The History of Germ & Terrain theory
For my class on the History of Naturopathy, students were assigned a 10 page history paper on any topic of choosing. I’d been pondering the ideas of the philosophies guiding natural healing systems (terrain models) compared to newer allopathic models (germ/contagion models), so that naturally led me here.
You will read in the paper that germ theory proposes that external microbes are the cause of all disease and they must be killed or inoculated against to restore or maintain health. Terrain theory believes that the body’s illness comes from malnutrition, toxicity, or trauma, and that any microbes come from within to help rebalance the organism. That is, bacteria, viruses, parasites, mold, yeast, and fungus come from within the body.
What pushed me to get into this topic is the fact that many “natural practitioners” are still operating somewhat under the germ model, but instead of using antibiotics to kill microbes, concentrated herbs are used instead. Protocols include a number of supplements and often extreme diets to try to extract these invaders. Of course I’m not doubting that there may be other benefits from these items other than “killing” something. But I want the truth, not loose assumptions.
For the longest time I thought that believing in the terrain model meant that as long as the body was healthy, it would not allow external invaders in. This idea definitely has merit to it. Of course a healthy body is more resilient and adaptive, but the moment outside germs are considered to invade the body, you’re no longer a in the terrain model and you’re into the germ realm.
I’ve been taught that no parasite is beneficial in any way and they are the enemy, but there is direct evidence of the body essentially spawning these things in the tissues that need clean up from various toxicities such as heavy metals. Doing a simple parasite cleanse without paying attention to downstream toxicity is not going to do much good at all other than mental stimulation that you did something for your health. You will end up in a cycle of constant parasite fear and cleansing.
I believe the main issue here, stemming all the way back to Pasteur’s (germ side) time, is that we jump to conclusions way too quickly. Just because a microbe or parasite is present in diseased tissue, how do we know for a fact that it is causing the imbalance rather than helping clean up? Bechamp (terrain side) even proved with gangrene infection that the microbes only showed up after the imbalance set into the tissue.
While these ideas are incredible and exciting to think about, I cannot go full on in one direction or the other until I continue to discern information that I research. However, it seems that this is the TRUE root of naturopathy, not killing invaders with natural substances.
This paper will raise many questions on various disease states, especially infectious disease. I will hit on these later.
This is an extremely deep topic I will continue to write about as my ideas develop. This paper is only scratching the surface and a brief overview. Please enjoy this light read and let me know what you think.
