Its time to celebrate the doctor within
In India, National Doctors’ Day was first observed on 01st July 1991 in the honor of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, to pay tribute to his contributions in health domain. July 01 happens to be his death and birth anniversary that coincides on the same date. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy (01 July 1882 – 01 July 1962) was a renowned physician, an educationist, a freedom fighter, a social worker and a politician. He also served West Bengal for 14 years as a chief minister (1948 – 1962). He was awarded with the highest Indian civilian award, THE BHARAT RATNA on 04 February 1961.He contributed his life for the people, treated many and inspired millions. Furthermore, he was also the Mahatma Gandhi’s personal physician.
Doctors play very important role in the society, they dedicated their life for patients well being, help in quicker recovery from the disease or condition and improve quality of life. We have all realized their immense hard work, dedication and sacrifices during the COVID pandemic. We could not be less grateful for their long hours of duty and sacrifices they made to see us bounce back to health. During these testing times we have realized the importance of another doctor that resides within us our immune system.
What many people do not realize is that our primary defence against germs anddisease is provided by our ownbody’s immune system. No wonder the wise old doctor of yesteryears often had the words “ I treat HE Cures “ inscribed on his door. A reminder to us that ‘HE’ is supreme. When we say He it’s the same universal, intelligent ,life force that surrounds us. The very same invisible, intelligent force that resides in every cell of your body that is responsible for the various automatic processes that go on within us. The same divine power that give our bodies theextraordinary capacity to self-preserve and repair itself. This immune system that helps us in this process is continuously at work. The stronger our immune systems, the better ourcapabilities to combating foreign invaders (germs.)
We get a wonderful view of how nature performs her repair work if we observe the natural healing of a wound, or the remarkable engineering feat presented to us in the healing of fractured or broken bones. The body’s self-healing, self-adjusting and self-repairing power is also seen in the common accident whereby a thorn becomes embedded in the flesh. If it is not removed immediately, nature does a skillful little piece of engineering and removes it for us. Pain and inflammation are soon followed by the formation of pus, which breaks down the tissues towards the surface of the body. Gradually increasing in amount, the pus finally breaks through the overlying skin and runs out, carrying the thorn along as a souvenir.
To demonstrate how strong our immune systems are, think about how many days out of a year our bodies are sick. The average person is sick an average of 6-9 days annually. This equates to an average of 2.4% to 2.5%. This means our immune systems effectively protect us from all sorts of diseases 97.5% to 97.6% of the time. The two largest segments of the population that get sick are the young and the elderly. The young have not had the time to build and strengthen their immune systems, and the elderly are more inclined to lose it as a result of a combination of poor lifestyle decisions and over utilization of medication.
The young need natural exposure to the environment and its germs to provide the natural response of the immune system to strengthen it as it matures. This natural repetitive exposure provides the most effective long-term immunity. A child that gets exposed to a bacterial or viral infection, whooping cough or chicken pox for example will typically generate an immune response (rising fever is a good example) creating a hostile environment for the infection regardless of whether vaccination took place or not. Our immune systems are so intelligent that the fever in most cases will only elevate to the point of damaging the invading germ leaving the healthy cells unharmed. If we abstain from intentionally lowering the fever by using over the counter medication, our bodies will overcome the infection more quickly and efficiently.
Can this process be very uncomfortable to the sick person? Yes. Will this process of allowing our doctor within us to perform their job without interference strengthen our immune systems capability to fight future infections? YES! Is this the course most people follow? NO! We are creatures of habit. We take these over the counter or prescription medications to feel better at the expense of our own health. We suppress our immune systems responses to an invading agent and attempt to get well by bypassing its function thus weakening it.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “if you don’t use it, you lose it!? ”With a 97% success rate throughout the year, why shouldn’t weconfidently expect it to perform well and return our bodies to a state of goodhealth naturally? Yes, there are certainly instances where immunecompromise requires prescription assistance and its only in such cases we the doctor outside should only assist the body to heal. These situations are far and fewcompare to the frequency we utilize medicines today.
Below listed are a few pointers that help us understand how well our immunesystems are performing:
- Whenever consulting children for acute complaints at our clinics the first thing we ask parents is” How is he/she today as compare to yesterday?” The most common reply is “Doctor today he/she seems much better. He/she is less cranky ani khup masthi karta” The very fact that a sense of well being has returned even without medication is the first sign that we got to understand that the immune system is winning in overcoming the acute infection.
- A decrease in intensity of symptoms as compare to the previous days is another indication that we can abstain from prescribing, fully trusting the doctor within to finish the job. Patients telling us that the frequency of cough or diarrhea is less today as yesterday are sure short guidelines of improvement.
- Other than general re hydration advice and few changes in diet just relax and watch the immune System;your doctor by default at work.
- Rashes, mild controlled diarrhea, runny nose are ways by which the immune system tries to eliminate toxins from the body. Wait and watch before taking a pill in panic. As long as it’s coming out don’t worry. We usually notice in our clinics that when lower respiratory tract infections (cough, asthma) get better the upper respiratory tract infections (sneezing, runny nose) get more frequent. We call this exteriorization- cure from within outwards. Rashes in eruptive fevers are thrown out on the surface of the body when the battle is won and the toxins are being eliminated. More injury is caused when such natural ways of elimination are interfered with local application of ointments pushing the toxins back again into the interior of the body.
- Another instance when we avoid medication is during the full moon and new moon periods. Just like the moons gravitational pull affects the tides, similarly it affects the water within every cell leading to mild signs and symptoms something we term as indisposition i.e mild superficial disease which do not require any treatment.
- Improvement in sleep patterns, activity, energy, appetite, stools are other factors that we should keenly observe before taking a pill.
Are you willing to open your eyes to trying a new path that potentially offers a better option to you? The eyes see what the mind knows. The more we understand how the body works within us the more we begin to realize the blessing of this doctor within. If so, why not try utilizing THE DOCTOR WITHIN the body to restore and improve the quality of your Health.On this national doctors day lets spare a thought to be thankful to this doctor within that has been responsible why we have survived for millions of years. The doctor who is with us 24×7 protecting , self-preserving and self-healing us continuously.
Dr. Dorland Martins, MD
Consultant at VitaNova Clinics.