Don't
Fight The Healing Processs
By
Jimmy Scott, Ph.D.
As published in Health Freedom News, November 1985
In the course
of following a nutritional program for allergies or other problems,
many people experience uncomfortable symptoms. This is known as
a healing reaction.
The most
common symptom my clients report is a temporary reduction in energy.
They may find themselves sleeping longer, perhaps as much as 12 hours
a night. Some people also report aches and pains in various parts
of the body, digestive system disturbances such as gas, constipation,
or diarrhea, or other miscellaneous complaints.
These symptoms occur because the body is ridding itself of the substances that
have been making it toxic — not only the materials that have accumulated
in the colon, but also the antibodies and other substances that have built
up in the individual cells, interfering with their normal functioning. As these
substances are ejected out of the tissues, they are dumped into the system,
making the body temporarily more toxic until they can be excreted. This is
partly what produces the symptoms of the healing reaction. This effect is accentuated
by the body's process of tearing apart defective tissue, repairing damaged
cells, destroying parasites or infective agents, and otherwise producing debris
from the re-construction.
I find that the more severe the individual's condition (the more toxic his
or her body is), the stronger will be the healing reaction. Because the healing
reaction is caused by the flushing of toxins Out of the cells, the strength
of the reaction also depends on how carefully the individual is following the
recommended nutritional program. The more correctly the program is followed,
the stronger will be the healing reaction.
Why Old Symptoms Come Back
Often in the
course of the healing process old symptoms temporarily reappear.
Why should people have to go back through these old problems in
the course of getting better? I believe that the specific symptoms
that a person experiences at any given time depend on the balance
among the various biochemical substances in the body. For example,
when a person is perfectly healthy there is a certain ratio between
Substance A and Substance B in the tissues. When this ratio gets
out of balance to a certain degree, the person may feel fatigue;
when the imbalance is greater, a headache may occur; when it is
greater still, the person may develop insomnia, and so on.
One reason people must re-experience symptoms as they get healthier is that
in order to progress from, say, a 100:1 imbalance to a 1:1 balance, they have
to go back through 99:1, 98:1, and so forth, and as they go through each phase
they experience the symptoms associated with that particular level of imbalance.
Biochemist John Eck has pursued a similar line of thought in his research on
mineral nutrients. Using hair analysis Eck has suggested the optimal levels
for some of the principal minerals in the body. On the basis of the ratios
among these minerals, Eck is able to estimate how efficiently the thyroid and
adrenal glands are functioning, and hence to predict an individual's metabolic
energy level.
Of course in actuality a person's symptoms would not depend on the ratio between
just two substances, but among hundreds of different things. If a person gets
stuck at some level he will get stuck in the symptoms for that level. This
helps to explain the basis of the chronic illnesses from which so many people
suffer.
I like to picture the healing process as going up a flight of stairs.
At the top of the stairs, the energy is balanced, all the nutrients are
present in
their proper ratios, and the body is functioning properly. When someone's
health begins to deteriorate, he moves down the stairs, and at each step
along the
way he experiences a specific kind of symptom —perhaps less energy
at one step, headaches a little further down, an ulcer still further,
and so on.
As the body begins to heal itself once again, the person begins to move
back up the stairs, and re-experiences the symptoms associated with these
various
levels of health.
The experience of one of my clients illustrates how difficult the healing process
can be. When Mona first came to my office, she hobbled along on a cane, moving
with difficulty and in constant pain. Her arthritis had developed rapidly,
and she looked ten years older than she was. In spite of the hopeless prognosis
she had received from numerous health professionals, Mona was a fighter and
was determined to overcome her affliction. Her high motivation helped her to
follow closely the program we worked out for her. Now, only a year later, Mona
is almost over her arthritis. She threw away her cane months ago.
This transformation was not an easy process, however. In the course of healing
her body, Mona experienced a lengthy series of symptoms, which most people,
unaware of the healing process, would have interpreted as getting sicker. Mona
had very low energy for a long time. At times she had severely swollen ankles,
feet, and legs. She hobbled even more, for a while, than originally! She had
an assortment of aches and pains which would drive most people to their physician
for pain killers and tranquilizers. She had been warned, however, that she
would re-experience many symptoms from years before, and soon she discovered
that as these symptoms abated the affected body part became as good as new.
Drugs
that Block Pain may also Block Healing
Experiencing
such healing reactions can be very distressing for many people,
because we are taught in our society that symptoms are somehow
bad. Although it is tempting to take pain killers, antihistamines,
or other drugs when uncomfortable symptoms occur in the course
of healing, it is very important to follow the prescribed program
correctly and to do nothing to interfere with the healing process.
If in the past an individual went through a period of pain, as
he heals he may go back through a period of pain. Taking pain killers
or other drugs at this point to relieve the symptoms actually prolongs
the discomfort.
You see, aspirin and antihistamines work by blocking the
prostaglandins — chemical
substances found throughout the body which regulate many bodily functions
and metabolic processes. Generally the prostaglandins work
in opposing pairs. One,
for example, may produce inflammation and swelling in response to a specific
stimulus, while another undoes these reactions. When a person takes aspirin
or an antihistamine to stop an uncomfortable reaction, he may not experience
the pain or inflammation, but he also does not get the healing process
that undoes the reason for the pain and inflammation. He
has achieved a stalemate
rather than a cure.
One of my clients, Alice, has had many years' history of pain, and is
now going through a lot of healing reactions, including “spasms” in
her digestive system. Although I have explained to Alice that she must
go back through her
painful symptoms in order to be cured, she insists that something must
be wrong. When she has pain, she stops taking her supplements and uses
medication to
reduce her spasm. It is a real dilemma for her because she really is
in pain and she believes that it is not good to experience pain. Unfortunately,
by
blocking the pain with an inappropriate medication she is keeping herself
from getting healed. And so she is going back and forth, keeping herself
at precisely
the level where she is bound to have the pain
Some
Natural Ways to Ease Healing Reactions
When healing
reactions are very troublesome, we can usually do something to
help. Some herbal remedies relieve symptoms without interfering
with the healing process. For example, white willow bark contains
a different chemical form of salicylic acid than aspirin, so that
it blocks only the inflammation chain of the prostaglandins and
not the healing chain. This illustrates why natural substances
are preferable to synthetic drugs in the long run.
The dosage of certain supplements can also be adjusted to slow down the rate
at which the healing process takes place. When my clients have uncomfortably
strong healing reactions, I cut down on the dosage of some of their tissue
extracts. This slows down the healing process. The uncomfortable symptoms are
less intense, but the healing process is also more prolonged. As the person's
body becomes detoxified, we can once again increase the tissue extract dosage
until it is being taken at optimal dosage.
I have also found that certain energy techniques, related to the methods
of Applied Kinesiology, can help to balance the body's energy quickly,
so that
the individual can go through the healing process with a minimum of discomfort.
These energy techniques are part of a system I have developed called
Symbiotic Energy Transformation™ (SET), which I am teaching in
workshops to my fellow health professionals.
When a person is experiencing a healing reaction, he may be worried that
he is getting worse, rather than getting better. By observing the timing
and sequence
of the symptoms, and by using energy testing techniques, I am able to
determine what is going on. If the person is undergoing a healing reaction,
he should
be reassured with the explanation that the uncomfortable symptoms are
a sign that he is moving up to a higher level of health. The skillful
practitioner
will be able to determine that healing is taking place rather than some “disease
process.
