Fear! These unprecedented
times have brought with them unsettling news in bulk. Though heartwarming
and heroic efforts have been made during the crisis, anxiety and dread have
seized the day; being forced to live life around unusual circumstances has created
a near-constant undercurrent of negativity. As panic threatens to take
complete control, however, hope and optimism are a better understanding of
immunity and a shift in mindset away from turning the tide.
To paraphrase Dr. Albert
Schweitzer, every person carries his or her own doctor inside and we are our
best when we give the doctor inside a chance to work. That quote
generalizes an undeniable fact about the human body: its intelligent design
makes it innately equipped to fight disease head-on with skills and training on
par with a super soldier. It may not be impervious, but if our lives were
a movie, our immune systems would be Captain America and viral threats would be
the hundreds of lame duck enemies he barrels through with relative ease. Germs
are everywhere, but we can and do win the fight against millions of them every
day. Even against a more cunning villain, the “powers” exhibited by the
human immune system are not to be underestimated.
Knowing, it has been said, is
half the battle, so perhaps a better understanding of immune function will ease
the current tension.
Think of a watch. Without
knowledge of its intelligent design, we might assume that a watch found on the
beach was created by a series of random events; perhaps millions of
interactions with sand washed ashore created small marks at equal intervals
twelve times around a seashell formed into a circle, and hardened pieces of
seaweed formed hands that pointed at different intervals and moved whenever
struck by an ocean breeze (or something like that). We know that a watch
is a carefully and smartly crafted device made by a watchmaker, though, and
only rarely does a watch not earn our trust in its continual and optimal
function.
The human body deserves
infinitely more credit and trust for its intelligent design. To lack
faith in its function is to simply misunderstand its brilliance. It is
not hyperbole to call the human body the greatest design in history when
acknowledging its 75 trillion cells, performing an intricate 200,000 chemical
reactions in each individual cell every split second for eighty some odd
uninterrupted years on average. The immune system’s daily feats of
strength are as vital to our lives as the Earth’s distance from the sun; both
maintain a perfect balance for life to be possible, and though illness
sometimes forces us to adapt like a hot, humid summer (or its opposite),
neither illness nor the position of the sun get the better of us the vast
majority of the time.
Frankly, our immune systems operate
magnificently without much need of our input. We were given by our
Creator very little control over the function of the body. So, typically,
we do not have much of a conscious role to play in dealing with viruses and
other infection causing agents (by a daily ratio of elephant to ant compared to
the coronavirus, it is important to note). Yet, we are called to greater
action to meet special situations that require us to recognize the conscious
choices we can make to both boost immunity (see below) and avoid the things
that can suppress immunity (like consuming treats packed with processed sugar
and allowing fear and guilt, the primary agents of the stress well-known to
lower immune response, to be dominant forces in our lives).
Immunity is basically the most
smoothly run business in human lore, and like any uber-successful enterprise,
it depends on proper communication within its network. The lines of
communication in the body are the nerves, the hub of the system for which is
the brainstem, an organ whose unique surrounding anatomy makes it a vulnerable
point for communication disruption. Simple, non-invasive processes like
Upper Cervical Chiropractic identify and correct such disruption, strengthening
the innate response to more aggressive threats. Also foundational to
boosting the immune system are eating constructively and remaining more than
adequately hydrated, along with regular exercise and exposure to the sun (the
mostly easily acquired boost).
Just as important to optimally
playing our role in immunity are our mindsets toward health, healing, and
fighting disease. No different than making money or searching for love, a
focus on a lack of it only hurts the ability to earn or find it. If our
time is spent right now on sensationalist media and other things that we have
no control over, then we are steering in the direction of despair and poor
health, thus weakening our natural defenses. Taking responsibility for
our mindsets, seeking wisdom and understanding of immunity, and then trusting
our God-given innate ability to adapt completely alters our course, allowing us
to be confident that the laws of life eclipse the theories of disease.
"Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what
you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look
at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? If that is how
God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown
into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith?" -
Matthew 6:25-27, 30
