When popular Indian detergent brand Surf Excel launched a new ad campaign called 'Daag achche hain', meaning 'Stains are good' in Hindi, the whole country took notice of the new concept. Hindustan Unilever, manufacturer of Surf Excel, used children in their ad to portray the idea, because children bring home the most stains. The ad caught people's attention as it promoted a completely different concept about what is conventionally believed to be dirty - stains.
The ad shows a boy and a girl walking on a muddy path. When the girl falls into a puddle, the boy jumps into the puddle himself, hits it, and demands that it apologize to his sister. As they walk away, the boy threatens the puddle to 'never do it again'. The puddle inadvertently helps to develop a stronger bond between the brother and sister.
For the same reasons as everyone around me, I was struck by the novelty of the ad. Over the years, with experience, the concept used in this ad made better sense to me, though for completely different reasons.
Imagine the little girl in the ad as yourself, the puddle is a minor illness like a cold, and the boy is your immune system. Whenever your body falls into any minor illness, your immune system acts immediately, attacking it with all its strength; and after achieving it's victory, the immune system forms antibodies that will threaten the same virus or bacteria if it tries its antics again. This effort results in a stronger bond between you and your immune system. Just as Surf Excel doesn't jump into the picture as soon as stains form on the children's clothes, you don't need to pop a conventional pharmaceutical as soon as you feel the sniffles coming on. Let your immune system do its part, especially in minor illnesses.
Use home remedies or alternative therapies to ease any discomfort due to the illness, and get lots of rest! Under natural conditions, the immune system will triumph and the illness will pass without the need for assistance from drugs. When the immune system is made stronger this way, it will fight minor infections on its own and you don't even see any symptoms most of the time because your naturally-acquired immunity is quietly doing its job.
Imagine if the boy in the ad had not acted the way he did, but went and complained to his mother about how his sister managed to get so dirty. One small complaint could change the brother-sister friendship that is based on trust. As a result, the girl would find it very difficult to trust her brother again.
In the same way, when you take medicines at the first instance of a minor illness, the immune system is not allowed to act; the drugs act on its behalf, sometimes even against it. The immunity is not strengthened. The end result is repeated infections, chronic illness, prescription drugs, antibiotics... and when one cycle is over, rinse and repeat over and over again until chronic illness strikes and conventional medicine has nothing substantial to offer.
Here is a simplified outline of the sequence of events.
Minor infection --> pharmaceutical drugs --> depleted immune system --> re-infection --> antibiotics --> impaired immune system --> re-infection --> repeated antibiotics --> chronic illness --> more suppressive drugs like steroids --> immune suppression --> long term high risk illnesses allergies, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroiditis --> autoimmune disorders - crohns disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis --> more prescription drugs --> ???
Now, the whole premise of this argument lies in the fact that the immune system is healthy to begin with. If it is already damaged, then there is a lot of work to be done to get it back to normal.
How do we know that the immune system is healthy? Simply by letting it act. Let it be exposed to everyday germs and practice its skills; stimulate it. If you have a healthy immune system, you don't need to wipe every grocery store cart with antibacterial wipes or fumigate your home with antibacterial sprays.
The development of immunity begins even before conception, with the health of the parents-to-be. This is why health and nutritious diet during pregnancy are so significant for the health of our future generations. Take care of the new infant but don't become paranoid about germs, and follow this rule as the child grows.
The sole objective of this post is to analyze why immune system disorders are so common in today's children, is it genetic1?
Homeopaths do not regard the occurrence of colds 6 times a year to be normal, or even 1 ear infection, infant eczema, or using nebulizers or asthma inhalers. There are better ways to stay healthy than using pharmaceuticals and antibiotics for everything under the sun, you just need to seek out the other ways.
The ad shows a boy and a girl walking on a muddy path. When the girl falls into a puddle, the boy jumps into the puddle himself, hits it, and demands that it apologize to his sister. As they walk away, the boy threatens the puddle to 'never do it again'. The puddle inadvertently helps to develop a stronger bond between the brother and sister.
For the same reasons as everyone around me, I was struck by the novelty of the ad. Over the years, with experience, the concept used in this ad made better sense to me, though for completely different reasons.
Imagine the little girl in the ad as yourself, the puddle is a minor illness like a cold, and the boy is your immune system. Whenever your body falls into any minor illness, your immune system acts immediately, attacking it with all its strength; and after achieving it's victory, the immune system forms antibodies that will threaten the same virus or bacteria if it tries its antics again. This effort results in a stronger bond between you and your immune system. Just as Surf Excel doesn't jump into the picture as soon as stains form on the children's clothes, you don't need to pop a conventional pharmaceutical as soon as you feel the sniffles coming on. Let your immune system do its part, especially in minor illnesses.
Use home remedies or alternative therapies to ease any discomfort due to the illness, and get lots of rest! Under natural conditions, the immune system will triumph and the illness will pass without the need for assistance from drugs. When the immune system is made stronger this way, it will fight minor infections on its own and you don't even see any symptoms most of the time because your naturally-acquired immunity is quietly doing its job.
Imagine if the boy in the ad had not acted the way he did, but went and complained to his mother about how his sister managed to get so dirty. One small complaint could change the brother-sister friendship that is based on trust. As a result, the girl would find it very difficult to trust her brother again.
In the same way, when you take medicines at the first instance of a minor illness, the immune system is not allowed to act; the drugs act on its behalf, sometimes even against it. The immunity is not strengthened. The end result is repeated infections, chronic illness, prescription drugs, antibiotics... and when one cycle is over, rinse and repeat over and over again until chronic illness strikes and conventional medicine has nothing substantial to offer.
Here is a simplified outline of the sequence of events.
Minor infection --> pharmaceutical drugs --> depleted immune system --> re-infection --> antibiotics --> impaired immune system --> re-infection --> repeated antibiotics --> chronic illness --> more suppressive drugs like steroids --> immune suppression --> long term high risk illnesses allergies, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroiditis --> autoimmune disorders - crohns disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis --> more prescription drugs --> ???
Now, the whole premise of this argument lies in the fact that the immune system is healthy to begin with. If it is already damaged, then there is a lot of work to be done to get it back to normal.
 |
| Image credit - Jaya Prime/ Flickr CC |
The development of immunity begins even before conception, with the health of the parents-to-be. This is why health and nutritious diet during pregnancy are so significant for the health of our future generations. Take care of the new infant but don't become paranoid about germs, and follow this rule as the child grows.
The sole objective of this post is to analyze why immune system disorders are so common in today's children, is it genetic1?
Homeopaths do not regard the occurrence of colds 6 times a year to be normal, or even 1 ear infection, infant eczema, or using nebulizers or asthma inhalers. There are better ways to stay healthy than using pharmaceuticals and antibiotics for everything under the sun, you just need to seek out the other ways.
In the next post, I will discuss how you can keep your immune system healthy.
1 - I've discussed more about genetics in this post.
Additional Reading
1. The Autoimmune Epidemic - It's a long article, but a must read!
2. PBS - A 3:56 minute video on the Hygiene Hypothesis. Watch it!
3. National Institutes of Health - The hygiene hypothesis for autoimmune and allergic diseases. "According to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, the decreasing incidence of infections in western countries and more recently in developing countries is at the origin of the increasing incidence of both autoimmune and allergic diseases."
4.Web MD - What are immune system disorders?
Nice piece of info Jyothi..waiting for the next post now :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Payal! The next post is up!
ReplyDelete