Over the Counter Natural Cures (15 page)

Missing this inherent vaccine flaw, pro-vaccine health officials and major media will continue to assert they grant us “powerful immune sentries to ward off uninvited invasions.” This logic has been used to defend the use of all vaccines to date, but it has proven to be nothing more than mental masturbation for nerdy scientists. It sounds good and feels better, but it's not the real thing. Many people have been stained by the resulting intellectual ejaculate. In most cases, it's not too late to wash it off. Cleanliness and immunity go hand in hand.

WISHY-WASHY VACCINE STATEMENTS

Vaccine talk is riddled with shoddy science, emotional arguments, and allout quackery from most health experts. Some of the arguments are so convoluted that I feel like I'm listening to a political speech when I hear them. Very little common sense shines through the murky vaccine debate.

Pro-vaccine statements like, “Nonvaccinated children are putting immunity at risk,” “Vaccination is required for public schooling,” “Parents who don't vaccinate are risking their children's lives,” and “Parents who don't vaccinate are parasites,” as stated by Hollywood actress Amanda Peet,
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have become routine. All of them get first prize for being the most wishy-washy sentences in modern vaccine discussion. Not one is based on a single scientific study or current law. And they make it very difficult for parents to learn about vaccines so that they can make educated decisions.

If “immunization” worked as insisted by vaccine lovers, they should rest easy knowing that they are protected from those who are not vaccinated and presumably germ infested. Further, all states have a vaccine waiver, by law. And parents who take careful note of their children's sanitation and nutrition habits aren't risking anything by not vaccinating. Some basic history teaches this well.

The major element in eradicating disease from society has been changing our lifestyle habits. Glaring examples exist. Medical doctors who learned to wash their hands (circa 1850) with soap and water before each examination of a new mother caused disease rates among newborn babies to decrease drastically.

The Black Plague, which killed two million people, was not eradicated with vaccination, but rather by the meticulous act of ridding living quarters of black rats, which carried infected fleas.

With respect to children, our early ancestors were not privy to lifestyle habits such as nutrition, regular bathing, and modern sewage disposal. But these have proven more beneficial than vaccination in warding off deadly diseases such as measles, rubella, and diphtheria.

And finally, since when are caring, educated parents who spend hundreds of hours doing their vaccination homework—and who use science to justify their antivaccine stance—parasites? Referring to these parents as parasites is stupidity in surging momentum. And if Amanda Peet were here right now, I'd spank her with a rolled-up wad of medical journals for her derelict behavior.

Vaccine propaganda is a looming monster. Its shadow shields parents from the fact that better sanitation and nutrition are among the biggest factors in immune boosting. We've been living under this shadow for so long that it's hard to see the light, which shows that immunity is rarely granted by stabs and jabs. Fortunately, as long as we aren't living in our
own filth and starving to death, our immune system can ward off biological threats. And in the rare case that it doesn't, emergency medicine can tackle the infection. But to truly understand and trust our natural defenses, we have to know the basics of how they work.

THE FORGOTTEN WONDERS OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Our natural immunity is genius.

We live in an ocean of infectious particles. There are billions of biological invaders surrounding us right now. The world is teeming with these potential health threats, but the natural intelligence of our immune system can protect us from them.

Your body is a fire wall. It works around the clock to ward off intruders like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Bacteria are the smallest living organisms that can eat, grow, and multiply on their own. Viruses are not self-sufficient and must invade and occupy living cells for their survival and reproduction. Fungi are a group of life forms that are slightly more advanced than bacteria but not as developed as plants. The group includes molds, rusts, mildews, and yeast. Parasites are organisms that feed, grow, and take shelter in other organisms that act as hosts.

The wonder of the immune system is that it innately understands the difference between self and nonself. Anything that doesn't belong gets ousted. Protection arises from innate immunity and adaptive immunity. Innate immunity “guards” against foreign invaders. Adaptive immunity “attacks” them when the guard fails. Let's look at how this happens.

THE BODY'S FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

The innate immune system uses skin and stomach to ward off invaders. The top layers of skin cells are dry and densely packed. The dryness and close quarters make these layers inhospitable to many bacteria. They simply fall
off before they can begin to “nest.” Salty secretions from sweat glands also discourage the growth of bacteria by dehydrating them. Most lethally, our skin produces an acidic environment. Many bacteria can only survive in a narrow pH range near neutral (pH 7). Skin has a slightly acidic pH (4–6) that deters colonization by foreign bacteria and pathogens. If your skin fails to protect you, the stomach is ready to join the fight. When intruders make it to the stomach, they are greeted by a lethal, acidic environment.

Some infectious agents survive the environment of the stomach and reach the large bowel. Once there, the infection has to compete with the many millions of fecal bacteria that normally live there. The chances of infection surviving this second barrier are small, unless you have weak stomach acid or lack healthy gut bacteria. If these fail, you get sick…but you don't stay sick, thanks to “adaptive immunity.”

ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY, THE SECOND LINE OF IMMUNE DEFENSE

The second and much more complex part of the immune system is adaptive immunity. When innate immunity fails, adaptive immunity takes over. Adaptive immunity is aptly named because it adapts to whatever biological threat you are exposed to. Once an intruder infiltrates innate immunity, adaptive immunity custom-builds a biological military—like building a custom chopper based on the size and weight of a rider. Lymphocytes compose a major portion of the military unit. The more you have, the better because they secrete antibodies, which are a nuclear attack against those things that don't belong.

Adaptive immunity has a photographic memory. For your entire life, it remembers every foreign invader it has encountered and keeps a custom army on standby. You may forget your wedding anniversary, but adaptive immunity remembers biological threats. This explains why it's almost impossible to have chicken pox twice. Adaptive immunity
remembers the virus and forever protects you from it. This is also why you may carry a virus without suffering from its detrimental outcome. Adaptive immunity keeps it at bay.

BASIC NUTRITION FOR BOLSTERING THE FIRE WALL

Together, innate and adaptive immunity exist as an intricate dance involving multiple functions, organs, and specialized cells. Nutrient logic is the single most important ally in maintaining this dance. Without it, biological nasties effortlessly breach our fire wall. Or worse, in the case of autoimmune disorders, the immune system forgets how to identify self and nonself and begins to attack itself.

The best nutrition is simple nutrition. Adhering to some basic principles of eating will boot up your immunity fire wall. Essentially, you need four basics to thrive: purified water, carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats. Your daily intake should average about 25 percent carbohydrates, 50 percent healthy fats, and 25 percent protein. All of these should come from natural sources. If food is served out of a box or a window, don't eat it. If it tastes sweet—other than the occasional fruit, spit it out. Grass-fed beef, chicken, whole eggs, fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and coconut and cod-liver oil should make up most of your diet.

These macronutrient percentages can change based on age, physical activity, and health. But the generalized portions ensure that your body is getting the nutrients it needs to bolster your fire wall. Without them, you lack the fuel that drives innate and adaptive immunity.

MOTHER NATURE'S TOTAL IMMUNE-BOOSTING BREAKTHROUGHS

Nothing in life is guaranteed, right? The immune system is no exception. Even the strongest can fail to protect us.

The best immunity is simply a direct reflection of our environment—it's adaptive. When we travel or come into contact with new people, our immune system is exposed to new biological terrain. Historically, some plagues were the result of such occurrences. Two populations with vastly different immune systems would come into contact, and illness would strike. That's because the immune system has a hard time navigating new terrain. It's only adaptive to what it's familiar with. In such instances, you'll want to start using Mother Nature's total immune-boosting breakthroughs.

When I think of natural immune boosters, I think of my wife. As a young, pregnant mom, she was bedridden with strep throat. She suffered from a thousand and one symptoms, each one making it hard to think, swallow, or even sleep. Fever kept her thoughts cloudy. Swollen tonsils made speaking dreadful. Achy joints made it hard to get some shut-eye. She yearned for prescription antibiotics, but she didn't want to risk the health of her baby. I insisted on heavy garlic (
Allium sativum)
. I tried to comfort her by insisting that if the strep got worse, we would get her a prescription. I knew we wouldn't have to go that far.

Thank the Egyptians for the medicinal use of garlic. One of the earliest medical texts, the
Codex Ebers
, dating to 1500 BC, mentions garlic as a remedy for skin diseases, poisoning, heart problems, and tumors. Intact cloves were found preserved in Tutankhamen's tomb.

The father of medicine, Hippocrates, prescribed garlic for protecting the skin. Garlic even made it into history books as the first sport supplement. Greek athletes ate it during the first Olympic Games, probably to increase oxygen distribution.
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It's been used worldwide to provide energy, lift depression, and most importantly, boost the immune system. Allegedly, the first evidence of its immune-boosting properties was discovered in France. During a plague in Marseilles in 1721, four
men were employed to remove dead, infected bodies. None of the body removers suffered from infection. Their secret was a macerated garlic-and-wine tincture known as “viniagre des quatre voleurs.”

At my prompting, my wife began eating crushed garlic cloves three times per day. As a side note, if you're not pregnant and want to make this more palatable, you can add the garlic to red wine. This can help extract the active ingredients while lessening pain.

I reassured my wife that taking garlic was perfectly safe. “It's the smart person's antibiotic,” I told her:

 

In a day or two, you'll start feeling better—and you won't risk your pregnancy or become a breeding ground for superbugs. Unlike prescription antibiotics, garlic has been used for thousands of years to wipe out annoying infections without detriment. Vampires, the common cold, strep throat, influenza, and even tuberculosis have gone toe-to-toe against garlic and lost.

 

She was sold. Garlic can fight a lot more than that, but I was hesitant to explain that due to the bio-babble it would require.

In our house, I'm not allowed to use infectious bio-babble commonly used by physicians and drug reps. That's why I didn't tell my wife that garlic has been shown to fight off potent infections like
Streptococcus
pyogenes
,
Staphyloccus aureas
,
Methicillin Resistant Staphyloccus aureas
,
Escherichia coli
,
Salmonella
,
Klebsiella
,
Mycobacteriu
,
Helicobacter
, and
many more
.
Garlic's far-reaching success at warding off an array of biological nasties with hard-to-pronounce names reflects its potency. But I wasn't going there, at least not around my daughter.

Most bio-babble sounds so scary that people instantly line up at the pharmaceutical trough when they hear it. The verbal camouflage
successfully tugs at people's emotions, pulling them closer to a corporate drug sale—antibiotic or vaccine. It's a bad habit, and the medical community is addicted to it.

Since we don't want our kids using medical-speak to hoodwink the masses into prescription drug addiction, bio-babble isn't allowed. Occasional cursing is fine though. Other parents should follow our lead: mommas don't let your babies grow up to be drug reps.

As the hours passed, my wife's infection began to subside. Her immune system was being revved almost instantly by garlic.

An effective immune booster works by revving up your immunity or working directly as an antibiotic or antiviral. Garlic does both. Remember adaptive immunity? It's your internal fire wall that works by employing an army of lymphocytes. I told you the more you have, the better. Thanks to garlic, you can have a lot. Plus, the stinky molecules act as direct germ killers, but unlike prescription antibiotics, they won't destroy healthy bacteria.

Only in the last decade or so has modern medicine begun testing garlic's immune-boosting properties. This is usually done by studying the time garlic users need to recover from infection and comparing that to recovery time for nongarlic users. Garlic use has been shown to shorten recovery times by half. Also, studies monitoring the production of lymphocytes in response to garlic show that it greatly enhances production. “Currently, available data strongly suggest that garlic may be a promising candidate as an immune modifier that maintains the homeostasis of immune function,” researchers commented in a study published in the
Journal of Nutrition
.
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