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Germs or Terrain |
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Germs or Terrain: How People Get Sick |
The Battleground for Why People Get Sick Germ Theory of Disease A few hundred years ago, there was a raging argument in the scientific salons of France. The question was, "How do people get sick?", and two very different viewpoints were advanced. The first point of view was championed by Louis Pasteur, yes, the very same person who became famous for his process of sterilizing milk. Pasteur said that disease is caused by germs, and all disease-causing germs have a distinct physical shape that never varies throughout the life of the organism. Since the individual shape never changes, whatever the organism, it can be easily recognized under a microscope. The germ causing St rep Sore Throat, for example, is always round in shape. This led Pasteur to state that by looking at the blood and recognizing the distinctive shape of the organism, one could make a diagnosis which could then be treated (or a drug could be developed to kill that organism). A lot of improvements have been made in microscopes since Pasteur's era, and each improvement in them revealed the errors of Pasteur's thinking. Despite the fact that he had it all wrong, to this day his concepts form the basis for a course taught in every medical and dental school: BACTERIOLOGY. Even though he had it wrong, his concepts are still used to determine which available drug should be prescribed to someone who is ill. A very different explanation was presented by Dr. Antonine Bechamp, a well respected scientist at the time. Bechamp declared there are substances within us that can ferment, and that microorganisms can arise from these fermentations. To the people of his time, this explanation sounded a bit 'off the wall'. Bechamp went on to say that these microorganisms can appear in many different forms or shapes in the blood, a position directly opposite Pasteur's. And finally, Bechamp really dropped a bombshell. He said that a person's 'internal environment', that is, their 'milieu', their 'internal terrain' was far more important than the germ when it came to explain why people get sick. It is utterly amazing how far ahead of his time he was in his thinking. Ultra-modern Quantum Physics is proving correct the concepts of a man who lived hundreds of years ago! Since Bechamp's time, each improvement in microscopy has shown everything he said was correct, but the damage was done. No one in organized medicine follows his teachings today. They still cling to Pasteur's flawed theories. To see the impact of this centuries-old argument, let's jump from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first. How do we understand each man's position in terms of modern day sickness? Let's say you and I are sitting in a room, chatting, and a third person comes in. That person is coughing and sneezing, and is obviously sick. A few days later, you are coughing and sneezing, too, but I am fine. If you accept Pasteur's concepts, then the only explanation is that the sick person brought the "cold germs" into the room. The germs looked around looked around and saw the two of us chatting. The germs somehow decided I was a good guy- they would leave me alone, but you were a "baddie" so they jumped all over you and you got sick as a result. Bechamp's concepts would explain your illness by saying there was something in me that guarded me from the germs- something I had, but you did not. My 'terrain', my 'internal environment', he would continue, was protective, thus I did not fall ill. Pasteur's arguments can be recognized as the foundation upon which our modern healthcare system is built, and upon which the entire pharmaceutical industry is based. This is most unfortunate, in my view. Bechamp's arguments are easily recognized as the foundation upon which such things as the movement to limit the chemicals we put into our body, the reliance on organic foods, the emphasis on exercise and clean living is based. To me, clearly, Bechamp's explanation makes more sense, and it is one of the main reasons why I became a believer in Alternative Medicine. Despite the overwhelming evidence to support his view, it is Pasteur's concepts that are the more widely used. To sum this up, to conventional medical practitioners (allopaths), the germ is the basis of illness, and developing methods of destroying germs, such as pharmaceuticals, is the basis for treatment. To the "Alternativists", a large part of what ails us is caused by our flagrant disregard for what I call our "External Environment", and the resultant damage outside environmental changes cause to our "Internal Environment. Cigarette smoking is a good example of what I mean. Smoking is so obvious that it may cause us to not see less obvious ways in which our pollution of the Earth comes back to bite us in the butt. Using DDT on food crops and asbestos in schools, homes and office buildings are examples. Yet, for all the damaging floods, droughts, hurricanes, and dire predictions, the majority of us go about our business as though our ignoring impending disaster will somehow keep it from actually happening. I suppose we think "they" (the scientific community) will come up with some solution that will spare us having to turn off the lights as we leave a room, or spare us from having to stop driving huge cars which devour so much gasoline. Recently we learn that "they" (the scientific community again) have discovered a new pill we can take which will give us the benefit of exercising without actually having to exercise. Despite the terrible increase in diabetes, cancer, and stress related conditions, we continue to go about our business, assuming "they" (this time its Big Pharma) will come up with a pill that will spare us having to limit the type and amount of food we eat, or a pill that will stop cancer. Or a gene or a stem cell. Whatever. Anything, just so we don't have to lift a finger in our own defense. I don't mean to preach, but someone has to speak out against the drug industry. They flood our consciousness with commercials convincing us that every evil condition in our society today is a disease for which they (Big Pharma again) can create a pill.
In closing this section, there is an ironic rumor that on his death bed, Pasteur called over one of his students. The young doctor bent over towards his dying teacher, and in a nearly inaudible voice, Pasteur whispered into his ear, "You know, Bechamp was right. The terrain is everything." |
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