Support for Working through Flu (treatments which should help with coronavirus, too)
There are many small things we can do to help support each other through a flu. We can collectively work to understand “When I am sick, what is my body trying to accomplish, what does it need to do to get better?” and then we work to support those tasks. Fever is created by the immune system to physiologically aid the process of dissolving and clearing out what has become too isolated, too stuck, too cooled in our own body. Inflammatory reactions—also part of the immune system’s activity—work to recognize and remove those things that do not belong in us, which is why we get inflammations during infections with viruses and bacteria (even if we get a splinter in our finger). It is possible to guide and support the body to accomplish its tasks. The suggestions listed below are helpful for illnesses or influenza-type illnesses with strong fever.
Fever, Fear, and Riding a Bicycle: Working with Fever in a Different Way
This article was originally published in Lilipoh Magazine, Issue #97, Fall 2019
We lose part of our sense of control when we get sick, and no one likes that feeling. Loss of control brings fear. Illness is always a little scary because there is implicit risk of loss and incapacity and so we (appropriately) fear lasting injury. Another part of the fear we experience with illness comes not so much from injury, but from simply not quite knowing what is going to happen. Usually illness is mild, but what if it becomes life-threatening, and how are we supposed to know which illness is mild and which is dangerous? Getting professional medical advice aids in that determination, but even the medical encounter itself can bring its own set of worries—we must trust in the advice of medical providers even when we may not fully understand their decision-making process, or worse yet, not even be invited to participate in it. There are reasons to be fearful around illness on multiple levels.
Stomach Flu, Probiotics and Digesting the World
Here are three paragraphs about supporting and strengthening your digestion:
When you have an acute gastroenteritis (more commonly know as the stomach “flu”), a simple, but very helpful trick:
If you get a stomach virus—the kind that quickly goes around schools and workplaces and causes multiple episodes of vomiting—it is very easy to get dehydrated. This makes you incredibly thirsty, so then once you have a break in the vomiting it feels good to gulp down a bunch of liquid. The trouble is that usually the stomach is swollen and irritated because of the virus, and when you gulp a bunch of water it stretches the swollen stomach, which makes you vomit again. This can become a vicious cycle–vomit, gulp, vomit, repeat. So here’s a recommendation: