Opportunistic

Hi Natural Health Family. I hope everyone stayed cool during the warm and humid weekend. There is of course much talk about the virus still and what to do about it. We have been told to do and not to do something many times and people seem to get confused. I wanted today to talk about a key word that is related to not only the Corona Virus but many other illnesses and infections around the world. The key word is opportunistic. 

What does opportunistic mean? In relation to a bacteria, virus or other “bugs” out there it means that those bugs must have an opportunity to infect their host such as a person. How do they get the opportunity to infect a host? When a person’s body becomes weakened and the immune system loses the capacity to fight off the bugs or keep things in balance, then we start to have an infection. This goes for many infections and illnesses. When we hear about the virus we hear about all the things you can do to prevent getting the virus such as social distancing and wearing masks. These strategies may be good at slowing the spread of the virus. However, you do not hear how to strengthen the body’s own defenses so that when the virus presents itself it either causes little to no symptoms. 

When we consider strengthening the body’s own defenses we must consider what can stress the body in the first place. One form of stress is  physical stress. Physical stress can either be severe trauma, exercising too much, and or not getting enough rest. All of these can pull needed energy away from the body which could be needed for the immune system. Another form of stress is a chemical toxicity or a nutritional deficiency. This can come from many of the processed foods and other environmental factors. The last one is stress from emotions or thoughts. This last form of stress goes unnoticed for a lot of people but is the most important because many people are constantly thinking and feeling throughout the day. That constant thinking and feeling can either be helpful or harmful to your health. So if you are constantly scared and worried about a virus your defenses become weakened and the virus gets the OPPORTUNITY to infect the host. However, if you understand the power of the mind and the body’s defenses then you can equip yourself to be prepared when a virus attempts to infect you. 

It is good that we are doing many things to slow down the spread of the virus. Nonetheless, we must come to the realization that any problems coming from the virus are due to the OPPORTUNITY of the virus to infect the host. When that opportunity is smaller than the virus causes small issues, but when the opportunity is larger than we can have severe problems. That is why some people get the virus and have no symptoms while others get it and have much greater symptoms. We are much more in control of our own health than what we have been taught to think. 

Thank you for reading and stay healthy!