Influenza: Part of the Planet’s Plan for Our Health
Influenza: Part of the Planet’s Plan for Our Health
Free Online Articles Directory
Why Submit Articles?
Top Authors
Top Articles
FAQ
ABAnswers
0 && $.browser.msie ) {
var ie_version = parseInt($.browser.version);
if(ie_version Login
Register
Hello
My Home
Sign Out
Email
Password
Remember me?
Lost Password?
Home Page > Health > Wellness > Influenza: Part of the Planet’s Plan for Our Health
Influenza: Part of the Planet’s Plan for Our Health
Posted: Feb 11, 2011 |Comments: 0
|
So much a part of our yearly cycle and so widespread is the buzz surrounding the flu that it has been granted its own season, dubbed the “flu season.” Like the holiday season, the flu season is a large-scale, consumer/media event. Even as we speak our health care system is using the media to drive millions of consumers into the flu season marketplace where they will find supposed protection from the flu and, more importantly, buy millions of dollars worth of vaccine. This approach to the flu stems from a consumer culture, health paradigm, the foundation of which rests on our inability to connect with or trust the wisdom of our bodies. “Getting sick” brings a lot of vulnerability to the surface for most of us and our consumer culture does not support vulnerability. If we don’t feel a connection to the wisdom of our bodies then the vulnerable process of “getting sick” can feel like a loss of control; very confusing and scary. People will pay any price and do almost anything to remain in the good graces of the culture, retain control and avoid feeling that confusion and fear. If we don’t feel a connection to the wisdom of our bodies, then health is seen as something outside of us. If health is seen as something outside of us, then we will project our fear and confusion onto our Environment and any element in our Environment that might be seen as competing with us for a limited supply of health, like “germs.” In this way the influenza virus has become the enemy and a convenient repository for our fear. Our healthcare system takes advantage of this belief system and perpetuates it by selling us the illusion of health in the form of vaccine. Essentially they are soothing our fear and selling it back to us in the same motion. In the process we stay dependent on the healthcare system to give us our soothing “fix” and blind to the fact that we can access an unlimited supply of health by simply connecting with our bodies and the wisdom therein.
The most commonly quoted definition of health, the definition formalized by the World Health Organization (WHO) over half a century ago, makes health feel less like something outside of us that can be purchased and more like something that is intrinsic to us, available in an unlimited supply and free of charge: “a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948). In this definition the measure of health does not rest solely on whether we are “sick” or not, and such words as “social” and “well-being” are suggestive of an implicit, trusting relationship with our selves, and between our selves and our Environment. The wisdom of our bodies puts us in direct contact with the same Intelligence which coordinates all life on this planet and its rhythms. If we are connected to the wisdom of our bodies then we have a sense of connection to our Environment and everything in it. If we have a sense of connection to our Environment and everything in it, then the “getting sick” experience becomes the empowering experience of the healing and evolutionary process as we allow our body-minds to entrain to the larger rhythms of our Environment. Within this context health is defined as our ability to perceive subtle changes within our selves and within our Environment, adapt to those changes and evolve through them with our Environment. When viewed from this perspective any element in our Environment, even the flu virus, can be utilized by our bodies’ wisdom as a catalyst for creating health.
If you’ve had a direct, felt experience of this “connection to the wisdom of the body” that I keep referring to, then my words will resonate somewhere within you and that part of you will grok the bigger flu/health/Environment picture that I’m trying to paint. Whether you’ve had that direct, felt experience or not, it’s useful to have information that can help your mind see things from a larger perspective, and scientific research can sometimes be good for providing that kind of information. Fortunately there is a new area of research that, I believe, will eventually lead to a total transformation in the way that we view our health as it is related to our Environment and things like the flu. In its early stages this research, conducted by the Human Microbiome Project, and the research that has come after it, is revealing a relationship between us and the microscopic animal kingdom that is vastly different from the relationship that the mainstream health model is based on.
The Human Microbiome Project is a National Institutes of Health initiative which has as its goal the identification and characterization of the microorganisms found in and around our bodies and the discovery of their relationship to human health and disease states. In a New York Times article, “How Microbes Defend and Define Us,” Human Microbiome Project expert George Weinstock points out that “we have over 10 times more microbes than human cells in our bodies” (Zimmer, 2010). It is estimated that the average human body has about 50 trillion human cells in it. That means that we have somewhere around 500 trillion microbes in each of our bodies. And that’s only taking into consideration the microbes on the inside of us. Human Microbiome Project researchers are finding that we are surrounded by and infused with a “cloud of microbes” (Zimmer, 2010). Researchers are calling this cloud the microbiome, which is to say, the veritable universe of microbes (bacteria, fungi and others) that occupy every nanometer of space in the air around us, on us and inside of us.
As a natural extension to the study of the microbes that share our space, and more relevant to our discussion of the flu, scientists are just beginning to train their focus on the world of viruses (known as the virome) that we co-exist with, as well. Researchers are finding that the vast communities of microbes are accompanied by, and working in tandem with, equally vast communities of viruses. A new study that appears in the July issue of Nature identified more than four thousand different viral strains in the guts of study subjects. Eighty percent of these apparently symbiotic viruses were previously unknown, along with their functions (Reyes, et al., 2010).
So at any given moment we are swimming in a sea of microbes and viruses (the microbiome/virome) and that sea of microbes and viruses is also swimming inside of us. If you subscribe to the mainstream health model and are fearful of “germs,” you might not be feeling so well right now. This sea of microbes and viruses, however, is not the enemy – far from it, in fact. Microbiome/virome researchers are finding that the multitude of microbes and viruses are assisting us in ways that we couldn’t live without, from playing a role in the timing of our growth and development, to virtually digesting our food for us. Our immune systems in particular appear to co-exist with the microbiome/virome. In fact, says the author of the previously mentioned New York Times article, Human Microbiome Project researchers are finding that “the microbiome itself guides the immune system to the proper balance” (Zimmer, 2010). The Nature, virus study revealed that viral strains were unique to each person in the study and over the course of the one year study the populations of viruses stayed mostly the same (Reyes, et al., 2010). According to Martin Blaser, a microbiologist and physician at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, this kind of stability in viral populations indicates that the viruses are “part of our biology” (Saey, 2010).
So much for our “germ” phobias and the universally accepted idea that we need to compete with the world of microbes and viruses for our health. As we’ve just learned, the shear mass and complete omnipresence of the microbiome/virome makes it impossible to keep ourselves separate and it necessarily means that our relationship with the microbiome/virome is deeply symbiotic – if it weren’t we’d be dead. The microbiome/virome is clearly as much a part of us as any of our organs and it functions as such.
New microbiome/virome research is proving the current health paradigm to be based on a faulty premise. What then of all the treatment approaches that are based on that faulty premise? Could we expect those treatment approaches to even work, or worse, could they result in negative repercussions of some kind? Some of the negative side effects of these treatment approaches are starting to surface in both the microbial and viral arenas. It is widely known and accepted that the obsessive overuse of antibiotics has resulted in the creation of “superbugs;” bacteria that have mutated and become more resilient, and thus resistant to even the strongest of antibacterial agents. Vaccines that are used to fight viruses have their own specters. The flu vaccine has been associated with a handful of harmful side effects, the most serious of which is Guillain-Barré syndrome. Guillain-Barré syndrome is an auto-immune disorder in which a person’s own immune system attacks nerve cells, causing nerve damage and paralysis. Though cases of this are rare, Guillain-Barré syndrome remains a known, possible side effect of receiving the flu vaccine (CDC, 2011).
While the suggestion that the flu vaccine is harmful is somewhat controversial, there is a surprising amount of research in peer reviewed medical journals to support the idea that the flu vaccine simply doesn’t work (Mercola, 2010). A very telling bit of research is a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that found that sixty-two percent of healthcare workers, which include doctors and nurses, don’t receive the flu vaccine themselves. The reasons for this, according to the authors of the study, are: A) the belief by healthcare works that the flu vaccine doesn’t work, B) healthcare workers’ fear of side effects like Guillain-Barré syndrome and C) the belief by healthcare works that their own immune systems are sufficient to keep them from getting sick (King, William D. et al., 2006). In other words the majority of the people who actually work within our healthcare system are skeptical of the system’s ability to produce health and not harm when it comes to things like the influenza virus. Ultimately, they choose to simply trust the wisdom of their bodies.
So what is this “wisdom of the body?” Most of us have felt our bodies buzzing after a good workout session, after making love or after some exhilarating experience. That buzz is life force energy – a kind of living, flowing intelligence, or wisdom as I’ve been referring to it. This is the same intelligence or wisdom which animates and coordinates the billions of processes that are happening every moment in our bodies that, multiplied together, equal life for us. Our Planet is a dynamic, self-organizing, living system just like we are. The wisdom of our bodies is a subset of the Intelligence which animates and coordinates that global living system. And so by connecting with the life force energy in our bodies, we create an uplink to the massive Intelligence which animates and coordinates not only the life on this Planet, but the life of the Planet itself.
As a dynamic, self-organizing, living system our Planet does what all dynamic, self-organizing, living systems do. It trends towards greater and greater levels of complexity and higher levels of organization. Our Planet is changing and evolving, and through our connection to it, it is exerting pressure on us to entrain to its rhythms and evolve with it. This pressure to evolve is exerted on us through the various elements in our Environment. In my experience the influenza virus is simply one of the elements of our Environment that is exerting pressure on us to evolve. Having worked very closely with roughly a thousand people over the course of the last eight flu seasons, I have witnessed many instances in which the process of “getting sick” with the flu has become part and parcel of a broader healing and evolutionary process in someone’s body and life. The more I’ve witnessed this phenomenon, the more I have begun to view the influenza virus as just another member of the symbiotic microbiome/virome whose presence can catalyze a process of healing and evolution.
This healing and evolutionary process is more than a mere philosophical concept. It is a measurable and reproducible phenomenon that I have observed in the bodies and lives of the people I’ve worked with. The healing and evolution process is always evidenced by a decrease in the overall tension in a person’s body, a positive change in their posture, a constructive shift in their perceptions of themselves and the World around them, an increased ability to adapt to stress, enhanced and refined body-mind awareness, increased range and depth of emotional expression, heightened sensitivity to their internal rhythms and the rhythms of their Environment and a tendency to make choices from that point forward that will permanently support and sustain these changes. To the extent that we can connect with our bodies and the wisdom therein, the energy that was previously bound up in the pain, or the symptom, or the “sickness,” or the condition, or the disease becomes the energy that fuels our healing and evolutionary process. No matter how the “getting sick” process looks, whether it’s a simple back ache, or allergies, or depression, or the flu, or even cancer, it is always part of a broader healing and evolutionary process that involves the shifting balance in our relationship with our selves, and between our selves and our Environment.
The key to accessing the wisdom of our bodies and transforming the “getting sick” process into an empowering process of healing and evolution lies with our ability to focus our attention. The most life changing thing that we can do for ourselves is to simply turn our focused attention toward our body and let our attention rest on the life force energy that we feel there. If this sounds too elementary to have the profound effect that I’m claiming, it is because most of us are completely unaware of just how little of our attention we are directing towards our bodies from moment to moment, and therefore have no direct experience of the massive power that we can access by doing so. We’ve been born into a culture that has an aversion to feeling the body. This habitual resistance to feeling our bodies has been building momentum in us over the course of thousands of years as each generation has become increasingly convinced of the preeminence of thought. As humans we spend most of our time completely captivated by the constant stream of thoughts running through our heads. As a principle of Nature the flow of our attention is constantly and strongly being drawn towards the sensations in our bodies, as well. But because of our cultural conditioning and our habitual aversion to feeling our bodies, we expend massive amounts of energy in our constant attempt to resist that draw. That’s why our bodies have to scream at us with painful symptoms or knock us out with disabling illnesses before we’ll stop what we’re doing and pay attention. Any skill worth learning will take some practice. In this case the effort is well worth the payoff. The ability to feel our bodies at all times is the most fundamental skill that we could learn during our lifetime. I say fundamental because our ability to stay connected to the wisdom of our bodies has a deeply profound effect on the most foundational aspect of our lives, that being our relationship with our selves and our Environment, or our health as I’ve defined it at the beginning of this paper.
Microbiome/virome research supports this larger view of health. It is showing us that the thing that we call an immune system is not so much a system that protects and defends against attack from the microscopic animal kingdom. It is a relational system that coordinates and regulates a harmonious interaction between our cells and theirs, between our selves and our Environment. As our skill in allowing our attention to rest in our bodies increases, so does our access to the wisdom of our bodies, along with our access to the Intelligence that coordinates all of the life on this Planet. As we become more connected to our selves and our Environment, we feel naturally compelled to make decisions that are more congruent with who we are and why we’re here; decisions that will support a more efficient use of the resources that our bodies and being share with the Planet. When our resources are not being spent on the continual effort to resist feeling our bodies, our bodies no longer need to scream at us to get our attention and so our pain and our symptoms dissipate. It also becomes less and less necessary for us to “get sick.” When we do “get sick” with things like the flu, we are able to see and feel it as part of an Intelligent and empowering process of healing and evolution; the direct experience of abundant health.
Works Cited:
“CDC H1N1 Flu | General Questions and Answers on Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 07 Jan. 2011 <http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/gbs_qa.htm>.
King, William D., Steffie J. Woolhandler, Arleen F. Brown, Luohua Jiang, Kristine Kavorkian, David U. Himmelstein, and David H. Bor. “BRIEF REPORT: Influenza Vaccination and Health Care Workers in the United States.” Journal of General Internal Medicine 21 (2006): 181-84.
Mercola. “More Proof Flu Shots Don’t Work.” Natural Health Articles – Latest and Current Health News and Information by Dr. Mercola. Web. 04 Dec. 2010. <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/08/more-proof-flu- shots-dont-work.aspx>.
Reyes, A., M. Haynes, and N. Hanson. “Viruses in the Faecal Microbiota of Monozygotic Twins and their Mother.” Nature 466 (2010).
Saey, Tina Hesman. “Everyone Poops His Or Her Own Viruses.” Science News. 06 Jan. 2011<http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/61104/title/Everyone_poops_his_or_her_own_viruses>.
WHO. Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June 1946, and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
Zimmer, Carl. “How Microbes Defend and Define Us.” New York Times.com. 12 July 2010. Web.
Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/influenza-part-of-the-planets-plan-for-our-health-4215590.html”
(ArticlesBase SC #4215590)
Start increasing your traffic today just by submitting articles with us, click here to get started.
Liked this article? Click here to publish it on your website or blog, it’s free and easy!
Jay Uecker -
About the Author:
Jay Uecker, D.C. has been practicing Network Spinal Analysis professionally since 2002. He is one of a limited number of practitioners around the world who are certified to practice Network Spinal Analysis and Somato Respiratory Integration, a revolutionary form of wellness care within the growing field of re-organizational healing. His educational journey has taken him from Lincoln, Nebraska where he received a Bachelors Degree in Exercise Science, to Minneapolis, Minnesota and Northwestern College of Chiropractic where he received his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree. He has served in places like India and Peru and is currently the director of the Network Life Center in Louisville, Colorado. Visit the Network Life Center on the web at www.NetworkLifeCenter.com.
Questions and Answers
Ask our experts your Wellness related questions here…
200 Characters left
Can someone who is drawing LT disability be added to his wife’s group health care plan?
I want to know a health diet plan because I am suffering with hormonal disorder
Can anybody suggest a good business plan example for health supplements? Peter
Rate this Article
vote(s)
0 vote(s)
Feedback
RSS
Print
Email
Re-Publish
Article Tags:
influenza, network, reorganizational, healing, wellness
Latest Wellness Articles
More from Jay Uecker
This health video tells the story of someone who was poisoned by their own body. (06:13)
Track bodily functions online with Meghan Asha and explore just about everything you wanted to know about your body, from PMS and breast exams to ipod videos and fitness goals. (03:27)
Take an Active Role in Your Health
In this health video you will learn how to take an active role in your health. (04:55)
How to Become a Student of Your Health
In this health video you will learn how to become a student of your own health. (05:06)
How Body Shape Can Affect Health
Sports medicine orthopaedist Dr. Vonda Shephard says that when it comes to fat, it’s all about location, location, location. Fat is metabolically active, so it matters where we accumulate it. (04:29)
Causes and Home Remedy for Diabetes
If your reading this article, you want to know ‘how did I get diabetes’, or you may be wondering about a loved one. You also don’t want your diabetes to get any worse and you want to get it under control, possibly reduce your reliance on medication. So, what are the type 2 diabetes causes in the first place? The single most important contributor in its development, about 90% of type 2 diabetics are overweight.
By:
williaml
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 05, 2011
You should not consider yourself to have a food addiction if you overeat in occasions such as parties and holidays as it is often expected at these occasions to overeat.
By:
rickypontingl
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 05, 2011
PlacidWay Announces New Partnership with Fiji Islands
PlacidWay announces a new relationship in the Fiji islands. Launching PlacidFiji, PlacidWay, an international medical tourism services provider based in Denver, Colorado now offers more choices, destinations and medical providers for people from Fiji to destinations in the South Pacific.
By:
david johnsonl
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 05, 2011
He is the right person who knows whether The Best Weight Loss Pills suit you or any other kind. So be careful the next time before you try self medication!
By:
John Petersonl
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 05, 2011
Make a prank call and get interesting review from other side
Prank call is the best for fun. Through the prank phone calls you can make fool everyone whether is your friends or anyone. But before make this calls should be aware for it. Firstly you should know about them who attend your funny calls.
By:
nathan86l
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 05, 2011
Some basic facts to know before getting 121 adult chat lines
If you are interested to have an adult chat with somebody with comfort at your home then best solution is subscribe for any adult chat lines. But you should know some facts about fault chat lines to prevent yourself from any kind of deception. You should never share your personal details like your contact number, address, bank account etc.
By:
nathan86l
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 04, 2011
Bed Bugs NYC – What To Know and Where To Avoid
A current study associated with insect extermination businesses discovered bed bugs are actually conspicuously invading industrial companies — for example workplaces, clothes shops as well as resorts — instead of personal homes. Large extermination companies said that since May of last year, they began receiving almost 40,000 phone calls a week from paranoid people and parents from all over New York State.
By:
RamiAl
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 04, 2011
When you are keen to flatten your stomach, the first step that takes you closer to achieve the desired objective is to know the best way to lose tummy fat fast. When you put proper measures in place to lose your tummy fat, you are just closer to realizing your dream of flattening your stomach. Prior to getting initiated with the best way to lose tummy fat fast, you should be wary of the fact that eliminating stomach fat can be a challenging as well as an arduous task.
By:
Ivanildol
Health>
Wellnessl
Mar 04, 2011
Healing is All About Relationships: The 3 A’s of Healing
Relationships and conflict contain massive potential for profound personal growth and healing if we can manage to steer our attention inward. Allowing our attention to rest in ourselves, on the sensations within, will illuminate the real source of discord in relationship; the conflicting relationships within ourselves. Are you feeling sad, angry, hurt, lost, happy, afraid? You can acknowledge parts that hurt by saying, “This part hurts.” It will totally change the direction the conflict was goin
By:
Jay Ueckerl
Health>
Wellnessl
Feb 14, 2011
Stress: A Reorganizational Healing Perspective
We hear so much about stress these days: the high percentage of doctor’s visits that are related to stress, the number of diseases related to stress, etc… Rheumatoid arthritis, many forms of cancer, mental illness, high blood pressure, ulcers, insomnia, headaches, migraines, back pain, carpal tunnel and numbness are all byproducts of being overwhelmed by stress. Approaching the subject of stress with a little bit of acceptance might create a helpful change in perspective. This system is changi
By:
Jay Ueckerl
Health>
Wellnessl
Feb 14, 2011
A Vibrational World View: The Five Phases of Network Care
We are vibrational beings living in a vibrational world. There are five vibrational distortions, or phases, as they are called in Network Care. At one time physicists thought that atoms, the “solid particles” that make up you and me, were made of even smaller, “solid particles.” Furthermore, subatomic particles like nuclei and electrons don’t actually behave like large, planet sized objects. The nervous system, however, does actually display signs, on the macroscopic level, of its vibrational
By:
Jay Ueckerl
Health>
Wellnessl
Jan 28, 2011
Add new Comment
Your Name: *
Your Email:
Comment Body: *
Verification code:*
* Required fields
Submit
Your Articles Here
It’s Free and easy
Sign Up Today
Author Navigation
My Home
Publish Article
View/Edit Articles
View/Edit Q&A
Edit your Account
Manage Authors
Statistics Page
Personal RSS Builder
My Home
Edit your Account
Update Profile
View/Edit Q&A
Publish Article
Author Box
Jay Uecker has 4 articles online
Articles Categories
All Categories
Advertising
Arts & Entertainment
Automotive
Beauty
Business
Careers
Computers
Education
Finance
Food and Beverage
Health
Hobbies
Home and Family
Home Improvement
Internet
Law
Marketing
News and Society
Relationships
Self Improvement
Shopping
Spirituality
Sports and Fitness
Technology
Travel
Writing
Acne
Allergies
Alternative Medicine
Anti Aging
Cancer
Dental Care
Disabilities
Diseases and Conditions
Hair Loss
Hearing
Medical Tourism
Medicine
Men’s Health
Mental Health
Nutrition
Plastic Surgeries
Quit Smoking
Sleep
Supplements & Vitamins
Vision
Wellness
Women’s Health
Need Help?
Contact Us
FAQ
Submit Articles
Editorial Guidelines
Blog
Site Links
Recent Articles
Top Authors
Top Articles
Find Articles
Site Map
Mobile Version
Webmasters
RSS Builder
RSS
Link to Us
Business Info
Advertising
Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Copyright © 2005-2011 Free Articles by ArticlesBase.com, All rights reserved.
Jay Uecker, D.C. has been practicing Network Spinal Analysis professionally since 2002. He is one of a limited number of practitioners around the world who are certified to practice Network Spinal Analysis and Somato Respiratory Integration, a revolutionary form of wellness care within the growing field of re-organizational healing. His educational journey has taken him from Lincoln, Nebraska where he received a Bachelors Degree in Exercise Science, to Minneapolis, Minnesota and Northwestern College of Chiropractic where he received his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree. He has served in places like India and Peru and is currently the director of the Network Life Center in Louisville, Colorado. Visit the Network Life Center on the web at www.NetworkLifeCenter.com.
Spin Your Own Articles
Spin unlimited articles each month. Use your own PLR or choose from over 7000 stock articles.
Spin Your Own Articles
