“Health is more than the absence of disease symptoms. The true goal is sustainable balance, as recognized by chiropractors and other holistically oriented health practitioners.”
Micozzi, Marc S.. Fundamentals of Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine – E-Book (p. 544). Elsevier Health Sciences. Kindle Edition.
“The low-grade viral or fungal infections, the persistent catarrhal state, recurrent headaches or migraines, allergies, skin and arthritic disease and other chronic inflammatory diseases, stress problems and anxiety neuroses and cancer are all marked by a failure to cope or adequately to defend. One perspective on this development is that modern medicine has so effectively neutered the acute disease, especially in the too frequent use of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, that most people in developed countries have never had to muster their defenses. Life is also much easier in these societies and there is generally less rigorous testing of physiological functions.”
Bone, Kerry; Mills, Simon. Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy (p. 85). Elsevier Health Sciences. Kindle Edition.
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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga.
Excerpt from: Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, by Kerry Bone
Convalescence
It is ironic that at the very time that healthcare has to deal with so much chronic and debilitating disease it has abandoned the best strategic approach inherited from tradition. In the past it was taken for granted that any illness would require a decent period of recovery after it had passed, a period of recuperation, of convalescence, without which recurrence was possible or likely. For the really debilitating diseases convalescent care was the primary treatment, reaching its apogee in the many European sanatoria for tuberculosis patients.
Convalescence fell out of favour as powerful modern drugs emerged. It appeared that penicillin and the steroid anti-inflammatories produced so dramatic a resolution of the old killer diseases, including tuberculosis, that all the time spent convalescing was no longer necessary. Then, as healthcare provision became generally more effective and public expectations increased, pressure on hospital facilities led to shorter stays, whilst the increasing angst of the modern working rhythm has conspired to ensure that most people now could not consider time off to convalesce after a bout of flu. That this means they are more likely to get another bout the next year is a cruel irony.
A good convalescence is a marvellous thing. It rounds off an illness and gives it meaning; it makes the sufferer stronger for having had the illness. In a way no vaccination could do, it arms and strengthens the immune defences and provides real protection against recurrence, possibly forever. It is probably the only strategy that will allow real recovery from debilitating disease, fatigue syndromes, recurrent infections and states of compromised immunity. It is the therapeutic recognition that healing, like the growth of children, is almost inevitable but that it needs to be allowed to proceed. Convalescence needs time, one of the hardest commodities now to find.
There are four essential features of convalescence, in general agreed through history, though with many cultural embellishments.
Rest
This is by far the most important element. It should include maximum sleep, as physiologically this is the body’s time for repair. In the early stages of vigorous convalescence almost constant sleep should be encouraged (as in the former ‘sleep clinics’). Thereafter it should be promoted as much as possible. Rest also means less activity: if work has to be done it should be in brief bouts, switching frequently between different activities (‘change is as good as a rest’). Patients should be encouraged to pace themselves, to go to bed early, sleep late and not to volunteer for any work that is not absolutely necessary. As much as anything rest becomes a mental priority: all other considerations are secondary. That hour of more sleep is more important than a film on TV, a late-night conversation or night out.
Exercise
This is the flipside and necessary adjunct to rest, the equivalent to ‘turning the engine over’, to prevent congestion and stagnation. Essentially the body needs to be taken to aerobic exercise (defined for these purposes as any activity producing a pulse rate of between approximately 60–80% of 220 minus one’s age, e.g. 108–144 for a 40-year-old) at least briefly each day. Using the pulse rate to set exercise levels has the advantage of being self-adjusting: the very debilitated will reach high pulse rates with minimal activity. Nevertheless, caution is required. The debilitated will have very little stamina and even a minute may be too long. If exercise is followed by more fatigue, it is too much. Rather, one should build up to being able to undertake aerobic activity for up to 15 minutes each day. The main benefit of the aerobic mode is that it quickly dissipates sympathetic-adrenergic effects on the body (‘adrenaline’), constantly generated during the day in response to perceived stressors, and the enemy of convalescence. Timing one’s exercise for the evening will encourage better sleep that night.
Diet
The principle of the convalescent diet is that it should simply nourish. It should not stimulate or impose demands. Subject to individual dispositions, a convalescent diet is based on vegetables, especially root vegetables, cereals and pulses (if tolerated), fish and eggs, as the most easily assimilated protein sources, and chicken and other fowl if acceptable (chicken stock and soup remain one of the most universal and puzzling convalescent recommendations of history!). There should be no stimulants, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol or sugar, little dairy food and a minimum of convenience foods and food additives. Patients should thus be encouraged to take a simple peasant diet, sharing also with the peasant a simple respect for the food, taking time over it, building their daily rhythm around it.
Medication
It is obviously important to maintain treatment during convalescence: herbal or conventional. However, there is also a key contribution to the measures above in herbal traditions. It was accepted that rest, exercise and diet alone might not be sufficient to bring about recovery. A range of herbal remedies have been directed to facilitating the process, to drive recovery. Many of these are the tonics listed earlier. If recovery is from febrile disease, sustaining warming remedies like Achillea (yarrow), Angelica archangelica (common angelica), Cinnamonum zeylanicum (Ceylon cinnamon), Cardamomum (cardamom) or Foeniculum (sweet fennel) might be indicated. Recovery from low-grade assault on the immune system, chronic viral or fungal infections, conditions marked by swollen lymph glands, persistent sore throats or catarrhal states would need Echinacea, Picrorrhiza or Baptisia tinctoria (wild indigo). Digestion is often in need of support, whether from cooling bitters or warming aromatic digestives. Cleansing should be managed, above all, by gentle eliminatives.
For the phytotherapist convalescence is often the main strategy in making headway in chronic debilitated conditions such as a fatigue syndrome or persistent low-grade infections. Often these problems start with an infection early in life – a glandular fever or infectious mononucleosis, perhaps. The phytotherapist might suggest to the patient that the task is to go back and complete the convalescence from the original illness. The remedies available are probably
Bone, Kerry; Mills, Simon. Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy (pp. 86-87). Elsevier Health Sciences. Kindle Edition.
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I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga.
I have previously discussed herbs and some of the ways that people self-prescribe with no real education in herbs, or their consumption based upon individual constitution rather than general acceptance of an herb as being healthy for all. I see this as taking the sweet of the benefits from these herbs, but not taking the sour or learning the background or implications of using particular herbs. Basically, taking the culture at a superficial level for personal gain – cultural appropriation.
Watering-down or cultural exploitation of yoga is an easy target as a big player in this controversial topic. Meditation practices have become diluted from spiritual or self-awareness practices from yoga and its relative qigong counterpart. With more attention towards stress management through mindfulness and mindful breathing or breathwork, many will have an attraction towards these practices without having any spiritual connection to these methods.
The watering-down of ancient practices
Living in this time of great technology advances and access to an almost unlimited supply of online information for healthcare and almost every other topic, has its own issues of pros and cons. With great knowledge, comes great responsibility or a similar cliché from pop-culture. A large percentage of people in the US have access to watch YouTube or other online outlets to view and learn about acupuncture and other Traditional Chinese Medicine methods, massage, yoga, Ayurveda and many other worldwide traditional mind and body practices.
With this access many can not only become more knowledgeable but can also often self-prescribe, self-diagnose, and self-administer many of these methods with no real academic nor clinical education. Where we may enjoy the benefits of this access, we must realize that some will abuse this knowledge or interpret it incorrectly and use it themselves or pass it on to others, in the hope of helping others or profiting for their own benefit. If qualified, educated people post this knowledge and information for others to view and/or study, how can some people complain that others are then using this knowledge as cultural appropriation? With most freedoms, there is a cost in order to have and maintain them.
References:
Eichhorn, T., Greten, H. J., & Efferth, T. (2011). Self-medication with nutritional supplements and herbal over-thecounter products. Natural Products and Bioprospecting, 1(2), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13659-011-0029-1
Allopathic, biomedicine or Western medicine are based upon treating illness through pharmaceuticals, surgery, and other invasive treatments. This approach works well for traumatic injuries and some life-threatening diseases but often falls quite short in treating chronic illnesses due to choices in diet and lifestyle. Allopathic medicine basically puts the healthcare provider in the role of maintaining the health of the individual instead of the individual being responsible for the consequences of their own actions, whether deemed as good or bad for that individual. This is one of the main reasons why healthcare in the US is so expensive, while at the same time our standard of health and wellness rates far below the best when compared to other countries in the world. The US does not really provide healthcare, but rather encourages “sick care” over self-care.
Find and research the root cause of your disease, pain or discomfort to help become empowered to make your own educated decisions that affect your health and well-being. It is often very difficult to live a comfortable life, when someone has so much pain and suffering within it. The keys to happiness are truly in our own hands. Self-discipline is the master key to do what we know needs to be done:
– maintain a nutritional diet
– consistently exercise and/or be active
– prioritize sleep quality- nurture healthy social interactions
– get fresh air and some sunlight everyday
– be more positive than negative in your outlook and input
Naturopathic medicine does a fantastic job of outlining how to maintain health and well-being, without 1st jumping to pharmaceutical, surgery and other invasive treatments, before accessing what is appropriate and best for the individual and their particular circumstances. Other medical modalities such as chiropractic and Traditional Chinese Medicine often follow these same principles.
The Seven-Level Naturopathic 1- Establish the Conditions for Health 2- Stimulate the Vis Medicatrix Naturae and Self-Healing Processes 3- Support and Balance Physiologic and Bioenergetic Systems 4 – Address or Correct Structural Integrity 5 – Address Pathology using Specific Natural Substances or Interventions 6 – Address Pathology using Pharmaceutical or Synthetic Substances 7 – Suppress or Surgically Remove Pathology
I am currently offering wellness lectures and tai chi/fitness classes for group, small group & private instruction in Wekiva, Longwood and Winter Park. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available onmy YouTube channel at:
If you need to improve your balance, seek someone who can demonstrate balance.
If you need to improve your bone strength, seek someone who can demonstrate strength in their bones.
If you need to strengthen and/or improve flexibility in your spine, seek someone who can demonstrate how to do so.
Move beyond thinking that your health and well-being are someone else’s responsibility.
Be more active, eat healthier, sleep better, stress less – these are the key components to maintaining a strong immune system.
I am currently offering wellness lectures and tai chi/fitness classes for group, small group & private instruction in Wekiva, Longwood and Winter Park.
United Martial Arts Association 