With natural therapies such as homeopathy, herbal remedies, acupuncture, chiropractic and other biological therapies, the patient may experience an initial increase in symptoms, or what is known as a “healing crisis.” This usually lasts around three or four days and can be similar to what one experiences when ill, for example, with a cold or flu. It may start with a headache, body ache and occasional fever with perspiration. Or one may just feel very tired and sluggish. Doctors from the old school welcome these symptoms as the initiation of the healing process.

To understand the process, let’s take as an example, the develop-ment of a bacterial infection. It may start with a scratchy throat, then develop into other bodily symptoms including fever. Within a few days the fever reaches a peak, then slowly drops along with a decrease of symptoms. This is the natural course of the body’s healing mechanism. Naturally, many people become impatient when they are ill with a cold or flu, particularly if it lasts longer than a few days, and they seek outside intervention. They go to a physician and obtain, for example, a prescription for antibiotics.

Antibiotics can indeed be very effective in interrupting the natural cycle of bacterial infections (they are useless against viral infections). This process can, however, lead to other complications.

If the antibiotic kills the micro organisms responsible for the illness, the distressful symptoms subside. The body, though, is now flooded with dead microorganisms. If it has the strength and vitality to eliminate these toxic residuals via the kidneys, liver, skin, and intestines, then there is no problem in regaining health. If, however, the body lacks vitality because of poor nutrition, constipation, or a lack of fluid intake (especially clean water), then the body is not able to completely flush out these toxic metabolic wastes.

What Happens to Residual Toxins?

The storage place for toxic metabolic wastes is primarily the connective tissue, which is present throughout the body. Connective tissue is like glue that holds the cells together.

Most people are born with an inherited constitutional weakness in a particular organ or organ system. Following the path of “least resistance,” the body uses this area first as a storage place. This is why, when one is ill with a cold or flu, some people experience the symptoms in the stomach, some in the chest, some in the intestines, and others, in the muscles or joints. The same microorganisms can cause different symptoms in different people.

Over a lifetime, regular treatment with antibiotics and other anti-inflammatory drugs can fill this storage place with residual toxins, which can eventually interfere with the function of the particular organ system.

The cells cannot get the nutrition they need or rid themselves of their own metabolic wastes. Consider the following illustration.

Imagine that your house is invaded by a hundred mice. You proceed to get rid of them by putting out poison. In a very short time the mice are all dead. You now try to locate the hundred dead mice but can find only seventy. Some of them have disappeared into the walls and under the floors, and you just can’t seem to find them. What will happen after about two weeks? Your house will begin to reek with the foul odor of decaying mice, which have polluted your house just as dead metabolites from past infections can pollute your body when they cannot be properly eliminated.

The Natural Process of Healing

Simple illnesses such as colds and the flu are handled in the body by developing a fever. The fever is designed to slowly kill the disease-causing microorganisms. This guarantees that the body does not become overloaded with residuals and can detox slowly and naturally.

The symptoms in a healing crisis are the result of the right therapy unlocking the toxic storage places and expelling the accumulated toxins from the body. This is the only effective and permanent cure for chronic illnesses and diseases.

Of course, during any natural detoxification process, the detoxifying organs such as the lymph system, liver, kidneys. intestines, lungs. and skin may need support with individual selected Drainage Remedies. Eating a large variety of vegetables, avoiding sweets and decreasing the intake of meat is advisable, If one still feels weak or tired, rest more and cut back on strenuous exercise. Decrease alcohol and stimulant intake. One should also drink plenty of pure, clean water (no tap or distilled water), and avoid stress as much as possible.

Finally, GOOD COMMUNICATION with the doctor is imperative; particularly a call to the patient after the first visit is a good practice. Sometimes with a slight adjustment in the dosage schedule one can feel better immediately and the body can get on with healing itself. Remember that the discomfort experienced is only temporary — the result of the body pulling out old toxins. According to some of the greatest European doctors, the stronger the initial reaction, the more the body really eliminates by pulling at the deep roots of thedisease.

To use another analogy, it’s like removing a splinter from one’s hand. One is able to get along reasonably well with the splinter for quite some time. Even if it hurts one can still function. Pulling the splinter out will cause more pain for a short moment. The short-term discomfort, however, is well worth not having the chronic pain.

If there have been many illnesses or diseases in a patient’s history, the detoxification therapy may take the body through a series of regressions during which the patient can experience symptoms of EACH past illness. Should this occur, the patient ought to feel encouraged rather than discouraged, for the symptoms are a positive indication that the therapy has a deep detoxifying effect.

As Albert Schweitzer so aptly expressed it, “A good therapy is one within.”