Your immune system is a magical resource that performs millions upon millions of processes each and every second to see to your health. To run properly, this system needs plenty of energy. When that is available, you enjoy health and life can feel wonderful!

The fight-or-flight system, which kicks in the moment you perceive a threat, also uses a lot of energy. This fear-laced system adrenalizes you and sends the greatest possible amount of blood to your extremities. Only then will you be able to outrun that tiger.

The energy needs of each of these two systems are too great for them to work at the same time. It is one or the other, and fight-or-flight trumps the immune system every time if both are needed. It doesn’t matter how sick you feel when there is a tiger to outrun!

Believe it or not,  doctors actually prescribe the very same stress hormones your body uses in fight-or-flight for organ transplant patients. This prevents their immune systems from vanquishing the alien intruders according to their habit.  In other words, the immune system knows to shut up or ship out when the stress hormones have spoken, so doctors tactically misinform it. How brilliant is that?

In theory (not a medically acceptable one, but humor me for a moment), the doctors could also bring the patient a pile of potentially threatening letters from the IRS and the same job would be accomplished. Or plant her mother-in-law in the bed next to her in the ICU. Frightening the patient and making her feel like she is about to die in theory would accomplish the same objective by activating the body’s own stress hormones.

Unfortunately there would be little possibility for titrating the doses of hormone with this bare-bones method, which is one reason doctors shy away from it. (Also, the pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be making any money off of it, which is a problem for some.)

For some reason, the medical professionals overseeing the pandemic aren’t acknowledging a well-known medical fact. Two critical body systems–one for avoiding outer harms through fear and the other for creating and maintaining wellness—can’t possibly work for us at the same time.

Agency in the Age of Coronavirus

I am grateful to Dr. Bruce Lipton for making such scientific concepts understandable for lay people through his books and videos. See Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles (Hay House, 2005).