Surviving the Flu Part 2 | How To Help Your System vs Treat Your Symptoms
What do you do when you have a fever, pain, or cough? If you are like most Americans, you’ll most likely reach for a pill—something to lower the fever, bring pain relief, or maybe even an antibiotic to kill pathogenic bacteria.
If we only understood that DISEASE IS many times “an EFFORT OF NATURE TO FREE THE SYSTEM from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health”, and that when we interfere with this effort, we interfere with our body’s attempt to heal. (Quote from book Ministry of Healing). Your symptoms are not the enemy, they are the effort your body is putting forward to heal.
Fever may be uncomfortable, but it is an essential tool in the body’s fight against infection. One of the things that increased body temperature does is that it increases the speed at which the immune cells can work. Raised body temperature speeds up white blood cell locomotion towards pathogenic targets, the liberation of the enzymes they use to destroy pathogens, and makes white blood cells hungrier to eat up the pathogenic cells. (From Home Remedies by Dr. Agatha Thrash). We want to make sure that the fever is not too high and the body is supported in its effort to fight infection.
Something that we can do to work with our physiology, keep the body warm, and improve our immune system is to do hydrotherapy. This was one of the therapies that the Adventist sanitariums used during Spanish Flu with great success.
Hydrotherapy in contrast showers, baths, or with fomentations, is the use of water of contrasting temperatures. The contrast in water temperature constricts and dilates the blood vessels and improves blood flow. It also helps boost the immune system by increasing immune cell activity. It is something that ANYONE can learn to do; the great thing is that it requires only pure water and some towels.
To illustrate how powerfully hydrotherapy can work for pneumonia (the main cause of death when people develop the flu), I’ll share a story. A number of years ago, I was working in the OR with a scrub tech who I will call Julie. I noticed that Julie looked very worried and was leaving work early to go home. I discovered that her son had been suffering from a high fever for a couple of weeks, was already on antibiotics, and a chest X-ray had just been done, diagnosing her son with pneumonia.
When someone has a major infection, you can be sure that there is a lot of inflammation in the area. This just means that the body is doing its job of recruiting immune cells to the area to fight disease, but at some point, the inflammation can become problematic, obstructing blood flow, causing pain and more inflammation, and interfering with the healing process. Hydrotherapy can be very helpful to reverse this, improving blood flow to the area and decreasing inflammation almost immediately.
I only had a few minutes to talk to Julie, so rather than try to tell her about doing fomentations (as was done in the sanitariums), I told her about hot and cold showers. three minutes hot, 30 seconds cold, repeat three times, end on cold. Julie wasn’t sure if her teenage son would try it out, but she would let him know.
When I saw her the following week, she told me that her son did the contrast shower right away. As he got into bed after the shower, he murmured, “I think I feel better”. When he woke up the following morning, he was afebrile and continued to be from that time on. As you can imagine, Julie became a believer in hydrotherapy!
If you are familiar with natural remedies I know you will be able to recount many more stories of people with dramatic and miraculous results with natural remedies! I believe that even for killer disease and maybe especially for killer diseases, that God would not leave us defenseless and without hope. As master herbalist Tommie Bass stated, “God never made anything He didn't make a remedy for. The Lords put something out there if we would only get out there and hunt it.”
Here is a link to a video done by Lisa Meissner. She and her husband have a ministry that teaches people how to live more simply and sustainably. They have done a very informative and thorough video on hydrotherapy, it’s uses and contraindications, of which there are a few. Consider going to their website susprep.com and looking at other videos they have to offer.
Here are things that I do when I am feeling like I might be catching something.
1. At the first sign of illness: Stop everything and REST.
2. At the first sign of illness: Take a hot and cold shower. 3 min hot, 30 seconds cold, 3 cycles and end on cold. Don’t get chilled afterwards—wear socks and don’t let your feet touch the cold bathroom floor. Rest for 45 minutes after the shower.
3. At the first sign of illness: Crush 2 raw garlic cloves and blend with lemon juice. Drink down right away.
4. At the first sign of illness: Boil water in a covered pot and then take off the heat. Place a few drops of oregano oil in, open the pot a crack and carefully, gently, gingerly, breathe the vaporized oregano oil and steam (please use common sense when doing this!)
5. At the first sign of illness: if sunlight is available, take a lawn chair and go sit in the sunshine. Don’t get chilled, stay covered up if you need to and stay warm, and see if you can expose a little more of yourself as the sun warms you up.
6. Another simple hydrotherapy technique is to do a hot foot bath: use a bucket or a small sink to keep the feet and ankles immersed in hot water for 20 min while your head has a cold cloth and your upper body is covered with a blanket. Keep hot water on hand to keep the water as hot as you can tolerate it. Friction rub your feet with ice cold water at conclusion of the bath, dry, and put socks on right away. Rest for 45 minutes.
7. Keep doing these things daily, a few times a day, resting in between.
8. Once you recover, rest and keep on doing these remedies 2-5 days LONGER after the symptoms resolve to make sure you are fully recovered.
In upcoming blogs, I will write about the nutritional support and the other principles of WHOLENESS that you need to stay well. WHOLENESS is an acronym. Every letter stands for a law of health that needs to be in place for the human body to function properly.
W ater —proper hydration
H abits —of eating, sleeping, living.
O xygen —fresh air, sleep apnea, posture
L ove —relationship with God, self, others
E nvironment —chemicals/toxins in food, environment
N utrition —antiinflammatory healing foods
E xercise —at the right time, pace and especially outdoors
S leep—one of the most powerful remedies
S unlight —another underutilized remedy but so necessary and helpful for the flu too!!
As we continue to hear news about the coronavirus and whatever other catastrophes that threaten our sense of peace and safety, I want to again point you to the One who created you and put you here on this earth for a purpose. We will all be tempted to be fearful, but rather than giving in to panic and fear, keep your focus on Him. I am encouraged by this quote by George Whitfield, “We are immortal until our work on earth is done”. There is nothing to fear when you know the love of God, because “perfect love casts out fear”. (1 John 4:18)
Remember that this is health education and not medical advice. Follow the advice given by health organizations for hygiene, avoiding unnecessary gatherings/travel, do all you can to build up your immune system, and most importantly, keep the faith!
