Immunity to Infection

Introduction

There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't.

The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.

Dietary causes:

High carbohydrate diet; high polyunsaturated diet; lack of vitamin D (insufficient sunlight); low cholesterol levels.

Part 1: An Introduction

You can eat too much fruit and veges

Have you noticed how many cases of meningitis there seem to be, these days? I don't think I heard the word in my youth. There are also many other infectious diseases that seem to have started only in the late twentieth century: Lots of acronyms like SARS, AIDS, and MRSA; the exotically named necrotising fasciitis which has a nasty habit of eating us alive; Clostridium difficile, which has taken over from MRSA as a killer hospital disease; a different flu every year; I won't go on. Even tuberculosis, which was thought in this country to have passed into history half a century ago, is returning. Why? What is happening?

Medical science has been able to prevent diphtheria and smallpox by vaccination. We reduced tuberculosis by pasteurisation of milk and improved general hygiene. A clean water supply and proper sewage disposal prevented typhoid and cholera. But, today, we in Britain and the USA are protected from these diseases because we have been artificially immunized against them and cocooned from them; not because our bodies' inherent ability to prevent infection has been strengthened. And therein lies the problem.

The microbiologist, Rene Dubos, wrote half a century ago in his book, Mirage of Health, that plants, animals and humans can live healthily side by side 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, he wrote.'[i]

Dubos' remarks might seem extraordinary but it is a common fact that infection can occur without producing disease. In a community properly endowed with health, the extraordinary event would be somebody getting sick at all. This is ably demonstrated in cultures other than ours (although they are becoming fewer as they succumb to Western dietary assaults).

We in the 'civilised' countries should be aware we can no longer rely on antibiotics to treat our illnesses. As we've seen from the increasing spread of 'superbugs', antibiotics are fast losing the battle against infections. This is because the overuse of antibiotics has led to certain strains of bacteria developing a resistance to their action. In response, doctors have been forced to develop stronger and more toxic antibiotics to fight infections. This leads to increased side affects such as diarrhoea, vomiting, skin rashes, ringing in the ears, jaundice and, in rare cases, epileptic fits. At the same time, the bugs will continue to adapt and we progressively lose the battle.

Sugars and starches lower our immunity to infectious diseases

In the constant fight against infectious diseases, our bodies have a sophisticated defence mechanism — our immune system. When it is functioning properly, our immune system is far more effective than you might imagine: it can dismantle and rid the body of a transplanted kidney very quickly. It can do the same to invading bacteria and viruses if it is kept in good condition. Unfortunately, in our society the general level of health and, therefore, the general level of our immunity is marginal. We accept a high incidence of all kinds of infections, particularly colds, influenza, herpes, hepatitis, candida, and so on, as normal events we have to put up with. They aren't.

We get these diseases because our immune systems aren't up to the job.

One way in which our immune systems are compromised is found in the 'healthy' carbohydrates we eat which lessen our white blood cells' ability to mop up invading microbes (see Carbohydrates and immune function).

It is clear from these studies that, if you eat 'five portions of fruit and veges' and base your meals on starchy foods, as we are all advised to do, you could lose a major part of your immunity to infection for the whole of the day.

Eat sugar, catch cold — and die?

Surely not! Colds are a fact of life — everyone gets them. They may be a nuisance but that's all, isn't it? You'd be surprised how dangerous the common cold can be. In 1954, the British Medical Journal published a paper showing that respiratory infections, particularly colds, were the most common irritating and aggravating factors in congestive heart failure.[ii] In two studies of incidences of heart failure, more than half the patients had some form of respiratory infection and a direct correlation was found between the frequent occurrence of heart failure and 'even minor colds'. The common cold, it seems, can be deadly.

The role of refined carbohydrates in respiratory problems was demonstrated dramatically in a study comparing the Kikuyu and Maasai tribes.[iii] The Kikuyu, living mainly on cereals, had a death rate from bronchitis and pneumonia which was ten times higher than that of the meat-eating Maasai. A similar comparison carried out at a girls' boarding-school found the same: researchers demonstrated that the incidence of colds among the girls was directly related to the amount of sugar each consumed. Their evidence showed that the girls who drank fizzy drinks and ate sweets and other refined carbohydrates suffered many more respiratory problems and colds than girls who did not. The advice given to reduce the likelihood of getting a cold was to cut out sugar and eat no bread or other products that contain either wheat or rye.

In the next Part, we'll look at another major dietary element that makes us more susceptible to infections.

References

[i]. Rene Dubos. Mirage of Health. Harper, 1959.

[ii]. Flint FJ. The factor of infection in heart failure. BMJ 1954; 2: 1018

[iii]. How important are respiratory infections as a cause of heart failure? Arteriosclerosis 7 Sep 1955

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

"One must attend in medical practice not primarily to plausible theories but to experience combined with reason." Hippocrates

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