THE CURSE OF LOUIS PASTEUR

The Curse of Louis Pasteur: Why Medicine Is Not Healing A Diseased World

By Nancy Appleton, PhD

Review by Marjorie Tietjen

Louis Pasteur’s “Germ Theory” has become the foundation for modern medicine. Because our present medical system is so deeply entrenched in this theory, shouldn’t Pasteur’s hypothesis be continually re-evaluated? To better determine the effectiveness or usefulness of this theory, the question we must ask is…..do we now have less or more disease since basing medical treatment on The Germ Theory? Basically the Germ Theory states that pre-existing germs invade the body and cause disease so that our method of healing disease should focus on directly killing the germ.

Currently much of the world accepts Louis Pasteur’s “Germ Theory” as undisputed fact. After all doesn’t modern science prove to us the reality of this theory every day? Well…..perhaps we shouldn’t be so hasty in our conclusions. After reading Nancy Appleton’s book, “The Curse of Louis Pasteur”, I have become more fully converted from blindly accepting Pasteur’s “Germ Theory” to more fully realizing the importance of maintaining a healthy body terrain as being the most important step in preventing and healing disease. I have always known that the foods we choose to eat will affect the health of our bodies; however, I really never understood the deeper extent of this concept. Appleton’s book has helped me to better glimpse the magnitude of the importance of keeping our bodies in balance or homeostasis.

The author shows us that there are other valid theories concerning how disease is caused and that the Germ Theory isn’t the only game in town. Appleton shares a bit of history concerning some of the other great researchers, during and after the time of Louis Pasteur, who discovered that it was the condition or health of the body which determined whether or not benign forms of germs would change their form and become pathogenic. This way of looking at things places the responsibility for health back onto the individual. Pasteur’s theory took responsibility for health away from the individual and placed it with the doctors and drug companies. This model of disease is much more profitable for the medical industrial complex and is likely to receive more support than a theory which would keep people healthy and greatly reduce profits.

Appleton feels that people should be encouraged to discover how they are causing their ill health because then they would have the power to do something about it. She expresses it well in the following quote. “Listen to what your body is telling you. Heed symptoms such as headaches, falling asleep after meals, joint pains, bloating, allergies, high blood pressure, yeast infections, chronic fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, gas, skin problems, swelling, or a full blown degenerative disease. If you believe these symptoms come out of the air, then you are under the curse of Louis Pasteur. You have given responsibility for your life to others. But if you realize that you are doing something yourself to cause these symptoms, you know you can do something to stop them.”

The book includes the research ideas of Claude Bernard, Antoine Bechamp, Walter B. Cannon, Melvin E. Page, Gaston Naessens and others. The main point they all shared was that the chemistry of the body determines whether we remain healthy or become ill. Our bodies must be in balance if we are to ward off disease.

Pleomorphism is one of the key processes which needs to be understood in relation to body chemistry, health and disease. Bechamp believed that life forms which he termed “microzymas”, were continually changing according to the condition of the body. When the body was toxic or unbalanced, then these harmless and perhaps even once beneficial organisms would change form and turn into sickly pathogenic, bacteria, viruses or fungus. If the body’s homeostasis recovered then these unhealthy pathogenic “germs” would change form back into harmless healthy lifeforms.

If germs don’t cause our bodies to be out of balance, then what does cause illness? Nancy Appleton believes that sickness results from things we do to ourselves and not from something out in the air that we need to defend against. The author shows us how improving our diet and reducing many different types of stress can bring our bodies back into homeostasis or good health. Appleton feels that the calcium/phosphorous ratio is a good indicator of homeostasis and she lists foods and lifestyle factors which will help the reader to achieve this proper balance. The author also offers a urine test to measure the calcium/phosphorous ratio. She claims that when these two elements are in balance then it is a good indicator that other minerals in the body will also be able to function properly. When everything in the body is functioning appropriately then germs will remain in their harmless forms and health will be the result.

 Mainstream modern medicine only treats the symptoms of disease and rarely, if ever, addresses the cause. Even many practitioners of alternative medicine focus more on remedies rather than the root cause. Appleton’s advice to the medical community is…..instead of doctors asking what their patient’s symptoms are they should be asking them what they are doing to promote their own illness. It can be very dangerous to only treat the symptoms while ignoring the cause. A patient may feel better because his symptoms are being masked but the diseased condition is still simmering underneath the surface and will give rise to more health problems down the road if the basic provocation is not addressed.

The author emphasizes that it is not just what we eat that affects our health but that we need to look at all areas of our lives for stresses that can be minimized or eliminated. All types of stress can negatively affect the body. At the end of the book Appleton includes 3 food plans with snack and breakfast suggestions to help the reader return his body to a balanced healthy state.

I found the information in this book to be quite fascinating. I especially appreciated the way the author included the research of the various scientists and how each of their findings supported the idea that we are not helpless victims of disease but that it is within our power to heal ourselves with proper food and lifestyle choices. I found The Curse of Louis Pasteur to be very helpful, motivating and encouraging. Step by step, becoming responsible for our own health can be an exciting and empowering journey with many fruitful rewards.

Check out my post about elderberries and the many ways you can use them. The elderberry is great for preventing and or lessening the effects of colds and flu. Elderberry preparations also taste good and can be very soothing. I just read the reasoning behind why elderberry prevents cold and flu....When taken before or at the first sign of illness, certain constituents in the elderberry actually prevent the germs from entering the cells. http://foodfreedomrevolution.blogspot.com/2010/09/elder-berry-for-flu.html