Natural Healing Process and How to Understand It

Excerpts From: Understanding the Natural Healing Process by Dr. Robert Koch DSc.

"I find that the more severe the individual's health condition (more toxicity in the body), the stronger will be the healing reaction...the healing reaction is caused by flushing toxins out of the cells..."

In the course of following a nutritional program for allergies or other health problems and disorders, many people experience uncomfortable symptoms. This is known as the healing reaction.

The most common healing symptom is a temporary reduction in energy. Many 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 healing 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.

It is found that the more severe the individual's disease 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 healing reaction also depends on how carefully the individual is following the recommended nutritional program. The more correctly a program is followed, the stronger will be the healing reaction.

Why Old Symptoms Come Back

Often in the course of the natural healing process old symptoms temporarily reappear. Why should people have to go back through these old symptoms 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 natural 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 heal and 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 individuals 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.

Picture the natural 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-experience the symptoms associated with these various levels of health.

Drugs That Block Pain May Also Block Natural Healing

Experiencing such natural 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 painkillers, 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, taking painkillers or other drugs at this point 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 a specific stimulus, while another undoes these reactions.

When you take aspirin or an antihistamine to stop an uncomfortable reaction, you may not experience the pain or inflammation but you also do no get the healing process that undoes the reason for the pain and inflammation. Therefore, you have achieved a stalemate rather that a cure.

Natural Ways to Ease Healing Reactions

When healing reactions are very troublesome, we can usually do something to help. Some natural 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 health supplements can also be adjusted to slow down the rate at which the healing process takes place. When people have uncomfortable strong healing reactions they can cut down on the dosage. This slows down the healing process.

The means uncomfortable symptoms are less intense, but the healing process is also more prolonged. As the person's body becomes detoxified, we can increase the dosage until it is being taken at optimal levels.

A Continual Flow Exchange is Important

Every cell in our body is in a continual flow exchange by the process of osmosis. This passing of nutrients in concentration in our blood system through the cell wall in trade for the toxic wastes and the "leftovers" of metabolism could only occur in our wonderful sea of life.