be healthy and well. Some people are going to do great eating meat, and potatoes, and others are going to do well eating a vegetarian diet. It really depends on you, and I will get into that in more detail later. So relax, don't worry, I promised this would be fun and easy.
Growing old means you lose your health, get decrepit, and dependent on other people
This is also NOT true.
It is really simple to prove to you as well. The January 1973, vol 143 no 1, issue of National Geographic did an article entitled "Search for the oldest people". In this article, they show many different cultures, and hundreds of people who are well into their 100's, and almost all of them have the youth, freedom, clear mind, independence, and vitality of many people in their 50's, here in the United States.
I am also going to share with you, in chapter 16, how old age does not cause a lack of health and well being. But that is later.
To sum up the chapter:
Having symptoms does NOT mean you are sick
Having no symptoms does not mean you are well
Growing old and being old do not mean you are sick, diseased, and dependent on other people
There is no one diet or one program for all people. Everyone is Different
