When it comes to autoimmune diseases, conventional medicine is largely at a loss. Our immune cells attack our own tissue, causing inflammation that drains a great deal of our energy. Why do they do this? And what can I do for my health?
Put your hand on your heart—this is where the thymus gland is located. More precisely, slightly above the heart. It is where we instinctively point when we say “I” or tap our chests. The thymus gland is central to our immune system. This is where immune cells are “trained”; in simplified terms, this is where they learn to distinguish the body’s own tissue from foreign tissue.
There are different types of immune cells. Some mark; others destroy. If the marking cells identify the wrong tissue as foreign, our immune system turns against us. Wikipedia says that the thymus gland is only important for adolescents and shrivels up in adulthood. It is not quite that simple: although the gland does shrink with age—doctors call this involution—it retains a residual function. And how strong that function is varies from person to person.
To me, the thymus gland is something like a “fountain of youth.” Because—and this is my assertion—we do not degenerate because we age. We age because we degenerate. When we experience rejection, disappointment, violations of our boundaries, humiliation, fear, dissatisfaction, or other forms of helplessness, our adrenal glands release stress hormones. Cortisol has been shown to suppress thymus function—chronic stress can measurably cause the organ to shrink. Not a good idea! See also the article on psychoneuroimmunology.
The gnawing stress of a dilemma, or Selye stress—the stress we fail to cope with—is what gradually undermines our immune system. We can neither attack nor flee, so we freeze. And we switch off the immune system. Over time, this has serious consequences for our health.
Why am I telling you this? Because I want to establish a context. I think health is a task, a learning task, an adaptation task. We do not need to change ourselves, but our lives, if we want to move from being a victim to becoming a creator, a “reali-doer.”
Interestingly, alternative medicine locates the heart chakra in the thymus. I do not know whether anything like a heart chakra exists. But I do know that the thymus gland exists. And thymos means “seat of the spirit and courage” in Greek. Important: Anyone who has been prescribed cortisol should never stop taking it on their own. But in addition—not instead—anyone affected can ask themselves how they can care for themselves. We also know that courage, faith, and optimism are factors that positively influence health.
This is the path of salutogenesis. It is uncomfortable but worthwhile. Uncomfortable because you can no longer play the victim. Worthwhile because no one knows what may emerge when you begin to take yourself seriously, respect yourself, and unfold your potential in the spirit of thymos!
Finally, a few words about rock rose. In my last three posts, I explored various aspects of this wonderful plant. I presented the dozens of scientific studies that are available. I discussed aromatherapy and raised the question of what distinguishes wild plants from cultivated plants and why the former might be relevant to a healthy diet.
So my first conclusion is as follows:
Rock rose is a food—not a medicine. And there are many studies addressing the potential healing properties of rock rose. There are studies on various viruses, from HIV to influenza; there is one study on Lyme disease and another on cancer. In addition, there are studies examining the possible anti-aging effects of rock rose, which may be based on its antioxidant activity. According to the theory, antioxidants bind so-called “free radicals,” which can damage our genetic material. And they may—so far observed mainly in laboratory models—inhibit inflammatory processes in the body. This would be particularly relevant when these inflammations are actually unnecessary because they are caused by a dysregulated immune system attacking the body’s own cells.
All of this requires further research, and I am curious to see what else will emerge. After filming the video, I happened to find an interesting report on the Tagesthemen program. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to James Allison and Tasuku Honjo for cancer immunotherapy—they found ways to release the immune system’s activated “brakes” with medication so that it could attack cancer cells again. This is a breakthrough in conventional medicine that no training can replace. What excites me about it is the direction of thought: the immune system itself is the agent of healing. And we can indeed influence the conditions under which this immune system operates—stress, mindset, and lifestyle—as is being researched, for example, at Centro Eridanos in Tenerife.
Find out more about ingredients, research, and our experience with Cistus in our comprehensive Cistus overview.