Keep yourself Healthy
Avoid sick people. Wash your hands after touching other people – even if they are not sick. Avoid touching your face, especially eyes. Avoid people that are coughing, sneezing etc. Droplet transfer is common. I close my eyes, shut my mouth and blow out my nose when passing people like this. If there is a sick person at work, I sometimes wear a mask and try to avoid the sick person, especially if the sick person will not wear a mask and will not go home.
Obviously you cannot avoid coming into contact with germs that cause illness, however, you can try and limit the amount that you come into contact with. I don’t advocate being “sterile”, but I advocate good hygiene. It is far easier for your body’s immune defences to overcome a few germs and build natural immunity rather than trying to battle millions of germs at once.
Going overboard?
I had a couple of friends worry that what I wrote was “overboard” about hygiene. So, I told my Mum who is also an ex-hospital worker. Mum said that what I was recommending was correct….. and not just in the hospital. She also pointed out that in Japan etc. that they wear masks.
In many countries, like Japan, if you are sick, and go to the doctors you are issued with a mask to put on immediately. As you know, many people in Asian countries wear masks when outbreaks of flu etc. are around. Actually, it makes good sense!!!!
What does the Bible say?
In the Bible, Israelites that were sick were cast out of the camp altogether. Illness was dealt with very quickly, there was no mucking around.
Leviticus 15 (vs 1-15) talks about keeping away from people with discharges – both a running discharge and a discharge that stops up the body. This could mean many illnesses…..and many symptoms….for example sneezing, coughing, coughing up sputum, blocked nose, running nose, diarrhoea, vomiting etc. etc. etc.
Any person exhibiting signs was to be considered “unclean” and everything that they touched had be either washed or destroyed. Once the person was well, they had to bathe in RUNNING water (vs 13) and wash their clothes. Anyone in contact with the sick person or in contact with the discharge of the sick person (vs 7 & 8- being spat upon could include being sneezed upon, vomited upon etc.) of the sick person must wash their clothes and bathe in water (vs 7&8) and they are “unclean” until evening.
If you have a look at the Bible, people that were well (i.e. not sick) that had any interaction with sick people or the dead were REQUIRED to WASH their clothes and themselves in water, and wait outside the camp until sunset. This was probably a good idea….if they were exposed to something then they would have washed the germs off in running water and being exposed to an illness they could develop it. Waiting for 12 or so hours may allow symptoms to develop which means you can then quarantine those people as well if they get sick.
Open wounds are treated in a similar fashion in Leviticus chapter 13 (vs 1-17) also, boils (vs 18-23), burns (vs 24-28), sores (ulcers?) (vs 29-37), spots (diseases like measles?) (vs 38-46). This is sensible to ensure that it is just a normal wound and not an infectious skin disease that could spread. Also, when the Bible talks about leprosy, it is not just leprosy, but ANY skin disease. This could include fungal infections, diseases like measles/chickenpox etc.
Infection control
The infection control in Australia is terrible. The infection control in the hospitals is not as good as it used to be. Examples include the fact that 20 years ago hospital workers used to go to work, get changed into their uniform, do their work, after working get changed back into their regular clothes and their uniform was left behind to be washed by the hospital. Now hospital workers wear their uniforms home, thus taking diseases out into the community. Also, people visit hospitals and do not wash their hands before leaving. Now we have diseases in the community like “community golden staph”. Golden staph (MRSA) was only known to be in hospitals but now it has spread into the community. Germs like these do NOT respond to regular antibiotics. This is just one small example….you should see some of the others!!!!
It is interesting how specific God was in His instructions and when you follow them that it contains outbreaks of disease. Something that is largely ignored today…..also, people are not giving God the credit for His instructions!!!!! I mean, God was the one who said to wash in RUNNING water…..modern medicine discovered this many years later!!!! God was the one who imposed quarantine instructions to prevent the spreading of illness. It would be very interesting if a hospital were to follow what God said to the letter (and not the half-hearted way it is done) and see what happens with infection control!!!!! I bet it would decrease the incidences of hospital acquired diseases by a HUGE percentage.
You want to know something interesting. Many people who go to hospitals do not necessarily die from the thing that they go in with….they die from hospital acquired infections!!!!!!!! It is a well known fact in the medical profession…which is why they desperately try to get people out of hospital as soon as they can to minimise this risk.
Obeying God’s Word and Effective Witnesses
With Biblical Health and Nutrition, I’m not only thinking of food, but food, health, spiritual health etc. The whole thing. We need to keep the army of God fit, strong and healthy so that they can be the optimum that they can be. I mean God gave us the instruction book and we should not ignore it!!!! If we want to be effective in witnessing etc. we should heed God’s Word. Obviously we cannot tell hospitals how to run things, but we Christians can try and follow God’s book as well as we can.
I was just thinking. It is interesting that we ask God to heal us and others etc. and I know that He can heal us. However, wouldn’t it just be more sensible to follow His Word? By doing so, we would prevent much illness and have fit, strong, healthy bodies so that we can serve Him at our best!!!!!! Anyway, this is just information that I want to point out to Christians so that they can serve God at their best!!!!
I’ll have to do some more work on the website in regards to this because most people are very lax with infection control….or they go overboard with trying to sterilise things instead of following what God says!!!!
Stress
Avoid stress. It suppresses your immune system and makes you prone to illness. God knew what He was talking about when He said “be anxious for nothing”.