We have thousands of viruses and bacteria in our body that live in harmony with us. Our body is constantly eliminating toxins, but sometimes it gets overwhelmed.

It is when the balance is thrown off that inflammation begins as a self-correcting response to an accumulation of excess toxins, triggering infections such as tonsillitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, cystitis, vaginitis, otitis media and all the other medical terms for particular types of inflammation. Excess toxins may enter the body in many ways. Some are just by-products of living. Others are from injuries, taking drugs or alcohol, cigarette smoking, breathing polluted air, consuming pesticides in our foods, or by allergic reactions which, I believe, often comes from mental toxins.

The immune system is everywhere: under the skin, inside your bone marrow, in the lymph glands and in your blood and spleen. All parts of the body participate in the inflammatory immune response. Every person can help to unburden their own immune system. There are some easy ways of doing this. Make sure that the natural exits from the body for toxins are kept open. This includes ensuring that the bowels function daily, drinking adequate pure water so that the urine flow is over one quart a day for adults and cleaning the sweat from your body daily with a bath or clean cloths. Remember, you need to sweat a few times a week whether its from exercise, a sauna, sex or menopausal hot flashes, or just the hot weather of summer. So turn off those air conditioners some times. Breathing easily and deeply in an unrestricted way is important - exercise can help you do that.

A few nosebleeds or an occasional leaking of blood from hemorrhoids are ways the body excretes blood toxins. Who knows if men by shaving daily are removing toxins accumulated in their beards...arsenic does get trapped inside hair. Men more than women carry handkerchiefs to blow the toxins out of their noses. Women have menstrual periods and it is easier for them to eliminate toxins that way. Maybe that is why women live longer.

Occasionally, if you get a cold or flu, celebrate this inflammation. You are detoxing every time you blow your nose, and through sweating. Also a fever destroys the imbalance of the viral overgrowth, and as a bonus, if the fever is high enough, at 104, the hidden cancer cells, that we probably all have, are also going to self-destruct!

Remember to follow your food cravings when you are sick. Your body knows best what it needs then. Usually you will not want to eat anything that has a lot of iron in it like meat, or iron containing vitamins and minerals when you have a fever. Iron will help the growth of bacteria and could get you deathly ill if you take extra when you are sick. However, the homeopathic iron medicine Ferrum phosphoricum 6X strength, which is made from iron phosphate is useful whenever you have a fever or inflammation. Two pills taken every 2-4 hours, as needed, is safer to use for your fevers than antipyretics like Tylenol or aspirin which have been associated with liver toxicity.