The Bodys Natural Protective Systems

2. The Body’s Natural Protective Systems

Clearly, in the living body, the body “chemistry” changes when there are changes in the weather. Technology can thwart the body’s efforts at correct changes. But, modern technology is not the only thing that interferes with the body’s natural functioning and responses to changed conditions in order to maintain internal temperature and other vital functions at a constant level. As Hygienists know, “toxemia” can play havoc with the body’s internal economy; prolonged mental or physical stress can disrupt the body’s internal adjustive mechanisms, and present a constant interference with the body’s natural functions; and, of course, one of the worst causes of complete and deadly disruption of natural body functions is drugs.

2.1 Drugs Thwart and Impede Internal Vital Functions

Both the so-called “primary” and “side effects” of many drugs can critically interfere with the body’s natural functions. For instance, tranquilizers, prescribed to “relieve” stress during prolonged heat waves, have actually killed people due to their “side effects” of blocking the body’s natural system of cooling itself by sweating! And, it has long been known that the drug, nicotine, can constrict circulation in the extremities. The western world’s love affair with coffee makes millions of addicts to caffeine, another drug that can cause the constriction of blood vessels, causing a rise in blood pressure and giving a deceptive feeling that the body is naturally warmer. Other drugs, such as amphetamines, marijuana, and King Alcohol, can play havoc with the body’s natural temperature-regulating systems.

The body’s incredible sensitivity to changes in atmospheric pressure, and its remarkable internal adjustments to stabilize its functions in relation to external changes, can be fatally interfered with by drugs. According to scientific studies, the side effects of certain drugs prescribed for heart patients, for instance, can prove fatal to some patients taken under conditions such as the sudden dropping of atmospheric pressure preceding a storm, or in the lowered air pressure of the mountains.

2.2 More Influences on the Body

And, who knows how many highway accidents, job-related accidents, marital break-ups, etc., are caused by the changing weather’s effect on “weather-sensitive” people, who develop circulatory problems, fatigue, inability to concentrate, moodiness, depression, instant anger, migraine headaches, etc. The nervous system of the marvelous living body is so sensitive to external influences (such as infrasound influences) that it can “feel” certain sounds that winds make which are of too low a vibration to affect the human ear.

Every year, in certain parts of this planet, weird winds spring up that in folklore have been called “witch’s winds,” because in their wake there seems to be a rise in accidents, illnesses, crimes, etc. Both weather-sensitive humans and animals seem to “sense” the coming of these winds. Now a scientific explanation has been given this folk wisdom of the ages. Scientists researching this phenomena now call this the “ion influence.” They claim that in weather changes, it is these ions or electrically-charged molecules of air, to which people are really sensitive. They theorize that a natural balance of positive to negative ions of five to four increases strikingly as these “witch’s storms” approach. The conclusions of these bio-meteorology researchers is that this upsetting of the ion balance causes immediate and drastic changes in the body-regulating systems of weather-sensitive people who are truly living barometers. One widely-noted effect is the overproduction of adrenalin, which as a secondary effect causes adrenal exhaustion symptoms such as extreme fatigue, nervous tension, moodiness, depression, etc.

Ion research at the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered that negative ions reduce normal blood levels of serotonin, a hormone that “carries messages” (according to brain specialists) within the brain processes. These findings concluded that positive ions, on the other hand, increase serotonin levels. This increase in serotonin caused by an increase of positive ions is declared to be the cause of illnesses related to “witch’s winds,” according to ion researchers. The theory is that wind friction caused by moving air masses, layers of wind, etc., creating friction with existing, relatively motionless surrounding air, tends to cause massive electrical disturbances by “knocking off” negative ions and increasing the overdose of the number of positive ions. Ion researchers now conclude that an overdose of positive ions affects the body processes, metabolism, temperature regulating, etc., of all living creatures on this planet.

2.3 How Can We Control How the Weather Affects Us?

If these current findings about weather-related illnesses caused by an upsetting of the body’s internal systems hold true after much future investigation, then an equal, if not more important, area of investigation would be to see if we can discover how the body itself best copes with these outward, adverse changes and influences. Life Science already has a key understanding in that the healthy, normally-functioning body can more quickly adjust to and overcome enormous external adverse influences. But, the body’s energies and intelligence not only have to be expended in adjusting to massive external influences, like the weather, but it also has to use its precious life energies neutralizing and expelling drugs that are deadly to the body’s internal processes; plus the processing and expelling of wrong foods, bad combinations, etc. But, the primary law of physiology of the body is “self-preservation” by the great wisdom within. Life Science/Hygiene teach that a living body not burdened with toxemia, and correctly nourished, can withstand external environmental changes, like the weather, with a remarkable resilience, and that weather influences on such a healthy body are more temporary with less lasting disruption of body economy.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it?” But we all can do something about it by correct living in such a way that we help the body to help itself, in its readjustments and responses to the disruption of its internal equilibrium by such conditions as sudden weather changes, etc., and not in such a way that we are constantly throwing deadly “wrenches” in the body’s incredibly complex works. Or, to put it another way, study and listen to your own body, for its wisdom and marvelous workings are the best indicator, maintainer, and adjuster of total body health (physical and mental) whether in weather changes or whatever, and not some external authority, drug prescription, injection, etc.

Thus, the constantly increasing discoveries of how the weather can be a disrupting factor in health, nutrition, etc., show dramatically, again, the great value of the Hygiene/Life Science way of life, as the best way of helping the body cope with these disruptions. One of the basic pillars of the Hygiene/Life Science way of life is correct nutrition. We have already mentioned the deadly effects of many prescription drugs on the body’s ability to adjust to weather changes. But few of the contemporary works on nutrition equate all the harmful additives in food as being drugs also, and just as poisonous as prescription drugs to the living economy.

Many things popularly thought to be foods are really poisons. For instance, sugar and salt are not foods, but poisons. The enormous amounts of salt and sugar consumed by Westerners produce untold ill health, misery, and death. Salt buildup in the body causes increased loss of potassium, and this depletion of potassium can lead to heat prostration, headache, lassitude, sleeplessness, localized pain, inability to concentrate, etc. Much evidence is available to show that its cumulative effect over a period of years is one of the culprits in kidney disease, high blood pressure, heart enlargement, etc. Refined sugar is consumed in towering amounts by our Western society and culture, and is suspected of being a major factor in heart disease, arterial diseases, teeth and bone deterioration, etc.

It is not hard to see how the complex body system, disrupted constantly by the ingestion or injection of dangerous drugs, chemical additives/etc., could be unable to cope with sudden and vast changes in the weather. On the other hand, a smooth functioning body whose cells and tissues are kept well cleansed and well nourished with the biologically-suitable diet of mankind—fruits, uncooked vegetables (especially green, leafy salads), and nuts, can withstand and adjust to weather changes to a remarkable degree.

Space is limited, so this must necessarily be a rather general survey and summary of some of the recent investigations and discoveries in this fruitful and fascinating field of biometeorology—the study of weather, climate, etc.—and its mysterious influence (in several aspects) on human health. Here is surely a fertile field for present and future investigation, for those Life Scientists/Hygienists who desire to strike out into newer fields of creative thinking, investigation, and discovery for the benefit and betterment of humankind.