Allergic Sensitivity : The Immune Response as a Learning Process

About Living Waters Wellness

Allergic Sensitivity

The immune response as a learning process

Allergies, or the propensity for an allergic reaction, are increasing worldwide. It is part of the healthy response of the body that it equips itself with defensive functions on all organ surfaces, and particularly in the areas which come into contact with the environment (skin, lungs, intestine), in order to defend and protect its own identity. We call the sum of all these protective functions the immune system (see p. 230f.).

If this protective function gets out of balance, there is an allergic response as a result of an “over-reaction” to certain substances.

Causes for the rapid increase in allergies in the last decades :

       Use and spread of many new substances in the environment, food and clothing.

       Too much hygiene, too little familiarisation with allergens from plants and animals in city children.

       Too brief (less than four months) or no breast feeding (see p. 321ff.).

       Early multiple vaccinations and their adjuvants (see p. 232 ff.).

       Food from conventional agriculture and its industrial processing.

       Inappropriate treatment of fever.

       Increase in one-child families.

       Use of antibiotics.

       Hurry and unrest.

       Absence of an experience of identity and the feeling of being “accepted”.

       But also – as new studies show – lifestyle. In this context it can be seen that the lifestyle and upbringing suggested here can counter allergic reactions.22a

How can the immunological learning process be supported ?

The term “allergy” was coined at the beginning of the twentieth century by the paediatrician Clemens of Pirquet. The body’s own resistance responds with too great sensitivity to contact with allergens (allergy-triggering substances in food, medicines, the air, when touching plants, animal hair or fur). Instead of the body “learning” to process specific substances, it reacts with excessive resistance. The result is a skin rash, itching, swelling of the mucosa, diarrhoea, etc. Specific, or frequently also non-specific, “antibodies” (defensive substances) form in the blood or on particular tissue cells to counter these allergens. As the antibodies spread throughout the organism transported by the blood, the lips can swell and the face flush if, for example, the hand merely touches an allergy-triggering food.

Something that is desirable in infectious diseases and takes place unnoticed in so-called occult immunisation – the creation of antibodies as the basis of immunity – here becomes a problem.

But it does happen repeatedly that the organism with its allergies can nevertheless learn to cope over the years with these substances to which it has become intolerant. Reasons for that can be changes in climate which require the organism to change and adapt so that it becomes more flexible as a whole. Childhood diseases which are accompanied by a high temperature can strengthen the immune system and make it function better (see p. 149f.). So-called constitutional treatments (healthy diet, climate cures, individually adjusted homoeopathic and anthroposophic medication) can in some cases also achieve this goal over a number of years. The most common allergic diseases in childhood are chronic eczema (see p. 120ff.), asthma (see p. 96ff.) and hay fever (see p.88f.).

It is more than just an analogy when in medicine we ordinarily describe the immunological processes in words which correspond to the various stages of learning : “perception and recognition” of harmful substances, a “response” to foreign substance, distinguishing between “self” and “non-self”, immunological memory and so on.

It has been known for a long time that the genetic potential of a person is an open system which is not just able to learn new things throughout life but is also stimulated by two worlds : the environment and the world of thoughts and feelings, our “inner world”. Hence the well managed interaction of upbringing and healing has a particularly positive effect on the development of the immune system.

The ability to learn as preventive health care

It is one of the most topical results of Rudolf Steiner’s research that he discovered the connection between the immunological processes, the so-called forces of self-regulation and self-healing in the organism, and thinking activity.

In accordance with this paradigm he describes the action of an etheric organisation in the human being which is a bearer both of self-regulation and healing and of the thinking (see p. 388). Thus the performance of the immune system is not just dependent on heredity but also in the widest sense on lifestyle in the parental home and at school as well as on the person’s own willingness to learn and his or her surgency.

In the meantime good conventional medical treatment no longer relies purely on the administration of medicines for chronic allergic diseases either. Schooling and individual support extending as far as advice in questions related to school (how can a child with hay fever take part in work experience on a farm, and such-like) have become essential elements.

Beyond that, the development of immunocompetence can be supported if the child is given a happy learning experience from the beginning – a happy learning experience which includes the readiness to find new perspectives even in very familiar things and to come to terms with negative experiences in a positive way.

Why is that so important ? Because it helps to establish identity, strengthens the self-confidence of the child and helps him or her to process what lies ahead. What Aaron Antonovsky called “sense of coherence” as the prerequisite for staying healthy or achieving stable health is also of crucial importance here : the child wants to experience that the world is comprehensible, makes sense and can be managed. As a result he or she becomes “immune” and less vulnerable in his or her soul entity.

In the coming years, lifestyle research on the basis of salutogenic concepts still has a lot to contribute to the understanding of the diseases of civilisation such as allergic reactions. But even just attentive self-observation can make us aware of the circumstances which make us feel good and what causes healthy sensitivity to spill over into hypersensitivity and self-destructive vulnerability. Currently there is already a third generation which has to live with the challenges posed by facts such as a decline in values, fear of life, doubts about the meaning of human existence and horror in the face of mass poverty and terrorism. All these concerns and questions are depressing to begin with and weaken a healthy immune response. But if we succeed in saying “yes to life despite all that” (Viktor Frankl), in managing things positively and accepting ourselves with culturally creative engagement, this provides a counterweight to the allergic reaction which is just as effective in the long term as the loss of positivity and meaning which brought it about in the first place.

Practical consequences

Loving identification with the child.

Promoting his or her creativity, e.g. through a few toys by means of which he or she can experience and “come to grips” with a lot.

Supporting his or her attentiveness through cultivation of the sense impressions (cf. p. 309ff.).

Creating security and trust through rhythm, a regular daily routine and the cultivation of religious values.

Kindly but firmly setting boundaries (see p. 487ff.).

Clear decisions simultaneously with the loving readiness to adapt the concrete situation to life.

Healthy, simple food.

A constructive attitude to life which says that although there are risks in life, they can be faced with outer and inner resources.

“Accepting” the child, giving him or her the feeling that “you are just right as you are” and that everyone has their “normality” and their special problems on which they are at work.