The 5 Stages of Illness & Why Rest is Vital

The five stages of illness represent progressive conditions of dis-ease in someone’s life. Every stage of illness manifests deeper in the body.  The good news is that the stages of illness have the possibility be stopped, slowed, or reversed with proper self-care and nutrition.  There is always room for hope, coupled with hard work to nutritionally support the body in every phase.  These stages also highlight the importance of getting plenty of rest to maintain health, and even more rest to recuperate.

Perhaps you've known or have lived with someone who has progressed through these stages?  Or do you see yourself in these phases?

1. The acute phase usually lasts for a short time, maybe just a few days, and the symptoms have high intensity.  Examples include a cold or the flu.  It is best to support the body’s natural immune and healing processes by making sure the diet is rich in antioxidants and immune boosting foods.  Rest is key; so is avoiding over-the-counter medications that suppress symptoms and deny the immune system the ability to do its job.  If a person is relatively healthy, they can bounce back from illness.  If a person does not stop and rest, they may find themselves in stage two:

2. The sub-acute phase of illness.  This happens when full healing did not occur.  The symptoms are medium in intensity and they come-and-go.  The person is more tired, unable to resolve their symptoms (which are now weakening the body), and is in even more need of deep nutrition.  Rest is even more essential, and many individuals find themselves in this phase because they did not listen to their body and slow down to recover and recuperate.  This happens when people are challenged by bacteria or viruses and do not allow for self-care.  

When an infection takes hold in an individual, it usually happens in some kind of compromised tissue. It’s either on a tissue level, or an organ level, and a lot of that has to do with heredity, or it may be the sight of an injury – some place where there’s been damage or trauma before – so it’s weakened, and more susceptible for infection to take hold. 

If this infection has been ongoing for a period of time, some symptoms will manifest. Usually, it is symptoms of inflammation that are generated by the infection. Oftentimes, there’s localized pain. As the condition deepens, the infection deepens and it will generate as fatigue. The body has a hard time keeping up with a deep, underlying infection, and it draws on more and more of the organ reserves, which aren't being replenished by even a good diet. You’ll see a decreased resiliency and a decreased ability for a person to recuperate.  If someone in a weakened state and went out and partied for a night, they might be wiped out energetically for three, four, or five days. Or if they exercised, they’d have significant pain and discomfort. This would demonstrate low organ reserves, and maybe even toxicity that was released from the expenditure of that kind of energy.  Unless this stage of illness gets interrupted or reversed, it will lead to tissue and organ pathology (disease) in an individual.   

3. The chronic phase follows if the condition is ignored, not resolved, and is allowed to go even deeper into the body.  The symptoms are not as intense, but they are ongoing and now are a part of a long-term condition that can be debilitating and affect daily life.  There is a low-level of constant pain, and now physical impairment is involved.   There still may be subtle, lingering infections that should be addressed.  Many people in this phase may try to “power-though” their condition without rest, or with stimulants like caffeine or sugar, which degenerates the body even further.  Individuals in the chronic phase must increase their nutritional support and undergo a focused program to resolve the issue deep within.   This will take time. 

Rest is vital to health and recovery!

4. The degenerative phase occurs if the condition digresses even further - and if rest and support of the body does not happen.  An individual in this phase has deeply depleted nutrient reserves.  The degenerative phase is much worse than the chronic phase because a person's tissue is breaking down, there is tissue atrophy, and they are in a catabolic stage.  Whole body systems are breaking down, such as the nervous system, endocrine system, musculo-skeletal, and detoxification systems, and they have trouble communicating with each other.  Body organs are involved, quite often the liver, kidneys, and heart.  In this phase we see conditions that take a long time to develop, including bulging and ruptured discs, autoimmune conditions, fibromyalgia, or atherosclerosis.  It is possible to regenerate tissues and organs, but it can take years to regenerate the damages tissues and involves a substantial and strong overhaul of diet, lifestyle, and nutrition.  There is absolutely no room for anything depleting, and it may take a team of various specialists to climb out of this phase.

5. The disabling phase occurs when the degenerative phase progresses further.  The damage to the body and organs is so substantial that it prevents a person from functioning.  Mobility is hampered and work is not possible.  This stage is very, very hard to reverse, but there is always hope for regeneration.  

In conclusion...
Much of what happens in the stages of illness is dependent on diet and lifestyle choices.  It is also dependent on heredity and genetic influences, plus the basic composition a person is born with.  These stages also highlight the importance of getting plenty of rest to maintain health, and even more rest to recuperate.  All stages of illness lead to death unless that stage is interrupted and reversed.  It is important to strengthen one’s strengths and weaken one’s weaknesses from a nutritional perspective in order to retain and/or rebuild health.  

Again, the good news is that the stages of illness have the possibility be stopped, slowed, or reversed with proper care and nutrition.  There is always room for hope, coupled with hard work to nutritionally support the body in every phase.  

Every person, in every phase of illness, and in every stage of life from conception through natural death, deserves support, nourishing nutritious foods, and the best quality of life possible.

Source:
Bartholomy, P. (2008).  Stages of Illness.  MHNE 608.  Lecture conducted from Hawthorn University.

Bartholomy, P. (2008).  Health and Disease.  MHNE 608.  Lecture conducted from Hawthorn University.

Pin it: