Terrain Theory. If you believe in it, does it also mean you believe that viruses do not exist?
Pasteur versus Bernard and Bechamp.
First, I want to say that I am not a scientist, virologist, immunologist, biologist, or biochemist. I am a nutritionist.
Nutrition principles guide my understanding of Terrain Theory.
I want to share how I view Terrain Theory and how I was a big promoter of this concept early on in 2020, but my posts on FB were often banned.
I continue to support the Terrain Theory.
Much of my understanding of germ versus terrain comes from this book (sorry for how the cover looks-a tea accident!) but it is sourced from 1923 and 1942 so if anyone has a more current resource (I prefer a book), please share!
Germ Theory
Germs are microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and other pathogens).
Westernized medicine, the masses, and all captured outlets believe in the germ theory that all germs are harmful, dangerous, are to be feared, and we must do everything we can to avoid contact with germs, avoid spreading the germ. This mindset believes germs must be destroyed via injections, medications, or surgery.
The theory supports the use of medication and vaccines for eradication and protection. The Germ Theory is no surprise since Pasteur’s concept supported the destruction of homeopathic and herbal medicine and was replaced with medications, injections, and surgery in the early 1900s.
Germ Theory instills fear of pathogens such as what we saw with C-19.
The Germ Theory originated with Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the inventor of pasteurization. Pasteur believed that external germs can invade the body and are the direct cause of disease and that we must eradicate them and destroy them to get well.
This theory supports medications, chemotherapy, radiation, antibiotics, vaccines/injections, and surgery.
We can understand, based on this model, how people believe that chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are the only cancer diagnosis solutions because we have to kill and destroy.
I have said for many years (and most people do not like when I say this), “You are not sick because you have cancer…you have cancer because you are sick.” You will see how my statement aligns with the Terrain Theory.
Pasteur stated that the body is a sterile place that is void of germs; thus, our encounters with them could be deadly. Based on this model, the solution was to kill and destroy pathogens. This model is an excellent concept for Westernized medicine since it generates significant revenue.
The body is not sterile, and even allopathic doctors know this, so it is a bit perplexing to me how there are die-hards for the Germ Theory.
The 20th Century can be considered the era of antibiotics and vaccines, even though others, such as Metchnikoff (1845-1916), defended the intake of quality nutrition to support good intestinal health.
While many still believe in Germ Theory, others realize that it neglects to consider other factors such as you (the host), your environment (inside and outside of you), your susceptibilities, your genetics, and even your socioeconomic determinants.
Terrain Theory
“Germs seek their natural habitat-diseased tissue rather than being the cause of diseased tissue.” ~ Antoine Bechamp
“It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.” ~Hippocrates.
The theory of your terrain versus the germ to be feared started with Claude Bernard (1813-1878), and then it was built upon by Antoine Bechamp (1816-1908).
Bernard proposed the concept of the milieu, which suggests that the body’s internal environment (its terrain) maintains equilibrium and that pathogens can live outside of us and within us in harmony if our environment is balanced. The terrain will dictate if you get sick and how sick you get.
I support Bernard’s concept wholeheartedly. For instance, why did C-19 lead to worse symptoms for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity? How can three people be in the same place when someone sneezes or coughs, and they all get sprayed upon, yet only one gets sick with cold-like symptoms?
These instances go back to Bernard and the terrain. If your internal environment is healthy, a pathogen cannot survive and thrive in you.
From my understanding, Bechamp took the concept one step further. Bechamp did believe in viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi and that we can live in harmony with them. He believed that it is only when the terrain changes that disease states can occur.
This aligns with what Dr. Humphries stated in the Mercola interview, describing polio as a commensal virus with no disease in healthy tribal people. In people who were exposed to arsenate (sprayed on crops and directly on people due to invasive moths destroying crops-see Maready’s book The moth in the iron lung) and ingesting heavy metals such as mercury, polio lead to poliomyelitis (the active disease state).
Thus, it is not the virus but the environment that can lead to pathogenesis.
Conversely, Cowan may say that the pathogen is only a protective mechanism. He describes Listeria found in pasteurized milk from a sick cow as not what was causing the illness but rather Listeria was a protective mechanism in the milk to biodegrade and consume the poison in the milk.
Dr. Cowan said Pasteur fed isolated bacteria to animals and people but could not transmit disease. He had to add arsenic and mercury to make people sick. (This last part is based on information that Pasteur kept two diaries- a real one and a fake one).
Cowan and like-minded individuals do not believe that pathogenic viruses exist and that the field of virology is fraudulent.
Benard believed in viruses but that they did not lead to a disease state in a balanced inner ecosystem.
Bechamp took that concept a step further, stating that pathogens are produced by human tissue when there is an altered, harmful change to the terrain.
From that above statement, I gather that he believed that we, our altered ecosystem, create the disease or illness state and that it does not come from pathogens outside of us but we create the pathogens and can pass them on to other people with altered states (someone chime in here if my interpretation is incorrect).
From Bechamp or Pasteur? A lost chapter in the history of biology, the author Ethel Douglas Hume (book two written in 1923) sums up Bechamp’s microzymas (microbes) teachings:
The microzyma (microbes as we know the term) may become morbid through a change of function and thus be the starting point of disease (p. 242).
In a diseased body a change of function in the microzymas may lead to a morbid bacterial evolution (p. 243).
From my understanding, Hume is saying that microbes can change from commensal to an altered state and contribute to disease.
Dr. Hazan’s gut health findings align with the Terrain Theory.
In Dr. Hazan’s research findings she found that people with adequate bifidobacteria did not get sick during 2020 but people without adequate amounts did.
She also discovered that the injection depletes bifidobacteria.
Another Viewpoint
Some people believe the virus is novel from gain of function research.
Some people do not believe viruses exist.
In this post (below) that I read today, the authors believe a novel virus does not exist but that they do not:
“deny that there are clearly many unknowns with respect to viruses, and the extent of what we don’t know appears to be immeasurably greater than virologists would care to admit.”
Regardless of the differences most people in this “space” agree the pandemic was a planned-demic.
Bottom Line
As a nutritionist, regardless of whether you believe in a novel virus, no new virus, or no viruses at all, the purpose of my posts is to educate you so that you have the tools to support your inner ecosystem, whether it is against cancer, autoimmune conditions, asthma, cognitive decline, to promote longevity or for a host of other reasons.
Your terrain is critical to your overall health. If you are inflamed, eating a highly refined and processed diet, sedentary, not getting fresh air, overweight, stressed, bottling up emotions or lack enjoyment in life, you are not as healthy as you can be and are susceptible to disease conditions.
We are surrounded by microbes from the air, the soil, and other humans and are on everything we touch. We live in harmony with microbes. A disease state can occur when your body and terrain are out of balance.
Support your inner ecosystem and avoid the fear of pathogens.
Do viruses exist?
I honestly do not know, but I do know supporting my health is critical to avoiding pills and ills.
I am always open to your comments and appreciate links and resources. I try to read or listen to as many of them as possible.
As a nutritionist, I do not know everything about nutrition, and as I learn and research, my thought process also evolves.
I think we can agree upon how critical it is to support your gut and overall health through diet and lifestyle measures and avoid unnecessary medications, surgeries, and injections.
Show my posts some love, please!
It is just me writing, reading, researching, and seeing clients!
I do not use mainstream social media, so please share my posts so that more people can get informed on how to get and stay healthy.
This is NOT information allopathic practitioners will share with you.
I think everybody is missing or neglecting some issues. First, we are given a choice, germs or terrain. Really? Is this all? Do you want to limit the entire existence to two factors?
We live in a world composed of almost a hundred elements of which we are aware and nobody knows how many elements which we cannot even detect because of our technological limitations. Why not two? Why not five elements? We are told that the life is made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. Why isn’t it enough? WHY? We don’t know.
What else we don’t know? Whenever we arrive at a simple answer, closing a search, finishing a scientific investigation, completing the most extensive clinical trial, you may be sure that there is more. We just need to wait a year or fifty years for our mind, understanding, knowledge and technology to catch up. Then, boooom, what we knew was the “truth” is being demolished in an instant.
What factors do we miss? One is well known, so well that literally everybody knows it and knows that it is stronger than germs or terrain. We call it hope, inner strength, purpose, faith, love, inner healing, spirit. Everyone knows it is the strongest factor. How do we know it?
Instinctively. “Instinct” is another factor which successfully escapes scientific examinations. But it’s there. Even better, it rules over all other factors. You see a person, and - if you are friends with your instinct - you make an instant decision, yes or no, friends or strangers. Or, yes, this is the right person to be together. Germs won’t help, the terrain is irrelevant, but this new relationship will make stronger beyond the reach of the ugliest diseases.
In five paragraphs, we already have four key factors: germs, terrain, spirit and instinct. What else are we missing?
look no further than legendary musician Frank Zappa for the root cause of most modern malady’s , and his song “i’m the slime” that contains the line ‘i’m the slime oozing out of your tv set”