Infectious
diseases are not caught – DIET IS THE CULPRIT!
Most
people imagine the cold virus is ‘caught’ from another individual who is infectious.
In simplistic terms this is true, however it is far from the whole
story, otherwise why do some people always seem to be going down with something
or other whilst others never catch anything. It is obviously all to do with
individual immune systems. That is
also why when we have been weakened by one virus we may well succumb to another
immediately on recovery.
The
first thing to understand is that colds and flu are simply methods the body
adopts to cleanse itself and get rid of weakened tissues.
Similarly catarrh is a means of getting rid of harmful acidity that
is creating an internal environment detrimental to good health.
Treatment must be directed towards assisting this elimination and not
suppressing it. Suppression e.g. nasal
decongestants will merely result in toxic materials accumulating in the body
laying the foundation for disease in later life.
Since
colds are a natural expulsion of acidity from the body it is obvious that
foods, which build up acidity, are the real culprits.
Acid
foods are first and foremost refined white sugar and all its products, also
refined white four e.g. sweets, pastries, cakes, biscuits and bread, pop and
soft drinks in general. Also, excessive animal products ie. meat, fish, eggs, cheese, milk
and fried foods.
Alkaline
foods should be the main core making up approximately 80% of the diet.
Examples of alkaline foods are fresh fruit and vegetables, seeds, and
nuts such as brazil, coconut and almonds.
The
quickest method of cleansing the system is through the use of a short fruit
fast.
When
one has a cold, or flu especially, appetite is generally suppressed naturally.
The worst thing we can do is to ‘eat to keep our strength up’ at such
a time. The body has enough to do detoxifying itself;
it doesn’t need another load to deal with at the same time. Even if we loose weight during an illness,
recovery is much faster if we don’t overload the system whilst ill and on
recovery the appetite returns and the weight lost is soon put back on again.
Initially only pure fruit juices should be taken, diluted with spring
water. After a day or so any type
of fresh fruit can be taken with impunity apart from starchy fruit like bananas.
This should be continued if possible for several days, later incorporating
raw vegetables. This is the best way
to ensure that the bodies cleansing attempts have not been in vain.
There
are two reasons we may not succumb when others around us do.
The first is that our immune systems are so strong and our tissue so
healthy that we ward off all invading pathogens.
However it takes energy to ‘spring clean’ and so the second is that
our vital energy or energy within our body is so weak we are unable to summon
up the energy to perform this ‘spring cleaning operation’.
You can see by this that most chronically, long-term sick people with
conditions like cancer and chronic arthritis fall into this second category
and that is why they don’t readily recover by orthodox treatment.
It
is not coincidental that during herbal treatment as well as with other ‘alternative
therapies, colds and flu happening early on in the treatment are looked upon
as positive and often even expected.
I
remember a patient of mine, who was also having acupuncture treatment with
a colleague and started catching one cold after another.
‘Excellent’, said the acupuncturist, ‘your vital energy is picking
up nicely!’ However this patient, tired of these troublesome
colds, went and had a flu jab. Now
don’t forget her vital energy was high, but now but her body was unable to
‘spring clean’ using the usual route. She subsequently came out in boils, which I think was far more uncomfortable
than having the colds.
BUILDING
UP THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Penny
Baulm who started the Bristol Cancer Centre in her autobiography talks of
how decided she didn’t want to go down the path of radiotherapy for her breast
cancer and sought out more natural methods. In her quest one treatment she was given under
supervision was to have fevers induced in order to stimulate her immune system.
Fortunately
we now know several extremely effective medicinal herbs that will perform
this task.
The
first one many people know about nowadays is Echinacea.
Echinaforce,
a particular preparation of this herb, is now advertised frequently
on prime time T.V., a testament to the number of people using Echinacea. Echinacea is both anti-viral and anti-bacterial
and contrary to what most people have been told, the longer you take Echinacea
the stronger your immune system becomes. It is normally an extremely safe herb. The only possible contra-indication being that
because it also cleanses the lymphatic system everything is thrown into the
blood system. I once had a patient
whose eczema flared up after taking Echinacea simply because toxins were being
actively thrown out of her body through her skin, the same way they had always
been expelled. I would also be cautious
with anyone whose body is highly toxic and they have weak kidneys. This is because their kidneys could simply
become overloaded with waste and buckle under the strain.
Garlic
has always been available and a superb anti-bacterial, anti-fungal anti-viral
herb. Unfortunately the deodorised
capsules do not exhibit these qualities and the smell of the pungent essential
oil on the breath is less than acceptable for most people.
In the book ‘Green Pharmacy’ there is a true story of grave robbers
who during the Black Death were able to protect themselves from catching it
themselves by eating garlic. Another
story cites how a schoolteacher reading this decided to hang garlic up in
her classroom during an infectious epidemic.
Her class was the only one in the school to remain healthy.
© Anne Chiotis Medical
Herbalist, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stourbridge,
Articles
