Pandemic Panic!

I Ain’t no Doctor

an occasional column by charles faris, hhc

Panic is fear of the natural

So here we go again, the latest outbreak of the disease that is going to

1. destroy civilization,
2. bring on martial law and enforced vaccination, or
3. bring the population down to a sustainable level.

Well sorry, I don’t really have the time in my day for any of those options, so let’s look at another, most famously explicated by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and then later popularized by the rock band Coldplay:

Don’t panic!

Panic, after all, etymologically is derived from Pan, the Greek god of nature, to explain the sudden fear that can arise when facing the awesome uncontrollable power of the natural world. And in the case of this and all the other big bad doomsday wannabe’s:

• ebola
• west nile
• bird flu
• mad cow

The savior who swoops in at the last minute to save the day is an artifact of the natural world itself, our immune system.

The real cause of disease

Now right off the bat I want to remind you that I ain’t no doctor. I don’t diagnose and I don’t prescribe. If you think you are sick go see someone who works with sickness. I work with health. If you are weak and/or have a compromised immune system then please don’t think that anything I am writing here is going to save you if you get ahold of something nasty. I still stand by my advice not to panic, however.

And regardless of whether your health is good or bad, I would like to go on a bit here about what I believe is the real cause of disease, that aforementioned compromised immune system. Whether you live in poverty and squalor and are underweight from too little to eat, or your liver and kidneys are balking from the calorie-rich and nutrient-poor desert known as the Standard American Diet, if your immune system is off, all bets are off. You are the potential victim of any old bug that comes down the pike.

And if your immune system is strong, odds are at least 1000 to 1 that you will kill any and all microscopic invaders before they kill you. You might get sick enough to wish that you would die. And that’s another thing altogether.

Natural immunity

Look around you, and unless you live in a polluted, overcrowded, paved-over area, you will see life, flourishing. Hell, just weeks after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima there were flowers blooming. Blooming where the pundits and pessimists said that nothing would grow for 75 years!

Life is powerful! And the fruit of life known as humanity, which took millions of ears to evolve into its current state, is not going to be picked off willy nilly by a “killer virus” of all things. And this life, this fruit of the natural world, is what gives us our immunity from disease.

When we lose our balance, due to accident, genetics, or lifestyle, we can weaken our system enough to move into powerful disease processes that can indeed end our tenure on this lovely planet. And eventually no matter how lucky we are, no matter how well we take care of ourselves, our immune system will weaken and we will take our place on the long chain of life and death. C’est la vie.

Meanwhile, the best way to protect yourself from death and disease is to develop natural immunity, by living a balanced life and nourishing ourselves with healthy food, both primary and secondary.

Primary food

In his book In Search of the Miraculous, P.D. Ouspenksy writes about his experiences with mystic G.I. Gurdjieff in turn of the century Russia. A self described “teacher of dances”, Mr. Gurdjieff developed/discovered/delineated what Ouspensky hoped was a system for achieving the miraculous, the heights of human mental, emotional, and physical development.

Alas for Mr. O, there was no system. More like a vast buffet of nourishing ideas and exercises that could be used for achieving all that he had hoped for. One of the esoteric nuggets that Mr. G offered up was the idea of “sense impressions” as food of a sort. Whatever we see, hear, or experience in any way is food for our soul, as important as the food we eat with a knife and fork, if not more so.

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I studied from 2005 to 2007, Joshua Rosenthal has developed a similar idea which he calls Primary Food. And because Joshua has a lot of graduates out in the world helping people to live healthier happier lives, and using this terminology, I use this term as shorthand for all of the experiences and impressions we take in, on a daily basis, hour to hour, minute to minute, which effect our physical, emotional, and mental well being.

Basically, I just want you to understand that our surroundings, our environment, how we think and feel, our spirituality, love life, career and friendships, all of these things are as important to our health and well being as the food we eat. And all of these things, primary food and chewable food, determine the state of our immune systems.

Clean food, Clean air, Clean water

In addition to surrounding ourselves with nourishing primary food, it is vital that we have access to fresh air and fresh water, sunshine, and clean food. Sometimes this is easier said than done, I know. And it is vital. A good water filter is helpful, and that’s a story for another day. Early morning or late night walks, after the pollution of the day has subsided, are helpful as well, as are frequent trips out of the city or into parks and forests.

Clean food can be more of a challenge, as most of the food you find in the market has been processed beyond wholesomeness, and the food that is fresh and unprocessed, the “edge” sections of produce, meat, and dairy, are mostly produced in an industrial agricultural system that is focused on quantity and profit much more than quality and nourishment.

This same industrial model of agriculture which creates degraded food, covered with pesticides and petroleum waxes, laden with artificial hormones, stored for months at a time and shipped thousands of miles, irradiated and who knows what else, this same system also creates many of the circumstances that challenge our immune systems in the first place.

Our much vaunted system of agriculture is responsible for scarcity and poverty in South America, Africa, and Asia, not to mention the economic devastation of rural America. It is this scarcity and poverty and are responsible for the weakened immune response that has allowed the swine flu and its ilk to be killers in poor countries like mexico. And the massive confinement systems that have been developed for raising pigs (swine) and chickens (avian) are the major suspects in the development of this latest flu virus.

Oh dear, what is to be done?

Well, of course things are not so bleak as they look when you are staring straight into the industrial agriculture system. Take a deep breath, look around at the loveliness of planet earth, and there is your answer. Eat clean food, preferably from a farmer you actually know…farmers markets and CSA’s (community supported agriculture) are everywhere. Take your money out of the industrial system, especially your dairy and meat money.

And enjoy your life! That’s the greatest immunity enhancer of all. And for Universe’s sake, Don’t Panic!

pig by be khe

flowers by Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum