Health: the Answer to the Coronavirus Is Called ‘Immune System’
Why we need to make the immune systems of our bodies and our planet as strong as possible
China is locked down. Cities with billions of people in them are cut off from their environment. Airports are closed. Ports are shut. People are wearing masks and washing their hands feverishly with anti-bacterial gels. The fear is tangible.
This fear is called ‘coronavirus’ and it started in Wuhan with the selling of living animals. This fear has a taste, it has a smell, and if I would draw its outline, it would emit dark colors…
At this moment I’m in Asia. In Indonesia, Java, Semarang, to be precise. So I’m not in China and I can only imagine the fear in the hearts and souls of the Chinese people in Wuhan and other locked down cities. But I do see the people wearing masks here and I see the empty shelves where the hand sanitation products used to be.
While China and Asia are holding their breath, looking at their fellow humans with mistrust whenever someone is coughing, the rest of the world is continuing their business usual. But fear is creeping in here as well. Fear of an economic crisis because of the stock market falling. Fear of canceled holiday trips or non-arriving packages from Alibaba.com.
“Fears over the coronavirus triggered a sharp fall in Chinese shares when the market reopened after the Lunar New Year holiday. The Shanghai Composite index closed nearly 8% lower, its biggest daily drop for more than four years” — BBC News, Feb 3, 2020
Well, the Coronavirus is a fact and it’s giving us a message. But what is that message? Perhaps we should be listening closely and decipher this message so we can act accordingly. In this article, I want to share some thoughts with you and invite you to share your own thoughts in the comments.
1As a first step, let’s zoom out, look at the bigger picture and see what we have been doing until now in our health system. We are always fighting symptoms. Whenever we get ill, we isolate the problem and either give a pill to cure it or give a vaccine to prevent it from happening again.
A big flaw in this way of curing illnesses is that we are only fighting symptoms, not taking away the root cause of the illness. So today we have Influenza, tomorrow it will be the Coronavirus and the day after tomorrow it might be Hepatitis B. All are different viruses, so we will need different pills and different vaccines.
2 A complicating factor is that what should be our ‘health system’ is actually an ‘illness system’. And that’s a pity. We can do better… The triggers for pharmaceutical companies are about illness, not about health. Pharma companies make a profit when somebody falls ill. So they are constantly looking for business models to trigger illness.
Nobody inside will say it out loud, but they dramatize illnesses so people will buy cures. That’s not what our health system should be about, is it? Health for me means happiness, joy, love, life…
Okay, let me give you an example of how the trigger works now.
- An illness is identified
- Pharma invests in finding a cure
- For a while, pharma makes money until nobody has the illness anymore
- Illness cured means no more income for pharma
So what is pharma doing? They are creating business models. And in these models, they are maximizing only profit instead of optimizing all values. Including health, money flows, clean water, etc…
Let me explain pharma’s business model with another example. Heart and vascular diseases are high on the list of killers in the western world. Our science does a lot of research and comes up with a cause: cholesterol-containing deposits are forming plaque.
The business model for cholesterol inhabitors is born. It’s a nice business model because people who are not ill (yet) will be taking them for life. Generating income for pharmaceutical companies forever…
There is enough evidence around for other avenues, such as a healthy diet or less stress. But sadly, this doesn’t fit into a business model maximizing profit. It would, however, fit into a business model optimizing all values. Which entrepreneur will be standing up and designing this business model for pharma?
3 Enter systemic thinking. How do we get from a system of illness to a system of health? Because that’s where we want to be, isn’t it? We have to realize that the human body is not a machine. We are not just a collection of separate parts. We are an interconnected system of tissue, bones, cells, hormones, brains, and bacteria in our guts. Just to name a few elements. We have to shift our thinking from reductionist to systemic
4 So, back to the coronavirus. At this moment everybody is trying to prevent being infected. And I’m not saying that is wrong. When there is a pest in a system, we should contain it. Right action. Maybe a little less drama and fear-creation, but that’s debatable…
However, the next step is where it gets interesting. Should we just look for a cure? Just look for a preventing vaccine? Or should we put all of our efforts on restoring the balance in the system? Restoring the balance in the system means two things to me:
- Restoring the balance in our bodies. Making them as strong as possible, resistant to viruses, bacterial infections, and whatever will be attacking our bodies next
- Restoring the balance in our larger ecosystem, our planet, so pests will not occur as easily anymore
5 In this article, I will limit myself to restoring the balance in our bodies. For restoring the balance within our planet and our economies you might read my other articles. Maybe this one for a starter.
So, what can be said about restoring the balance in our bodies? Research is very clear on that: it all starts with our immune system. A healthy immune system will eliminate attackers quickly and stop the spreading of pests. It’s designed for that purpose.
I know the criticasters are saying the coronavirus is new to our bodies and our immune systems do not recognize it yet. But still, the strengthening of our immune systems is a good idea. People with strong immune systems do not die as easily from the virus. Symptoms will be less critical and last a shorter period of time. Giving less risk of infecting others.
If we all strengthen our immune systems, the population as a whole would be more healthy, less vulnerable. Not only to the coronavirus but to all kinds of attacks. We will create a system of health instead of fighting diseases one at the time.
What can we do? Some conventional steps include:
- Get enough sleep
- Eat enough fruit and vegetables
- Eat enough fermented foods. The lactic acid bacteria will assist the bacteria in your gut
But there are more avenues being researched now. Epigenetics is one of them. In short, it starts with the assumption that the genes in our bodies are connected to the environment. So they can be turned on or off depending on certain circumstances. Interesting viewpoint…
One scientist I find very interesting in this field is Bruce Lipton, writer of the book ‘The Biology of Belief’.
His theories resonate with me because of my own personal experiences, having been suffering from migraines and skin conditions for a large part of my life. Well, read it for yourself and think whatever you think. I might write about my own epigenetic experiences one day…
6 To wrap this article up, let’s zoom out again to the bigger picture and look at the analogy with an ecosystem. When there is a pest in an ecosystem, say grasshoppers are attacking our crops, we can do two things:
- We can spread pesticides and kill the grasshoppers. But we will be killing the birds that eat the grasshoppers as well. And the protective bacteria in the soil. And the fungi that form the neural network inside our soils. In short, we will kill all and in the end, nothing will be left
- Or we can attract the natural enemies of the grasshoppers: birds, lizards, spiders, bats, or rodents. Their numbers will multiply. And in turn, their natural predators will arrive. Followed by the next natural predators and the next… We will restore biodiversity with lots of different players and interactions. And in the end, the balance will be restored
Do we see the difference in the spirals? The first solution is a negative spiral, going down, down, and down. The second solution is a positive spiral, going up, up, and up.
7 I think we all have a responsibility to work on the positive spiral. We need to work on our immune systems in a big way! The immune systems of our own bodies and the immune system of the planet. Restoring the balance is the only viable option if we want to enjoy our lives on a liveable planet…
Let’s build the business models that give the right triggers and create multiple values for all species. Let’s install the policies that phase out what we don’t want in the world and only subsidize what we DO want. Let’s take our responsibilities as human beings and work on the positive spiral. We all have our own role to play, so it’s time to find out what’s yours. Let’s go for it!
And if you want to connect, find me on LinkedIn, Facebook or somewhere in nature, working on my own immune system.
And in response to comments, here are some more thoughts on ‘fear’ and ‘big pharma’
Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words.
