Disease Proof

From Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease Proof Your Child:

Symptoms are the body’s natural response to deal with the causes of disease, lessening their damage. Symptoms attempt to eliminate the cause of an illness, but are often mistaken for the illness itself. For example, when we get food poisoning, diarrhea is a beneficial response to wash away the offending microbes. Attempting to halt diarrhea with medication is potentially harmful, as it may allow dangerous bacteria to proliferate and gain entry into the bloodstream. In acute illness, such as colds and flu, the symptoms such as fever, mucous production, and cough are the body’s defenses to get rid of the virus. A fever promotes interferon production in the brain, which then further activates white blood cells to fight the virus. Coughing aids in expelling mucous, carrying away dead cells and preventing them from settling within the lungs.

Suppressing the fever and cough with medication can lead to a prolonged illness. In fact, cough suppressants and over-the-counter cold medicines expose children and adults to further side effects without significant effectiveness. We were taught in medical that cough suppressants do not work well, which is good, because if the cough was really suppressed, the mucous would settle deep into the lung and cause pneumonia. The most common cough suppressants contain dextromethorphan and codeine. A head-to-head comparison between placebo and these cough remedies showed that the placebo worked just as well. All children improved significantly by day three, and there was no difference among the three treatment groups in any symptom parameter.1

Self-medicating symptoms with over-the-counter medications may not be wise, but it can be more of a health risk to go to a doctor who, in response to patient demand, will provide an antibiotic. Antibiotics are useless against common viral illnesses. They are designed to treat the much more uncommon bacterial illnesses. Of course, antibiotics have legitimate uses, but would only encompass less than 10 percent of all antibiotics utilized in this country today.

When ill with a typical viral syndrome, it is best to rest, drink water, avoid cooked food, and only consume high-water-content fruits and vegetables if hungry. Avoid physicians, medications, and remedies. See a doctor only if the illness is unusual or unusually severe or prolonged. It would be a better idea to give antibiotics inappropriately to those who are well and not burden the sick people suffering with viruses with such potentially dangerous drugs.

For more information on antibiotics read this previous post: Prescribed Antibiotics and You 1. Taylor JA, Novack AH, Almquist JR, Rogers JE. Efficacy of cough suppressants in children. J Pediatr 1993 122;(5 Pt1):799-802.