Natural Healing vs. Symptom Suppression

Understanding crystals helps us understand water and salt. Most crystals are found in mountains. When geo-tectonic changes occur, the pressure and cooling are responsible for the creation of crystals. If we apply enough pressure to carbon, we get a geometrically perfect diamond that contains specific energy/information.

In energy medicine a disease is referred to as a deficit of energy or flow (chi, ki, prana). Our bodies, when healthy, are energetically balanced. When ill, the body will create suffering, manifesting as disease. When confronted with disease, we are encouraged to change by our own body that is telling us that we have either too little, or too much, of something in our life.

Energy Deficit Causes Disease

We lack vibrational energy. We need to identify the vibration we are deficient in and bring our body back into balance by replenishing our body with the appropriate energy /information /vibration.

We are in a healthy state when we have sufficient life force (current, energy, information, vitality) in our cells. Consider your body as a rechargeable battery. Even if your body is functioning well you have to make sure that your batteries are charged, else your body will not have enough energy to repair itself. It will deteriorate, creating disease and lack of vitality. The disease signals the lack of specific energy in the form of a symptom. Let's not mistake the symptom for the cause of the disease.

Symptoms are the expression of an energetically imbalanced organism. The body signals a weakened organ through a symptom.

Suppressing Symptoms Does Not Heal

Deficit of vibrational energy allows chaos and disorder to take hold in our body. If we suppress a symptom without determining its cause, we are taking away out chance to balance it. Suppressing symptoms leads to more symptoms and a disease that is even more entrenched.

The oil pressure indicator in your car lets you know about a problem which could to lead to irreparable damage. If you were to treat this situation according to conventional medical understanding, by treating the symptoms, you would simply put a piece of chewing gum over the gauge to block the red light, and continue driving. How long will that last?

Instead we must identify the cause of the problem, and deal with it.

Healing Through Consciousness

Pure vibrational energy is formless and not visible to us. We have been conditioned to accept pharmaceutical pills as a solution, rather than working to find the cause of the source of energy deficit, manifesting as a disease. Taking conventional medicine will not only suppress the symptoms but will often lead to additional blockages of our energy flow. (Commonly Known as Harmful Side Effects about which we are cautioned.)

If we introduce the needed vibrational energy to our body, soon our self-regulating (homeostatic) mechanism will bring us to health. Our body always tries to return to its original, balanced state. This process is the "healing". It's not the doctor or therapist who heals us. Even with the approximately fifty-eight thousand medications available, we can find practically none that can heal our disease. The healing process can only come about from inside, because healing is primarily a process of consciousness. Through learning we receive the missing information, the energy, a specific range or pattern of electromagnetic vibrations. This can come to us as nourishment, or through subtle means, such as words, touch, music. The food or the therapy are only carriers of information, not the energy itself.

Immune System

Poor diet, environmental imbalance and our stressful lifestyle have left our bodies in a state of nutritional deficiency, resulting in a myriad of physiological imbalances, one of the most dangerous being an impaired and weakened immune system.

Hering's laws of cure

The homeopathic laws of cure were outlined by Constantine Hering, a student of Hahnemann who came to the United States in the 1830s. Hering enunciated three laws or principles of the patterns of healing that are used by homeopaths to evaluate the effectiveness of specific remedies and the overall progress of constitutional prescribing:

• Healing progresses from the deepest parts of the organism to the external parts. Homeopaths consider the person's mental and emotional dimensions, together with the brain, heart, and other vital organs, as a person's deepest parts. The skin, hands, and feet are considered the external parts.
• Symptoms appear or disappear in the reverse of their chronological order of appearance. In terms of constitutional treatment, this law means that miasms acquired later in life will resolve before earlier ones.
• Healing proceeds from the upper to the lower parts of the body.

Healing Crisis

Homeopaths use Hering's laws to explain the appearance of so-called healing crises, or aggravations, in the course of homeopathic treatment. It is not unusual for patients to experience temporary worsening of certain symptoms after taking their first doses of homeopathic treatment. For example, a person might notice that arthritic pains in the shoulders are better but that the hands feel worse. Hering's third law would indicate that the remedy is working because the symptoms are moving downward in the body. In constitutional prescribing, a remedy that removes one of the patient's miasmic layers will then allow the symptoms of an older miasm to emerge. Thus the patient may find that a physical disease is followed by a different set of physical problems or by emotional symptoms.

Cleansing Reaction, Detox Reaction, Herxheimer Reaction

Also known as the "Herxheimer Reaction", this reaction occurs when the body tries to eliminate toxins at a faster rate than they can be properly disposed of. The more toxic one's bodily systems are, the more severe the detoxification, or healing crisis. It is characterized by a temporary increase in symptoms during the cleansing or detox process which may be mild or severe. You may feel worse and therefore conclude that the treatment is not working. But these reactions are instead signs that the treatment is working and that your body is going through the process of cleaning itself of impurities, toxins and imbalances.

Such reactions are temporary and can occur immediately -- or within several days, or even several weeks, of a detox. Symptoms usually pass within 1-3 days, but on rare occasions can last several weeks. If you are suffering from a major illness, the symptoms you experience during the healing crisis may be identical to the disease itself. Sometimes discomfort during the healing crisis is of greater intensity than when you were developing the chronic disease. This may explain why there may be a brief flare-up in one's condition. Often the crisis will come after you feel your very best. Most people feel somewhat ill during the first few days of a cleanse because it is at that point that your body dumps toxins into the blood stream for elimination. With a more serious condition there may be many small crises to go through before the final one is possible. In any case, a cleansing & purifying process is underway, and stored wastes are in a free-flowing state.

Cause:

The healing crisis is the result of every body-system, in concert, working to eliminate waste products through all elimination channels and set the stage for regeneration. The end result: old tissues are replaced with new. When any treatment or cleansing program causes a large scale die-off of bacteria, a significant amount of endotoxins (toxins within the bacteria itself) are released into the body. The more bacteria present, and the stronger their endotoxins, the stronger the cleansing reaction. When any treatment or detox causes the organs of the body (particularly the liver, which is a storehouse of drug and poison residues) to release their stored poisons and toxins, a cleansing reaction may occur. Any program, such as fasting, which causes a rapid breakdown of fat cells (which are a storehouse for toxins), can cause a healing crisis as toxins previously lodged in the fat cells are released into the blood stream.

Symptoms:

The healing crisis will usually bring about past conditions in whatever order the body is capable of handling at that time. People often forget the diseases or injuries they have had in the past, but are usually reminded during the crisis. There are a wide variety of reactions that may manifest during a healing crisis, the most common are:

• Increased joint or muscle pain
• Diarrhea
• Extreme fatigue and/or its opposite, restlessness
• Cramps
• Headache (believed to be caused by buildup of toxins in the blood)
• Aches, Pains
• Arthritic flair up
• Insomnia
• Nausea
• Sinus congestion
• Fever (usually low grade) and/or chills
• Frequent urination and/or urinary tract discharges
• Drop in blood pressure
• Skin eruptions, including: boils, hives, and rashes.
• Cold or flu-like symptoms
• Strong emotions: anger, despair, sadness, fear, etc.
• Suppressed memories arise
• Anxiety
• Mood swings
• New phobias develop

Easing Your Way Through the Healing Crisis:

Drink plenty of fresh water (especially water), juices, and herbal teas to flush the body of toxins. Some professionals recommend distilled water as the best. Drink from 2 to 4 quarts (liters) per day. This will help flush the toxins out of your system and speed along the detoxification.

• If you are feeling fatigued, or sleepy, your body is talking to you, and telling you to rest. Be kind to yourself, and get the rest that you need.
• Symptoms frequently disappear immediately after a good bowel movement, use an enema to provide relief.
• For other symptoms, meditation, EFT, acupuncture or a good massage might be helpful to speed up the healing process, and reduce the discomfort.
• And, on rare occasions, a reduction of the dosage or temporary cessation may be required.

Hering's Law of Cure

Constantine Hering, M.D. (1800-1880) observed that healing occurs in a consistent pattern. He described this pattern in the form of three basic laws which homeopaths can use to recognize that healing is occurring. This pattern has been recognized by acupuncturists for hundreds of years and is also used by practitioners of herbalism and other healing disciplines.

According to the first of Hering's laws, healing progresses from the deepest part of the organism - the mental and emotional levels and the vital organs - to the external parts, such as skin and extremities. 

Hering's second law states that, as healing progresses, symptoms appear and disappear in the reverse of their original chronological order of appearance. Homeopaths have consistently observed that their patients re-experience symptoms from past conditions.

 According to Hering's third law, healing progresses from the upper to the lower parts of the body. For instance, a person is considered to be on the mend if the arthritic pain in his neck has decreased although he now has pain in his finger joints.

As the symptoms change in accordance with Hering's Law, it is common for individual symptoms to become worse than they had been before treatment. If healing is truly in progress, the patient feels stronger and generally better in spite of the aggravation. Before long, the symptoms of the aggravation pass, and leave the person healthier on all levels.

Sadly, most conventional medical doctors treat each symptom as a unique and unconnected phenomenon. A person's skin rash generally would be treated with cortisone, thus suppressing it, and, possibly, reactivating the person's asthma. The mentally ill person's new physical symptom is also suppressed, leading to a relapse of the mental illness.

Healing Crisis

A healing crisis is a process that occurs naturally after a period of living right! In these times people have moved away from eating healthy whole foods in deference to processed, denatured and engineered foods. (In fact they can't really be called foods at all, they are actually food products). Their bodies aren't getting the materials needed to keep organs and systems strong so that they can function optimally, eliminating waste or catarrh while repairing and building new tissue to replace the old. Only when the whole body is strong can it involve all the organs in a rally to cleanse, eliminate waste and create an environment for regeneration. The body is made strong by taking in whole foods, full of nutrients from healthy unadulterated soil, by exercise, stress management and by maintaining mental and spiritual health as well.

During a period of right living, anywhere from days to several months, people will experience a healing crisis, usually after feeling particularly well. The feeling of wellness is an indication that the organs are all strong, working well in cooperation with each other and able to eliminate waste just the way the body is designed to do the job.

There are symptoms during a healing crisis that may be confused with illness but the difference is that these symptoms are short in duration and move from one part of the body to another, from inside out and from top to bottom. There is usually a lack of appetite and may be a fever. Illness is a very different scenario where one or more of the organs are not working well, causing toxic build up of waste material that can't get out. There is fear during illness, a feeling of being out of control as opposed to the prevailing feeling during a healing crisis that underneath all the symptomology everything is working just the way it should and everything is really OK.

The reversal process is another part of the healing crisis. It is necessary to revisit each step the body has been through that brought it to its current state of dis-ease. People learn from an early age that symptoms are bad and should be stopped or suppressed. They take all kinds of drugs to stop their bodies from eliminating catarrh and waste. This is very confusing to the body! Mucus production is the body's perfect mechanism for taking out the garbage! If that process is suppressed, the immune system is compromised and the next time it doesn't work quite so well. The body has it's own memory and it remembers all the injuries and all the times it was suppressed. In the reversal process these memories are brought to light in reverse order from which they happened and people re-experience illnesses and traumas in a phenomenon known as retracing. The difference this time is that the symptoms come and go quickly and there is an underlying sense that the whole process is not threatening, that it is natural and health promoting. The healthy changes people feel after a healing crises remain as long as a health supportive lifestyle is embraced, as long as one continues to honor the remarkable and extraordinary intelligence of the body. Give the body what it needs to constantly create strong new tissue and the reward will be wonderful health and vitality.

Observations of Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction in Sarcoidosis Patients

Author: Meg Mangin R.N., Autoimmunity Research Foundation, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

Comment upon "Marshall TG, Marshall FE: Antibiotics in Sarcoidosis - Reflections on the First Year. JOIMR 2003;1(3):2"
Published: 7 Feb 2004

Please cite as: Mangin M: Observations of Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction in Sarcoidosis Patients. JOIMR 2004;2(1):1

ABSTRACT

"You have to get worse, before you get better" is a common medical folklore proverb. A new, novel protocol for treating Sarcoidosis is proving that adage true, while showing the promise of a medication-induced remission and the potential for a cure. The Marshall Protocol (MP)[1,2] uses specific combinations of antibiotics in a pulsed regimen along with an angiotensin receptor blockade and avoidance of Vitamin D. Without exception, the improving patients are reporting periodic aggravation of their symptoms as an apparent direct response to the antibiotics. In other words, these patients say that their treatment makes them feel much worse before they experience symptom-relief.

DISCUSSION

This phenomenon is known as the Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction (JHR) and is often referred to informally as Herx. JHR is believed to be caused when injured or dead bacteria release their endotoxins into blood and tissues faster than the body can comfortably handle it.[3,4,5,6,7} This provokes a sudden and exaggerated inflammatory response and is associated with the systemic appearance of cytokines. "The JHR is an elegant model of the human cytokine cascade in events resembling sepsis"[8]

JHR was originally observed in patients with syphilis who received mercury treatment.[9] It has been reported that Rheumatiod Arthritis, Lyme and Louse-borne relapsing fever (B recurrentis) patients have also experienced this effect when treated with the appropriate antibiotics. JHR, however, is not reported in normal, healthy individuals who are treated with antibiotics for sepsis. In Sarcoidosis patients, the Herxheimer reaction seems to be a valuable indication that an antibiotic is reaching its target.

It is normal for the body to generate an immune response when challenged by foreign matter such as microbes and allergens. Sarcoidosis, however, is a run-away, hyper-inflammatory immune system response. Research has lead to a strong suspicion that this reaction is triggered by Cell Wall Deficient (CWD) or polymorphic L-forms microbes. [10,11,12,13] Evidently, these CWD bacteria have learned to live inside the actual macrophages (phagocytes) of the immune system.[14] Apparently, they fail to be destroyed by the very immune system cells (phagocytes) which are supposed to kill them because they have learned to live in the caustic 'cytokine soup' of a Sarcoidosis granuloma. A similar adaptive cell behavior has been seen by the H. pylori bacterium which has learned to live in the hostile environment of the stomach, causing gastric ulcers.

It is difficult (and maybe unnecessary) to determine which of the many species of CWD mycoplasma might be responsible for the granulomatous reaction of Sarcoidosis. The CWD bacteria are reportedly difficult to see even with an electron microsope, very slow growing and tedious to culture. This makes it impractical to cross-match species to find the appropriate antibiotics. Thus, the elicitation of a Herxheimer reaction is a key component of the Marshall Protocol to determine, by therapeutic probe, which antibiotics are effective. Renowned scientist, Dr. Friedrich Flachsbart, MD, Goettingen, Germany, states that "Jarisch-Herxheimer is in fact the maximum of evidence possible in search of occult microbes?.

The Marshalls have noted that Sarcoidosis patients have a high level of circulating 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D(1,25-D) and that many Sarcoidosis patients complain of symptoms similar to that of hypervitaminosis-D. One study has shown that Lipopolysaccharide is capable of stimulating sarcoid macrophages from BAL in-vitro to generate 1,25-D.[15] Since Lipopolysaccharide is known to come from gram-negative bacteria, they conclude that the high levels of 1,25-D generated in Sarcoidosis by macrophages are most probably coming from a bacterial source.

The Marshalls use 1,25-D levels as an indicator of both systemic inflammation and Herxheimer activity. They associate the JHR reaction with bacteriocidal actions AND the abnormal immune system response in Sarcoidosis patients. During the JHR, MP patients 1,25-D levels are noted to temporarily surge even higher, correlating with their reported exacerbation of symptoms. This would seem to provide further evidence that as the bacteria are killed by antibiotics, endotoxins are released, provoking a Th1 (bacterial) reaction.

The elicitation of a Herxheimer reaction is thought to be a key component in evaluating the efficacy of each MP antibiotic, antibiotic combination or dosing schedule. Indeed, the Marshalls advise that the lack of a Herxheimer reaction when Sarcoidosis symptoms are still present signals a need for a change in dosing schedule or antibiotic. Consequently the MP Sarcoidosis patient is expected to experience episodic JHRs as long as antibiotic therapy is needed. The gradual resolution of symptoms has been noted to require months or years depending on the extent of Sarcoidosis involvement and/or disease location. Remission of Sarcoidosis is determined by absence of symptoms, both objective and subjective.

Sarcoidosis patients report that a Herxheimer reaction makes them feel as though their disease symptoms have suddenly gotten worse. They report reactivation of previous symptoms and/or the exacerbation of presenting symptoms. Depending on the extent of the Sarcoidosis inflammation and the effectiveness of the antibiotic [16,17], the onset of JHR is from 1-2 hrs to10 days after the antibiotic/s are administered. The intensity of the reaction is dependent on many factors; location of the inflammation, appropriateness of the antibiotic/s, the antibiotic dosage, the presence of immunosuppressants, the level of dihydroxyvitamin-D [18] and the prophylactic dosing schedule of the Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB) used to interrupt the inflammatory cascade [19].

Herxheimer symptoms wax and wane with antibiotic administration and MP patients report that they continue to experience this phenomenon as long as effective antibiotic therapy continues. Trial and error with carefully selected antibiotic combinations has reportedly provoked a resumption of the JHR when symptoms have subsided. Since Sarcoidosis patients are believed to have acquired many different species of mycobacteria over a long period of time, the effectiveness of an antibiotic probe with a positive JHR seems to demonstrate the presence of another species or of bacteria previously hidden within poorly perfused tissues.

Herxheimer symptoms may be subjective or objective, or both. The most common symptoms reported by Sarcoidosis patients include increased fatigue, joint or muscle pain, headaches, skin rashes, photosensitivity, irritability, paresthesia, dizziness, sleep disturbances, asthenia, muscle cramps, night sweats, hypertension, hypotension, headaches (especially migraines) and swollen glands. Also reported are heavy perspiration, metallic taste in mouth, chills, nausea, bloating, constipation or diarrhea, low grade fever, chills, heart palpitations, tachycardia, facial palsy, tinnitus, mental confusion, uncoordinated movement, pruritus, bone pain, flu-like syndrome, conjunctivitis and throat swelling. Physicians have managed these JHR symptoms in MP Sarcoidosis patients with the use of an ARB and by decreasing the dosage or frequency of the antibiotics.

Physicians may note hypercalcemia, calcium deposits in the lungs, lymphopenia, anemia and renal calculi, elevation of ESR, gamma globulin and total globulin or a fall in serum albumin and hematocrit during a JHR. Unexpectedly severe Herxheimer reactions needing Emergency Room treatment have occurred. Especially worrisome is the possibility of eliciting severe respiratory symptoms or cardiac symptoms. Cardiac Sarcoidosis is sometimes unsuspected and diagnosed only when the JHR elicits chest pain or arrhythmia. If physicians are aware of the possibility of a JHR, they can avoid unnecessary testing or medications. Discontinuing the antibiotics and increasing the ARB dosage is reportedly the most effective treatment for severe JHR. The Marshalls caution that the JHR should be given the utmost respect. Since these life-threatening JHRs are most likely to occur at the start of antibiotic treatment, they advise establishing an ARB blockade to lower the level of 1,25-D before initiation of antibiotic therapy and that the initial antibiotic doses be very low.

JHR is sometimes mistaken for a "hypersensitivity reaction" or even the cause of a related, (probably preexisting) disease such as lupus.[20] Pruritus, hives and rash induced by JHR can be misdiagnosed as an allergic (Th2) reaction to the antibiotic. MP patients, however, have reported safely taking sulfa, although eliciting a JHR, despite a history of "allergy" to sulfa. JHR might linger for weeks, rather than the hours that would be expected from an allergic reaction. Laboratory tests can help differentiate between a Herxheimer reaction to microbial toxins and an allergic reaction to medication. WBCs and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D will be elevated in a Herxheimer reaction. But a marked increase in eosinophils ( about 30%) or the presence of specific antibodies is an indication of an allergic reaction.

The Marshalls report that as the number of dying bacteria is reduced with subsequent antibiotic doses, effective treatment requires increasing doses and changing antibiotic combinations to continue eliciting a Herxheimer response. The presence of a JHR is seen as evidence of continuing elimination of these very persistant bacteria. Although the JHR is often unpredictable, they report that it can be managed with the judicious choice of antibiotic combinations, careful dosing schedule, tapering of dosing and use of an ARB to establish an anti-inflammatory blockade. The Marshall Protocol does not advocate eliciting a more severe JRH than a patient can tolerate in order to eliminate the bacteria and the antibiotic dosing is individualized to each Sarcoidosis patient.

CONCLUSION

In my work with Sarcoidosis patients, it is my experience that recovering MP patients understand and welcome the Herxheimer reactions even when they must endure temporary increased suffering. They accept it as the price that they must pay in order to get well and they even seem to find it gratifying to experience tangible evidence of bacterial elimination. The gradual resolution of their Sarcoidosis symptoms as the treatment progresses seems to be ample reward to persist with this sometimes uncomfortable treatment. Many MP Sarcoidosis patients say that their doctors were initially unaware of the JHR phenomenon. An increased awareness of the Herxheimer reaction by those who treat Sarcoidosis would seem to be of benefit to patients. Antibiotics then might be seen as the ally they are proving to be in fighting this often fatal disease.

References

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   Available from URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2003.10.001
2. Marshall TG, Marshall FE: Antibiotics in Sarcoidosis Reflections on the First Year. JOIMR 2003;1(3):2 
   Available from URL http://www.joimr.org/phorum/read.php?f=2&i=38&t=38.
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