Benefits of Illness

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Benefits of Illnessby Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D. Measles is an important developmental milestone in the life and maturing process in children. In other words: Is it possible that being sick is actually healthy? This concept, that childhood diseases serve to further the development of human beings, comes from Anthroposophy, a philosophy and view of life put forth by Rudolf Steiner in the early Twentieth century. In Europe, his ideas are fairly well known, although they are less so in the United States. How can illness, which is the human experience

of disease, have its benefits? Isn't illness something to be avoided, shunned, gotten over with as soon as possible? Our modern science, with the complicity of marketers and media hype, has convinced us that disease is a major mistake, and it is only a matter of time before we conquer all diseases, either through chemistry or -- lately -- with the help of genetic engineering. The public has swallowed this bait hook, line and sinker; we're all hoping, waiting, waiting, for that great new drug/ procedure/treatment that will wipe our troubles off the map once and for all. But how are we doing? We still get sick. Even with all the chemical substances poured, rubbed, and injected into our systems, we cannot escape disease. It is part of the human condition. And if we accept it, if we stop resisting, we might learn something interesting any time we are ill. We might also get better much sooner. I find that if I don't learn the lesson

I'm supposed to learn from an unpleasant experience, it keeps repeating itself in various guises; once I get the point, the lesson stops. Steiner considered childhood illnesses to be milestones in spiritual and emotional development. His view was that they help the child process and excrete unwanted matter from its system. As the child’s Ego (self) matures, it is more able to discern what belongs in its body and what doesn't, and through the process of excretion via the skin, it proceeds to eliminate the non-self from the self (this activity is generally considered a function of the immune system). According to Philip Incao, MD, an anthroposophic physician in Denver, CO, if we suppress or avoid simple excretory illnesses (colds, measles, chicken pox) through vaccines, antibiotics, or other medications, the child's immune activity of cleansing and organizing is thwarted; then the matter that is supposed to be discharged is pushed

back into the system, where it lingers and festers, causing worse (chronic) illness to develop later. Thus, minor illness is beneficial and should be allowed to run its course. The concept of illness as cleansing is quite different from the more widely held concept of illness as a bad condition caused by bacterial or viral activity. This latter concept, the germ theory of disease, cannot account for the fact that most bacteria are usually harmless and reside permanently on or in our bodies. Why do they all of a sudden "turn virulent"? There has to be a reason. The only tools we seem to have within this world view are stronger and stronger antibiotics to kill the “bad bugs.” But these simply cause the bacteria to mutate into forms that are not affected by these drugs and so thumb their bacterial noses at us. In other words, this system doesn't work, it only spirals outward towards greater

and greater problems, while our steadily growing and admittedly unwieldy health care system keeps, in vain, trying to catch up. We have frequent hysterical media articles about the dangerous "bugs" lurking "out there," and terrified people being whipped into a frenzy begging for drugs or vaccines (for "miracle drugs," which are always a hope and never a reality) to keep them well and do the job they have been told they cannot do for themselves. In the mid-1990’s, the papers and airwaves were full of the story of an unfortunate young boy in Long Island who died after what was being described as a bout with the chicken pox, which became an infection related to the dreaded "flesh-eating bacteria." Parents, children and teachers in the boy's school were clamoring for medication to protect them against this disease. That episode fueled the demand for the newly approved chicken pox vaccine, which eventually became mandatory. How

convenient! A shot for all the kids and no more “deadly” chicken pox. Let's now look at the situation from a different angle, with the understanding that the body has certain work to do, and that chicken pox is a way for the body to clean out useless matter through the skin. The boy comes down with chicken pox, normally a harmless, self-limiting disease that clears up on its own in five to ten days or so. There is no known medication that stops or reverses the process. It has been known for a long time that giving aspirin to children with chicken pox may cause Reye's Syndrome, a serious and potentially fatal disorder characterized by severe disturbances of brain function, seizures, degeneration of the liver and other organs, and respiratory arrest. After an unknown number of damaged children, somebody finally noticed the relationship; now it is strictly contraindicated to give children with chicken pox this drug. However, the

medical system cannot stop using drugs (and people don't stop asking for them): according to the New York Times (4/4/95), the boy was given two drugs, Benadryl and Zovirax, a day or two before he died. But his death was ascribed to the disease. Could there be a connection between the medication and the boy's death? This cannot be ruled out without a thorough investigation – and such an investigation was never performed. What would happen if we adopted the notion that first there is a breakdown of the body's defenses and only then do these harmless bacteria go haywire? First of all, we'd learn that the trick to remaining healthy is to keep the body well fed, well rested, and to allow minor diseases to run their course without recurring to drugs that suppress the symptoms. Secondly, we wouldn't get so hysterical if we, or our children, or our neighbors, come down with something

minor. For ourselves and our children (and any neighbor who asks) we can go for the natural remedies -- garlic, echinacea, chicken soup -- and fast until we feel better. Fighting the body too much may trigger the law of unintended consequences, and we’d lose out on the subtle benefits of letting our immune system do its job and so get stronger. Suzi List Owner health/ http://360./suziesgoats What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. __________________________________________________