Don't Hold It In: The Dangers of Smoking

I spent the Passover intermediate days in an intense group dynamics and psychodrama workshop. A workshop where you "spill your guts," open old emotional wounds, laugh, cry, get excited, and feel pain. It touches on almost every subject, every human experience.

Touching old wounds is painful, but surprisingly, I was left with a sense of release; a feeling that internal pain, hidden for years, was finally beginning to heal.

I remembered that physical wounds heal similarly. To get rid of pus from a wound, you need to poke, drain, and disinfect. Covering it with a thick bandage makes it look better, as if it doesn’t hurt because you can’t see or touch it, but the chances of healing become slim.

This led me to discuss two types of illnesses: acute and chronic diseases. Understanding their differences is fundamental in natural medicine.

Acute diseases present with dramatic symptoms that often confine us to bed and disrupt normal life. They are short-lived, and we recover. Examples include flu, sore throat, bronchitis, allergic reactions, food poisoning, etc.

In contrast, chronic diseases persist for weeks, months, or even years. Symptoms may be milder; people learn to live with them. Yet, the condition often worsens over time. Examples include rheumatism, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, etc.

Here's a question I typically ask naturopathy students: "Is illness good or bad?"

The spontaneous answer: "Illness is bad." No one likes to suffer, miss work, or perform poorly. But in a deeper discussion, the answer becomes: "It depends on the illness. Chronic illness is bad, but acute illness can be good." It sounds odd, but acute illness is the body's way of achieving balance and health.

Consider a case of food poisoning. Eating hummus left unrefrigerated may lead to a stormy, unpleasant reaction: violent stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. What the body does is simply expel something harmful from the system, clearing out the tainted hummus through every means possible.

During this day or two of drama, functioning might be impossible, and being weak from vomiting and diarrhea is likely. Yet, afterwards, the body will be cleaner and healthier, thanks to eliminating the harm.

Let's look at the example of a novice smoker. Anyone who has tried to start smoking (or watched someone do it) remembers the coughing fits, choking sensations, and perhaps the nausea that hit after the first inhale. Initially, this happens frequently, but as smoking continues, the cough and discomfort fade.

Initially, the body attempted to rid itself of harmful smoke and soot. The body cried, "This isn’t good for me... I don’t want this..." Over time, as the smoker continued, the body adapted, unwillingly, no longer producing the harsh, acute cough. Does this mean cigarette smoke is less harmful now? Of course not. Now, the toxins accumulate unchecked in the lungs, blood, and tissues. A long-time smoker may not feel any trouble for years, living with the habit, not coughing, and enjoying the cigarette.

The hidden damage accumulates deep inside. If given a chance, the body may try to cleanse itself through something like an acute bronchitis attack during winter. This allows coughing, releasing some soot and toxins. Fever may rise, causing sweating and toxin release. After such an attack, the desire to smoke decreases; the body and lungs are slightly cleaner and healthier. However, if smoking resumes soon after recovery, detox efforts won't last.

With years of smoking, a chronic disease "cooks" inside, undetected, until eventually lung cancer, emphysema, heart attack, or other serious illnesses emerge, possibly fatal. If not lethal, they greatly deteriorate life quality and likely worsen with time.

This example shows another crucial difference between acute responses and chronic illness. In acute reactions, toxins are surface-level and easier to expel. Early smoking toxins mainly affect lungs, easy to expel. In chronic processes, toxins lie deep, affecting vital organs, harder to remove, causing irreversible damage over time. My grandfather was a heavy smoker most of his life. He quit at 60, but it didn’t prevent his heart attack at 65.

Eating harmful foods can also cause dramatic acute reactions. Take a milk-sensitive infant given milk-based formula. In response, he gets diarrhea, belly pain, nasal congestion, mucus, and a rash. If his mother read the signs, she would stop giving dairy. But "unlucky" infants don't get such care—they continue dairy with steroid creams for rashes, nasal drops to dry mucus. For them, milk is toxic. Diarrhea, mucus, rash are body’s ways to purge the toxin, yet they're perpetually fed poison and drainage ways blocked. Acute symptoms suppressed, mucus turns chronic; toxins penetrate deeper. Such infants risk chronic asthma (lungs are considered internal organ of skin in natural and Chinese medicine).

Homeopaths and naturopaths observe an interesting phenomenon when an asthma patient receives treatment. Homeopathic or herbal therapy moves toxins back outwards, and suddenly an acute rash appears, unseen since infancy. This inconvenience is good news, for when chronic turns acute, the toxins are on their way out, signaling healing.

Disease and healing processes mirror emotional levels. If I’m angry, the anger wants to escape acutely, like a toxin. I might want to shout, assertively talk to the subject of anger. Suppressed anger becomes festering energy, manifesting as frustration, resentment. To genuinely reconcile or forgive, I need to revisit the acute anger, cleanse myself of old toxins fully. Only after “blowing off steam,” talking, getting angry, crying, can true reconciliation and forgiveness begin.

Let’s release ourselves from varied bodily and emotional toxins, accepting unpleasant symptoms with understanding, for they are the sole path to true, comprehensive healing.