By Dr. Fozia Kamran Cheema
Covid 19 death rate has crossed three million worldwide and never before had we ever talked more about health and sickness, life and death, happiness and sorrow, hope and desperation, and Antigens and Antibodies.
All the significant strides mankind has made towards increasing life expectancy and decreasing child mortality in the past century in the name of modern medicine have almost vanished by the microscopic giant, Covid 19 and we are back to square one, in the race of survival, or so it seems.
Covid 19 has undermined and unsettled mankind, has damaged and disrupted our lives and economies and we were never as unprepared as we are now in our fight against any enemy, ever. At the same time, we were never as far away from achieving our goal of good health and wellbeing as we are now.
As covid 19 has suffocated me a lot in the past year, it has also taught me to reflect. I have learned to think about what being healthy, feeling good, feeling poor, and being in a state of wellbeing means. I heard much about antibodies and immunity and how the immune system works, I saw patients who defeated the most damaging covid infections with their innate immunity. And I have witnessed patients dying with very mild covid symptoms because they gave up even before the fight began.
Everyone in the past year has been trying to somehow boost their immunity, with herbal supplements, exercises, vitamins, ginger garlic tablets, fish oils, and all kinds of immunity-boosting diets.
I am wondering though if immunity only is physical health?
Last month I got my second Covid 19 shot and afterward, I had severe aches and pains in my arm and throughout my whole body with a mild fever. I was freezing, had a moderate headache, was very dizzy, and could not sleep at all for two nights. While lying in my bed, fatigued and exhausted, I suddenly realized how I had been tricking my immune system all these years. I was amazed to experience that even though I did not have an actual infection, but only a cheat code (the Messenger Ribo Nucleic acid/mRNA) transferred to my body, my immune system was fighting against it with full force.
That urged me to think about all the other times, I might have threatened and forced my system to fight. Times when I was angry, when I was sad, when I was begrudged, negative, and full of hatred. And how many times I might have forced my immunity to show the signs of unnecessary illness by showing it that I am down and done for. All those sleepless nights worrying about the things, which never actually happened, I was tiring and exhausting my immunity to fight with a non-existent threat. I was draining it. It was in a constant Fight Fright or Flight mode preparing every day to conquer an enemy which was not even there. I was not showing compassion and empathy to my immunity… to my SELF.
If we can trick our immunity with a lab-manufactured code, how much are we tricking our immunity with our emotional and psychological signals? How much responsibility lies upon ourselves for our own illnesses, for pushing our immune systems to their last limits, for not choosing our battles wisely, fighting a fight which is not required and until we can’t fight anymore, and then suddenly one day our Immune system, the true purpose of which is only to ward off unnecessary threats, cannot recognize the right enemy. Many studies will associate this to the very scary group of Auto-Immune Diseases where the body starts to destroy its own self, thinking it’s the enemy.
When we talk about health, we often forget about mental health. Our focus is somehow only on our physical well-being while mental wellbeing is pushed to the back-burner for years and years. In today’s day and age, is it even possible to achieve our global goal of being healthy and in a state of well-being only by focusing on physical health?
Are we prepared to fight pandemics like Covid only by eating ginger-garlic tablets and herbs? Not all of us have experienced the infection itself or lost our loved ones to Covid 19, but every one of us has experienced fear, helplessness, and loss of joy in the past year. A study has shown that Covid has created a mental health condition, known as health anxiety, where people obsessively checking for symptoms of Covid and avoiding anything that could lead to Covid Exposure. People having this condition are quitting their jobs and leaving their cities.
Right now while you are reading this article, I bet and I am sure not all of you have fever, cough, shortness of breath and body aches, and all the symptoms we by now have memorized by heart knowingly or unknowingly.
Not all of us are lying in a hospital, praying for a miracle, and hoping to make it out alive. But each and every one of us is afraid. Afraid of tomorrow, afraid of the unknown future. Afraid of not being able to see loved ones for that one last time. Afraid of never being able to return to enjoying ‘Normal’ again. Afraid of losing. It could be losing a job, losing their families, losing heart and home, or even losing hope in science.
So, if it is to be logically concluded that physical immunity boosters are not the only boosters that are the need of the hour, allow me to rattle your mind with a few new ideas and beg to leave with some honest questions.
Is it possible that Covid 19 might have affected more than JUST our bodies? Should we only be focusing on strengthening, repairing, and restoring our Respiratory systems where this disease seems to be focused on most, or is it perhaps time that we took a more HOLISTIC approach to our health?
How in these tiring times, would you propose to boost our psychological immunity?
Do you think you have enough antibodies in your bodies to fight the infections; revealed or concealed?
Do you believe in the Mind, Body, Soul Connection? Do you believe their being on the same plane brings some deeper calm, some inner harmony and that being in tandem with our outer environment, the Universe, the Cosmos leads to peace in our community and our World?
It can be Antibodies or Antioxidants Inside and Good vibes outside.
Perhaps the Sufis and the Yogis and the Sages were onto something. isn’t it about time we pay attention?
So how about I let you in on a secret, because I have discovered where to get mine from other than just herbs and exercises and vaccines.
The secret source. The FIX. A friendly wave from an old person sitting alone in his balcony, a smile from a stranger is the key!
That one name on my phone screen, which makes my skin glow and my heart beat faster is my source for antibodies. When life is coming at me from all sides, that one friend who puts her hand around my shoulder and a pot of tea on her stove for me is my fix.
A warm tight hug on a rainy day, a kiss on the forehead, sitting alone at the beach listening to the silent waves of the sea are my antibodies. An encouraging loving voicemail on a gloomy mid-November night. A warm breeze, the singing birds, and buzzing bees are my antibodies.
When the whole world is against me and things are not going as planned, my mother’s eyes telling me, you can do it, are my go-to. The Memory of my beneficent Father, clear as day, my almost telepathic connection with his quiet confidence in the abilities I am so sure I do not possess are that much-needed booster dose. My Connection with the Unseen Hand, my Creator, Nourisher and Sustainer is my Secret.
I have received my Dose today, and I am already passing it on… What about you?
Note: Dr. Fozia Kamran Cheema is a pain management physiotherapist at Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen Denmark. She can be contacted at her Email. You can follow her on her Twitter also
