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When it comes to our health, there’s a common belief that we always get sick because of germs. This idea all started in the 1800’s with Louis Pasteur and his Germ Theory which states that the microbes (e.g. bacteria, virus, fungus, parasite), are the ones directly responsible for causing disease, wherein a specific germ is responsible for each disease. Pasteur also elaborates the idea that the human body is sterile, and free of any germs [1]. With these two ideas in mind, we could conclude that we should never allow microbes to enter the body and we should always eliminate them to keep our system clean and healthy. Otherwise, if we don’t do these things we are doomed to get sick.

Humans as we are, we fear anything that threatens our life— the list of course includes disease. When germs were first presented in public, it became easier for people to believe that a live, outside invader causes disease, rather than some unknown, mysterious miasma. As more people feared the idea of ‘germ exposure leading to disease’, the more people accepted the theory as a fact even though it was full of holes. This resulted to manipulated and misdirected minds of today’s generation, who are now mostly germ-phobics desperately obsessed to eliminate germs.

<strong>It is not actually the germs
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Contrary to popular belief, the Germ theory's claim that ‘germ exposure equals disease’ is far from truth. Just think about it— If it is the case, why is it that some will get sick and some won’t when exposed to the same virus? And why were there many people that survived the Black Plague? The survivors were actually members of the same families whose other members also got afflicted with the disease. They shared a home, shared meals and were clearly exposed to the same virus, but then that begs the question: Why were they immune?

The answer to that is Antoine Béchamp’s Terrain Theory, which tells us that it is actually not germs that make us sick, but it is a weak and vulnerable body ecology (or internal environment) that causes us to “get sickâ€. When our body tissues become weak due to poor health management, that’s when the harmful germs gets attracted. Germs seek their natural habitat which are unhealthy and/ or dying tissues and cells. If germs sense that your cellular terrain has been weakened or compromised, they would naturally attack and invade your system to scavenge your unhealthy cells. On the other hand, if your tissues are healthy then there would be no breeding ground for these germs to cause an infection [2].

When germ invasion happens, common symptoms such as fever, headache or rash appear giving you the misconception that you are “sickâ€ because of the germs. However, this idea is far from the truth. These symptoms are actually just the result of your body’s attempt to heal— an effort made by your immune system to naturally eliminate the infection from the body. As for fever, we get it because the body detoxes itself more efficiently at higher temperatures. It is usually a good sign as it means that the body is responding to fight the infection. Hippocrates once said 2400 years ago, “Give me fever and I can cure every disease.â€ He understood that what we call ‘disease’ today in Modern Medicine, is really the body’s attempt to recover and heal [3].

<strong>Where did we go wrong?
</strong>
Now with the statements above, we can conclude that germs actually do not cause sickness, but the poor terrain that is caused by having a poor lifestyle does. Before we play the blame game, we need to understand that we get constant exposure to thousands of foreign organisms everywhere, all the time. Germs are always found on solid surfaces, on food, and even in the air. If we get sick from this level of exposure (which is really normal by the way), it is a sign that we are doing something wrong to our body.

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Let’s take a look at the “Rats in a Dumpâ€ analogy from late chiropractic icon, Dr. Fred Barge. According to him, “If you have a dump, you’ve got rats.â€ Like rats, germs are attracted to an unhealthy, garbage-filled environment where they can set up camp and multiply in great numbers. When germs make us ill, it is a sign that our body has become a dump due to unhealthy, toxic habits. Little to no physical activity, poor nutritional choices, excess body toxins, stressful emotional states, and poor nervous system coordination are just some of the things that allow our cells to weaken and malfunction, making us more vulnerable to sickness.
Unfortunately, the problem of today is that people tend to focus on the killing the “ratsâ€ (germs) rather than cleaning the “dumpâ€ (our internal terrain or bodily environment). ‘Cleanliness’ was taken too far as various strategies were developed to get rid of germs, while we do nothing to correct those toxic habits that impair our immune system. A good example would be antibiotics, which we use to kill germs temporarily— but it doesn’t address the issue of your body still being a dump. When the effect of antibiotics wears off, there’s a chance that germs will still be back and you will get recurrent infection.

To get rid of germs permanently, all we have to do is remove the thing that is attracting them —- get rid of the garbage in your terrain. Maintaining a healthy terrain can only be achievable by practicing a healthy lifestyle. Ronald Glasser, former assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota writes, “It is the body that is the hero, not science, not antibiotics…not machines or new devicesâ€. Remember that your state of health is far more important than the germs you encounter, and there is also a big difference between being scared of germs and living a clean life. With adequate sleep, high quality nutrition, stress management, and healthy nervous system we can build our natural defense from germ exposure that is unpreventable.
<pre>1. Nancy Appleton, Ph.D. Why Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory Is A Curse.
2. Jeanne Ohm, DC. Shifting The Paradigm: Insight Into The Germ Theory. Pathways to Family Wellness, Issue #36.
3. Tony Isaacs. Louis Pasteur vs. Antoine Bechamp: Know the True Causes of Disease. Natural News Website, 2010.</pre>