Some illnesses of the physical (like the ones related to getting old) are meant to cure the spirit. Physical illness is sometime a form of spiritual cleansing.
It wasn't me who said it but Q'uo:
If you are ill and you go to a healer and your health does not improve but during that time you become a better person, then you might not have been healed but you were cured.
It wasn't me who said it but Q'uo:
If you are ill and you go to a healer and your health does not improve but during that time you become a better person, then you might not have been healed but you were cured.