Jagged Environment

"Eat dirt"

Mass extinctions
Science
Environmental and social time bombs
Origins
Progenesis - the simple to the complex
The stress of oxygen - antioxidants
Incorporation of organic building blocks into primitive cells
Hydrocarbon oxidation
Evolution of cell membranes
"Eat dirt"
A role for science?
Lifting the lid
Internal clock
Consequences
The influence of the extra-terrestrial
Essentials
Evolution of the individual
Can we save the planet?
Gaia
Predetermination - "fate"

In addition to the emergence of new strains of viruses and bacteria, we see an increase in diseases such as asthma, diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS) and certain types of cancer. It is almost dogma that this is all a consequence of increasing levels of pollution (including a poor, junk-food, diet), although MS remains a mystery. Oddly, in highly purified parts of Scandinavia, asthma is also on the increase, but infections among children are also very low. Curiously, in poor regions of Africa and India, where the rate of infection is among the highest known anywhere, asthma barely exists, nor MS, diabetes, nor the prevalent levels of colo-rectal and breast cancer, which pervade the more affluent societies; the same is true of heart-disease.

The problem is that the bubble - the boundary of disinfectants and antibiotics with which we surround ourselves - has become too extreme; it is in many ways an impermeable barrier. ”Good” viruses and bacteria (which would hone the immune system) are killed along with “bad”. By killing all of them, the natural immune capacity is not fully developed in early life, and it cannot defend against bacteria and viruses which repeatedly assault its own host body. It is as though an army, having no infantry, either ignores invaders, or brings to bear the full might of its artillery - nothing or complete overkill. The overkill, the attack on a host body by its own defences, is called auto-immune disease.

Damaging pancreatic-cells causes diabetes; damaging nerve-cells causes Multiple Sclerosis; damaging sensitive cells in the gut and bowel or breast causes cancer. The proof of this is that patients can be “treated” with dirt - with bacteria normally present in animal faeces. These stimulate the (normal) immune response. Some ulcers and forms of heart-disease are also caused by bacteria: again, the immune system which is not naturally developed cannot defend against them.

Copyright © 2001 Chris James

Last updated 12 March, 2005