At Options Naturopathic, we espouse reinforcing our innate immunity to reduce damaging environmental influences that lead to illness. Our experience has proven these practices as the ideal form of natural therapeutics for the individual, the collective, and the entire planet. The background for these methods originated from our naturopathic forefathers and colleagues and have been repeatedly born out in practice with ourselves, our children, and our patients.
When we respect the sanctity of our own immunological development, and the capacity of our immunity to function properly, we no longer fear viruses or other microbes. These forms of biology are, quite literally, everywhere. When inside of us, this microbiome, or really, the smallest part of our biological self, synthesizes toxins, foods, and environmental aggressions.
In reality, it is actually toxicant exposures that compromise our bodily functions. Likewise, there may be toxic ‘circumstances’, referencing those embodied emotional experiences seeking to be released from the body. When this happens, there is often an acute illness (i.e. earache, sinus infection, cold/flu, sore throat, etc.) in store. We must recognize the acute illness as a “reset” or “cleansing process,” whereby the body throws off the aggressors (toxicity, waste products, emotions) and re-aligns our body’s physiology, energetics, and emotional state in order to function optimally.
Acute illness is a FACT of life. We will never “cure” the acute cold or flu, and to think that we have done so with the aid of a powerfully suppressive drug is unfortunately one of the most mis-guided medical interventions of all time. There is hundreds of thousands of years of historical and empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of traditional medicine. This is in contrast to the modern-day conventional prescribing of pharmaceuticals that suppress the body’s response and ignore the true cause of illness.
On December 7, 2020, the NY Times reported (Read the NYTimes Article) on a link between pollutants in the air and COVID-19 deaths. This article struck us as one of the few times the mainstream media has hinted at what we call “The Terrain.” In our world, we view everyone in the context of their larger external environment (air, water, food, social, relational, work environments, etc.), as well as the internal environment, or ‘milieu’, of their own bodies. COVID-19 illness is ALL ABOUT THE TERRAIN.
Simply put, if you have the right combination of dysfunctional patterns in your body that create illness, you are at risk for developing a more severe acute illness when challenged with an external factor such as COVID-19. For example, if you have been exposed to toxicants, have poor nutritional status, and a poor capacity to process toxins / waste products due to your basic cellular and biological functions are disrupted, then you will be at an increased risk for developing a more severe acute illness and chronic disease.
Viruses are in and of themselves, a minuscule and essentially irrelevant player in this process, as the virus does not determine degree or severity of the symptoms, but rather the status of your Terrain does. Still, people ask, ‘How do I protect myself?” Dr. Chris Masterjohn clarified this question, blogging on the research about Vitamin D, which eliminates risk for ICU hospitalizations for SARs-CoV-2/COVID-19. We also highly suggest our at-home acute care suggestions!
Viewed in this larger context, we can make sense of one of our naturopathic colleague’s report of differing test results and symptoms among patients she has treated – a phenomenon we suspect many have observed over the last 2 ½ years into this pandemic. This doctor, having coordinated the testing of over 400 people, found extreme variability in symptoms and disease manifestation derived from their COVID-19 diagnoses.
Here is what was found:
- A few patients were asymptomatic (no symptoms), a few had fatigue, one had sinus pressure and sweating.
- Another few reported headaches and some gastrointestinal symptoms.
- Some felt poorly.
- Out of all of the tests the doctor coordinated, less than twenty were positive for SARs-CoV-2.
- Additionally, a new mother, who had double pneumonia and COVID-19, tested positive after giving birth and then required repeat testing. Her baby tested negative. She tested positive, negative, then positive again.
- Another patient had every single clinical sign of COVID-19 including signs of “ground glass” appearance in the lungs on imaging (indicating infections, inflammation, or growths) and had to spend time in the hospital but tested negative four times!
There need not be confusion about the unreliability of testing or in testing period – it’s ALL about the TERRAIN. It is your nutritional status, your Vitamin D status, your toxicant exposure, your thoughts, your fear of contagion, your microbiome, your immune system, your epigenetics, and more! — all combining and layering to determine your health.
Whether it is COVID-19, cancer, schizophrenia, or arthritis – all of these things must come into the light of a complete assessment to allow each person to be viewed as a whole, vital being. Options’ success over the past 23 years has been to work on this concept. Moving away from germ theory and toward terrain theory allows the inherent capacity for strength, vitality, and health of the individual and their Terrain.
Aside from basic hygiene that maintains a protective microbial milieu and which prevents exposures to poisonous and problematic chemicals (including cancer-causing sanitizers or disinfectants!), these Acute Suggestions for Resiliency can help when suffering with symptoms of an acute illness reaction.
