Re: A chest infection that won't go away
So sad that people suffer from chest infections. I hope you are coping ok.
Some knowledge for you.
The average older person has no clue whatsoever about viruses and bacteria how the body naturally fights them. The medical industry is not interested in telling you the truth because the truth isn't profitable to them.
So here's the truth. Take it or leave it.
When you get a virus/infection like a cough/cold/sore throat your body sets about identifying the bugs and then releases bug fighting "soldiers" if you like into the blood stream. It also generates a shot of adrenaline which increases blood flow to get those soldiers mobilised around the body where they need to be. That rush of adrenaline makes you feel tired, clammy, hot and a little breathless. You learn to recognise it after a while. Take your pulse, you'll see it is racing.
At the same time your incredible body raises it's own temperature. It can do this because it is always regulating your temperature to keep it in living range. The result is you get what we call a fever.
Since childhood your indoctrinated parents and the medical industry as a whole has taught you that a fever is a bad thing. It's a lie. A shockingly bad and wicked lie. When you think of fever you get images of kids with a thermometer in their mouth, parents putting a hand on their forehead and looking concerned and so on. All psychological crap.
The fever is YOUR BODY'S natural defense against the bugs and viruses. It is doing it for a reason. The body is not ill, it is not malfunctioning, it is not struggling in any way at all. It is doing what comes naturally, it is doing what needs to be done.
The reason for it is to stop the bugs/viruses from replicating. Most people know that bugs and viruses replicate. Every so many minutes they reproduce exponentially. 1 becomes 2, then 2 become 4, then 8, 16, 32, 64 and so on. In no time at all that replication will see a body utterly overrun with the bugs.
It is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL therefore that the first step in combatting them is NOT to start killing them but to stop their replication. The raising of the body temperature does that. The bugs can not replicate when your body temperature is high. THAT is what a fever is for. It is your body's natural defence mechanism to prevent bugs replicating thus then allowing the good guys, the soldiers, to go in and kill the bugs that remain.
Conventional health services WILL NOT tell you this truth. They have long since been indoctrinated by the big pharmaceuticals who have taught the protocols and accepted procedures to health staff and GP's who will put you on tablets to combat the fever. This is a terrible and horribly dangerous thing which doubtless results in the death of many elderly people every year.
What do you think of doing when you or a friend gets a fever? Most people reach for a paracetamol or aspirin tablet with the sole aim of bringing down the fever. It comes naturally because we've been conditioned all our lives to believe that a fever is a bad thing, a symptom of illness that needs to be dealth with.
It is a lie !
A fever is the sign that your body is in control, that it has deployed its primary defence mechanism to stop the bugs replicating before it then goes in to kill the bugs.
Sadly, what happens for many people, especially elderly people, is they catch a bug or cold or flu virus (because their immune systems are less capable than most) and their GP or someone else sends them home with tablets to combat the fever. That prevents the body from using its primary defence and as a result, in not time at all, the bugs have replicated exponentially and totally overrun the person.
What was a simple cold/flu virus has quickly become a life threatening chest infection that may become pneumonia and so on.
I know all this to be true from both research and from personal practical experience.
I contracted Norovirus on a cruise. It's a common virus for cruisers and indeed in hospitals and public places all over the country. It causes sickness and diarrhea and lasts a minimum of 72 hours and is highly contagious. On a cruise, if you catch it, you get quarantined to your cabin for 3 days. No parole, no chance of early release no matter where the ship goes, you are confined to cabin for 72 hrs so you can't infect the other passengers. When I got it I immediately informed reecption and the ship's doctor came to see me pronto. I already told them I didn't want or need the doc but they just follow their trusty protocol. He took my temperature and blood pressure. Told me I had a fever, which I did and tossed me paracetamols and said there's no cure, it will last 3 days, stay in the cabin.
Knowing what I know I refused the paracetamols, I allowed my fever to rage throughout the night (which is uncomfortable of course and gives you vivid dreams). I also drank glasses of water with Grapefruit Seed Extract in it (I never leave home without some).
Within 12 hours I was right as rain. No sickness, no diarrhea, happily out of bed and ready to eat. A result of allowing my body fever to stop the bug replication and helping it kill bugs with the natural product of GSE.
Understand please that the doctor was utterly clueless about all of this. His intention was to stop my fever which is the single worst thing you can do. It simply obstructs the body's natural defences and results in a far worse condition.
Going back to your original post. Repeated courses of antibiotics are destroying your body defences, killing all the good flora in your gut and leaving you more and more helpless.
Think back to before you had the chest infection and try to remember if you initially felt tired, hot, exhausted, and feverish and try to remember what you did. Did you take paracetamol or aspirin? Did you take any kind of medications which contain those things? Most cold/flu products do contain them and are to be avoided.
I realise you have wider issues so take the above in the context of your conditions and treatments/medications.
Just be aware for the future.
If you get a fever, let it run. Don't obstruct your body defences otherwise bugs/viruses become chest infections and then rage on into something worse.
Boost your immune system constantly with a drink of blitzed lemons, fresh ginger and hot water, if those things don't affect any of your medications.
I wish you well