In this post we will discuss about Overt and Covert Diseases.
Ignorance is bliss, or so they say...
A ‘Covert Disease’ is the one that is hidden. Would a thief or intruder alert you to their presence? On similar lines when an infectious organism ‘the intruders’ try to colonize our body and infect it, they employ means to hide themselves so that they cannot be easily detected. They do not make noise, cause pain, hurt us or create discomfort. They come in silently…..
If the immune system is not working well, these intruders will very soon overpower our body and we would succumb to the Covert Disease. We won’t even know what hit us !
Awareness is a pain:
If you are lucky and your Immune system detects these intruders, then the alarms will start ringing. Preventive actions will be taken and you will see section 144 imposed in your body….. Paradoxically, this awareness that could help us survive, also creates an environment in our body that appears to most of us as 'Unwanted Pain'
This healing response is the ‘Overt Disease’ : A condition that puts us through discomfort, by alerting us and creating an environment in our body that helps us heal. It takes us through a journey and is experiential in nature, albeit distressing. Most importantly- it helps protect the body and keep us alive.
Take a moment to think:
So far which response have you been supporting?
Which response have you been considering as a problem, opposing and suppressing? The Covert or the Overt Healing Response?
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Hari was experiencing flu like symptoms. He was running a temperature, had severe body ache and was feeling very weak and nauseated. He wanted to arrest his fever as soon as possible, get rid of his weakness and be up and running so that he could attend to an important meeting in the office the next day.
For Hari as for most of us, the biggest problem was the Fever and the accompanying discomfort. Hari was educated, he did not need a doctor to tell him what to do. He self medicated himself with an Antipyretic to reduce his fever, an antihistamine tablet to decrease the allergic response, an Antibiotic- to fight an infection he had no clue about and an NSAID to help reduce that pain.
The medication seemed to do the trick. Hari felt much better. The fever subsided, the discomfort seemed to vanish and he did go to the meeting….
But, before long Hari was sick once again. The fever was back with a vengeance and so were the bouts of coughing and breathlessness. What went wrong? Why did the medicines not work?
Well, the infection had spread, since most of the medicines that Hari had taken had interfered with the healing response and the security measures taken by the Immune system.
He had taken Anti-Healing medications.
Why? Because they would be interfering with Healing, or rather ‘The Disease of Healing.’
Overt Disease- The Disease of Healing:
A Positive Disease
(Experienced as Symptoms such as Fever, Body-ache, Nausea, Loose Motions etc)
The Fever: Creates an inhospitable environment (It is like imposing curfew or Presidents Rule). It also activates the immune response and plays a pivotal role in resolving the underlying security breach or signalling issue that triggered the healing response.
The Shivering: It is the body’s attempt to increase the temperature and is triggered by the Hypothalamus.
The Runny nose and sneezing: Helps throw out the infectious organism.
Inflammation and The Allergic response: Helps cordon off the infected zone, alerts the immune system our security personnel and ensures that there is sufficient blood flow to the area.
Vomiting, Loose Motions and Diarrhoea: Body’s attempt to throw out the offending organism.
The Weakness: Is due to the fact that the body allocates most of the resources for the war and creates a feeling of weakness so that the organism is forcibly immobilized.
The Pain, The Swelling: A warning sign that the gets your attention and forces you to cooperate with the actions being taken by the Immune system.
Hence if you see the symptoms in Hari’s case, they were meant to create an inhospitable environment for the offending organism. These changes also alerted the immune system so that the body could start addressing a Covert Disease- A hidden threat.
Security measures were put in place. The body was made to feel weak so that Hari would not keep moving around and wasting precious energy. The elevated temperature, inflammation, patrolling by body’s army, Runny nose, sneezing.... all these measures were the symptoms of starting on the ‘Healing Journey’
Hari considered the security measures as the problem and so put an end to the Fever, the inflammation, the allergic response… and went to the meeting.
Result: With the immune system turned off, the offending organism thanked ‘Hari’ and started colonising the body once again. Their numbers grew and since they did it very silently Hari was oblivious to the fact that they were actually destroying his body.
But, why does the real disease causing organism not affect us as badly as our Immune system?
That brings us to a painless albeit life threatening disease: Covert Disease
Covert Disease – When Ignorance destroys Bliss.
(A Security Breach resulting in destruction of the inhabitants of the body.)
Covert Disease: A successful disease causing organism has to be Covert, just like an expert thief has to possess the knack and the tools for helping bypass security measures.
Most successful disease causing organisms prefer to infect and colonize the human body without triggering any alarms. Once they gain entry in the human body, they would slowly grow in numbers by utilising the body’s own resources. Since they do not belong to the body, their intentions are not to support survival, but to grow in numbers, exhaust the resources and move on to infect another host.
These infectious organisms love it when, they do not cause any symptoms. In fact they are constantly evolving to escape detection and to pass off as the body’s own cells.
They are the enemy that does not hurt, till such a time that they take over your body completely and bring a quick end to your very existence.
What is it we should do?
Having understood Covert Diseases, let us answer the following questions.
1. In real life: Would you side with an enemy or would you support the security personnel whose job is to protect you?
2. Would you consider the security personnel as a problem if they were to restrict your movement so as to ensure your safety?
3. Then why is it that, when it comes to our health we take reckless decisions and go all out to suppress the symptoms (The alarms) and our own protectors ( the immune system)?
We have to realize that a covert disease is much more dangerous than the uncomfortable steps taken by the body to fight it.
I think it is time that we start paying more attention to our body. We have to remember that drugs are of absolutely no use if they are going to oppose the body’s healing mechanism.
So when we take that Acetaminophen to suppress a fever, or a pain killer to numb us to the SOS signals that certain cells are sending, we are doing more harm than good.
If we continue on this path of opposing the body, very soon the damage done to our cells because of the covert diseases would overwhelm the body and create a covert disease of a magnitude that would overwhelm and destroy us.
Now, which disease would you support? The Covert or the Overt?
As for me, I choose to support the 'Overt Disease', by providing an environment that will help in the body’s healing efforts. Yes, there would be discomfort, but when I take upon myself the task of helping the body, and become involved in the process, the healing would be quicker and more complete….
That is what makes PreHealing unique. It is not about Healing, rather it is about Providing the Right Environment, so that the body can heal itself.