I remember when our son, Marco contracted Dengue fever. We were in Puerto Engabao Ecuador, a fishing village largely populated by street fighting pigs and graced with a magical point break surf wave. It was here, in the middle of nowhere Ecuador that I realized that this fever, this illness was different and that it meant business.
He was 8 years old. After 4 days of high fevers, vomiting, lethargy and joint pain, I took him to the equivalent of an urgent care center/small emergency room in the neighboring town of Playas, Ecuador. The nurses took one look at him and told me it was Dengue. I couldn’t believe I’d let it go for days like that, my mom heart was heavy with guilt. We had 2 months left to our travels but I immediately decided that if he didn’t get better within a day, I was flying back home with him.
I spent the day with Marco completely out of it, with hydration IV’s and the most amazing coddling from the sweetest, most loving nurses a mom could hope for. Toward the end of the day, after sleeping in that hospital bed for hours on end, Marco, woke up with some color in his face and with clear, compelling eyes. The first thing he said to me was “Mom? I’m not shy anymore”. I looked at him and thought…”oooooookay, that’s a bit weird”.
You have to understand that until this moment, Marco was the kid who hid behind me or under my dress when people would talk to him. He was painfully shy.
Up until this very moment, Marco also had an incredibly sensitive stomach. He would wake up a few times per week, throwing up and needing to lay on the bathroom floor for a few hours until the tides would turn, usually by 12pm when he’d eat anything he could get his hands on move on to be as energetic as can be for the rest of the day. It was frequent, unpredictably predictable and very worrisome.
He also dreaded car rides because he was terribly car sick. We did everything we could. We addressed his microbiome as best we could with probiotics and fermented foods, he got adjusted a few times per week and we took him to an acupuncturist. Out of worry and to rule out a serious pathology, we took him to a pediatric gastroenterologist, who did an upper GI scope, found nothing and diagnosed him with Cyclic Vomitting syndrome, which is one of those diagnosis that explains symptoms but does nothing else. This went on from the time he was about 2 and a half and he was still experiencing it at age 8, in South America.
Finally, (sorry for sharing this freckles)…Marco had nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting) every night of his life and it had continued well into these months we spent in South America.
Marco came out of his Dengue fevers on April 14th, 2014, and he was undeniably a different boy. He has never once since that day thrown up in the morning without a specific reason, he never once since that day had a nighttime pee accident, and he was right, the shyness was gone and he suddenly was a more confident, certain and outgoing kid. Just like that. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Some say childhood fevers are a gift to the immune system and nervous system. That they behave as a “reset button”. That in fact, maybe we’re meant to experience childhood illnesses because they help prime us for what may come our way in the future. Research shows that measles, chicken pox and mumps may actually serve a purpose. For example measles may reduce risk of lymphoma, mumps may reduce the risk for leukemia and ovarian cancer and whooping cough may reduce the risk of AML (acute myeloid leukemia).
Hyperthermia (fever) is used to treat cancer in many parts of the world because research shows that fevers may reduce tumor sizes and help treat and prevent cancer.
What if we’re trying to outsmart a system that’s already genius? Just saying…
I honestly don’t know where we’d be with Marco, if he hadn’t gotten Dengue fever. Despite everything we had done for him, it was this illness which swung the pendulum. I do ask myself if it all would have been dealt with sooner, had he had the opportunity to get the chicken pox or the measles…but as we all know, in the name of eradication, we’ve taken care of those.
I write this blog today because I just had a conversation with a close friend of mine who has just recovered from Covid. She’s my age (mid 40’s). Her Covid symptoms were moderate, with a fever, severe body aches and loss of smell and taste. She says that she feels like Covid was actually an unexpected reset that she needed. She feels a level of energy and clarity that she hasn’t felt in a very long time…like she had a massive detox.
I understand and respect that Covid 19 can be very dangerous for some, but what about for the rest of us? Can we have this conversation from a place of love and respect?
I’m sure the suggestion that illnesses may sometimes be good for us is crazy talk for many. I get it. But have you ever noticed though, that babies often meet their developmental milestones or major growth spurts immediately after a fever? (Side note: Using Tylenol to lower fevers or after vaccine induced fevers may be counterproductive. Considering that Tylenol interferes with methylation (detox), it might actually serve us well only as a last resort.)
Some say that the expression of symptoms is ubiquitous with the expression of health. That the body learns from these experiences and that in fact, we genetically depend on them.
What happens when we saran wrap ourselves so tight that we seal ourselves and our kids from these immune experiences? Considering that cancer is the leading cause of death in our country and that right now, the kids in my town still aren’t back in school full time and that as Americans, we’re sicker with chronic illness than we’ve ever been…I just wonder if it might serve us well to consider changing the conversation.
Dr. Anik
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Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD (live lecture).
Cramer et al. Mumps and Ovarian Cancer: Modern Interpretation of an history Association. Cancer Causes Control. 2010
Infection and Childhood Leukemia: A review of evidence. Raquel da Rocha Paiva MaiaI and Victor Wünsch, FilhoI. Rev Saude Publica. 2013 Dec; 47(6): 1172–1185.
Childhood infectious diseases and risk of leukaemia in an adult population. Stefano Parodi, et aI. International Journal of Cancer.
Ralf Kreef. Fever, pyrogens and cancer. Madame Curie Bioscience Database. Institute for Hyperthermia and Immunotherapy, Windmühlgasse 30/7, A-1060 Vienna, Austria