Introduction to Immunity

Frederick Treves, 1905

Principles Of Immune Reactions & ‘Infectious’ Disease

Historically the immune system was simply thought of as a specialised group of cells designed to defend the body against attacking microbes. The groups of cells given the most importance regarding immune function were thought to reside in the blood and were capable of producing antibodies.

The microbe was thought to cause the disease by infecting the individual and having seen a particular microbe once, the immune system could somehow memorise their form. This immune memory could only be obtained by exposure to that specific pathogen, once memorised, the immune system, in any subsequent attacks, could more easily render microbes harmless and this ability to remember the microbe was thought to be due to the action of antibodies.

We now realise that this oversimplification is flawed in two very important aspects, firstly in relation to our understanding of infectious disease and secondly in our understanding of the immune system.

1. Regarding infectious disease, from the time of the popularisation of germ theory with Pasteur, scientists from Béchamp in the 1850’s to those of the present day, have demonstrated that microbes are the result of nutritional changes, hormonal changes, toxins and physically damaged tissue within the body, and that microbes that are always present, will change in number and type according to the environment of the body. Pasteur on his death bed quoted by his old friend, Prof. Renon, who attended him in his final illness:

 

“Bernard was right. The germ is nothing. The soil is everything.”

2. Consequently, trying to kill microbes, without addressing the reasons for their proliferation, is ultimately futile and will lead to recurrent problems, including the problems associated with the side effects of the drug. Microbes can be transferred from one person to another but without an existing susceptibility there is no disease. Disease patterns are reflective of; inherited patterns, common susceptibilities within common inheritance, common conditions of nutrition, common weather patterns, common pollutants, common emotional stresses and so on. In addition, the action of the microbe itself is entirely dependent on where the microbe is in the body and therefore an illness cannot simply be caused by the infection of a microbe and the disease cannot be defined by the presence of a microbe, as most microbes that cause serious diseases are present in all of us.

 

3. The immune system itself is involved in the elimination of toxins and maintaining microbes in a symbiotic relationship with our internal systems, an integral part of which are the mucous membranes separating the internal blood system and organs from the external environment. The environment surrounding the membranes of: the skin, urinary, respiratory and digestive tracts will vary according to its location and essential to the functioning of many of these membranes are the microbes that live there.

As we have mentioned previously, there are many more microbes in your body than your own cells. The functioning of the immune system is actually dependent on these microbes, so, far from being a simple attack and defence issue, the immune system has the job of balancing these components within the various parts of the body, as they are in fact part of your immune system. Antibodies are also just a very small part of the immune system involved in balancing our own cells and foreign cells; they do not operate by attacking foreign elements and leaving our own cells alone.

We also know that memory capabilities are a function of many tissues of the body and not just antibodies. Also antibodies require the cooperation of other cells to complete a successful immune response; a more significant immune role appears to be in the function of the other immune cells that do not produce antibodies. In addition immune function is enhanced through successful detoxification and elimination processes not the mere presence of antibodies. It appears that the vast numbers of antibodies measurable after vaccines is a contrived experimental situation and reflects extreme trauma wherein antibodies function as a last resort.

An introduction to a re-classification of infectious illness

Currently many so-called infectious illnesses are classified according to the microbe that is thought to be responsible for the illness: measles, mumps, polio etc.

This has various drawbacks:

• The concept of an infectious illness and classification based on the microbe gives the impression that the microbe has somehow entered the system and caused the illness, when in fact the microbe would probably have been there all along.
• The presence of the microbe implies the presence of illness when in fact most people have disease-associated microbes and have no symptoms of disease.
• In individuals with a so-called infectious disease there are many other microbes present and many other disease factors present that can also be implicated in the disease, yet we choose one microbe and classify the illness according to that.
• Many different microbes are associated with the same illness, but these illnesses will have to be classified by a different name according to the presence of the other microbe, even though all other elements and symptoms of the disease are identical.
• Classifying the disease according to the microbe is even more problematic when we consider that one microbe can be associated with many different kinds of illnesses.

Therefore if we turn our attention to the patient, a classification of illness according to the patient reaction as well as the type of microbes present, may create a more accurate picture of the pathology.

The nature of an infectious illnesses or rather what we shall now term a microbial illness will therefore depend on the following:

1. The Patients Level of Immune Development, how much of the immune system has developed and how much of the present illness is concerned with immune development – this is usually a function of age.

2. The Amount of Toxicity Within the Patient, how much toxicity is present in the body and how far has it penetrated into the patient, i.e. into which systems of the body; digestive tract, blood, nervous system, etc.

3. The susceptibility of the patient, at what level does the patient operate, what stage of miasm i.e. how is the individual predisposed to react as a result of previous successes or failures, inherited or acquired.

Taking each issue in turn we are therefore able to classify microbial illnesses into one of three types each with a preponderance of one of the above factors.

• Developmental illnesses – a function of immune development.
• Environmental illnesses – relates mainly to toxicity and environmental stress.
• Immune deficient illnesses – a function of reduced reactive ability.

There will of course be some overlap with certain illnesses and given the dynamic nature of human responses we will also demonstrate how illnesses can start off as one type but then develop into another, according to susceptibility, environment and disease management.