I would like to know why it is acceptable for every single person to be taking multiple prescription drugs every day? Not just daily drugs for blood pressure, heart rate, menstrual issues or inflammation, but cold remedies, head-ache remedies, acid stomach remedies, infections, fever, cough, constipation, even lack of energy remedies.  We want a quick fix so we can continue with our work, our responsibilities, and our lives.  But why is the idea of rest so anathema to us?  

We have become a society where chronic unresolved illness is accepted as the norm, as long as we don’t have to feel symptoms. But those symptoms are becoming more and more demanding despite all our drug-filled attempts to stop them. This is because we are a society that demonizes rest. The concept of rest is to provide the body with additional energy needed for numerous fabulous things that need to happen when we are not active, such as restoring hormone levels, shuttling nutrition from blood to tissue, detoxifying cells, repairing injured areas, and building new tissue. 

This is by far the most common problem that walks through my clinic door. I am seeing this lack of rest in fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic Lyme, unresolved neurological disorders, A-Fib, ongoing infection situations, even PMS and infertility.  The lack of rest has become the newest illness. Patients tell me they can’t rest because of work, the kids, the house, the bills. Somehow rest has become a luxury we can’t afford. It’s something we reserve for a vacation. 

But in supporting a society that scoffs at rest, history has proven us to be very short-sighted. The most important factor for centuries in recovering from any illness or injury was complete rest, often bed rest, for as long as needed. This is how pharmaceuticals were able to take over our lives. They have allowed us to skip the rest and keep going, by giving us a false sense of health. We mistakenly believe we are over our illness, or that our injury is healed. Instead we are simply forcing the body to compensate for our short-sightedness. 

Is it any wonder then that immune conditions have mushroomed out of control, or that our children are developing chronic illness earlier in their lives? We are sending our children to school sick, we are going to work sick, and we are interacting with people in close proximity that are all medicating themselves to block symptoms of the illness they have. We are incubating bacteria and viruses to such an extent that there is no escape. With each new strain we are encouraged to get a vaccination so that we don’t have to suffer the effects of illness.

So don’t be afraid to lie down, take a nap, take a day off or tell everyone to go to **** (another four-letter word).