Suppose I am ill. My nose is running, I am coughing, I have diarrhya, I have a head ache, I am feverish and my toe is all swollen up real bad cos I thwacked it with a hammer.
(Pick and chose from any of the above and no I don’t know how to spell diarrhya)
So I take a bunch of drugs and get rid of these symptoms. Will it take longer for me to get better?
In short- what is the point in symptoms of illness. If they are not necessary then why do we have them?
If they are good for healing then why do we take drugs to stop them?
Good question; when you are ill, some of the symptoms are a result of your natural immune responses, others are a result of your system being messed up by toxins and bits of pathogen; taking drugs to suppress the first type of symptoms would (I suppose) prolong the course of the illness.
Why do we do it then? Because we don’t like feeling unwell.
tip, if you’re not sure about the spelling of a word, run it through a Word document and then do a spell check (tools - spelling and grammar).
I don’t think if you suppress the symptoms, it will take longer for you to get better. It should take less, even, if you’re using drugs.
Symptoms are a phyical sign from your body to your brain that something is amiss, and therefor need to take it a bit more slowly, and rest well, sleep and drink lots.
Some people are ven convinced that all diseases are actually only symptoms of something being wrong on an “astral” level, which filters through to the actual material level (where we have solid bodies).
Symptoms are necessary, let’s take back pain, for instance. Back pain might be a symptom of various different things, but if you keep on taking pain killers, you won’t feel the pain and keep on doing damage to your back.
Some symptoms benefit the virus or bacteria, as well. In areas with poor plumbing, diarrhea can contaminate the water supply and spread the disease further.
I don’t think that is actually true; symptoms aren’t trying to ‘tell’ you anything - they are simply a reaction to certain conditions; I’m trying to find some facts on this but if, for example, an increase in body temperature is cased by the immune system fighting pathogens (perhaps because the system functions better at a higher temperature), then taking medicines to lower the temperature would prolong the course of the disease.
I think Mangetout has something (so to speak). When you have a fever, it’s because your body is actively engaged in fighting something. Artificially lowering the fever might hamper your body’s efforts to fix whatever’s wrong.
However, if the fever is a result of the body fighting, say, an ear infection, then treating the infection with antibiotics will solve the problem, not prolong it.
It will depend on whether the elevated temperature is a ‘good thing’ that the body does to give the immune system an advantage (or set the pathogen at a disadvantage), or whether it is a ‘bad thing’ - a direct reaction to something that the pathogen is introducing to (or doing to) the system.
