The Immune System

The Immune System

For twenty-one years I was able to study the reaction
of well-fed animals to epidemic diseases, such as
rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease, septicemia and so forth
which frequently devastated the countryside. None of my animals
were segregated, none were inoculated; they frequently
came in contact with diseased stock. No case of infectious disease
occurred. The reward of well-nourished protoplasm was a very high
degree of disease resistance, which might even be described as immunity.
Sir Albert Howard

   The immune system is the name given to the complex organisation of glands, white cells, antibodies and other protein substances, hormones, enzymes and bacteria which protect the body against potentially harmful germs, viruses and foreign substances that may gain access to it. Foreign substances may include improperly digested protein molecules or other toxic matter from the digestive system as well as medicine and antibiotics also toxic to the body. The moment any of these substances enter the bloodstream they excite antagonism from the immune system and are therefore called antigens. Among the everyday activities of the white cells is the destruction and elimination of wornout red blood cells, which are continually replaced by the millions every second, and the elimination of any other cellular or metabolic debris.

   White cells are called leucocytes and there are many types, each with a different way of working but co-operating together as circumstances require to achieve their joint purpose. White cells are constantly being manufactured in the bone marrow of the body and migrate to inhabit all the tissues and body fluids in great numbers, whereas red blood cells (erythrocytes) never leave the blood circulation.

   Phagocytes are white cells which destroy antigens by consuming and digesting them. Macrophages are large phagocytes which can consume larger antigens such as defective or worn-out body cells. Neutrophils are the most numerous of the mobile phagocytes and are primarily concerned in attending to foreign germs or viruses. Lymphocytes are another type of white cell which patrol in the blood and lymph, there being two kinds: B lymphocytes, which manufacture antibodies, and T lymphocytes, which have other specialized functions for which they have been prepared in the thymus gland. Antibodies are specialised protein substances which B lymphocytes produce in large numbers when necessary to help destroy an antigen of a particular kind. The antibodies are so specialized they will be effective only against one particular antigen, so even after the antigen has been destroyed, tests of the specific antibody retained in the body for possible future use will allow identification of the antigen for which the antibody was made. Thus a blood test which discloses the presence of a certain antibody may indicate either the presence of its associated antigen (such as a virus) or that it has been present but now destroyed.

   T lymphocytes are so named because they are special products of the thymus gland, and it is from the observations of T cells that the condition of the immune system can be assessed, as for instance in AIDS. Another indicator of immune potential is the total number of white cells in a cubic millimetre of blood, normal being considered 5000 to 7000, perhaps as high as 10,000, this higher figure being an indication of a toxic system. It is normal for numbers to increase with activity, stress or challenge by antigens, but sometimes greatly increased numbers will indicate toxicity tending towards leukemia.

   Inflammation and fever are another response of the immune system and may occur locally at an area of infection or as the raised temperature of the entire body. As all vital functions in the body are brought about by enzyme activity, and as enzyme activity is greatly increased with increased temperature, fever which accompanies infection is an indication of good immune response. Often accompanying infection is swelling and soreness of the lymph glands nearest the seat of infection and this is an indication that the immune system is attempting to contain the infection where it is.

   The capability of the immune system (immunocompetence) depends on the general state of health and physical fitness, but regardless of this may be drastically (but only temporarily) reduced in a healthy body by fatigue or excessive stress. The condition of the bloodstream is very important. When toxemia exists, and fat in the blood tends to stick blood cells and platelets into sludge, increasing blood viscosity and decreasing oxygen levels, the immune system along with the rest of the entire body becomes severely diminished in function. Thus various chronic disease conditions, such as cancer, are invariably marked by diminished vitality, low body temperature, low enzyme levels and low immunocompetence. Chronically ill people and senile people, therefore, more readily succumb to acute infection.

   In particular, the level of immunocompetence depends on a healthy thymus, which in concert with the other endocrine glands directs the activities of the immune system. When health fails, or excessive demand is made on the immune system by way of infection or mental or physical trauma, the thymus, overworked, becomes exhausted, shrinks in size and loses function. Physical trauma includes toxemia, a great deal of which is produced within the body from wrong food, as previously described. Contributing to toxemia, however, are a great number of other substances harmful to the body and its immune system such as all drugs, medicinal or otherwise, antibiotics (refer to 'AIDS' in Chapter 8), tranquillizers, pain killers, aspirin and so on, nicotine, marijuana, exhaust fumes, fluoride and chlorine, etc in water supplies. And to repeat, it is a fact that mental trauma alone, such as the pronouncement of cancer or AIDS, is capable of sealing a sick person's fate in a fashion like that of the bone pointing ritual of Aboriginals or the decree of death by a tribal witchdoctor.

   An illustration of how mental trauma diminishes the immune system is given by Dr Laurence E. Badgley of San Francisco in his books Choose To Live and Healing AIDS Naturally:

   'T4 white blood cell counts are intimately related to mental focus. One of my patients was without symptoms and went to another doctor for an AIDS test. The doctor did the test, which was positive, as well as the T4 helper cell count which was 494 and normal. Upon learning that his antibody test was positive, the patient went into a tailspin of depression and fear. One week later he returned to the doctor because of his anxiety, and his T4 helper cell count was taken again. After one week of depression and no other symptoms his T4 count fell over 50% to 234.

   This intimate relationship of the mind and body raises a question about the true nature of the AIDS epidemic. It is not far fetched to postulate that much of the immune system depression among AIDS-test-positive patients might be the result of doctors telling them that it is likely they will get AIDS and die. The brain is a giant immune system gland that operates on hope, joy, and optimism. The gland turns off in response to mental attitudes of fear and depression.

   The question is raised as to how many people are dying because they have been programmed to die. The observation is made that doctors who tell their patients they have a terminal disease are programming their patients to die. The charge is made that these doctors are performing malpractise.'

   Thus to obtain the best chances for a patient's recovery it behoves a doctor to not only avoid programming his patient negatively, but to go further and program the patient positively by encouraging optimism, hope and confidence. It is the capability to do this that allows some doctors to constantly achieve better results than others.

   All vitamins and minerals * are important for proper immune function, particularly vitamin C and the generally inadequate amount of this vitamin in the Western diet, together with excessive quantities of fat, cholesterol and protein, are two of the main reasons for the mediocre standard of immunocompetence displayed by most people. A recent report in the Cecil Textbook of Medicine stated that sixty per cent of all human illness occurs in the upper respiratory tract in the form of colds, influenza and secondary bacterial infections. The survey showed an average of 5.6 infections per adult per year. Whereas a fit and healthy person is resistant to all infections and in ordinary circumstances suffers no respiratory problems at all year in year out, the 5.6 average shows that the average standard of immunocompetence is disturbingly poor. However, by comparison, our general standard of immunocompetence is superior compared with that of some other countries, but this proves only that the people in those countries are sicker than we are. In some countries where the majority of people are underfed and malnourished all the time, epidemics occur frequently, and history reveals that epidemics were often consequential in the wake of wars or natural disasters when shortage of fresh food resulted in widespread malnutrition. Such epidemics occur not because germs and viruses automatically increase in numbers during wars and floods; they occur because malnutrition weakens the people and reduces their powers of resistance.

See 'Mineral Deficiencies', Chapter 15.

   Whereas there are people in the world such as the Hunzas, who as a race maintain better health and greater resistance to disease than we do, they are by no means perfect specimens. Perfect specimens are only to be found in environments perfectly suited to them where the food perfectly suited to them is plentiful and not altered from its natural state. Thus the only perfect specimens to be found in the world are wild animals. While their natural food is plentiful, wild animals never get respiratory infections, tooth decay, skin complaints, venereal diseases and so on because they lack the skills to 'improve' their food and otherwise complicate their lives. Their immune systems are not one scrap better than human immune systems--they are to all intents and purposes exactly the same--it's just that their immune systems are fully functional while human immune systems are always to a greater or lesser extent handicapped by toxemia and stress. Animals, too, can in this way be handicapped and thereby suffer infections, but investigation shows that these are always animals domesticated or confined by man and fed unnatural food. The most common examples of this are pet dogs and cats fed on 'perfectly balanced' canned and packaged foods. These animals not only get sick from time to time, have tablets and injections, but even get heart disease and cancer. Perhaps the best example of both impaired and unimpaired immunocompetence in animals is the comparison between the cattle managed by Sir Albert Howard and the cattle of neighboring farmers where Sir Albert's herds at times mixed freely with others suffering foot and mouth disease, etc without ever getting sick.

   It's pretty simple--look after your immune system and it will look after you. It is immensely powerful in sound health but it becomes diminished in many people because of the many challenges it receives, challenges for which it was not designed.

Immunization

   The intention of medical vaccinations is to artificially induce the body's immune system into producing antibodies to microbes of various diseases so that if at some later time the microbe (or virus) is encountered in reality, the immune system will be forearmed. The method is to make a vaccine from a deactivated form of the microbe which, when injected, is harmless to the body but capable of producing the desired reaction to achieve immunity.

   The theory of immunization is based on the germ theory of disease, and like the germ theory it has caused a great deal of confusion because it is full of inconsistencies, failing more often than when it appears to work. Too often adverse reactions occur after vaccinations, and the record shows that over the years more suffering and deaths have eventuated from immunization than would have occurred without it.

   Since Edward Jenner demonstrated the use of cowpox vaccine against smallpox in 1796, vaccinations against smallpox were started. Despite this, a smallpox epidemic swept England in 1839 and killed 22,081 people. In 1853 the Government made smallpox vaccinations compulsory, but the incidence of the disease kept increasing, and in 1872 another epidemic killed 44,840 people, most of whom were vaccinated. The compulsory vaccination law was abolished in 1948. Similar disasters occurred in Germany and japan, but possibly the worst was in the Philippines in 1918 when the US Government forced over three million natives to be vaccinated. Of these, 47,369 came down with smallpox and 16,477 died. In 1919 the program was doubled, and over seven million were vaccinated, of whom 65,180 came down with the disease and 44,408 died. The epidemic was a direct result of the vaccination program. These facts are described by Dr William F. Koch in his book The Survival Factor in Neoplastic and Viral Disease (1961). Dr Koch further described the disastrous increase in polio incidence in the USA and Canada following the mass inoculation campaign against polio in 1958. The highest increase was 700 per cent in Ottowa, Canada. Dr Robert Mendelsohn in his book Confessions of a Medical Heretic questions the safety of all immunizations, including diphtheria and whooping cough, in a chapter titled, 'If this is Preventive Medicine, I'll Take My Chances with Disease!' Richard Moskowitz, MD, of New York in his lecture 'Immunizations--A Dissenting View' * commenced by saying:

   'For the past 10 years or so, I have felt a deep and growing compunction against giving routine immunizations to children. It began with the fundamental belief that people have the right to make that choice for themselves. Soon I discovered that I could no longer bring myself to give the injections even when the parents wished me to.

   At bottom, I have always felt that the attempt to eradicate entire microbial species from the biosphere must inevitably upset the balance of nature in fundamental ways that we can as yet scarcely imagine. Such concerns loom ever larger as new vaccines continue to be developed, seemingly for no better reason than that we have the technical capacity to make them and thereby to demonstrate our power. as a civilization, to manipulate the evolutionary process itself.

   Purely from the viewpoint of our own species, even if we could be sure that the vaccines were harmless, the fact remains that they are compulsory [in many states of the USA], that all children are required to undergo them without any sensitive regard for basic differences in individual susceptibility, to say nothing of the wishes of the parents or the children themselves.

   Most people can readily accept the fact that, from time to time, certain laws that some of us strongly disagree with may be necessary for the public good. But the issue in this case involves nothing less than the introduction of foreign proteins or even live viruses into the bloodstream of entire populations. For that reason alone, the public is surely entitled to convincing proof, beyond any reasonable doubt, that artificial immunization is in fact a safe and effective procedure, in no way injurious to health, and that the threat of the corresponding natural diseases remains sufficiently clear and urgent to warrant mass inoculation of everyone, even against their will if necessary.

   Unfortunately, such proof has never been given; and, even if it could be, continuing to employ vaccines against diseases that are no longer prevalent or no longer dangerous hardly qualifies as an emergency.

   Finally, even if such an emergency did exist, and artificial immunization could be shown to be an appropriate response to it, the decision would remain essentially a political one, involving issues of public health and safety that are far too important to be settled by any purely scientific or technical criteria, or indeed by any criteria less authoritative than the clearly articulated sense of the community about to be subjected to it.

   For all of these reasons, I want to present the case against routine immunization as clearly and forcefully as I can. What I have to say is not quite a formal theory capable of rigorous proof or disproof. It is simply an attempt to explain my own experience, a nexus of interrelated facts, observations, reflections and hypotheses.

   I offer them to the public in part because the growing refusal of parents to vaccinate their children is so seldom articulated or taken seriously. The fact is that we have been taught to accept vaccination as a sort of involuntary communion, a sacrament of our own participation in the unrestricted growth of scientific and industrial technology, utterly heedless of the long-term consequences to the health of our own species, let alone to the balance of nature as a whole. For that reason alone, the other side of the case urgently needs to be heard.'

*From the book Dissent in Medicine, Nine Doctors Speak Out (on the issues of How Much Science is there in Modern Medicine?; Corruption in American Medicine; The Inaccuracies of Medical Testing; Hospital Births; Immunizations; Cancer Treatment; and Environmental Issues), Robert S. Mendelsohn, MD, George Crile, MD, Samuel Epstein, MD, Henry Heimlich, MD, Alan Scott Levin, MD, Edward R. Pirickney, MD, David Spodick, MD, Richard Moskowitz, MD, George White, MD, Contemporary Books, Chicago 1985.

   Dr Moskowitz went on to describe how the incidence of whooping cough had already precipitously declined long before the pertussis vaccine was introduced, as had tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid and other scourges of a bygone era similarly declined in response to better living conditions long before vaccines for them were developed, but that medical science had been mistakenly given credit for the improvement.

   Dr Moskowitz's thirty years of observations of the sheer ineffectiveness of immunization programs makes one wonder why the procedures continue to be persevered with, but worse than the ineffectiveness are the severe and sometimes fatal reactions that frequently follow vaccinations, to an extent so bad that in many countries vaccination programs have been abandoned, while at the same time the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer insists that international travellers be vaccinated against the diseases once considered so dangerous. Dr Moskowitz said:

   'Far from producing a genuine immunity, then, the vaccines may act by actually interfering with or suppressing the immune response as a whole, in much the same way that radiation, chemotherapy, and corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs do. Artificial immunization focuses on antibody production, a single aspect of the immune process, and disarticulates it and allows it to stand for the whole, in much the same way as chemical suppression of an elevated blood pressure is accepted as a valid substitute for a genuine cure of the patient whose blood pressure has risen. Worst of all, by making it difficult or impossible to mount a vigorous, acute response to infection, artificial immunization substitutes for it a much weaker, chronic response with little or no tendency to heal itself spontaneously.'

   That the sudden introduction of a foreign substance into the tissues of the body is sensed by the body as a traumatic event is easily comprehensible, particularly when the body is that of a tiny infant, and it is little wonder that the vaccinations of infants is held to be by many doctors the prime factor in infant cot deaths. (Refer to Second Thoughts About Disease by Doctors Archie Kalokerinos and Glen Dettman 1977, and Vaccinations Condemned, Better Life Research, 1981.)

   Dr Moskowitz considered all vaccinations distinctly dangerous, particularly the administration to infants of the pertussis vaccine (whooping cough), a procedure now abandoned in Germany, in regard to which he says:

   'Pertussisis also extremely variable clinically, ranging in severity from asymptomatic, mild, or inapparent infections which are quite common actually, to very rare cases in young infants less than five months of age, in which the mortality is said to reach 40 percent. Indeed, the disease is rarely fatal or even that serious in children over a year old, and antibiotics have very little to do with the outcome.

   A good deal of the pressure to immunize at the present time thus seems to be attributable to the higher death rate in very young infants, which has led to the terrifying practice of giving this most clearly dangerous of the vaccines to infants at two months of age, when their mother's milk would normally have protected them from all infections about as well as it can ever be done, and the effect on the still developing blood and nervous system could be catastrophic.

   For all of these reasons, the practice of routine pertussis immunization should be discontinued as quickly as possible and more studies done to assess and compensate the damage that it has already done.'

   Pointing out that no proper studies have been ever done on the effects of vaccinations, and that all the available evidence shows them to be counter-productive, if not outright dangerous, Dr Moskowitz concluded:

   'In any case, the whole matter is clearly one of enormous complexity, and illustrates only too well the hidden dangers and miscalculations that are inherent in the virtually irresistible attempt to beat nature at her own game, to eliminate a problem that cannot be eliminated, ie the susceptibility to disease itself.

   So even in the case of the polio vaccine, which appears to be about as safe as any vaccine ever can be, the same fundamental dilemma remains. Perhaps the day will come when we can face the consequences of deliberately feeding live polioviruses to every living infant, and admit that we should have left well enough alone, and addressed ourselves to the art of healing the sick when we have to, rather than to the technology of eradicating the possibility of sickness, when we don't have to, and can't possibly succeed in any case.'

Immunotherapy

   Immunotherapy is the attempt to influence the course of a disease by artificial manipulation of the immune system after the disease has become established. Vaccines made from blood samples, urine, etc have been used against a number of diseases in an endeavor to stimulate a specific immune response, as well as various other vaccines designed to stimulate the non-specific response. Results have always been disappointing, and this is no wonder.

   Failure of immunotherapy is inevitable, because it is designed to stimulate artificially something which is exhausted. The solution is simple: forget about the immune system, forget about the tumor, headache, or what have you, and set about restoring the general health with diet, rest, relaxation, sunshine and exercise. The immune system will thereupon regenerate along with the rest of the body, thankful to be free of medical 'help'.

SUMMARIZING ON THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

It is barely recognized, but nevertheless true, that animals and plants, as well as men, can live peacefully with their most notorious microbial enemies. The world is obsessed by the fact that poliomyelitis can kill and maim several thousand unfortunate victims every year. But more extraordinary is the fact that millions upon millions of young people become infected by polio viruses, yet suffer no harm from the infection. The dramatic episodes of conflict between men and microbes are what strike the mind. What is less readily apprehended is the more common fact that infection can occur without producing disease.
   Rene Dubos, Microbiologist (Mirage of Health, Harper, 1959)

   To a member of modern society, the 'suffering no harm' that Dubos mentions appears extraordinary, but as he goes on to say, it is the more common fact. In a community properly endowed with health, the extraordinary event would be anybody getting sick at all.

   To summarize the immune system:

• The capability of the immune system,. when functioning properly, is far greater than generally imagined.
• The general level of health in civilized society is marginal, and therefore so too is the general level of immunocompetence.
• This accounts for the generally accepted high incidence of all kinds of infections, particularly influenza, and the increase in VD, herpes, hepatitis, candida and so on.
• Also associated with marginal health and poor immunocompetence is the relentless increase in cancer.
• The immune system cannot be artificially boosted; all it needs is a supply of decent blood with plenty of oxygen in a body free of stress and it soon regenerates of its own accord.

Factors that Affect the Immune System

Good:

   Natural diet, happiness and serenity, high morale, a positive attitude, adequate rest and sleep, fresh air, physical exercise.

Adverse:

Most common

• toxemia from dietary errors, constipation;
• dietary deficiencies, in particular Vitamin C; worry;
• chemicals from different sources including fluoride, chlorine, etc in water supplies, pesticide residues in food, other chemicals in food; and
• medicine--aspirin, tranquillizers, cough mixtures, etc.

More severe

• alcohol;
• smoking;
• overweight;
• overwork, fatigue;
• mental trauma--anger, pain, worry, frustration, grief, fear;
• physical trauma--sexual excesses, excessive athletic training, prolonged discomfort, heat, cold; and
• chemical trauma--mercury in amalgam tooth fillings, poisons from infected teeth, poisons from insect bites, ticks, etc, septicemia, common medicines, prescription medicines, antibiotics, vaccinations.

Very severe

• severe malnutrition--junk food, high sugar, high salt, high fat, high cholesterol, severe vitamin C deficiency;
• all drugs used habitually whether taken intravenously, orally or inhaled, including marijuana, etc and antibiotics (refer to 'AIDS' in Chapter 8);
• constant sexual promiscuity (see 'AIDS'); receptive anal sex (see 'AIDS');
• bereavement, low self-esteem, guilt, hopelessness (see 'AIDS'); and
• mental trauma of voodoo or bone-pointing death sentence by shaman, witchdoctor, or modern physician (see ---AIDS').