Did you know…

that the symptoms you suffer are not the disorder or disease itself, but your body’s attempt to fix the problem?

We know at one level that the symptoms are just that–indications of a disorder or disease, not the disease itself. Yet, we generally tend to think in terms of ‘no symptoms, no disease’. We think this in two ways: first, so long as we don’t have any symptoms, we think we are healthy; second, if we have symptoms and they then go away, we generally think the disease is gone, too.

Most treatments, whether conventional or alternative, are aimed at the symptoms. This is really just a case of ‘shooting the messenger’. Symptoms result from a disease, but they are not the disease. Symptoms are really our friend, telling us what we need, but we don’t want to hear. Without symptoms to tell us that we have a problem, we wouldn’t know and wouldn’t try to do anything about it.

Heilkunst distinguishes between the initial action and counteraction phases of the disease process. These two phases relate to the two sides of our life force – the generative power and the sustentive power. The initial action involves the engendering of the disease in the generative power of our life force. It is virtually imperceptible to us. As a sovereign entity, our body naturally initiates a battle against any  intrusion. This is the counteraction phase. The counteraction of the sustentive side of our life force produces symptoms, which point to  the struggle against the disease. So, the actual engenderment of the disease (initial action) and the counteraction of our healing (sustentive) power make up the two phases of the disease process.

The disease process is part of the natural law of action-reaction: the action of the disease agent produces a reaction on the part of our immune system. How soon and in what form the counteraction will take place depends on the nature of the disease, the individual makeup and the condition of the immune system. Usually the stronger the immune system, the more immediate the counteraction. Sometimes the immune system is able to overcome the disease with few if any perceptible symptoms. That is when someone might feel a little ‘off’ with ‘cold’ symptoms, while another person will have more pronounced displays of symptoms. It is, thus, important to have a healthy regimen to keep the sustentive power properly charged and able to resist incursions by disease agents. Relatively speaking, a disease of an infectious nature usually sets off the symptoms much sooner than a disease of a more chronic nature even though these might also have acute flare-ups. Some individual’s tend to express their battle against disease through fevers while others seem to always have a headache. (We will look at this in another post.)

Disease itself is invisible and silent. It comes like a thief in the night. It steals our health and we don’t know it until later when we discover something missing, things out of place or signs of forced entry. Symptoms point out that a disease is trying to get in or has somehow gotten in. Some symptoms are loud and noisy–when the pain feels like we are banging our head against a wall, or we want to, this is something we can’t ignore! Let’s take the classic case of infectious diseases. When our children contract a disease, like chickenpox, nothing is noticed for about 7-10 days. They have the disease, but we don’t know it yet. This is the initial action of the disease process. Then our healing or sustentive power rallies its forces (the immune system) and tries to get rid of the disease. This struggle is the counteraction and it is the struggle that produces symptoms, such as fevers and discharges.

We tend to consider the symptoms as being the disease itself, and thus, the enemy. Fevers, discharges, and rashes are generally considered bad and to be suppressed. Most treatments seek to provide medicines that work against the symptoms. We are given either synthetic or natural medicines to suppress fever (aspirin or white willow bark) or to suppress discharges (decongestants for mucous). However, these treatments are ‘symptomatic’; they do not address the underlying cause or the disease itself.

In Heilkunst, we can take the symptoms into account, but the treatment is aimed at the disease itself, not the symptoms. When the cause is removed, the symptoms also go away. Take the case of a woman who had been suffering from migraines several times a week for almost 30 years. She had changed her diet, taken various natural and over the counter drug treatments and finally ended up on prescription drugs. These blunted the symptoms somewhat, but did nothing to actually get rid of the migraines. These migraines had a number of underlying causes or diseases, and after treating for them systematically with Heilkunst her migraines finally ceased.

Heilkunst provides causal treatment. It does not ‘shoot the messenger’ (the symptoms), but seeks rather to get at the underlying cause. Symptoms are often unpleasant, but they are our friends in terms of letting us know there is a problem, and giving us clues as to the source of the problem. Suppressing the symptoms does not mean the cause is gone. The battle temporarily fades into the background but it will continue on or it will choose another outlet (a different set of symptoms from another part of the body), as the enemy (disease) is still in place. Removing the cause (the disease), however, does effectively get rid of the symptoms as well.

So, don’t be misled by symptomatic treatment – use the approach that actually gets rid of the underlying cause(s) of the symptoms – Heilkunst – and does it safely.

For more information about Heilkunst treatment and studies please visit our website.