A question about food poisoning, and pathogens, was posted to the Quora website yesterday. It asked....
There are more than 2,000 pathogens that cause food poisoning. How then can you medicate a patient with food poisoning?
The question emphasised clearly how most people now see illness and disease. It is all about germs, whether they be bacteria, viruses, or pathogens. This is the focus of pharmaceutical medicine, which currently so dominates most people's thinking about wellness.
- Chase the germ, they threaten us, we must avoid them at all costs, neutralise them, kill them with drugs and vaccines; this is the only way to protect ourselves from the threat to our health.
The natural medical community has quite a different, much simpler answer. Wellness is all about THE HOST: the threat of illness and disease does not come from nasty germs attacking us from outside, but from the body's inability to cope with the germs!
So this is (a slightly expanded) version of my response to the question.
"The main problem with food poisoning is not the 2,000 pathogens you mention. This is the usual problem with conventional medicine’s view of illness, the hopelessness of which we have witnessed in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic - WE CHASE THE VIRUS. Similarly, with food poisoning, we focus on pathogens, and not on the reason that these pathogens are a problem.
"We need to move our focus on things ‘out there’, intent on attacking us, but things that are within us. It was Louis Pasteur, at the end of the 19th century, who concentrated on the threat posed by bacteria and viruses. Antoine Bechamp, a contemporary virologist, focused on the health of the host: he said that a strong host is not subject to germs, or pathogens.
Pasteur was wrong, but unfortunately he ‘won’ the argument. Bechamp was right; and ignoring him has led to our misguided view of what health is about, and the medical (and non-medical) treatment we require to maintain our health.
"As far as food poisoning is concerned we have been harming our stomach and digestive system so much over recent decades that many people can no longer deal with ‘pathogens’. For instance, our mass-produced, industrialised food now contains residues of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, et al. And our impoverished soils have reduced the nutritional value of our food. Both makes us (the host), and our digestive systems, more susceptible to pathogens.
"Worse, the use of antibiotic drugs (we have been taking them like sweeties for 70 years plus) has severely compromised the microbiome of our stomachs, and its ability (the ability of the host) to cope with these so-called ‘pathogens’.
So the answer to your question is that it's not about more 'medication', usually meaning more pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines to deal with pathogens that have been caused to be a problem in the first place.
It is more about preventing pathogens becoming pathogens in the first place - by using the following strategies.
- Organic food (free from all the poisonous 'cides) is an important part maintaining our digestive system, perhaps alongside the sensible use of probiotics for those whose digestive system have already been damaged.
- Avoiding all pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines is another strategy (it is not just antibiotics that cause the problem - most pharmaceutical drugs listed in this link, digested through the stomach, are known to cause gut problems).
- For those whose digestive system have been compromised, the use of natural medical therapies, such as homeopathy and naturopathy, is recommended. They recognise the importance of the host (us; our bodies; and not least our digestive system); they understand that we need to co-exist with all kinds of germs, and can offer safe treatment for people suffering from a poorly functioning gut.
Maintaining wellness is not as complicated as the pharmaceutical medical establishment thinks it is. We do not have to chase germs; conventional medicine total inability to deal with COVID-19 has demonstrated this. Wellness is more about making sure that we, notably our immune system, are able to cope with bacteria, viruses, and pathogens.
Our focus should be to look after the HOST, which means looking after ourselves through nutrition and diet, lifestyle choices, and where necessary, gentle natural medical therapies.
