THE ALCHEMYCAL PAGES

INFECTIOUS ILLNESS.

Part 2

In the last column I related how the white blood cell count of dairy cows raised in the manner of modern agricultural scientific practices had, at the time I was a practicing veterinarian, a count of approximately 200,000-250,000 white cells per cubic centimeter (cc) of milk. Whereas the milk of cows raised using organic methods of composting and recycling of waste matter back into the soil to grow the cow's feed of hay and grains was around 12-15,000 white cells per cc of milk.

To understand why there is such an immense difference in these figures it is helpful to have some knowledge of modern scientific agricultural practices, remembering that I am writing about what I saw over 20 years ago, and, from my perspective, the situation is a lot worse today.

Modern farming practices are primarily based on artificial chemicals used in all phases of animal husbandry. Massive amounts of chemical fertilizers are placed in the soil followed by spraying the growing crop with herbicides and pesticides. The resulting crops are then made into hay or silage if the crop is grass, or, if soybeans, wheat and barley, are ground into flour to be made into feed.

The making of feed includes the addition of the by-products of oil refining as well as antibiotics, worm-killers, hormones and steroids. In addition we have the modern practice of biotechnology, which, far from producing super foods, will only succeed in producing sick plants, animals and humans. If you want to learn first hand of modern agricultural practices, particularly as it applies to beef production, go to this website
http://www.madcowboy.com/, or read Howard Lyman's book MAD COWBOY (Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat) By Howard F. Lyman With Glen Merzer . ISBN: 0-684-84516-4.

These modern products of agriculture are then fed to the cattle, sheep and pigs, poultry etc., and the same methods are used in the production of all vegetables. Also, EVERYTHING we eat that is found on the supermarket shelf also undergoes intensive chemicalization. The primary food substances undergo further chemicalization with the addition of all kinds of chemicals, including homogenizers, stabilizers, dyes, vitamins and mineral supplements, artificial coloring, and so-called "natural flavorings", which are as far from natural as you can possibly imagine.

In essence, the modern cow eats the bovine equivalent of a junk food diet, like many hundreds of millions of people eat devitalized, denatured, artificial, refined and processed, synthetic non-food every day.

White blood cells are one of the elements of the immune system of the body. In addition to the production of white blood cells by the lymph system, the immune functions of the body also involve the functions of the liver, spleen, kidneys and, most importantly, the large intestine.

The significance of an increase of the number of white blood cells in the blood is it means that the lymph system is producing more white blood cells in response to the presence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in the body. The higher the white blood cell count, the greater is the number of pathogenic organisms.

The significant questions are, what are pathogenic bacteria/viruses, where do they come from, and why are they doing what they do?

Bacteria and viruses are present everywhere in the normal course of everyday life, they are in the soil, in the air, in water, on meat and vegetables, on our skin, and most significantly, they are in our intestines. In fact, the intestines, both large and small are the sites of a numberless amount of bacteria.

The "average" American; that is, the one eating his or her daily "meat and chemicals" diet, carries in their large intestine alone 4-4 1/2 lbs of bacteria, or 1x10 18 , that is, more bacteria in their large intestine than there are cells in their body!

The fact is they are there because the internal environment of the modern "junk-food" intestine is suitable for their germination and growth and they flourish there. In other words, the modern junk-food diet and life-style literally promotes the flourishing of numberless bacteria and viruses because the environment in the intestines produced by the modern junk-food diet is a dead, decaying and toxic environment.

For what is the purpose of bacteria and viruses? Among other functions, they consume and mop up dead and decaying matter.

What I am relating here is not new. Over 100 years ago, two of the most eminent scientists of their day had a fierce debate over the problem of illness and the role "microbes", as they were then called, play in its development.

One of them was Claude Bernard(1813-1878 AD), a physiologist, who maintained that the relationship of the microbe to the body is analogous to the relationship of a seed to the soil in which the seed is planted. Whether or not the seed (microbe) germinates and flourishes in the soil (body) depends on whether or not the condition of the soil (body) is suitable for the seed (microbe) to germinate and flourish.

Louis Pasteur (1822-1895 AD), on the other hand, maintained that " the microbe is everything, the soil nothing" and urged that we study the microbe in order to destroy it and therefore do away with illness. Of course, modern medicine has taken the course advocated by Pasteur, and the war on microbes (bacteria and viruses) has proven to be no contest, the microbes are winning it, hands down.

Another prominent individual in the early development of the Germ Theory, Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902 AD), a pathologist, who is recognized as the founder of cellular pathology, said toward the end of his life that if he could live his life over again, he would devote it to demonstrating that microbes do NOT causes diseases of the flesh, they attack diseased flesh.

For years I have sought for a suitably graphic image to illustrate the relationship of microbes to the body. One day not so long ago I saw it in my backyard. I was out there and I spotted a dead mouse on the grass. I went over to take a closer look and it was teeming with a swarm of ants.

Now, no-one in their right mind, in seeing the body of a dead mouse covered with thousands of ants, would ever conclude that the swarm of ants were responsible for killing the mouse. No, the ants are eating and cleaning up and removing the decaying flesh of the already dead mouse.

Conversely, no-one on their right mind would conclude that if we pour some insect killer on the swarm of ants in an attempt to eliminate them would restore life to the dead mouse.

Yet, it is thought axiomatic today, in the scientific medical community, that if evidence of the presence of viruses or bacteria are found in an ill-person's body, that the virus or bacteria is the cause of the illness. This is analogous to concluding that because we find a swarm of ants consuming the body of a dead animal, the ants killed the animal.

Therefore, finding more and more powerful antibiotics or anti-viral agents to kill the bacteria or virus will do absolutely nothing to help promote the revitalization and regeneration of the decaying organ or tissue being "mopped-up" by the bacteria or virus.

The proper approach is to determine what causes the organs and tissues to develop a pathogenic condition, as it is the pathogenic condition which is the suitable environment which attracts the viruses and bacteria. We need to think of bacteria and viruses associated with various illnesses not as the pathogenic agents causing the illnesses, but as one of the indicators or symptoms that an organ or tissue is undergoing pathogenic changes, the causes of which have little to do with the presence or absence of the viruses or bacteria.

Thus, the definition that pathogenic organisms are the causative factor in the illnesses to which they have been attributed is erroneous. The definition of pathogenic organisms, be they bacteria, viruses, worms, spirochetes, flagella, amoebae, etc., is that their presence in an organ or tissue indicates that pathogenic changes are occurring in the organ or tissue. In many instances, furthermore, these pathogenic changes have been going on for many years and it is only toward the latter stages of pathogenic decay that these organisms make their appearance.

Of course it will be clear to you that the creation of a suitable bodily environment for the germination and flourishing of bacteria and viruses has to do mainly with our daily diet.

I must point out here that the human intestine does have and does need the presence of bacteria for the processes of digestion to occur properly. We have in our intestines the possibility of creating an environment which encourages the growth and flourishing of healthy bacteria or creating a pathogenic condition in our intestines which encourages the growth of pathogenic bacteria which flourish in an unhealthy, toxic environment.

Healthy bacteria are needed to help with digestion as they produce enzymes which, help to break down food. Some species of bacteria also produce B Complex Vitamins and assist in their assimilation by the intestines. Healthy bacteria also perform "house-cleaning" duties like helping to repair the intestinal mucosa lining the intestinal walls.

These features of bacterial life in the intestines is the focus of scientific investigation in the discipline of "gastro-ecology". It is recognized that there are "good bacteria" and "bad bacteria".

I have already pointed out that what causes the flourishing of countless trillions of pathogenic bacteria is a toxic and decaying intestinal environment created by eating the modern " meat and junk-food" diet. So, what causes the creation and flourishing of a stable population of "good bacteria", signifying a healthy condition of the intestines?

A daily diet of eating cooked whole grains and vegetables supplemented with some fruit, beans and certain specialty foods like miso(fermented soy bean paste), sea vegetables and pickles, based on macrobiotic principles.

The third experience as a veterinary surgeon I said earlier I would relate is that the last summer I spent as a practicing veterinarian, 1978, I noticed for the first time, or rather, the observation struck me as a major insight for the first time, that when the cows were out at pasture in the summer I rarely if at all saw any sick cows. Whereas, when the cows were indoors in the winter and being fed the bovine version of a modern "junk food diet", I was visiting sick cows 16 hours a day. It was this insight which gave met the complete conviction that macrobiotic principles and ideas on illness and health are sound whereas those of modern scientific medicine are not, and I resigned from the veterinary profession soon after.

Now, you may ask, what has all this got to do with hepatitis, as the pathogenic organisms connected to Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, etc, are viruses, not bacteria?

I will answer this question in my next column, in which I will also describe "chi" and the relationship of the large intestine to the liver in its terms. I will also describe the anatomical connection between these two organs.

Comments or questions can be sent to the address below as I check this address every few weeks. Please mention Alchemycal Pages in the subject line. Thank you. Patricia

kaareb@mac.com