In the late nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur's "germ theory" became the medical paradigm, the controlling medical idea, for the Western world. In its simplest form, the germ theory proposes that the body is sterile and that germs from the air cause disease. The medical community started to look for the right pill to kill off the germ. This concept became ingrained into medicine and medical research. Most research goes to looking for the right pill for a specific disease.

If new ideas concerning the cause of disease do not fit into this theory that airborne germs cause disease and the answer to illness is finding the right pill to cure the disease, then these new ideas fall on deaf ears. Any paradigm, or group of ideas, is difficult to break into if the new ideas do not add to the original ideas.

The billion dollar pharmaceutical industry has taken away some of the symptoms and pain but has not found the answer to many infectious and most all degenerative diseases. In the U. S., in spite of all the money, research, and volunteer hours spent, all major degenerative diseases are increasing per 100,000. Diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate. Infectious diseases are also on the rise. Every year, old symptoms are given new names-names like Herpes, AIDS, Epstein-Barr virus, Candida Albicans, chronic fatigue syndrome, environmental illness, and fibromyalgia - to make them appear to be the work of new germs. People live in hope that soon a magic pill will be found. Unless we turn this nonsense around, the list will only grow in the future. The medical community and the individual must start looking at what is causing the illness rather than how to cure the illness.

The responsibility for health has been taken away from the individual. If germs from the air cause disease then the medical community must find the answer. The individual is not responsible. What can we do to stop germs from the air getting in our mouths and our whole body? According to the germ theory, we can do nothing for a cure or to stop the cause of disease. There are always germs in the air. We are breathing in these germs right now. Some of us get sick and some of us do not get sick. For some of us who do get sick, the cold lingers for days. Others of us seem to get well very fast. It seems a more logical explanation is that germs are allowed to cause problems in our body when we do not have a strong immune system.

In primitive villages today there are very few degenerative diseases but it they are coming. As sugar and other processed foods arrive and people move into the cities, where lives become distressful, due to crime, pollution, drugs, and poor living conditions, degenerative disease becomes prevalent. When people do get symptoms, they believes that pills and modern technology will heal them. Medical clinics pop up in the cities to help "cure" people with magic pills. They do not understand that they are creating this mess themselves.

In order for germs and disease not to become a problem in our body, we need to take responsibility back for our health. There are parts of our twentieth century life style that could be causing us to suppress our immune systems. What we eat, think, say, do, and feel can affect our immune system, positively or negatively. If we eat whole foods, do not let stress become distress, not let negative thoughts become a problem, and exercise, then our immune system will be able to function well and germs will not be able to become a problem in our body. Stop doing to the body what you did to make it sick and the body will heal itself. Detoxify the body, give it the nutrients it needs and the body will be able to defend us against infectious and degenerative diseases.