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Forward to The Albrecht Papers
Draft of Forward to “The Albrecht Papers”, October 1975.
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Disease has been defined as “An illness or sickness. A disturbance in function or structure of any organ or part of the body.” Over the centuries scientists have been attempting to uncover the causes of disease, hoping thereby to find specific forms of treatment. Fortunately, we have come a long way from the miasmas, exorcisms, purges and blood-letting of former times.
The germ theory led to the concept of specific infectious agents as responsible for many diseases. The discovery of the malarial parasite, the tubercle bacillus, the treponema of syphilis, the leprosy bacillus and the organisms responsible for tonsillitis, pneumonia and other infectious states was an important step forward. So was the recognition of still smaller organisms such as PPLO’s and the viruses as causative agents. However, these concepts narrowed the thinking of many investigators.
A logical approach to treatment seemed to be to find chemicals or other substances such as antibiotics that would kill the germs responsible for various diseases. The discovery of the sulfa drugs followed by penicillin and the family of mycins did save untold millions from suffering and death.
However, the development of potent “germ killers” and their widespread use has been accompanied by a marked increase in viral infections. Degenerative diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular diseases and cancer are on the increase. There is evidence that a strange organism named “Progenitor Cryptocides” by Virginia Livingston, M.D., is found in abundance in the blood of those developing cancer.
Susceptibility to “Cryptocides”, to cancer, to the toxic effects of petrochemicals and to chronic degenerative diseases of all types may well be primarily the result of inadequate nutrition. Only recently has this been realized.
One of the first to stress this concept in the twentieth century was a modest scientist who for many years was chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri–Dr. William Albrecht. Extensive experiments with growing plants and animals substantiated his theory and observations that a declining soil fertility, due to lack of organic material, major elements and trace minerals–or a marked imbalance in these nutrients–were responsible for poor crops and, in turn, for pathological conditions in animals fed deficient feeds from such soils. Obviously mankind is no exception.
Dr. Albrecht was a member of the Board of Directors of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation–a non-profit corporation dedicated to spreading the knowledge of good nutrition via the works of Dr. Weston A. Price, the late F. M. Pottenger, Jr., M.D., Dr. Albrecht and others. He will be sorely missed, not only by those who have had the privilege of knowing him, but eventually by thousands who learn of his work. His findings are immortal and great credit is due the Editor and Publisher of Acres, U.S.A., for collecting and publishing all of Dr. Albrecht’s available papers in one volume. The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation was “scooped” by Acres, U.S.A., in this venture and hopes this timely book will have the widest possible circulation.
The following quotation from one of Dr. Albrecht’s articles on trace elements well expresses his philosophy and the only approach to disease which seems logical:
“The increasing number of degenerations of body functions, still classified as ‘disease’ with the implication that by drugs we can ‘cure’ them, ought to convince us that as we mine the fertility of the soil more we are merely perverting the life stream more nearly to its own extinction.”
One more quotation illustrates the basic intelligence of Dr. Albrecht: Speaking of udder infections in the cow, he states:
“Soil deficiencies in the trace elements may well be the cause for the invasion by the bacteria accompanying the failing reproduction in the cow. Erroneously, then, we might believe the bacterial presence the cause of the abortion, the weak calves, or the dwarfs. We might be prone to set up a national campaign to fight the bacteria when in reality they are merely another symptom or a consequence of the nutritional deficiency as is the failing calf crop.”
How long will it take for agriculturists, physicians and scientists in all fields to realize that–in the words of Dr. Price–”Life in all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed.”? Or, as succinctly stated by Dr. Albrecht, “to be well-fed is to be healthy”.