Everybody, of course, is acquainted with the fact that the immune system is a defence system. The immune system as a killer of microorganisms, this is what everybody knows about this much more influential system. Despite the many scientific data available that refute this viewand depict an immune system very different, the metaphor of the immune system as a war machinery is still prevailing.
If somebody comes down with a full-blown infection, be it viral or bacterial, nobody doubts the involvement of the immune system. If I tell you now that the immune system influences your mood, this might sound strange to you. And if I insist moreover that the immune system controls metabolic processes, that it directs the energy flow in your body especially in situations of stress, this might surprise you even more. But these are facts well-known to modern biology.
In case of sickness it is the immune system that forces you into a slow-down mode, it induces fever, reduces appetite, makes you feel tired and loose motivation. The body shows these reactions not only if you suffer from an acute infection, but also if you are undergoing prolonged periods of extreme stress. You have to be careful if you try to overrule these clear-cut signs of sickness because it can result in severe longlasting problems like chronic virus infection, burn-out or overtraining.
These phenomena seem perhaps far from each other for you. That is definitely not the case, they stand for an emergency situation of the body and an activated immune system. You should not provoke the immune system by continuously trying to draw energy from the healing process.
Healing has absolute priority concerning energy supply. Therefore any kind of diseases or injuries weaken your performance.
