The "Pluralistic" Health Care System - revisiting Medical History

• Both Health Systems, if seen through the eyes of History have been "One Combined System", slowly separating into different modalities of medical and natural traditional prevention and treatment practices.

• Herbalogy by example has been used by both types of practitioners, and many pharmaceuticals originated form herbal remedies.

• Other practitioners, thinkers or scientists, created their own particular systems, such as Naturopathy, or the German term "Heilpraktiker" (Healing Practitioner).

• In Germany, Heilpraktik (Naturopathy) was practiced by Father Sebastian Kneipp; who used Hydrotherapy, Herbs and Homeopathy to "Strengthen the patients System", and further more recommended strict dietary requirements.
  
  The Key point is: Treatment was directed towards "strengthening a system, building resistance, making a person more healthy".

The defining "Split" of the Natural and Medical Systems.*

"The microbe is nothing; the terrain is everything".

The year was 1825, when Medicine took one gigantic step forward, while taking one gigantic step backwards.

The Germ theory, discovering Bacteria causing diseases and rejecting the notion that a healthy body system may not Prevent this from happening, has separated the Medical system from a Natural Preventative system,

*There is only one way to re-unite both system, and this is by recognising that We Need Both Systems, creating therefore a Pluralistic Health Care System

The accidental Protagonists:

1. Louis Pasteur, French; was a well-known chemist and biologist famous for “pasteurization”, a germ theory and the development of vaccines.
   He along with German physician Robert Koch, is considered one of the fathers of the germ theory.
   Pasteur was convinced that our blood is germ-free.
   

2. Bèchamp, French; known for his breakthroughs in chemistry and in strong rivalry with Pasteur.
   Bèchamp said that blood is NOT sterile, claiming that microorganisms come in many forms.
   Because of these finding he also says that diseases develops from inside the body.
   "The microbe is nothing; the terrain is everything".

3. Prof. Günther Enderlein, German zoologist and entomologist (1872-1968) based his scientific research on Bèchamp’s work. In his book, “Bakterien Cyclogenie” from 1925, he used a "darkfield microscopy". He found that microorganisms could develop into countless forms whilst living in human blood!

4. Claude Bernard (1813-1878), a physiologist and contemporary of Pasteur. - The famous quote; “The microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything”, is attributed to him.
   Today we know that microorganisms are pleomorphic, (meaning, they can change). A bacterium can mutate into a yeast or fungus and back again.

5. Claude Bernard and Antoine Bechamp (1816-1908), believed "disease was a condition of imbalance in the internal terrain of body".
   They emphasized the context or environment, the TERRAIN , in which germs lived.
   On the one hand, if the terrain was balanced (homeostatic), then germs could not flourish.
   On the other hand, if the terrain were out of balance, then germs would thrive.
   

6. Claude Bernard and Antoine Bechamp's observation and research marks the beginning of "ACTIVE PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE".

Active Preventative Healing Perspective - Create the "terrain" which is resisting disease.

Viewing the cause of disease as a function of the condition of the terrain represents "the Split" away from the medical model to a natural healing perspective.

The medical model, which dominates Western Medicine, relies in large measure upon the tenets of the germ theory, thereby, rendering humans as the "Reactive" targets who are the mercy of microbes.

In contrast; the Natural Preventive Perspective shifts the focus from the power of germs and puts the emphasis on the environment, the terrain, in which microbes seek to live.

It also recognizes people as "ProActive Agents" of health, who can make choices to create a terrain that remains in balance and less vulnerable to the potentially deleterious effects of germs.

… anything that negatively alters the terrain, can cause diseases by upsetting homeostasis.

Homeostasis is the body’s balancing mechanism, and balance is a key word in health.

Therefore, it is very important that we get the body in balance and keep it in balance by ACTIVE PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE.

Today, it is well recognised that LIFESTYLE CHOICES exert a major influence on our General Health, with LIFESTYLE DISEASES now ranking in the top 10 disease statistics.

The 5 main Lifestyle choices that lead to susceptibility to disease:

1. Poor nutrition, bad choices, too much alcohol, drugs, sugar and processed de-natured food.

2. Inactivity, lack of stretching, cardio vascular and weight bearing exercise, as well as under breathing, shallow breathing,

3. Structural Imbalance, skeletal and muscular problems caused by work and wrong lifestyle choices.

4. Negative thoughts/emotions, attitudes related to self-destructive actions.

5. Environmental toxins (primarily man-made chemicals and heavy metals)

Conclusion

Explaining disease as a reflection of the condition of the "terrain" and our lifestyle choices, provides a "Practical and Natural Way" to think about, and practice good health for anyone interested in preventing disease and living with physical, mental, spiritual and social vitality.

From this perspective, the terrain is indeed everything.

• We do now recognise that it is impossible to create enough drugs and antiseptics to kill the seemingly infinite number of microbes and their potential to mutate into more virulent variations.
  Indeed the overuse of Antibiotics has lead to the creation of so called "Super Bugs".

• One can only wonder abut the constant advertising of Antiseptic Everything .. what will happen if one steps out of this "Cloud of Anti-Septic"?

• This is NOT a "Blame Game", this is in recognition that we can't exist without the science of medicine and pharmaceuticals,
  BUT, we can't exist without Active Natural Holistic Prevention either.

• People "need to be provided" practical, natural methods to maintain a healthy body, mind and spirit, along with the necessary education on how to live a more healthy preventative lifestyle to keep the "Terrain in Balance".

• The germ theory proposes that microorganisms are the overriding cause of many diseases.

• Conventional Medicine to this day is still based on this theory.

• The question then becomes, what creates sickness and illness? Is it the germs or is it an unhealthy body?

• In a pluralistic system, both theories are right to a certain extend, but will be more effective if practiced together.

• Today, with our all time high use of of antibiotic drugs, chemical pesticides and herbicides, vaccines and antibacterial soaps, a germphobic society has resulted.

• Unfortunately, all of these practices have interfered with the body’s natural micro biome and impaired our immunity.

• Nourishing the Terrain means Active Preventative Holistic Health Care for all ....

Compiled by: Dieter LüskeN.D.-D.C.H.-D.M.H.-D.H