In the wake of the Ebola Virus, SARS, and Bird Flu scares, and now with Swine Flu (Mexico Flu) sweeping the planet, and with the continued overuse of antibiotics giving promise of worse to come, the reader is urged to consider this article in a most serious light.

In seeking the cause or the cure for colds and flu, we have to first try and discover why it is that people who live and eat healthfully hardly ever catch a cold and hardly ever come down with the flu? Is this simply a matter of fate? Do germs and viruses have some strange aversion to healthy people? Or is there a more logical explanation?

Before my family and I switched to a natural diet and lifestyle, we frequently came down with infectious ailments - which we (and the doctor) almost always blamed on germs and/or viruses. Since we started respecting Nature's laws, however, and that was more than twenty years ago, there have been no more than a handful of occasions when one of us has "caught" a cold or the flu. The same germs and viruses are still around, and are probably even more virulent today than they were twenty years ago, and yet we can spend all day with "sneezy", "sniffy" sick people, we can go outside on a cold day - even after a hot bath, we can sleep with our windows open - which we insist on doing, and yet, other than the few exceptions mentioned above, we never come down with any infectious ailment.

Are we simply exceptions to the rule? Not at all. We know of many other families who have decided to live and to eat naturally, and all have experienced what we have experienced - colds and flu soon become afflictions of the past.

So what makes the difference? If germs and viruses are in fact the true cause of colds and flu, why do they not afflict people who adopt a healthy lifestyle and a natural-food diet?

The simple truth is that germs and viruses are NOT THE PRIMARY CAUSE of colds and flu. The primary cause, in all cases, is a lifestyle and diet that severely compromises the immune system - which is our natural defense against germs and viruses. When our immune system is strong, germs and viruses can find no foothold in the human body and they are readily destroyed by our immune defenses. When our immune system is weak, however, and our body is loaded with toxins, germs and viruses meet with little resistance from our immune system, and we will readily come down with a cold or the flu - and this will take place all the more readily when we come in contact with people who already have a cold or the flu.

It baffles me no end that medical science is still blaming colds and flu on germs and viruses, and that the idea of a weakened immune system is seldom, if ever, entertained as the true cause of these maladies. Is it any wonder, therefore, that medical science can offer very little hope in this area, for, quite simply, they are warring against the wrong enemy - they are attempting to kill germs and viruses when they should be teaching people how to live - for only wise living habits can boost our immune system, and provide the necessary protection against germs and viruses.

Now we can understand why it is that medical science has not discovered a cure for the cold or the flu - for the only true cure for colds and flu lies in prevention - the only true cure lies in the removal of those dietary and lifestyle factors that compromise our immune system and that thus make us susceptible to infection.

But then, of course, medical science will only accept this fact when they are willing to lose all the money that they are making out of cold and flu "remedies", and when they come to realize that . . .

`A disease does not exist of itself. It is not an entity but a condition existing in an individual. It is not brought about by germs any more than garbage is brought about by flies. Where there is something that attracts flies, they will swarm there. When there is a physical condition that invites germs to multiply, then like the flies, they go there to multiply.' (A.C. Sass, Plants and Health, p. 84)

So the absolute truth is that colds and flu are caused by a condition that we bring upon ourselves through unwise living and eating habits. For example: we eat refined sugar by the ton, and we drink it by the ton, and yet it is a scientifically proven fact that sugar seriously weakens our immune defenses (and, of course, they never do tell us this in their advertising - nor do they tell us this on the sides of their trucks where it is boasted that sugar is "Pure, Natural Goodness"). Then we sleep with our windows closed and we thus deprive ourselves of fresh air at a time when our bodies have most need of fresh air. Then, as loyal supermarket shoppers, we eat heartily of junk foods - foods that are nutritionally dead and that simply cannot support the needs of the human system. And all the while we attempt to live primarily on flesh foods, refined foods, preserved foods, and hydrogenated fats, all of which are major causes of constipation - and constipation always results in fermentation, and fermentation always attracts germs . . .

`Whenever the matter which is settled in the abdomen begins to ferment, bacilli [germs] develop of themselves in the system; they are the product of fermentation, and likewise disappear when fermentation ceases and the system is restored to health, i.e. when the process of fermentation retrogresses. It is, therefore, idle to speak of infection through bacilli, in some mysterious manner, without the presence of foreign matter in the system. The question is not how to kill the bacilli, but rather how to remove the cause of fermentation, the foreign matter [impurities]. This done, these little monsters which have caused such terror to timid minds, vanish as a matter of course.' (Louis Kuhne, The New Science of Healing, p. 29)

As Dr Kuhne tells us, colds and flu are not caused by germs and viruses but are the result of a condition in the system, and the only true cure for these maladies is to reverse that condition. George Teasedale confirms this thought, . . .

`Germs will thrive and multiply only in organs and tissues that are degenerated through malnutrition, or that are highly saturated with systemic poisons. Rid the house of their food and the pests that infest it will disappear.' (George Teasdale, Nature Heals!, pp.38-40)

We all know that if we were to leave a plate of food in a dark warm place for a few weeks, it would most assuredly ferment and attract germs. Yet we seem to have such difficulty understanding that when we choose to use refined foods, and we become constipated as a result, we are creating a situation where our food could well remain lodged in our colon (which is a very dark and warm place) for weeks and even for years. Do we believe that these food residues within us will not attract germs?

Our best defense against germs, therefore, is understanding, for without a right understanding of this matter, we would continue to live as we please, to eat as we please, and then we would spend our lives blaming germs and using antibiotics to make war on germs.

Knowing that germs are only attracted to decaying matter, however, the wise will regulate their diet and lifestyle and will seek by every means possible to keep their systems clean and healthy. By so doing, they will also be ensuring that their immune systems will be well able to resist any threatened germ or virus invasion. As Dr. Harry Benjamin tells us, . . .

`If a person is absolutely clean and wholesome inside, then no germ disease of any kind can arise within the system. It is only in those whose systems are unwholesome inside that such diseases can develop. Whether the disease originates spontaneously or through contact with others does not matter in the least.' (Everybody's Guide to Nature Cure, p.404)

When "struck" by "germ infection," therefore, let us ever remember that the germs are not attacking us - they are merely doing what Nature intended for them to do, for . . .

`Germs are everywhere. They are as widespread as air and moisture. They are as important as oxygen and carbon-dioxide. All are parts of a beneficial scheme of Nature. Germs reduce dead and dying organic matter back to its organic constituents suitable again as nourishment for plant life.' (George Teasdale, Nature Heals!, p. 38)

Next time we come down with a cold, therefore, let us not blame the germs, even if they are the Hong Kong variety, or the Mexican variety, or whatever variety. Let us rather consider our lifestyle and especially our diet over the previous few days. Have we been ignoring the needs of our bodies? Have our faulty dietary and lifestyle habits resulted in "dead and dying organic matter" in our systems? Have we been creating a condition in our systems that invites germs and viruses to multiply within us? Have we indulged in "sugar" over the past few days?

Proceed To Chapter 15: The next chapter deals with germ infection, and should liberate you from any fear you might have been entertaining about germs . . .