Page 50 - Summer 2019 Journal

Realistically, we cannot expect researchers who receive direct or indirect funding from the pharmaceutical industry to suggest common-sense steps for supporting or strengthening the immune system.
point out that under optimal circumstances, ex- posure to microorganisms educates the immune system “from the moment we are born”—and that “correct microbial-based education of immune cells may be critical in preventing the development of autoimmune diseases and cancer.”40 Reflecting this knowledge, Cowan devotes an entire chapter in his autoimmunity book to gut ecology (“the preserver of our in- tegrity”) and to the ways in which this form of
36 “early education” can go awry even from birth.
Factors that compromise microbiome diversity, probably synergistically, include C- sections (which prevent babies from picking up healthy microbes in the birth canal); vaginal birth to mothers whose own internal ecology is skewed by prior antibiotic use or other factors; the standard American diet, full of genetically modified (GM) ingredients and antibiotics and lacking in live cultured and fermented foods; ubiquitous glyphosate; and, finally, vaccination. Regarding the latter, Cowan states:
[I]t has been shown that vaccination does have a direct effect on the microbiome and gut permeability even when given intra- muscularly, not orally. The precise mecha- nism of how this happens is unknown, but I believe that anytime you affect the balance of immune response, you affect the largest and most important organ system of im- mune response that we have—the gut.
PARADIGM LOST
If the medical community were honest,
it would be forced to admit that the model of disease that catapulted Pasteur to fame has played itself out and is pushing us to disability and death.
Here and there, scientists working within the mainstream framework recognize this. For example, researchers tackling the problem of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) acknowl- edge that a wide variety of factors increases host susceptibility to TB and TB mortality, including “immune-dysregulation from any cause (including stress, poor living conditions, socioeconomic factors, micronutrient deficien- cies, HIV), malnutrition, aberrant or excess host inflammatory response to infection, alcohol and substance abuse, co-morbidities with noncom- municable diseases such as diabetes, smoking, and chronic obstructive airways disease, [and]
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pneumoconiosis.” They suggest, therefore, that
it is time to build on “the historical Pasteur- Bechamp debates on the role of the ‘microbe’ vs the ‘host internal milieu’ in disease causation” and invest in “host-directed therapies” (HDTs) that “alter the ‘host terrain’ in favor of the host.” Unfortunately, what HDTs mean to this group of researchers is. . .more pharmaceutical
41 interventions.
Realistically, we cannot expect researchers who receive direct or indirect funding from the pharmaceutical industry to suggest common- sense steps for supporting or strengthening the immune system. If Béchamp were around today, chances are that his recommendations would be more sound, emphasizing basics such as high- quality nutrition and excellent sleep. At a deeper level, Cowan also reminds us that the quest for a life of “abundance, joy, and meaning” is equally important and sustaining to our health.
REFERENCES
1.
Cantwell A. Cancer and most diseases are caused by BACTERIA: Bechamp’s microzymas & human disease. March 17, 2017. https://rense.com/general96/ bechamps.htm/.
GETTING OUT OF THE WAY
“Our job as parents, doctors, and caretakers for children is mostly to observe and, only when needed, help guide a process to its healthy conclusion. But mostly we don’t. We intervene. We manage. We attempt to control. Doing some- thing, anything, temporarily assuages our fears (and creates massive industries in the process).
The result, however, is. . .a medicalized society that must devote huge resources to dealing with sick people; as the amount of medicine in our world increases, so, too, does the amount of sickness. Beyond a certain basic level of care, use of more medicine not only undermines an individual’s freedom and autonomy, but also degrades a society’s health.”
SOURCE: Thomas Cowan, Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publish- ing; 2018, p. 137.
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Wise Traditions
SUMMER 2019