{"id":82,"date":"2018-09-19T13:02:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T13:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbmedicine.wpengine.com\/2018-09-19-can-illness-acually-heal-us\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T16:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:41:13","slug":"can-illness-acually-heal-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heartbasedmedicine.org\/en\/can-illness-acually-heal-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Illness Actually Heal Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"82\" class=\"elementor elementor-82\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-76e53e1e e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"76e53e1e\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1d321838 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1d321838\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"pl-82\" class=\"panel-layout\"><div id=\"pg-82-0\" class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\"><div id=\"pgc-82-0-0\" class=\"panel-grid-cell panel-grid-cell-empty\" data-weight=\"1\"><span style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">I have always thought that my role as a paediatrician was to reduce suffering and help set patients on a fast track to a positive state of health.<\/span><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pg-82-1\" class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\"><div id=\"pgc-82-1-0\" class=\"panel-grid-cell\" data-weight=\"1\"><div id=\"panel-82-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\"><div class=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"><div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\"><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Success has traditionally been measured by the absence of the initial symptoms or what we usually call \u2018the patient\u2019s presenting complaint.\u2019<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">The faster they were pulled out of suffering and got back to normal, the better, as far as we were concerned.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>To give you an example, Enya, my own five-year-old daughter contracted influenza a few weeks ago.<\/strong> She felt really poorly, \u2018presenting with\u2019 a high fever, aches and pains all over her body and deep-seated coughing which produced a lot of phlegm. She wasn\u2019t drinking, had no appetite and slept almost constantly for the first three days of her illness. Surrounded by family life, lying on a mattress on the floor in the living room, she was essentially sleeping.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">So I was quite worried and wanted to give her medicine to reduce her cough and anti-inflammatories to reduce her fever, make her feel better, see her smile again.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">\u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good idea, love,\u2019 Jessica said gently as I approached our daughter proffering a spoonful of medication.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">\u2018Why would you want to give her drugs, just to get her to sit up? Can\u2019t we just let her go through this process?\u2019 queried my wife.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">\u2018Look, she\u2019s not drinking properly, she\u2019s not well, and she\u2019s suffering! I love her, of course I don\u2019t want to see her suffer,\u2019 I offered.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>\u2018Why don\u2019t you want to see her suffering?\u2019<\/strong> Jessica prompted.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">That shocked me. \u2018Who wants to see their child suffer?\u2019 I begged. \u2018It\u2019s obvious to me that we would want to give her drugs so she doesn\u2019t need to suffer anymore, right?\u2019<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Our discussion continued in a way that made no sense to me at the time. But my wife was adamant. Finally I gave in. \u2018OK, I hear your point.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">The drugs aren\u2019t really curing her illness; they\u2019re just reducing her immune response so she can feel better in the short-term.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">And you\u2019d like us to consider other approaches that will make her feel better in the long-term. Is that right?\u2019<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Jessica nodded quietly, her eyes full of compassion.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">\u2018Then I want to be at her bedside and hold her hand while she fights the virus,\u2019 I explained as one part in me listened to the other part speaking.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>As I lay down close to Enya, holding and comforting her, she responded immediately.<\/strong> She opened her feverish eyes and looked deeply into mine. Then she cuddled up as if she was seeking shelter and drifted back to sleep. Being able to help her without resorting to drugs appeased my conscience and I felt more deeply connected to my little daughter as we went through this difficult time together.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">Caring for Enya meant that I couldn\u2019t keep to my work schedule, nor could I stick to the promise I\u2019d made myself to get up at 4am every day to make recordings for Heart Based Medicine. But none of that mattered because I was with my daughter when she needed me.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>When I look back, I\u2019m really grateful for what that bout of influenza taught me.<\/strong> I\u2019d learned what was truly healing and contributed to good health for both of us. Although anti-inflammatories would have been a short-term solution, the most holistic approach was lying down alongside her, providing love and comfort and strengthening her confidence in her own body\u2019s ability to overcome the illness.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">The bonus? As Enya\u2019s immune system got stronger, so did our relationship.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">I was even grateful when the influenza spread to everyone in the family! It gave me a chance to be at home with each of my kids, holding and supporting them. Our whole family dynamic changed as I grew into a new understanding of fatherhood.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">This was a true demonstration of Heart Based Medicine in practice.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">I\u2019m certainly not wishing influenza on anyone \u2013 it kills a lot of people every year. Nor am I claiming that anti-inflammatories are the bad guys; they can be a blessing. But I have learned to appreciate the value of another perspective.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>This experience provoked a major change in the mindset of a conventional infectious disease and vaccine specialist.<\/strong> It was revealing to discover that my specific knowledge of influenza as a potentially life-threatening illness with all its signs, symptoms, and complications, was too simplistic. My training as a biomedically trained pediatrician blinded me to its many facets. And it proved useful for me to prioritize Heart-Based Medicine before turning automatically to allopathic medicine.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>In the future, I\u2019d like to think my decision making will be less schematic and more loving.<\/strong> I will advise parents differently and start to raise their awareness that if they are able to give their children emotional support and special care while they are suffering, it will strengthen their bodies and their resilience.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\">As well as developing within their children the foundation of basic trust in their own self-healing ability it will also teach them the value of staying together as a family during times of suffering.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><strong>Disease is an important part of life<\/strong>, and not necessarily one that has to be changed just because it is not in line with my preference or an idea of \u2018normal\u2019 which was learned mostly from a textbook. Symptom relief certainly has its place, but not as a replacement for heartfelt care and sensitivity. This is the true blessing of heart-based medicine.<\/p><p style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><em>The story above is based on personal experiences. Places and names are fictional. <\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How loving and allowing life to run its course can sometimes be the best prescription<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":6317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"iawp_total_views":23,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[261,265,173,264,299,234,176,108,254,263,253,301,300,272],"media-category":[437],"typ":[431],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read","tag-compassionate-healthcare","tag-emotional-intelligence-in-healthcare","tag-emotional-well-being","tag-healing-power-of-love","tag-healing-through-illness","tag-healthcare-transformation","tag-heart-based-leadership","tag-heart-based-medicine","tag-holistic-healing","tag-mindfulness-in-medicine","tag-patient-centered-care","tag-personal-growth-through-illness","tag-spiritual-healing","tag-wellness-in-healthcare","media-category-stories","typ-intern"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can Illness Actually Heal Us | Heart Based Medicine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Immune systems are unique. 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