For a long time, conventional medicine has viewed health from the perspective of how diseases arise. Increasingly, people are recognizing that it might be wiser to ask the question differently. Instead of asking how disease develops, we could also ask how health develops.
As an expert in the foundations of physical and mental fitness, I am also interested in the influence our diet has on the development of health. Is there really only the anti-principle? Do I have to fight disease with the help of medicine? Or could I also improve my own fitness and thereby avoid getting sick in the first place—or recover more quickly?
Fitness is based on training. In stress research, a distinction is made between negative and positive stress. Negative stress, known as “distress,” harms us because it overloads us. Positive stress, by contrast, known as “eustress,” strengthens us. We challenge ourselves without overexerting ourselves. We recover from the strain and are now stronger than before.
Suppose there were some truth to the many testimonials about Artemisia—what would such an effect be based on? On its ingredients directly fighting unwanted inhabitants? Then it would be something like a “medication.” Or precisely on the fact that our bodies overcome Artemisia’s bitter and unpleasant-tasting ingredients and thereby become stronger? An open question, mind you—not an answer.
If I solve a math problem with a calculator instead of exercising my brain, then I have solved the problem conveniently—but have I learned anything new as a result? If I eliminate my illnesses with medicine, usually only temporarily, have I thereby come closer to my humanity, my purpose, my specific health?
Perhaps diseases are then no longer curses that plague us, but the exact opposite: an invitation to grow, to overcome ourselves, and thus to become stronger every day. In that case, diseases would be “gifts from the benevolent gods”—a message in a bottle from the future to our present selves.
I describe how this principle can be applied to our immune system and psychological resilience in How Do You Kill a Hydra? On Antifragility and Health and in The Mental Immune System: Learning Self-Regulation in Everyday Life. You can find the complete overview in our comprehensive overview of salutogenesis.