Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Original Article Source: https://www.homeopathicmd.com/2024/11/cold-and-flu-rules-revisited/
As winter comes around again, here’s a refresher of some general guidelines on how to manage common colds, flu, and other mild acute respiratory illnesses.
(Spoiler Alert: This information may differ substantially from what’s being published in mainstream media outlets.)
Colds, flu, and other mild acute respiratory illnesses, tend to be viral in origin, and are more common in the winter months due to several factors including weaker sunlight as one gets farther north or south of the equator, and a lower abundance of fresh local produce, which is naturally high in probiotics and antioxidants. In cold winter months people tend to spend much more time indoors in manmade environments, in closed buildings, under artificial lighting, and in recirculated (rather than fresh) air, tending to rely more on vitamin supplements and vitamin fortified foods which don’t provide the same benefits to the body or the microbiome as fresh whole vegetables and fruits.1
Unacknowledged by mass media, colds, flu, and other mild acute respiratory illnesses offer a unique opportunity for the immune system to become stronger, while helping prevent long-term chronic illness. These acute illnesses are fundamentally important in diversifying the microbiome, maturing the immune system, and improving long-term health, even though they can be uncomfortable or unpleasant when they strike.2
One of the best things to do when a cold, flu or other mild respiratory illness comes along is to stop work, get rest, and let the immune system do what it is meant to do: develop an acute inflammatory response, resolve the infection, develop immunity, and finally resolve inflammation. These mild acute illnesses are signs from the body that you may have overdone things, not eaten or rested well enough, or simply stretched things a little too far. They are gentle reminders that, when properly attended to, result in a stronger, more robust immune system and lower risk of developing chronic inflammatory illness.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the more acute lower respiratory-tract infections children have, the lower their risk of developing asthma or allergies. Day care attendance early in life, which is associated with greater risk of developing acute infections, lowers the risk of developing allergies and asthma. On the other extreme, a childhood marked by the absence of acute infections early in life is associated with an increased risk of developing both allergic and autoimmune disease.3
The paradoxical role that acute infections play in lowering the risk of chronic illness disappears if antibiotics and other conventional (symptom suppressing) medications are used in treatment.4
Children who received three or more courses of antibiotics in early life are more than twice as likely to develop neurodevelopmental disorders of speech (odds ratio (OR) = 3.89), ADHD (OR = 3.27), or decreased intellectual ability (OR = 2.44).5
If one or two courses of antibiotics are administered during the first year of life, there is a 20% increased risk of developing asthma by age 7. If 3-4 courses are administered, the risk rises to 30%, and if more than 4 courses are used then the risk rises to greater than 50% that a chronic inflammatory condition of the airways will develop in these children.6
Eschewing the use of nonessential prescription and over the counter medicines, which damage the microbiome and suppress the immune inflammatory response, is better for long-term health. One should consider using more effective natural homeopathic medicines, which don’t damage the microbiome, suppress symptoms, or interfere with the immune system.
Antibiotics that indiscriminately kill bacteria in the microbiome breed antibiotic resistant organisms while damaging the ecology of the microbiome. They also damage mitochondria within human cells.7 Mitochondrial destruction occurs because these powerful energy-generating intracellular organelles, which originated from ancient endosymbiotic bacteria, share the same protein building apparatus with bacteria. Bactericidal antibiotics that target the protein synthesis machinery of bacteria have the same effect in mitochondria and “contribute to tumorigenesis and neurodegeneration and aggravate existing mitochondria-associated diseases.”8 The antibiotic mediated destruction of human mitochondria is linked to lactic acidosis, lipodystrophy, myelosuppression, peripheral neuropathy, ototoxicity, optic neuropathy,9 chronic fatigue syndrome,10 lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes.11
Every class of conventional pharmaceutical drug, not just antibiotics, disrupts the ecological balance of the microbiome12 in a way reminiscent of the effects of pesticides in the macroscopic environment.13 Polypharmacy (using more than one medication at a time), which is extremely common is particularly destructive.14
Acute ecological disruptions of the microbiome, known as dysbiosis, are marked by chaos and inefficiency (when severe, they are known as infections) that initiates an immune inflammatory reaction gauged to restore order and balance. When the immune system resolves the acute dysbiosis, ecological efficiency is restored. If the immune system cannot (or it is not allowed to) resolve the imbalance, or if medical treatment further worsens the dysbiosis, then the immune inflammatory response persists and becomes chronic. Chronic dysbiosis and the accompanying inflammation are the hallmarks and “common denominators” of every chronic medical condition.15
Insight from the use of homeopathic medicines over the last 230 years, not only foreshadowed the discovery of the human microbiome16 but delivered an extensive pharmacopeia of safe and effective medicines that have proven to be useful in resolving dysbiosis and reversing acute and chronic inflammatory illness17 without damaging the microbiome18 or harming the immune system.19
One of the most common misconceptions about colds, flu, and other mild acute respiratory illnesses is that they are fundamentally “bad” things that should be avoided or treated with symptom suppressing medicines, but these acute infections (when treated naturally and homeopathically) help prevent the development of many chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.20
The NEJM21 reported that the eradication of many of these common acute infections using conventional antibiotics and vaccines precisely correlates with the emerging epidemic of chronic inflammatory illnesses over the last 50 years,22 and is most prevalent and severe in those areas where loss of biological diversity of the microbiome is most profound.23
The belief that germs are “bad” is an antiquated philosophy that grew from the “germ theory” of medicine and has led to the futile and harmful war against the microbiome and nature that has driven this epidemic of chronic illness and created the problem of antibiotic resistant organisms. Direct evidence from ecology, microbiome science, and homeopathy all contests this theory.
While it is true that all infectious disease requires a pathogenic microbe (a bacteria, virus, fungus, or other organism capable of causing a disease), it is equally true that every organism is a “pathobiont” (a microorganism that normally lives in the body as a harmless commensal, but under certain conditions, like a disrupted microbiome or weakened immune system, can become pathogenic and contribute to disease development). The determining factor of most infectious illness turns out not to be a germ, but the state of the immune system and the microbiome. All organisms are pathobionts: “opportunistic microbes that emerge as a result of perturbations in the healthy microbiome due to complex interactions of various genetic, exposomal, microbial, and host factors that lead to their selection and expansion.”24
The cause of most acute infectious illness is not a “germ” per se, but the susceptibility of the microbiome and the immune system which aren’t diverse or mature enough to accommodate the organism into a healthy, functional ecosystem. This is one reason why perfectly healthy people tend to have richer more diverse microbiomes,25 germ-free animals become sick and die when they are introduced into “normal” communities,26 and those most susceptible to Covid-19 already had damaged microbiomes and suffered from chronic immune system dysfunction27 otherwise known as a “comorbidity.”
When the microbiome and immune system encounter a new organism for the first time and dynamically adjust to ecologically integrate it into a balanced state of health (aka an infection), successful recovery is marked by durable “natural immunity” and immune tolerance. Natural immunity plays a crucial role in the resolution of inflammation by initiating an active, coordinated process where the body naturally produces specialized molecules called “pro-resolving mediators” that actively dampen the inflammatory response and restore tissue homeostasis once the initial threat has been neutralized.28 This results in resolution of infection and systemic inflammation that reduces the risk of developing chronic inflammation in the form of allergies, asthma, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, heart disease, cancer, and autoimmunity.
This is one reason why colds, flu, and other mild respiratory infections, treated without microbiome damaging or immune suppressing medications, help promote long-term health. In most healthy individuals, these conditions should not be avoided, immunized against, or treated with conventional pharmaceutical drugs. Instead, these minor ailments should be welcomed as opportunities to rest, take care of oneself (or a family member) and to bolster immunity. Exposure to these infections, particularly when managed homeopathically, is associated with reduced need for conventional drugs,29 lower risk of hospitalization, lower risk of developing chronic inflammatory conditions, and greater longevity.30
These illnesses should be considered opportunities to improve health and prevent long-term inflammatory illnesses like allergies, asthma, diabetes, and obesity. In much the same way that going to the gym or exercising on a regular basis strengthens the cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, endocrine, and nervous systems. Exercising the immune system through direct exposure and experience of mild acute respiratory illnesses strengthens the immune system and reduces the risk of developing chronic inflammatory illness.
Antibiotics provide no benefit against viral infections and should be avoided whenever possible. Their routine use contributes to long-term problems since they compromise the microbiome31 and suppress inflammation and antibody formation.32 Not only can antibiotic resistant “super-bugs” emerge from overuse, but latent viral infections can be reactivated,33and severe fungal infections triggered,34 in addition to their effects on mitochondria.
Antiviral medications should also be avoided whenever possible. They cause significant chemical side effects35 while suppressing the activity of the many “friendly” viruses in the virome, or viral microbiome integral to the regulation of bacterial.36 Antiviral medicines are also irreversibly toxic to mitochondria.37
Antihistamines should be avoided whenever possible because they interfere with cellular communication and impair the innate immune system, reducing effectiveness, worsening infections, and prolonging illness.38
Anti-inflammatory medications should be avoided whenever possible. Even though they reduce many of the symptoms of inflammation (fever, redness, pain, body aches, etc.), they do this by suppressing the immune inflammatory response, which is how the body protects itself from infections, heals injuries, and develops immunity.39 These drugs work against the immune system, prolong illness and impair healing.40 These medicines damage the microbiome,41 cause dysbiosis,42 and promote chronic inflammation.43
Antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antihistamines, anti-inflammatory, and many other medications damage the microbiome, generate dysbiosis, and suppress the immune system, reducing the likelihood of developing natural immunity, and ultimately triggering unmitigated immune mediated chronic inflammation. These drugs are part of a “perfect storm” created by conventional pharmaceutical treatment that works against both the microbiome and the immune system to turn acute into chronic dysbiosis.
Perhaps the best defenses against recurrent winter colds, flu and other mild respiratory infections is not to fight them with immune suppressing, microbiome damaging treatments, or to try to avoid them, but to approach them as opportunities to strengthen immune defenses, develop immunity, and improve lifelong health. Only through direct experience can the immune system develop mature and learn to control inflammation and stay in balance with the microbiome.
The following recommendations are meant as simple guidelines:
Copyright © 2025 Lowcountry Hope and Healing, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.