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HOW
TO RECOVER
FROM ILLNESS
(with specific suggestions
on particular ailments and
some amusing prescriptions)
THE
"TEN COMMANDMENTS"
FOR THE HEALING PATIENT
Some
illnesses get better by themselves. Why cure a flu? What is the
point in lowering fever? Fever is the cure that the body has chosen.
It serves to kill bacteria. The body has made an effort to produce
fever and you, like an idiot, go and take an aspirin?
To take drugs makes sense only if serious complications arise, or
if the patient is less than 3 years old, or more than 80, or is
already seriously weakened. In these cases, the flu and fever above
38°C (100.5°F) could be dangerous (and it is best to see
a doctor).
Discourse
on drugs
Aspirin doesn't cure the flu. It lowers the fever and helps relieve
the symptoms. But if it attenuates the symptoms of the flu, how
will the body understand what is wrong with it? Taking aspirin is
an insult to your capacity to cure yourself.
Certainly, if one suffers intolerably, one should take painkillers.
But the flu doesn't cause such terrible symptoms. Sure, you might
have to go to work anyway or maybe you can't stand the idea of a
minor illness... but if you take an aspirin, you are not acting
sensibly. Besides, nobody knows even today why and how the heck
aspirin really works. I know this seems hard to believe, but it's
true. This mystery regarding the real mechanisms activated by major
drugs should warn everyone to use them with much more restraint.
Drugs should be taken only if there is a risk.
Otherwise, one can be cured with non-aggressive methods. For example,
a good glass of warm milk with honey and cognac, or burying oneself
under the blankets in order to sweat, are remedies that help the
body's effort in fighting the flu. Or you could choose the macrobiotic
method: boiled whole-grain organic rice, a pinch of salt, a bit
of oil and a clove or two of garlic. Refined people who love herbs
could consume propolis and deodorized garlic pills. Tough guys and
gals could use a clove of peeled garlic greased with olive oil as
a suppository. The flu will last 3 or 4 days anyway. One cures oneself
more than anything to reassure oneself and to alleviate the symptoms,
but all these methods actually do very little neither more nor less
than aspirin or antibiotics.
Antibiotics
should be handled with kid gloves.
The flu is caused by a virus; antibiotics kill bacteria. Viruses
are not bacteria. What dang good does it do to take antibiotics?
Zilch. It is useful only if there is a risk of serious complications
(pneumonia, etc.). That is, if the state of debility, caused by
the illness, allows the growth of serious bacterial infections.
By now, even international medical organizations have realized the
enormous risk caused by the indiscriminate use of antibiotics. In
fact, each slaughter of bacteria implies a step forward in the genetic
screening of these microorganisms, which are becoming more and more
immune to antibiotics. In short, in our vain attempt to avoid a
few days of indisposition, we are helping to select new breeds of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria equipped with built-in lasers. They
will become two metres tall, eat lead and shit deadly loads. We
will be their viruses, and they will massacre us with mighty hammer
blows.
LET'S
NOT OVERRATE
MEDICINE
OUR
BODY IS STILL
THE BEST DOCTOR
There
are many erroneous ideas surrounding medicine (all types of medicine).
Doctors are not as good as they would have us believe. It is a widely
held opinion that modern medicine was responsible for the great
rise in survival and life expectancy rates. This is false.
The great reduction in mortality in Europe and North
America came about before modern medicine reached the general public.
It was caused not by the skill of doctors, but by the increase in
the amount of food available, by the arrival of running water, by
sewage drainage systems, by urban garbage collection services, by
the use of disinfectants, insecticides and soap, and by the general
improvement in sanitary conditions, due to greater wealth and mass
education. Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was invented in 1936
and didn't reach the market until the 1940's.
Even today, we owe our increasing longevity to the quality of foods,
the heating of homes, the availability of clothing, the progressive
thinking in nutrition and the rising interest in physical fitness,
more than we do to drugs. And obviously, I am convinced that
the enormous proliferation of comedy shows and the growth of the
culture of laughter have made a considerable contribution to the
health of people around the world.
Today, around 50% of the shows (films and TV) and books "consumed"
are humorous. Comical works top the charts. Just by looking at the
level they were at in the early 1900s, we can see how far they have
come.
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The
jokes in them make you wonder how they could have made anyone
laugh! On the other hand, it should be observed that the benefits
of drugs were partly thwarted by an excessive consumption of
pills and injections that often caused terrible side effects.
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The
same can be said for hospital stays, which statistically generate
a certain percentage of illnesses that are contracted right in the
hospital itself.
CHRONIC
ILLNESSES
There
are illnesses that last 36 hours, small infections and temporary
imbalances. Then there illnesses that do not go away by themselves.
Rarely do these cases have to do with fatal diseases; rather, they
usually involve a communication problem. The subconscious is a victim
of a misunderstanding, and it doesn't understand what illness it
has. Something confuses it. The basic cure in all of these cases
is listening. Trying to listen to the subtle sensations helps the
body to know what is happening to it. OK, that's it. I realize that
it falls a bit short of the "ten commandments" since it
has only 5 points (so let's call it the "five commandments").
Sometimes my ability to synthesize amazes even me. As a young man,
I suffered from premature ejaculations. Then I discovered that in
literary ejaculation speed has its advantages.
(Continue)
Index
of contents
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