從漢他病毒到伊波拉病毒，網路上針對後半年可能出現的全球風暴，流傳著各種預言。不論是動物傳人，或者人傳人，病毒的存在，對現代人而言，始終帶著極大的威脅性。

新冠疫情之後，民眾對病毒變種多少有了基本認識。疫苗的速度追不上病毒變異，然而，關於疫苗的教育與資訊傳播，卻從未真正停歇。

疫情與疫苗後遺症，是否翻轉了民眾對養生的觀念？以我的觀察，拒絕疫苗的人或許會增加，但恐懼感並不會因此減少。因為多數人仍然習慣往外尋找保護，卻很少往內看見身體原本具備的潛力。

不同病毒在生物體細胞內發生基因重組，自然界中也廣泛存在持續變異的病毒。這種現象，就好比細菌抗藥性不斷製造出更具侵略性的細菌。

我們可以用「防不勝防」來形容這種現象。威脅發生在身體之外，我們不清楚它是否會對自己造成傷害，也不清楚自己是否有能力抵擋這些肉眼看不見的侵襲。

封城的記憶仍在，那是人人都不願意再次面對的場景。捫心自問，我們究竟是害怕封城，還是害怕被感染？我們是害怕生活不便利，還是害怕自己擋不住病毒的毒性？

 

翻開醫學院的免疫學教科書，即使完全理解各種免疫細胞的分類與分工，即使我們有機會認識黏膜免疫這道第一線武裝，對於如何把免疫系統訓練出真正穩定而強大的實力，我們依然只是一知半解。

把時間倒帶到將近二十年前，我在文字堆中鑽研並撰寫自己的斷食心得。「和身體對話」這幾個字，當時被我真實記錄下來。接下來大量的文字產出，多少都來自身體釋放給我的訊息。

「十多年不曾感冒」曾經是我很自豪的分享，直到兩年多前一次免疫潰堤，我才更明確理解，一個單點的失控可以造成整體免疫系統的停擺。

侵犯我的是流感病毒，被侵犯的原因，是免疫力短暫低迷。至於失去抵抗能力的根源，則是密集施壓在我身上的情緒壓力。

我沒有吞下任何一顆藥物，只是透過酵素斷食與充分休息，不到一星期便恢復元氣，也確認自己的免疫系統已經重新拿回主控權。

至此，「和身體對話」的紀錄已經接近完備。只要一有機會，我總不忘提醒身旁的人：把免疫系統照顧好，不是口號，而是生活中的每一個養成。

 

最常聽到的傾訴，是睡眠品質不佳。我總會再三提醒，提升睡眠價值的重要性。在思考如何解決健康困境之前，應該先確認自己究竟把睡眠擺在什麼位置。

安眠藥與鎮定劑，未必能真正解決問題。多曬太陽是一種解方，研修生物設定是我推薦的重要解方，而願意投資時間，把腸道養護好，才是更根本的解方。

為何先談睡眠？因為綜觀多數民眾的免疫困境，幾乎都脫離不了睡不好，或者根本不重視睡眠的問題。這正是免疫系統最重大的卡關。

「斷食的日常」之所以被我放進教材，來自這些年我與身體對話的重要結論。菌相與腸道環境，是逆轉身體頹勢的重要入口。因為腸道是土壤，而土壤才是根本。

我們最難理解的部分，是情緒與腸道之間的關聯。我與身體的對話紀錄，則是反向透過優質菌相去引導思考的正念。這部分牽涉到菌腦腸軸的養護順序，研修方向必須從細菌學分開始。

當環境中再度釋放大量疫苗資訊時，我們更應該轉向看見身體對細菌的需求。細菌是免疫系統最迫切需要的生活伴侶。在確認細菌的重要性之前，談營養還太早，談治療思維也太急。

 

認識免疫系統，是現代人的必修學分。而這門學分，必須從母體產道的菌相說起。那是身體免疫系統最早被建構的媒介，來自母體的大愛，也來自大自然的法則。

這個事實提醒我們：免疫系統需要和細菌對話。我們必須將免疫系統所需要的細菌，穩定輸送到腸道，因為免疫細胞廣泛生活在腸道之中。

免疫系統是身體主控權的樞紐，斷食則是身體重新拿回主控權的機會。而這兩者之間的交集，就是細菌。養生市場最欠缺的，正是為細菌教育紮根。

話題回到可能再度空降地球的病毒疫情，大規模感染是否會發生，並不是最核心的問題；真正重要的是，當風暴來臨之前，我們是否已經為自己的身體做好準備。

病毒不會因為我們恐懼就停止變異，也不會因為我們逃避就遠離人類。真正能夠改變局面的，不是一次又一次被外在訊息牽著走，而是我們終於願意回到身體內部，重新理解免疫系統的語言。

免疫系統的悲歌，不在於它不夠強大，而在於它長期被忽略、被誤解，也被過度消耗。我們總是在威脅逼近時才想起它，卻很少在平常日子裡真正供養它、尊重它、訓練它。

 

如果說病毒是大自然不斷變化的提醒，那麼免疫系統就是身體不斷等待我們回頭的證據。

真正的養生，不是等風暴來臨才尋找避難所，而是在無風無雨的日常裡，先把身體修成一座穩固的家。

當身體有了主控權，恐懼才會退位。

當免疫系統被真正照顧，病毒才不再是威脅。

我們才有機會從一次又一次的集體恐慌中醒來，重新學會相信身體，也重新學會善待生命。

 

（所有醫藥之中，最偉大的醫藥，是教會人們如何不再需要它。）

A Lament for the Immune System

From hantavirus to Ebola, the internet is filled with all kinds of predictions about possible global storms in the latter half of the year. Whether transmitted from animals to humans or from human to human, the presence of viruses continues to carry an enormous sense of threat for modern people.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the public gained at least a basic understanding of viral mutations. The speed of vaccines cannot keep up with the mutation of viruses; yet the education and dissemination of information about vaccines have never truly stopped.

Have the pandemic and vaccine-related aftereffects transformed people’s view of health cultivation? From my observation, the number of people refusing vaccines may increase, but fear itself will not necessarily decrease. Most people are still accustomed to looking outward for protection, while rarely looking inward to see the innate potential of the body.

Different viruses undergo genetic recombination inside the cells of living organisms, and viruses in the natural world continue to mutate widely and constantly. This phenomenon is much like bacterial resistance, which continuously gives rise to more aggressive strains of bacteria.

We may describe this as something impossible to fully guard against. The threat exists outside the body. We do not know whether it will harm us, nor do we know whether we have the ability to withstand these invisible invasions.

The memory of lockdown remains. It is a scene no one wishes to face again. But if we ask ourselves honestly, what are we truly afraid of? Are we afraid of lockdown, or are we afraid of being infected? Are we afraid of inconvenience in daily life, or are we afraid that our own bodies cannot withstand the toxicity of the virus?

Open an immunology textbook from medical school, and even if we fully understand the classifications and functions of various immune cells, even if we have the opportunity to recognize mucosal immunity as the body’s first line of defense, we still remain only half-informed when it comes to how to train the immune system into a truly stable and powerful force.

Rewinding time to nearly twenty years ago, I was immersed in books and writings, studying and recording my own experiences with fasting. The words “dialogue with the body” were truly written down by me at that time. Much of the writing that followed came, in some way, from messages released by the body.

“For more than ten years, I never caught a cold” was once something I shared with great pride. It was not until an immune collapse more than two years ago that I came to understand more clearly: the loss of control at a single point can cause the entire immune system to come to a halt.

What invaded me was the influenza virus. The reason I was invaded was a temporary decline in immunity. And the root cause of losing resistance was the emotional pressure that had been densely imposed upon me.

I did not swallow a single pill. Through enzyme fasting and sufficient rest, I recovered my vitality in less than a week. I also confirmed that my immune system had once again regained control.

At this point, my record of “dialogue with the body” was nearly complete. Whenever I have the opportunity, I never forget to remind those around me: taking good care of the immune system is not a slogan. It is a cultivation formed through every choice in daily life.

The complaint I hear most often is poor sleep quality. I always remind people again and again of the importance of increasing the value of sleep. Before thinking about how to solve a health difficulty, one must first confirm what position sleep truly occupies in one’s life.

Sleeping pills and sedatives may not truly solve the problem. Getting more sunlight is one solution. Studying biological presets is another important solution I recommend. But being willing to invest time in properly caring for the gut is the more fundamental solution.

Why speak of sleep first? Because when we look at the immune difficulties faced by most people, they are almost inseparable from poor sleep, or from a total lack of respect for sleep. This is the greatest obstruction facing the immune system.

The reason I placed “fasting as a daily practice” into my teaching materials comes from the important conclusions I have drawn through years of dialogue with the body. The microbiota and the gut environment are crucial entry points for reversing the body’s decline. The gut is the soil, and soil is the root of everything.

What we find hardest to understand is the relationship between emotion and the gut. My own record of dialogue with the body points in the opposite direction: through a high-quality microbial ecology, one can guide the mind toward right awareness. This involves the proper order of care within the bacteria-brain-gut axis, and the path of study must begin with the course of bacteriology.

When the environment once again releases large amounts of vaccine-related information, we should turn instead to see the body’s need for bacteria. Bacteria are the life companions most urgently needed by the immune system. Before confirming the importance of bacteria, it is still too early to talk about nutrition, and too hasty to talk about any treatment-based thinking.

Understanding the immune system is a required course for modern people. And this course must begin with the microbiota of the maternal birth canal. That is the earliest medium through which the body’s immune system is constructed. It comes from a mother’s great love, and it also comes from the laws of nature.

This fact reminds us: the immune system needs to converse with bacteria. We must steadily deliver the bacteria needed by the immune system into the gut, because immune cells live widely within the intestinal environment.

The immune system is the central pivot of the body’s self-governance, while fasting is the opportunity for the body to reclaim that self-governance. The intersection between the two is bacteria. What the health cultivation market lacks most is precisely the deep rooting of bacterial education.

Returning to the subject of a possible viral pandemic that may once again descend upon the earth, whether large-scale infection will happen is not the most central issue. What truly matters is whether, before the storm arrives, we have already prepared our own bodies.

Viruses will not stop mutating because of our fear, nor will they stay away from humanity because of our avoidance. What can truly change the situation is not being led again and again by external information, but finally becoming willing to return to the inside of the body and relearn the language of the immune system.

The lament of the immune system is not that it is not powerful enough. It is that it has long been ignored, misunderstood, and excessively consumed. We always remember it only when a threat approaches, yet we rarely nourish it, respect it, and train it in the ordinary days of life.

If viruses are nature’s constant reminder of change, then the immune system is proof that the body has been waiting for us to turn back.

True health cultivation is not about searching for shelter only when the storm arrives. It is about building the body into a stable home while the days are still calm and windless.

When the body regains self-governance, fear begins to step down.

When the immune system is truly cared for, viruses are no longer merely threats.

Only then do we have the chance to awaken from one collective panic after another, to relearn how to trust the body, and to relearn how to treat life with kindness.