Positive Health Online

In this Feb 2014 Issue 212 of Positive Health PH Online, we continue along the 20^th anniversary journey since the launch of PH in 1994.

One major paradigm conflict from about a century ago concerned two biomedical giants of the early 20^th Century - Louis Pasteur and Antoine Beauchamp. Louis Pasteur was the creator of the ‘germ theory,’ the idea that germs are floating around in the air and will attack us if we do not protect ourselves with pharmaceutical substances. On the other hand, Antoine Beauchamp rejected Pasteur’s ideas and put forward the notion that the biological terrain of the being is the cause of disease, not the germ itself.

“The primary cause of disease is in us, always in us.”

Antoine Beauchamp, 1883

http://healthyfran.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/hello-world/

“Pasteur strongly believed that we live in a hostile environment where dis-ease is always trying to invade our bodies through harmful bacteria. This attitude towards sickness was to therefore protect the body from harmful bacteria.. On the other hand, Beachamp believed that a healthy body could be immune to harmful bacteria and that only when cells became weak and ill could bacteria cause a destructive effect… Beachamp continued to discover that healthy tissue was constantly being exposed to bacteria but only as the body started to deteriorate, would the bacteria change due to the changes in the bodies cell bio-chemistry…

“Beauchamp’s and Pasteur's research continued to conflict and in the end Pasture's theory was adopted and Beachamp's was ignored. The end result being that we are prejudice towards preventative treatment of dis-ease and as we know this is still present today.”

www.nutritionfriend.com/Pasteur-and-Beauchamp/I52.htm

This paradigm dichotomy views of the germ vs terrain prevail today and apply to many health conditions, including infections, allergic conditions including hayfever and eczema and cancer where over-riding medical policies encourage steps to wipe out infectious organisms, allergens and cancer cells. Rarely heard are treatment approaches which nurture and encourage prevention of infection and illness by supporting the body’s and cell’s immune system and environment to discourage conditions of infection and disease progression.

We publish in this issue New Cancer / Fungus Theory by Dr Mark Sircus Ac OMD DM(P) which presents a reasoned article, extensively referenced to the published scientific literature, which discusses and describes how aggressive fungi may be a causative agent of cancer, and how the terrain of the human body may be vulnerable to infection and then cancer, following oxygen deprivation, drop in pH, inflammation and other cellular toxicity changes:

“Cancer - always believed to be caused by genetic cell mutations - can in reality be caused by infections from viruses, bacteria, and fungi… Whether caused by infections or not, once cancerous conditions are well underway the weakening of the immune system and the battle that ensues between the good guys and the bad is cheered on by hordes of infectious agents that increase in density, power and form as a patient’s cancers get worse.

“Cancer also involves inflammation, acid pH, low oxygen conditions accompanied by low CO₂ levels, lower core body temperatures as well as nutritional deficiencies and high levels of tissue and cellular toxicity with heavy metals, chemicals and radiological exposure… Cancer cells love the conditions that healthy cells abhor. Same goes for all infectious agents. It is impossible to be dying of cancer and not be dying of infections and nutritional deficiencies at the same time!

“Given enough time, cancer will develop whenever there is a proliferation of damaged cells. When cells are damaged, when their cell wall permeability changes, when toxins and free radicals build up, when the mitochondria lose functionality in terms of energy ATP production, when pH shifts strongly to the acidic, and when essential nutrients are absent, cells eventually, or sometimes quickly, decline into a cancerous condition. We can see that when a person has cancer they are literally rotting inside and dying from the loss of function, gathering infectious forces, and losing strength from malnutrition as the cancer cells eat us out of house and home.”

www.positivehealth.com/article/cancer/new-cancer-fungus-theory

Other features in Issue 212 presenting the two sides of this paradigm include Conventional vs Herbal Antibiotics by Klaus Ferlow and Poison Pills by Helke Ferrie:

www.positivehealth.com/article/herbal-medicine/conventional-vs-herbal-antibiotics-what-is-the-difference

www.positivehealth.com/article/nutraceuticals/poison-pills

Research from Japan published 30 Jan 2014 in Nature by Haruko Obokata et al[1] describes the conversion of mature cells from mice into pluripotent ‘stem’ cells by a process now termed  “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” or STAP with the resultant cells now termed “induced pluripotent stem (iPS)” cells.

www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7485/full/nature12968.html

“In contrast to previous methods that involve complex and challenging laboratory techniques, the Japanese-American team of researchers took blood cells from newborn mice, briefly bathed them in a moderately acidic solution, and then returned them to a standard cell culture medium. A week later, cells that had survived the treatment had reverted into a pluripotent state.”

http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/01/acid-treatment-could-provide-breakthrough-stem-cell-technique

The possibilities that this technique - the animal cell equivalent to heat-shock proteins in plants - may herald are in my view limitless to human health and medicine, assuming that the same ability to trigger de-differentiation to stem cells in humans can be achieved.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25967136

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25917270

If it becomes possible to re-program mature cells to become like stem-cells, then this may be the first step in being able to similarly re-program cancer cells to self-destruct (apoptosis) by providing a similarly weakly acidic environment rather than having to ‘carpet bomb’ cancer cells with chemotherapy, or radiotherapy. Could this have a connection to the success certain physicians claim to have in cancer patients using sodium bicarbonate?

www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-207

This is the last Expert Column from Joël Carbonnel - Alexander Technique / Mézières specialist - and Wilma Kirsten - Nutritionist who are taking a break from their PH Online Columns. We bid them both reluctant farewell and our much-deserved appreciation for the knowledge they have imparted over the years. Joël, for one has been writing for Positive Health PH Online since his first article - The Mézières Method - a revolution in manual therapy - was published in Issue 27 April 1998 Throughout the past 16 years, Joël has written 86 articles and 4 book reviews!

www.positivehealth.com/author/joel-carbonnel

www.positivehealth.com/author/wilma-kirsten/wilma-kirsten

References

1. Haruko Obokata, Teruhiko Wakayama, Yoshiki Sasai, Koji Kojima, Martin P. Vacanti, Hitoshi Niwa, Masayuki Yamato & Charles A. Vacanti. Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency. Nature 505:641–647. 30 January 2014. doi:10.1038/nature12968. www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7485/full/nature12968.html