Chris_Halkides
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2009
- Messages
- 11,998
Very recently I was introduced to terrain theory, which seeks to explain disease differently from germ theory. I would like this thread to cover what this idea is. How it is sometimes related to HIV denialism or Covid denialism is on topic, but no one disease should take over this thread. My present but evolving position is that terrain theory becomes a conspiracy theory when, for example, a subject such as prescription drugs comes up. I am a firm proponent of germ theory. For example, I think that germ theory is flexible enough to account for the observation that not everyone who is exposed to a pathogen gets sick.
Here is one quote from someone with a nutritional perspective and who apparently believes a version of terrain theory, "“Germ theory” suggests that germs are what we need to worry about and we need to keep finding ways to kill them off. Whereas “terrain theory” argues that if the body is well and balanced, then germs that are a natural part of life and the environment will be dealt with by the body without causing sickness."
I found an essay at The Medium from Tudor Alexander, someone who seems to be expounding a nuanced version of terrain theory. He wrote, "Today, many years later, the conclusions of Terrain Theory have been avoided or outright suppressed in the education of both the people and doctors because, frankly, they aren’t highly profitable. If Terrain Theory has the priority in healthcare, then your focus is not the endless war against germs and outside forces but rather the strengthening of the body so that it can do what it was designed to do: keep you healthy...Chemicals do not strengthen anything and often lead to more problems..."
Mr. Alexander goes on to write, "By shunning, censoring and removing alternative viewpoints from education and healthcare we have completely ignored the Terrain. As a result, the average US citizen is sicker than their counterpart in any other major industrialized nation. In the 1960’s about 1–2% of children had chronic diseases and today, a few decades later, that number has risen to about 40–50%.(1)... Germ Theory has helped us create specific, targeted solutions to highly infectious pathogens or serious diseases. There are situations where supporting the Terrain alone will not solve the problem."
I found an essay at The Conversation and one at Popular Science. Modern terrain theory derives from Antoine Bechamp, but it is my understanding that the ideas have changed over time. From The Conversation, "Instead he [Bechamp] thought illness essentially depended on “tiny molecular granulations” called microzymas, which only become pathogenic when a change in environmental balance or function made them so. It was from this change in the bodily “terrain”, and not from germ invasion, that illness arose." From Popular Science, "In other words, he [Bechamp] believed that disease causes pathogens, and not the reverse."
Here is one quote from someone with a nutritional perspective and who apparently believes a version of terrain theory, "“Germ theory” suggests that germs are what we need to worry about and we need to keep finding ways to kill them off. Whereas “terrain theory” argues that if the body is well and balanced, then germs that are a natural part of life and the environment will be dealt with by the body without causing sickness."
I found an essay at The Medium from Tudor Alexander, someone who seems to be expounding a nuanced version of terrain theory. He wrote, "Today, many years later, the conclusions of Terrain Theory have been avoided or outright suppressed in the education of both the people and doctors because, frankly, they aren’t highly profitable. If Terrain Theory has the priority in healthcare, then your focus is not the endless war against germs and outside forces but rather the strengthening of the body so that it can do what it was designed to do: keep you healthy...Chemicals do not strengthen anything and often lead to more problems..."
Mr. Alexander goes on to write, "By shunning, censoring and removing alternative viewpoints from education and healthcare we have completely ignored the Terrain. As a result, the average US citizen is sicker than their counterpart in any other major industrialized nation. In the 1960’s about 1–2% of children had chronic diseases and today, a few decades later, that number has risen to about 40–50%.(1)... Germ Theory has helped us create specific, targeted solutions to highly infectious pathogens or serious diseases. There are situations where supporting the Terrain alone will not solve the problem."
I found an essay at The Conversation and one at Popular Science. Modern terrain theory derives from Antoine Bechamp, but it is my understanding that the ideas have changed over time. From The Conversation, "Instead he [Bechamp] thought illness essentially depended on “tiny molecular granulations” called microzymas, which only become pathogenic when a change in environmental balance or function made them so. It was from this change in the bodily “terrain”, and not from germ invasion, that illness arose." From Popular Science, "In other words, he [Bechamp] believed that disease causes pathogens, and not the reverse."
