Cell Perspective

Yesterday I heard that my body is a mass of about ten trillion cells, and my gut contains ten times ten trillion bacterial cells. My insides literally squirm at that thought. But what is more surprising is that I am not sick all the time. Not all of these weird bacteria are virulent. My body has not only reached a perfect diplomatic arrangement with all the bacterial colonies stating that they are not supposed to hurt. It has even appointed a task force of I don't know how many other cells to ward off non-negotiable virus cells.

As it turned out I was not feeling well this morning. How many of the ten trillion living cells need to get damaged or destroyed for a human body to feel sick?  How much stress to subject a body to in order for the facial skin to erupt in unusual untypical acne boils? What to do when the whole world thinks you can do it all, and you seem to radiate just this message, when in reality what you really long for is the lovely eight or nine hours of sleep? You say so but because you seem to be bursting with energy, the people call you out for more of it all.

Skin speaks volumes. I've been given a fantastic experiment box, which is me. I exert influences of potato chips, excess exercise, too much work, warm water, dehydration, eating too less, anger, laughter, total relaxation or whatever else, and the outcome can be felt immediately afterwards. The sensitivity of this experiment kit is amazing and just as I was thinking the other morning that my kit seems particularly hard to calibrate against colds I learnt of a disease in which the digestive tract is very prone to inflammations. There are autoimmune diseases in which the immune task force of the body attack each other or other cells. A kind of civil war. I laughed at myself for my self-pity at my minor skin boils and cold symptoms.

Autoimmune diseases exist, but so does self-abuse. While this immune system is trying to keep the body in working order, pushing yourself to the limit all the time is a surefire way of damaging yourself. What if whatever you are working towards with all that extra vehemence is just within your reach and you just haven't stretched out your hand to grab hold of it yet?

P.S. If anybody knows of a great remedy to get rid of a particularly large nodule under the skin, do share it with me. :-P