This Holy Week, rest instead of going on vacation

Why rest is the ultimate form of healing

- DR. EDSEL MAURICE T. SALVANA

Whenever I see a sick patient in my clinic or in the hospital, I always make it a point to tell him or her to slow down, get some rest, and let their body heal.

As an infectious diseases doctor, I give a lot of antibiotics for bacterial infections, some of which can be quite severe. In my experience, people get better faster if they allow their body some downtime rather than getting back to work the moment that they feel better. In fact, I see a lot of relapses among those who force themselves back to the daily grind before they are completely well. Does this have any kind of scientific basis, and how much rest should one get to prevent illness?

The body is a wonderful, complex machine. It is made up of trillions of cells with specialized functions. Much like any machine, it is important that it has enough fuel to run and gets maintenance regularly. When it breaks down, it needs to be repaired before it can resume its usual activities. In the realm of infectious diseases, an infection represents a breakdown of the body's defenses against pathogens. The fact that the breakdown occurred may be due to a combination of factors, including the overall health of the host, as well as the kind of pathogen. Host factors include age, co-existing illnesses, immune system status, and nutrition. Pathogen factors include the virulence of the organism, resistance to antibiotics, ability to evade the immune system, and the capacity to make toxins that destroy tissues. The interaction of these factors determines how sick a patient can become, their risk of dying, and how fast they can recover.