When it comes to health and taking care of our bodies, perhaps the best choice we can make is to educate ourselves. Never, ever stop the education process. Here is some information that educated me on the immune system.
We were created to be self sustaining in that the body would take care of itself when it came to fighting off disease and illness. The immune system is designed to combat and hold off all those nasty enemies that want to invade our bodies and make us sick.
It appears to me that we have been educated over time to contradict what nature intended the body to do for itself. For example when we get an infection, our body produces a natural chemical called pyrogens. These pyrogens are what produces a fever. The body is going to work in order to fight off the infection. So what do we do? Immediately take a pill to eliminate the fever that was there to help us in the first place. I think when trying to be good parents, we are especially quick to react by thinking we are preventing illness for our little ones.
Fever is not an illness. Far from being an enemy, it is an important part of the body’s defense against infection. Many infants and children develop high fevers with minor viral illnesses. While a fever signals to us that a battle might be going on in the body, the fever is fighting for the person, not against.
Most bacteria and viruses that cause infections in people thrive best at 98.6°F. Raising the temperature a few degrees can give your body the winning edge. In addition, a fever activates the body’s immune system to make more white blood cells, antibodies, and other infection-fighting agents.
Many parents fear that fevers will cause brain damage. Brain damage from a fever generally will not occur unless the fever is over 107.6°F (42°C). Many parents also fear that untreated fevers will keep going higher and higher. Untreated fevers caused by infection will seldom go over 105°F unless the child is overdressed or trapped in a hot place.
Source: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Fever
So if our bodies are self sustaining, if our immune system is healthy then we should rarely, if ever get sick. But when the immune system takes a dive, then all kinds of things start happening. If we are “built to last” like the well known truck and our immune system is firing on all cylinders so to speak, then what causes it to go bad?
What I have come to believe is this. Over time we have become weak. Nutritionally weak due to canned food, boxed food, microwaved food, processed food, and even pasteurized food. We eat artificial everything from sweeteners to flavors to colors to preservatives, if it’s fake it’s for us. Over the span of a few generations we went from virtually everything fresh or naturally cured to nothing fresh except a Big Mac fresh out from under a heating lamp. Our food is so fake, artificial and processed there is virtually little nutrition left for us. I also think toxins have made us weak. Toxins from drugs, environmental toxins, the air we breath and the water we drink. And speaking of toxins from drugs, I don’t mean just the drugs the doc writes endless prescriptions for, just do a little research on what is put in our food drug wise before we eat it. If you don’t want to research it, don’t worry, I will fill you in on that in the near future. And finally I think we have become weak from stress. Mental and emotional stress, physical stress, environmental stress, the rising cost of toxic food stress, gas priced at $4.00 plus/gallon stress, you name it stress. Surely after a time it takes it’s toll. But all these run on sentences aside I think if we look around us and take stock, we will discover that those of us who have been led from one drug to another have the most weakened immune systems of all. But weakened we all are, our immune systems are tired, toxic and sometimes just can’t go on. Look at all the immune system disorders out there. Many of these disorders were unheard of a decade or so ago.
So I asked myself how are we supposed to survive in this over processed, toxic, nutritionally void, stress plagued world? What I decided is, I have to eat more fresh, organically grown foods, I will continue to take the appropriate vitamins and supplements for my body. I will only take a drug when absolutely necessary and that goes for over the counter as well as prescription drugs. I will never stop the education process to maintain ideal health. I will keep stress at bay by keeping my spiritual faith and practicing stress reducers that work for me. I will do all this in a common sense manner that promotes a healthier life for me and my family without going over the top.
Gotta keep the peace with the family.
1 Comment
July 6, 2008 at 9:07 am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhen it comes to health and taking care of our bodies, perhaps the best choice we can make is to educate ourselves. Never, ever stop the education process. Here is some information that educated me on the immune system. We were created to be self sustaining in that the body would take care of itself when it came to fighting off disease and illness. The immune system is designed to combat and hold off all those nasty enemies that want to invade our bodies and make us sick. It appears to me that we have been educated over time to contradict what nature intended the body to do for itself. For example when we get an infection, our body produces a natural chemical called pyrogens. These pyrogens are what produces a fever. Our body is going to work in order to fight off the infection. So what do we do? Immediately take a pill to eliminate the fever that was there to help us in the first place. I think when […] [...]