Germs or Terrain

The Fight for Why People Get Sick
Round One

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, not backed up with much science, was championed by Louis Pasteur, yes, the very same person who became famous for his process of sterilizing milk.

Pasteur said that all disease is caused by germs, and all disease-causing germs have a distinct physical shape that never varies throughout the life of the organism. This thinking became the foundation for Conventional (Allopathic) Medicine, and is known as the Germ-Cell Theory of Disease.

Since the individual shape never changes, whatever the organism, it can be easily recognized under a microscope. The germ causing Strep 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 to 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. Antoine Béchamp, a well respected scientist at the time.

Bechamp was not as great an orator, not as forceful a speaker as Pasteur, so unfortunately, his explanation sounded a bit 'off the wall' to his contemporaries. That did not stop him, however. 

Bechamp went on to say that these microorganisms can appear in many different forms or shapes in the blood (pleomorphism), 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. This thinking became the foundation for Alternative or Complimentary Medicine, and is known as the Internal Milieu (Terrain) Theory of Disease.

It is utterly amazing how far ahead of his time he was in his thinking. Ultra-modern Quantum Physics is now proving correct the concepts of a man who lived hundreds of years ago!

Since Bechamp's time, not just physics, but 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- and you will understand why shortly.

To see the impact of this centuries-old argument, let's jump from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first.

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.

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, because it puts money at the center of the issue of healthcare.

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. Bechamp's view stresses the ability each of us has to improve our own health and not have to rely on physicians or drugs.

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 Bechamp's 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 Alternative Therapy believers, a large part of what ails us is caused by our flagrant disregard for what I will call our "External Environment". That, and the resultant damage outside environmental changes cause to our "Internal Environment.

Cigarette smoking is a good example of what I mean.

Have we gotten to the point where we assume Big Pharma and 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.

Despite the terrible increase in diabetes, cancer, and stress related conditions, we continue to go about our business, assuming the pharmaceutical industry 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.

If you are sincere in wanting to help yourself attain better health and vitality, embrace the ideas of Bechamp. Do all you can to 'clean up' your internal environment. Strengthen your terrain. Eliminate putting things into your body that common sense tells you are harmful. You don't need to be "nutsy" about this, as moderation in nearly all things is preferred over excessive indulgence.

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."