IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TERRAIN
It is amazing to watch the winter Olympics and see the athletes perform with incredible skill. Each athlete’s performance is either enhanced or buffeted by the weather conditions. Ice, snow, temperature and visibility either make or break you. We call these conditions the terrain. Our body’s terrain also plays the major role as to the quality of our health. Rather than addressing our body’s terrain, the allopathic medical community focuses on Germ Theory.
Simply stated, Germ Theory says a disease is caused by a specific type of microorganism. We get sick because we were exposed of a virus or bacteria. The treatment plan then is to give an agent to destroy the microbe such as an antibiotic (meaning: anti-against, biotic-life; against life), vaccinations, drugs, chemicals, surgery, or radiation. Though such treatment may also destroy good cells and organisms the end justifies the means. In the late 1800’s Louis Pasteur popularized Germ Theory and today most allopathic medical professionals accept this theory and consider it to be the most important contribution to medical science.
One proof offered for Germ Theory is the child in the classroom. When the negligent parent brings her germ infested sick child to school, those nasty bugs spread to the other innocent and unsuspecting children – they also succumb to the illness. Though this scenario seems to prove Germ Theory, it actually reinforces the Terrain Theory. If Germ Theory is correct, why doesn’t every child in the classroom get sick along with the principal, teachers, and the janitor? Some people are under a constant exposure to many germs and never get sick, while others will become ill at the mere mention of the word germ.
In the Terrain Theory camp the reality of microbes and pathogens is not denied, however it is understood that defense against such “bugs” weakens because of a poor lifestyle, including consuming devitalized food. The sad American diet along with the intake of a host of preservatives and additives has diminished our nutritional resources so that the terrain of the body is more appealing or at least tolerable to outside invaders. The body simply does not have enough ammunition to defend itself against them. Some would call this having a low resistance or compromised immunity. Invaders will move in if the Terrain provides a nice home. The answer is to replenish vital nutrients to the starving body. By changing our lifestyle to incorporate healthy choices in diet, beverages, activity, and thought, the body will be able to defend and restore itself.
Dr. Carey Reams, a mathematician and agriculturist showed that plants grown in a soil (the Terrain) with proper balance of nutrients, pH, water, and sunshine had no need for pesticides, insecticides, herbicides. Plants grown in a healthy soil full of rich minerals and humus – a healthy terrain – find the ability to defend against would be invaders.
A few years back, I visited Malaysia. Everyone in our group was encouraged to take high doses of B vitamins to discourage malaria exposure from mosquitoes. It seems that mosquitoes avoided people who had lots of B vitamins – they did not like the terrain. Any back yard BBQ will prove this out as well. There is always someone getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Their Terrain, maybe because of high sugar intake or deficient vitamin Bs, is a mosquito’s smorgasbord. However, others hardly seem to notice them. They have a better terrain. A healthy lifestyle will always be the forerunner of good health with the least symptoms.
The pH factor is one part of the Terrain that can directly affect our health. It is generally agreed among most health professionals that the pH of the blood level should be between 7.35 – 7.45. Most Naturopaths look for urine or saliva pH levels to be between 6.2 and 6.8 for an optimal healthy Terrain. Allopathic physicians use a much wider range for normal. Naturopaths are not looking for normal ranges (the range where most of the population falls) they want an optimal range. If the pH falls, raising acidity, cells become weaker and the body becomes more inviting to disease. When pH rises to high alkaline levels the body is in an emergency mode trying to buffer extreme acidity also creating an unhealthy Terrain.
By maintaining a healthy Terrain, though germs may abound, we can win the fight for optimal health. While germs do play a partial role in sickness, they do not have the last word. The terrain of the body is far more important. At the end of his life, even Louis Pasteur supported the Terrain theory of health stating: “The microbe is of little consequence if one’s internal environment is in order.”