You probably came up with a few New Year’s resolutions. Was one of them to become healthy?
We’ve all been told at one time or another that “a bug is going around.” Are you crossing your fingers, hoping to have less sickness this new year? We have often been encouraged to get a flu shot, to not “catch a cold” or to disinfect our hands in antibacterials in hopes of staying healthy. Is the world really covered in “bad guy” germs, from which we must constantly protect ourselves? Or should we take a different approach?
A swab of the average person’s throat shows many ugly things are already present.
In his book, The Normal Bacterial Flora of Humans, Kenneth Todar, PhD says, “In a healthy animal, the internal tissues, e.g. blood, brain, muscle, etc., are normally free of microorganisms. However, the surface tissues, i.e., skin and mucous membranes, are constantly in contact with environmental organisms and become readily colonized by various microbial species.”
He goes on to list common bacterias and the frequency with which they are found in various parts of the body. In the average, healthy mouth several kinds of Streptococcus are found 25-100% of the time, which cause diseases from plaque formation and dental caries to bacterial pneumonia and strep throat.
Staphylococcus epidermidis and S. aureus were also very common. Todar described S. aureus as “a leading cause of bacterial disease in humans. It can be transmitted from the nasal membranes of an asymptomatic carrier to a susceptible host.”
This is rather frightening—should we all be gargling antibacterials? These are mainly opportunistic pathogens, waiting for the body to become weak, creating an environment for them to thrive. However, in healthy tissue, they are fairly inactive.
German pathologist Rudolf Virchow said “If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat, diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of the diseased tissue; e.g., mosquitoes seek the stagnant water, but do not cause the pool to become stagnant.”
So what must be done to prevent diseased tissue?
Chiropractor Dr. Ryan Dopps promotes a wholestic lifestyle to achieve wellness and maintain health. This involves a diet full of nutrition, a habit of exercise and relieving the body’s nervous system of blockages through chiropractic adjustments.
When our bodies are strong and healthy, the bacteria, microbes, viruses and germs do not penetrate our natural barriers in our skin and mucus membranes.
Even Louis Pasteur distrusted his famous germ theory in the end saying, “The Microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything.”
If you are interested in learning more about fighting disease through a healthy life, contact Dopps Chiropractic NE for an appointment.