Nutritionally Speaking: The Real Cause of Disease / Stop the Grandparents Bringing Sweets

Dear Dr. Meinig: In talking with you the other day you wrote germs were not the real cause of disease. That seems far-fetched and contrary to everything we have been taught. – L.H.

 

Dear L.H.: In brief it’s the same old question. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do bacteria come first and cause disease, or does one’s body mechanism and tissues become so changed that the bacteria now find these tissues a home in which to cause havoc.

The work of Louis Pasteur and the doctrines he fostered–implying that germs and bacteria cause disease–revolutionized not only medicine but, day to day thinking. Bacteria were shown to be bad guys.

Acceptance of Pasteur’s theory was unfortunate for several reasons. Few know that Pasteur was an autocratic, publicity seeking scientist who used the works of others without acknowledging the source. One of the truly great men of Pasteur’s period was Antoine Bechamp, chemist, doctor, microscopist, and naturalist. His scientific research and reports were much more complete and profound than Pasteur’s. It was his belief that bacterial invasion was a result, not the cause, of a body’s change toward susceptibility–but this was due to changes within the cell. He also proposed that microorganisms were capable of change from one form to another and that these changes were due to alterations in the tissues of the host.

Unfortunately, Dr. Bechamp was not the professional publicity-seeker that was Pasteur and so his more learned studies were ignored. The fact that disease germs are only found where there is disease and are not found in healthy tissue was blithely overlooked then as today. Why does one member of a household become a victim of bacteria and not another present in the same room? The common statement that some people have more resistance forces the next question. Why the resistance?

Also no note was made of the fact that the great percentage of bacteria were not only friendly to man and that many are essential to life. For example, the making of vitamins and enzymes by bacteria in the intestine.

All too often it is forgotten that like many insects, bacteria are scavengers. Most of their life process seems to consist of eating away dead or decayed matter and this process is often very helpful to mankind. The presence of bacteria in disease is but another scavenging job. In many illnesses one’s body defense mechanisms destroy the germs preventing the complete eating away the tissue involved.

It is only the completeness of our absorption in germs being the cause and not the result of sickness that is disturbing. This tunnel vision acceptance has slowed our progress immeasurably. Perhaps we should be thankful to these little germs when they cause a disease. Aren’t they telling us, “You are doing something wrong?”

 

Dear Dr. Meinig: What can I do about the children’s grandparents always bringing sweets? – E.F.

 

Dear E.F.: Grandparents who come laden with lollipops and sugar Cookies are not really showing their love, but their desire to be loved. Real love for children would mitigate against this kind of sweet bribery to which the child becomes an innocent victim.

A Santa Barbara pediatrician calls this, “The Grandmother Conspiracy Exposed.” I suggest you purchase his book by that title and give it to your parents. The writer is Dr. Lewis Coffin and the publisher, Copra Press in Santa Barbara.

If that doesn’t work send a self addressed stamped (S.A.S.) envelope to me in care of this paper for a copy of an article about my “Candy Bank” method of easing your children’s burden in coping with these junk food handouts.