BODY BENEFITS FROM FLU

THE BODY BEBEFITS FROM FLU
By Tedd Koren, D.C.

Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” recognized the role illness plays in the larger picture of health when he wrote, “Diseases are crises of purification, of toxic elimination. Symptoms are the natural defenses of the body. We call them diseases, but in fact they are the cure of diseases.”

In one study, flu sufferers who took aspirin or acetaminophen were sick an average of 3.5 days longer than people who did not take the drugs. (Pharmacotherapy.2000;20(12):1417-1422.)

The cleansing or detoxifying aspect of illness (fever, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating) may be why getting colds, flu and infectious diseases has been associated with a decreased risk of cancer.

Researchers found that those who had febrile infectious childhood diseases have less cancer as adults while another revealed that “a history of common colds or … influenza … was associated with a decreased risk of stomach, colon, rectum and ovarian cancer.” (History of cancer patients and matched controls. Medical Hypotheses. 1998;51(4):315-320) Common infections. J Cancer REs Clin Oncol. 1991:117(4):339-344.)