AMA research published in 1919 proves without a doubt that germs don’t cause disease. Your clients need to hear again how immunity works. Dismantling false beliefs requires more truth.
A series on tools, resources, and support for health and wellness providers to practically rebuild or refine how they serve.
Include this in Presentations & Consultations — People have been heavily propagandized to believe untrue things about germs, about their immune system, and about how health and disease manifest. Your repetition of verifiable facts in context helps people to rebuild the foundations of a proper mental understanding based on universal truths.
Comparing the Germ & Terrain Theories — “Unlike the germ theory, the terrain theory explains why some people get sick while others, when exposed to the same pathogens, do not.”
Incontrovertible: Germs Didn’t Cause Spanish Flu — Research that anyone can understand (published by the American Medical Association in 1919) clearly showed that the Spanish flu was not caused by a contagious germ.
Immunity is Built Through Exposure — Our bodies are designed to build immunity through exposure to various microorganisms.
Beyond Germs: Causes of Illness — Five key, but uncommon, points regarding false beliefs about germs and the real causes of illness. These are more controversial, aren’t often discussed and, in my opinion, need more air time. I invite your thoughts.
Crowdsourcing a Definition — One of my passions is clarifying terminology for any subject we discuss. I demand precise, succinct, reliable definitions. I’m not as confident that I’ve nailed the definition for this word. I invite you to reply if you think I could do a better job.
More — You can access our site anytime to dig into these vital subjects.
How Providers Serve — A series on tools, resources, and support for health and wellness providers to practically rebuild or refine how they serve.
Boost Your Impact — Premium Resources Just a Click Away from $19 — Delivering leading-edge content and education since 2012. Also offering customizable content you can distribute as your own.
Include this in Presentations & Consultations
We’ve all been inundated with information that benefits corporate interests being presented as established fact despite being verifiably false. Widespread propaganda from corporate interests has led many people to believe that allopathic medicine is fully evidence-based when it is not and is effective when it is not. To counter false narratives with verifiable, empowering, and practical teachings that build from universal truths, check out this post.
I suggest that the subject of this post warrants continued discussion. Widespread compliance with illogical and harmful Covid protocols highlights the importance of examining the assumptions and information that shape understanding and decisions, that can result in, for example, compliance with blatantly corrupt and unscientific policies.
Comparing the Germ & Terrain Theories
Image note: The terrain theory is also called cellular or cellular terrain theory
The Evolution of the Theories Proposed by Two 19th-Century Researchers*
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)… and Antoine Béchamp (1816–1908), [were] two nineteenth-century researchers and scientific contemporaries, compatriots and fellow members of the French Academy of Science, but key differences in their views on biology and disease pathology led to a prolonged rivalry both within and outside of the Academy… Pasteur had political connections, including Emperor Napoleon III… Pasteur’s promotion of germ theory has remained “dear to pharmaceutical company executives’ hearts” up to the present day having laid the groundwork for “synthetic drugs, chemotherapy, radiation, surgical removal of body parts and vaccines” to become the “medicine[s] of choice.” The unshakeable belief that there is one microbe for every illness is so ingrained as the “controlling medical idea for the Western world” that competing ideas about disease causation still have difficulty gaining traction… History awarded renown to the reductionist Pasteur for being the “father of immunology” and popularizing the theory that disease involves “a simple interaction between specific microorganisms and a host.” In his single-minded focus on the germ side of the equation, Pasteur ignored the host and discounted the influence of environmental factors. Both at the time and thereafter, the public and most fellow scientists found germ theory easy to embrace, perceiving Pasteur’s model of life and health to be not only “superficially plausible” but also “financially exploitable.” In fact, most of the big-name pharmaceutical companies that we know today got their start in Pasteur’s era, often by merging with chemical firms, united in their goal of developing and selling synthetic products to “selectively kill or immobilize parasites, bacteria, and other invasive disease-causing microbes.” …
Béchamp espoused a more nuanced perspective on infectious and chronic illness — for which history branded him a heretic… Subsequent generations of open-minded researchers agreed with Béchamp’s pioneering observations about microparticles as the fundamental unit of biology, with the most recent research in this vein proposing a new genetic theory and a “universal life paradigm” involving spontaneous self-assembly of DNA. Béchamp’s various discoveries led him to conclude that our bodies are, in effect, “mini-ecosystems.” When an individual’s internal ecosystem becomes weakened — whether due to poor nutrition, toxicity or other factors — it changes the function of the microbes that are naturally present in the body, producing disease. In other words, microorganisms only become pathogenic after environmental factors cause the host’s cellular “terrain” to deteriorate… Realistically, we cannot expect researchers who receive direct or indirect funding from the pharmaceutical industry to suggest commonsense steps for supporting or strengthening the immune system. – Merinda Teller MPH, PhD, The Weston A Price Foundation link
*See original article for dozens of footnotes documenting statements.
Incontrovertible: Germs Didn’t Cause Spanish Flu
Resolving a Key Conundrum
If germs are the cause of illness, why do some people exposed to the same environment remain healthy while others fall sick—and why do symptoms vary so dramatically from person to person?
Clearly, an individual’s overall physiological state plays a decisive role in how illness develops and progresses. The state of a person’s immune system significantly influences their response to environmental stressors.
Why People in the Same Environment at the Same Time are Affected Differently
The theory focuses on the idea that disease from germs can strike anybody. The main emphasis of the germ theory of health is the killing of germs… The terrain theory of health… takes a more holistic look at disease examining the host instead of the invader… The terrain theory looks at germs as an important asset to building healthy homeostasis in the body. The idea that an unhealthy bodily environment is more likely to attract and be a good host for disease explains why, for example, the exact same flu virus in the same flu season may affect certain people more than others. The terrain theory of health believes in the importance of creating a healthy body through detoxification, nutrition, and lifestyle. – Dr. Jockers link
The Germ Theory Has Been Repeatedly Disproven
Research that anyone can understand (published by the American Medical Association in 1919) clearly showed that the Spanish flu was not caused by a contagious germ.
In the research, 100 volunteers were injected with bacteria thought to cause the deadly illness.
When they didn’t get ill, the researchers had the volunteers sit with sick people, shaking their hands and breathing in the sick person’s exhales five times in a row.
But still no volunteers got sick, providing incontrovertible proof that the germ theory (bad microbes being contagious) was not the cause of the deadly flu.
See details and links in quotes below.
1919 Research on Spanish Flu Disproved it Was Contagious
100 volunteers… were administered… a pure culture of bacillus of influenza into the nostrils… The… trials proved negative. – JAMA, Experiments to Determine Mode of Spread of Influenza, August 2, 1919 link
The landmark study of Milton J. Rosenau, MD, “Experiments to Determine Mode of Spread of Influenza,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1919. They isolated microbial mixtures from the throat and noses of carefully selected influenza cases from an outbreak location. The researchers then administered these to… volunteers without prior exposure to influenza. None fell sick. They drew blood from influenza patients and transferred it to the navy volunteers. None fell sick. They collected influenza patients’ mucous membranes with swabs and filtered them to exclude larger microbes like bacteria. They then injected the filtrate into the navy volunteers. None fell sick. They brought the navy volunteers to meet influenza patients. They shook hands and conversed. The patients also exhaled (as hard as possible) onto the volunteers’ face for five times. Then the patients coughed directly onto the volunteers. None fell sick… “We entered the outbreak with a notion that we knew the cause of the disease, and were quite sure we knew how it was transmitted from person to person,” he concluded. “Perhaps, if we have learned anything, it is that we are not quite sure what we know about the disease.” – Shin Joe Yong, Medium, Spread of Spanish Flu Was Never Experimentally Confirmed link
The 1889 Flu Simultaneously Began in Remote Places All Over the Earth
The speed at which influenza travels,… its random and simultaneous pattern of spread, has perplexed scientists for centuries. Furstenberg describes, in compelling historical detail, how influenza (the name derived from influence by the stars or rather solar flares), represents a… phenomenon that defies the prevailing paradigm of germ theory. He describes, for example, how the 1889 flu simultaneously began in such remote places as: Bukhara, Uzbekistan; Greenland; and Northern Alberta. Flu was reported in July in Philadelphia and in Hillston, a remote town in Australia, and in August in the Balkans. The trouble with person to person contagion is that this disease had to travel faster than trains and ships at that time. “Influenza,” said Dr. Benjamin Lee of the Pennsylvania State Board of Health in 1890, “spreads like a flood, inundating whole sections in an hour… It is scarcely conceivable that a disease which spreads with such astonishing rapidity goes through the process of re-development in each person infected, and is only communicated from person to person by infected articles.” Furstenberg concludes his chapter: “The embarrassing secret among virologists is that from 1933 to the present day, there have been no experimental studies proving that influenza-either the virus or the disease-is ever transmitted from person to person by normal contact.” – Michael Mendizza link
Immunity is Built Through Exposure
Our bodies are designed to build immunity through exposure to various microorganisms.
Majority of Immune System is in the Gut
Did you know that 70 to 80% of your immune system is also in your gut? Think about that for a moment. The vast majority of your immune system IS IN YOUR GUT! – Brian Johnson, Optimize Me
Natural Immunity Is Superior to Vaccine-Induced Immunity
According to Dr. Steven Pelech, a professor of immunology from the University of British Columbia, Canada, “This concept that the vaccine-induced immunity is superior in any way to natural immunity is sheer nonsense. Anyone who says this should consult a first-year immunology textbook. – 130 Research Studies Affirming the Power of Natural Covid Immunity, Nov 23, 2021 link
Virus Exposure Grants Immunity
The virus itself particularly the variant called Omicron is a type of vaccine, creates both B cell and T cell immunity and it’s done a better job of getting out to the world population than we have with vaccines… in African countries, 80% positive. Chance of severe disease, dramatically reduced because of that infection exposure. – Bill Gates video
Our Bodies are Designed to Build Immunity Through Exposure to Various Microorganisms
Our bodies are designed to build immunity through exposure to various microorganisms… Nearly 80% of the immune system is found in our gut, and we need healthy bacteria to support immunity. Unfortunately, “modern” medicine seems to have forgotten the power of natural immunity, and our children are paying for it. When it comes to weakened immune systems, there are many culprits. A massive toxic load from agricultural chemicals, radiation, and pollution create chronic inflammation and leave our immune systems under constant assault. The massive number of infant vaccines we administer put the immune system in a protective mode instead of allowing it to introduce the bacteria required for healthy gut flora. And a fear of germs has left many young children isolated in a Lysol prison, safe from germs, dirt, other children, or anything else their parents are worried about. Professor Greaves can see the irony; as we make advances in hygiene and medicine, we reduce critical exposure to bacteria that can cause bigger problems. – Jul 27, 2022, Is Your Home Too Clean? How Germs Prevent Childhood Cancer link
Beyond Germs: Causes of Illness
For a 100% evidence-based index of root causes of disease, see the Root Cause Index.
Key Points
Following is a summary of key points. For more detail and verifiable references, please see the full lesson here.
Research that anyone can understand*(published by the American Medical Association in 1919) clearly showed that the Spanish flu was not caused by a contagious germ. In the research, 100 volunteers were injected with bacteria thought to cause the deadly illness; when they didn’t get ill, the researchers had the volunteers sit with sick people, shaking their hands and breathing in the sick person’s exhales five times in a row. But still no volunteers got sick, providing incontrovertible proof that the germ theory (bad microbes being contagious) was not the cause of the deadly flu.
Since the 1800’s, when Louis Pasteur proposed it, the germ theory has continued to be used by establishment medicine as the official explanation for many illnesses despite the fact that it has been repeatedly disproven. In Pasteur’s private diaries (published by a family member after his death), he admitted that the effort to prove contagion was a failure. Research has continued to disprove the theory, while also providing more evidence about what the microorganisms are doing and what is actually causing illness.
Toxins do indeed make people sick. But what have been called viruses are presumably the body’s response to toxins. What was given the name “virus” (meaning “toxin”) has been shown to be identical to exosomes (a response to toxins). The production and excretion of exosomes is well-known in conventional science. When a cell is threatened by a chemical, bacterial toxin, electromagnetic radiation, stress etc., it releases exosomes to capture the toxins and warn other cells of danger. The appearance of “viruses” in sick people is not surprising since humans are comprised of trillions of viruses and particular ones are produced in response to threat. Thus, just as firefighters are found at the site of fires (but didn’t cause the fires), viruses appear in the body of sick people presumably not because they caused the illness but because they’re helpers. (Cowan and Morell)
No matter how one chooses to view viruses, the root causes of disease (often toxins, nutrient deficiencies and chronic inflammation) are verifiable and controllable. There are multiple causes for illness including poisons in food, water, and medicines.
Extensive evidence dating back to 1889 indicates that a common toxin and cause of illness is electromagnetic pollution. Regarding flu in particular, extensive evidence connects illness outbreaks to electromagnetic pollution. (Firstenberg) The so-called “viruses” that people exhibit when exposed to electro-smog are presumably the body’s attempt to adapt to the disruptive frequencies which are affecting the body’s subtle electrical system. Some people display more health issues from disruptive frequencies than others, and these symptoms are often “diagnosed” as a mental disorder (or chronic fatigue syndrome and other diagnoses of unknown cause). Some people are particularly sensitive to electromagnetic pollution, experiencing symptoms that were (and in much of the world is still) called neurasthenia. In the 1890s, this condition was being connected with a toxic environment until Freud renamed the symptoms “anxiety attacks.” Firstenberg writes, “Because of him, environmental illness, that is, illness caused by a toxic environment, is widely thought not to exist, its symptoms automatically blamed on disordered thoughts and out-of-control emotions… Freud ended the search for a physical cause of neurasthenia by reclassifying it as a mental disease… In all of Asia, Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Republics, neurasthenia is today the most common of all psychiatric diagnoses as well as one of the most frequently diagnosed diseases in general medical practice. It is often considered a sign of chronic toxicity.”
*This article presents a case for research being misrepresented in the book, The Contagion Myth. None of the article’s contentions were relevant to the points above. It also says, “research on viruses… is extremely technical, highly mediated by sophisticated technology… You can hardly avoid relying on authorities, but which authorities?” The notion that health and medicine are too complex for people to understand is a common assumption built into Western medicine’s model of an authority figure holding power over their patients. The 1919 research is easily understandable. And the extensive research, evidence, and history in The Contagion Myth is perfectly understandable for anyone to grasp.
Crowdsourcing a Definition
One of my passions is clarifying terminology for any subject we discuss. I demand precise, succinct definitions that are reliable for use when studying material from any source. Each lesson has associated terminology which we can also aggregate as, for example, in this Diseases & Conditions Glossary and this list of more than 900 words for yoga teachers.
For many subjects I cover, it’s more challenging than you’d think it would be to create succinct, universally useful definitions because you’d naturally presume dictionaries already do that. But, in fact, definitions are remarkably varied and, at times, messy and confusing. I never make up definitions; I am seeking universal understanding. But I often have to compare many and pick the best components from multiple sources. Anyway, I found an interesting challenge with this subject, and I’m not as confident that I’ve nailed it. Thus, I invite you to reply if you think I’m missing anything or could do a better job. Following is the vocabulary list for this lesson.
The question I have is regarding the word, “pathogen.” In short, I copied the part of the dictionary definition that is true, but there is also a part that is false which I, of course, did not. I’ve endeavored to call that out; otherwise, we can end up using words that, by their very definition, perpetuate falsities. Do you agree? But I’m wondering if I’ve handled it okay with my “note”. Do you have thoughts? I’d like to know I’m being 100% accurate and clear.
On a side note, you’ll see that for “infectious diseases”, I simply provided the dictionary definition without comment other than relating it to the note provided with “pathogen” where I focused on parsing out the falsity. Many brilliant people have dismantled the entire infectious disease model and exposed virology as a crazy train, but I don’t think this is the place to get into that. My intention with this lesson on the terrain model of health is to serve as a baseline tool with foundation-level facts, all easily verifiable and universally helpful. :)
CELLULAR / CELLULAR TERRAIN THEORY — Another name forterrain theory
GERM — A vague word that may refer to a pathogen but is often used to refer to microbes generally
GERM THEORY — A theory “that focuses on the idea that disease from germs can strike anybody; the main emphasis is the killing of germs” [source]
INFECTIOUS DISEASES — Diseases “caused by the entrance into the body of pathogenic agents or microorganisms” [dictionary];see pathogen NOTE
MICROBE— Another name for microorganism; a tiny life-form, invisible to the eye; comprised of a vast number of extremely diverse life forms that includes types of bacteria, viruses and fungi
PATHOGEN — “A specific causative agent of disease” [source]; NOTE: dictionary definitions include examples that often include microbes which cannot, in fact, be called a causative agent because of the normal presence of these microbes in the microbiome, thus demonstrating that these are not in fact the cause of disease; in reality, an elevated presence of some microbes may be reflective of an imbalanced microbiome or a response to a toxic assault but in such cases, their presence is still not synonymous with being “a causative agent of disease”; see terrain theory for related information
TERRAIN THEORY — In contrast to germ theory, this view of health and disease “believes that germs cannot cause infection and disease unless the conditions within the body allow it; an unhealthy body may be the feeding ground for the growth and reproduction of these microbes, whereas a healthy body is a poor host where microbes cannot take up residence and cause illness; puts less emphasis on killing germs through constant sanitation and use of antibiotics; instead, looks at germs as an important asset to building healthy homeostasis in the body” [source]
More
You can access our site anytime to dig into these vital subjects. Please let me know if there’s anything in particular that you need.
How Providers Serve
A series on tools, resources, and support for health and wellness providers to practically rebuild or refine how they serve.
Providers Face a Changed Wellness Landscape — We’re in the midst of a metaphorical storm. Shall we pause for a moment to assess and consider how we’re moving forward, individually and together?
Symptoms, Conditions, Root Causes— Use these teachings to help clients and students frame their situation by differentiating symptoms and diagnoses, underlying conditions, and root causes.
Evidence-Based Decision-Making — Help clients move from the illusion of making evidence-based decisions to actually doing so.
Using Context to Individualize Wellness Strategies — A decision can be helpful in one situation and not in another. Providers need concrete ways to evaluate context with authentic and practical tools that hold up under real world conditions.
Foundational Considerations, Universal Truths— A springboard for client discussions or workshops on health and wellness: universal truths. These significant and practical teachings create a strong foundation from which to build.
Incontrovertible Facts about Germs & Immunity(you’re here) — You know this, but many clients need to see the evidence for themselves. AMA research published in 1919 proves without a doubt that germs don’t cause disease. How immunity works and why we must dismantle false beliefs to inspire people to identify the real causes of illness.
Chronic Inflammation — Teach about chronic inflammation. It’s rampant and causes an extravagant number of symptoms & chronic diseases. Get comprehensive summaries of 100% evidence-based root causes & reversal therapies.
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