The Immune Story

There have always been those cultures and people who in there own terms had a clear understanding of the immune system; others had (and still have) obvious difficulties comprehending the true nature of disease and plagues. "I have heard many stories from different cultures about the use of plants, fire, wind, air and water and how they can help the body defend itself." Jill Davies

French girls and women who packed lavender essential oils for the perfume trade in the seventeenth century didn't catch typhoid and it soon became evident that lavender, just by handling it, could prevent this.

The French are still known to use a great deal of lavender eau de cologne.

Only twenty years ago, it was often used in place of a bath.

It appears that wood is a living organism; rooted or unrooted. It isn't just the balance of germs and whether our particular microflora can cope with the invasion on a cell to cell physical level.

There is much more to immunity or non-immunity than this. Looking at it like this initially can help us to understand the 'modern' view of the immune system.

Not only do we have an immune system, so do plants, trees, mammals and fishes. People often describe the ozone layer as this planet's immune system. Knowledge about lymphocytes was evident in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but tremendous new insights have resulted from research in the last fifty years. The immune system is the name for cells in the blood, lymph, other cells and organs. All of which play a part in defending against disease, harmful foreign microbes and 'antigens' that come into contact with them in the body; or indeed on the skin. The skin is our first line of defense - the armour of the body - Just like the ozone layer.
Humans are slow to evolve, but microbes are not, they mutate incredibly quickly and even if the rich world can eventually find some way to control it, it will still leave the poor world to be killed by them, until they finally become immune. This can be illustrated by the 1.7 billion inhabitants who were infected with Tuberculosis bacillus in 1993 - they didn't develop the disease. 100 million people contract Malaria, each year; two children every minute die of it due to the collapse of a number of programmes set up to eradicate it. The standard drugs still being used are not as effective as they were.
Many 'old' or poor world diseases have returned and are spreading to the developed world - Dengue fever, diphtheria, salmonellosis, pneumococcus and listeriosis. They have become more and more resistant to antibiotics. In fact, the National Institute of Health in the USA has called it an epidemic of microbial resistance.

With the population of the planet growing by over 93 million a year, (mostly in the 'poor' world and in cities), it is a depressing outlook even with smallpox and polio looking all but eradicated.

Infectious diseases are still the world's highest cause of death, killing at least 17 million each year. In fact according to the World Health Organisation up to half the 5.72 billion people on earth are at risk to endemic disease.

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One of the current world immunity problems largely stems from overuse of antibiotics in animal feeds. These enter the human food chain which in turn weakens our immune system by killing valuable flora. Doctors recognize the dangers of this. The number of patients with food poisoning via contaminated meats and dairy products (salmonella etc.) is constantly increasing.

They cannot be treated with the available antibiotics because humans have built up resistance via their food intake. Cases of food poisoning are rising by the thousands each year, in fact the Department of Health now regards Salmonella as an epidemic as it is now resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Pork, sausages, chicken, take-away restaurant food, butcher's chicken and meat pastes, are all in the high risk category, but supermarket meat is no less suspect.

Intensive farming methods using antibiotics, steroids and hormones are damaging both human and animal immune systems. Animals have always eaten other dead animals and thus risked ensuing illness e.g. cows in the desert tempted by rotting flesh, but herbal remedies have healed with speed, while antibiotics were hampering the problem. The World Clearing House for information on scientific investigation of Disease Control has said that the spread of new strains of bacteria which are highly resistant to antibiotics is rising rapidly. The fifty or so doctors who are working on this do so in under-funded conditions themselves. They report that they fear resistant germs threaten to increase the likelihood of routine deaths; comparable to what was experienced when tuberculosis and pneumonia were virtually at epidemic levels.

There are also Bio-accumulative toxins from Benzene to Ethylphenol, found in car exhausts, drinking water, pesticide sprays, wood treatments, paints and household cleaners to name but a few. These influences range from the polluted food-chain to household cleaners and can conspire to cause ME, asthma, allergies, and more. We are indeed in a huge immunological 'trough' where an accelerated Post-war Industrial Revolution has created not only the doom of the planet's ecological system itself; it has also created a huge deficit in the human ability to cope with toxins around them. Our genes are presumably starting to adapt but not quickly enough it seems for many!

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The immune system itself is a magical, wonderful, subtle and powerful process, where the bone marrow, spleen, liver, thymus, tonsils, appendix, peyers patches, stomach, adrenal glands and more have important roles to play. The intelligence of the system is something to behold. For instance; chemicals issue from damaged cells in a form which allows them to pass through blood capillary walls and 'eat' microbes by a process called 'phagocytosis'. Their numbers increase in a range of conditions as they can determine the severity of the situation. They can also produce something called interferon which is useful because it limits the replication of a virus. Other types of cells secrete histamine which causes blood vessels to dilate, which in turn helps the healing process. Yet other cells increase their numbers in allergic responses including asthma, hay fever and in skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema, and help allergic reactions by neutralising histamines.

This system is a network which runs through the entire body; it is finer than blood vessels and only flows in one direction - towards the heart.

T-cells are vital for fighting against abnormal cell structures for example, cancer cells, cells invaded by virus or transplanted tissue e.g. kidney/heart transplant. They also fight pollen, fungi, bacteria and some large molecule drugs like penicillin. It is T-cells that are counted in chronic disease situations like AIDS, where people who have less than two hundred of them are considered 'Auto Immune Deficient'. In so-called auto immune diseases, the T-cells may act against themselves by mistake.

B-cells are activated by microbes and toxins, and when they come into contact with a specific antigen they secrete antibodies called immunoglobulins.

Both B- and T-cells are capable of splitting up and carrying out two jobs: one is to remember previous invasions and then act quickly, while the other is to produce the antibodies that have been memorized during a previous encounter.

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Vaccination takes its cue from the above capabilities but vaccination can 'tie-up' a body's B- and T- cell memory capacity to such an extent that the body's immune function is not free do deal with any new challenges. Natural coding, whereby immunity is achieved through overcoming normal infections one by one in childhood is more subtle (between 3 and 7% of memory capacity is tied up through natural coding instead of the 70% when a vaccine is used. This was revealed in data collected by the Humanitarian Society in 1983). Never allowing our immune system to 'self-educate' - to recognize and remember for itself does have consequences.

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If you decide to immunise your baby with the live polio vaccine, make sure you wash your hands carefully in essential oils after all nappy changes for three months after he or she receives the vaccine.

Keep your baby out of contact with any of the following people because they are at high risk of contracting vaccine-induced polio:

Those receiving radiotherapy, cytostatic drugs, systemic gluco-corticoids like cortisone, potent corticosteroids to the skin, and those taking ACTH, or other immuno suppressive drugs, those with congenital immuno deficiencies and those with a history of paralytic disease.

If you or any other adults wish to be vaccinated, make sure you have the killed vaccine, which has a higher safety record than the live vaccine. Live vaccines are definitely considered riskier for adults.

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All in all we have many automatic and natural defence systems for dealing with viruses, bacteria, fungi and general 'foreign bodies'. It is generally believed that viruses are different from bacteria in that bacteria operate outside cell walls while viruses choose a 'host' cell in order to replicate themselves (some can mutate e.g. HIV dodges the memory system in order to survive). With all viruses there can be the added input of a secondary bacterial infection. Although modern drug medicine can deal with fungal or bacterial infections, it used to be unable to invade viruses, to penetrate or infiltrate cell walls inhabited by viruses. They are now able to invade the virus' sophisticated defence system. This could lead to entire 'families' of antiviral drugs in the future. This could have a similar outcome to the story of our modern antibiotics. Should an antibiotic be given to a person with a virus and should it enter the cell wall, aggressive side effects can take place; these may include severe nausea, dizziness, imbalance and emotional swings.

It may be interesting to note that through plant screening tests, naturally occurring plant chemicals have been found that will enter virus cells and successfully break them down.

Rife was a scientist who discovered that viruses were indeed bacteria at different stages. He built his own microscope and laser with greatly increased powers. He said that when subjected to vibration, they all acted in the same way. He also actually managed to kill viruses with vibration. Using this theory he used to vibrate people with cancer and other diseases using his rife generator machines. Using this he successfully treated many patients. Sadly the man somehow posed a threat to the USA Government and the American Military raided his premises in order to destroy his results. They succeeded. He died a broken man, impoverished and an alcoholic as a direct result of the destruction of his research, being denied the right to heal and with the consequent discredit and ridicule that ensued. It is now thought that science will eventually discover that viruses and bacteria are one and the same thing.

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Historically, antibiotics were developed after the production of vaccines. This class of drug was hailed as the wonder drug of the 50's. The earliest of these was penicillin. It revolutionised health care - probably like no other class of drugs. 'Miracles' must have been witnessed regularly with this drug discovered by Alexander Fleming. Nevertheless, it has become increasingly abused and overused in the fifty years since it was first 'created'.

Repeated courses of antibiotics can disturb the immune system so much that they can become dangerously ineffective. Repeated use of antibiotics in children, toddlers and babies, can lead to severe conditions. These may include cases of unresolved tonsillitis (often resulting in surgery to remove the tonsils) or chronic respiratory problems, skin disorders, middle ear infections and hyperactivity. These are popular childhood problems may be reflected in a difficult and sickly transition into puberty with deeper problems like M.E., cancer and other virulent immune disorders in adulthood. Of course there are situations where they provide real and essential answers for once or twice in a lifetime situations or real need for those immunally compromised e.g. diabetics. In the USA, between 1977 and 1986, antibiotic prescriptions accounted for more than 50% of all paediatric prescriptions and their use for under ten-year olds doubled.

In a 1981 audit of antibiotic use in the USA published in the 'Review of Infectious Diseases', it was claimed that 50% of all prescribed antibiotics were either used in situations not warranting antibiotic usage or the wrong dose, or duration of dose, was administered. Similarly in Britain, a survey done on one Scottish and two English hospitals revealed that two thirds of all antibiotic usage was inappropriate. Since then the tide has turned and medics are thankfully often reticent to prescribe them.

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The key to an effective immune system is the general well being of our mind, body, spirit and hypothalmus. Being sick is not simply one problem. It is a collection of many parts and pieces. Perhaps we attribute more mental guilt than we need to! Some diseases are regarded as being 'modern' and we can get depressed about stress, pollution and so on. Therefore we become more frightened by them. For instance, cancer is often talked about as a modern problem but medical anthropologists have told us that the skeletons of ancient wild animals and peoples repeatedly show 'cancer', proving that this is an inherently old RNA and DNA problem amongst all animal kind.

There are various ways of learning the art of maintaining genuinely good feelings most of the time and one's lifestyle, of course, comes into the spotlight. Do you enjoy your job, your lover, your children, your neighbours. If not, then change one or another, or change yourself, but, whichever initial approach you take, you'll need to spend time on yourself. Some form of meditation will have to become a part of you and your life. Without this, emotional or physical pain will be an unwanted companion. You understand that bad feelings hurt you. Bad feelings against someone vibrate most strongly back at you, so it is vital to transform this state. Counseling and voicing your problems can be very helpful, but to stay stuck in this mode for years merely becomes another excuse to avoid yourself. Meditation has the knack of allowing you to gain an understanding of yourself.

Physical pain is nagging, but is made worse by wishing to jump out of it. Exploring and settling with it can be a huge transformation. Of course terror, fear and/or anger usually intercept any possibility of this transformation occurring with any speed, but with time, guidance and practice it can become a reality.

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Breath, Tranquility, Laughter, Sounds and Immunity

As with a contented baby who breathes with sublime bliss from its belly, we too can learn to breathe. In fact, it is the basis of any silent or moving meditation. It is the basis of any real dancing, singing or laughing. Breathing from the belly is something we do in deep sleep but for most of us in our waking hours we return to the more shallow breathing areas of the rib cage. This method utilizes only one third of our lung capacity. As breathing oxygen is so strongly connected to all emotions it can help to relearn the more contented and balanced breathing which uses the diaphragm and the entire lung capacity. Fear and anger are emotions that create either controlled, frozen or spurted breathing patterns, high up in the chest. Outrage (not rage, i.e. anger) generally comes from the gut, the belly. Laughter comes from the belly and is always a strong spontaneous medicine. When we are about three years old, our breathing moves more into the chest rather than coming from the belly. This is a good time to catch any child and remind them about belly breathing, using it on occasion to calm grief, to examine anger and fear and so on. Adults, set in the ways of their own and others patterning will often need more consistent practice. Breathing is a meditation on its own and many old cultures still do practice this. It is also the base to all life, real full life, and you can not meditate without it.

Children generally have sackfuls of it, so simply being around them provides almost instantaneous medicine. I'm a great fan of comedy and I've got a growing collection of humorous videos, so that I can get a 'quick laughter fix' to balance all the other input and output.

Laughter for healing is an old wisdom, but more recently a man called Norman Cousins in America laughed himself well and told the West how he did it. If negative emotions make us ill, Norman Cousins explained, then positive ones can make us better. He booked into an American hotel with his extremely painful back condition called Ankylosing spondylitis and watched 'Candid Camera', the Marx Brothers and more. Five minutes of good belly laughter could give him two hours pain-free relief and he told everyone. The day came when he said he'd healed himself and had no more pain. Norman Cousins inspired many others to set up laughter clinics and laughter rooms in hospitals where patients can relax amongst funny movies, funny cassettes, joke books, etc. instead of feeling depressed or in pain.

Robert Holden runs a series of laughter workshops in Britain, both on the N.H.S. and at private health centres. For details, telephone: (0121) 5512932. You can also try reading - 'Laughter, The Best Medicine' (published by Thorsons)

In America where many new positive theories come from, music is being used directly for pain relief, relaxation, psychiatric problems, blood pressure reduction and so on. Here in Britain and on the N.H.S. a hospital in Oxford is at present offering music for stroke patients, together with massage, or at meal-times to help digestion, or at night time to aid sleep.

The Book of Sound Therapy by Olivea Dewhurst-Maddock (Gaia Books) explains the use of sound with cancer patients. She explores the patients voices getting them to sing scales in order to find notes that the patients feel in tune with certain pain areas. Tuning forks and didgeridoos are some of the things used directly with patients to create sound vibrational healing. This has the capability of changing the shape and colour of blood cells and disintegrating cancer cells. Sound has the ability to produce shapes.

Therefore a large collection of cells (like the liver or stomach) will produce a specific combination of frequencies. The rhythm of music can create an emotional and physical balance. This can help concentration and patience. An example to illustrate the point would be: baroque music plays at 60-70 crochets a minute, which is just below the heart rate; this will calm people. In order to release imagination and intuition you need a tempo just above the heart rate.

Dancing with music is an age-old joy and panacea. Many spiritual masters believe that women in particular should dance, that this is their birthright and their greatest meditation technique. Sufism brings both music and dance together. The 'whirling' dancing can be a blissful panacea. Do you not always see children twirling for the sheer joy of it until they fall to the ground and giggle! Music, laughter, breathing, dancing, nature and colour are all readily available tools. They lift and harmonise the spirit, enhancing life, breaking old patterns and inviting new creative possibilities. Add to this good food and hygienic living. Then your physical and spiritual being may be equally liberated.

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Herbs that help the immune system can be used both on a vibrational level and on a physical level (with the trees or plants wide variety of self-created chemicals - made from carbon dioxide, water, minerals, nitrogen and sunlight). Yet each plant has individual traits and uses are diverse as a means for empowering the immune system. Some create T and B cells, some create oxygen, keeping cell and other activity alive and healthy. Other herbs encourage elimination through the skin, which if it remains clogged, causes toxicity and a stale body.
Sometimes it becomes difficult to know where immune herbs begin and end. Yet the choices are progressive. We start with the most disabling symptoms and emotions.

Adaptogen Herbs

Every body has an individual immunity. A category of herbs which can help you to adapt more quickly to whatever is new in your surroundings ,be it emotional, physical or environmental is 'adaptogen' herbs. They can help to strengthen and change hereditary weaknesses. A good example of this would be: when the common cold virus came to Iceland from America many Eskimos died. The virus was so alien to them that their cells couldn't cope. Their adaptability was overwhelmed and there were no cell immuno memories. The next generation fared better. This is common to all disease throughout history.
Some plant adaptogens can help speed up adaptation processes. In order to be classed as an adaptogen there are three qualifications the herb must have. It must:-
Increase the body's immune functioning abilities utilising a wide range of actions, rather than just a specific action; helping to maintain balance in all body systems at no expense or aggravation to them and produce very few side effects, if any.
In general terms they are described by the herbalist Christopher Hobbs as working by:-
Supporting adrenal function, thus counteracting the debilitating effects of stress; increasing the concentration of enzymes that help produce energy in the body's cells; helping cells to eliminate waste by-products of the metabolic process; providing an anabolic effect that helps build muscle and tissue and helping the body use oxygen more efficiently and enhancing the regulation of biorhythms.
These famous adaptogens are Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus), schizandra (Schizandra chinensis), reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) and suma (Pffafia paniculata).
The Russians have probably done the most work on adaptogens. They have said there are also secondary adaptogens - ones that are not quite so strong, but nevertheless very useful. These secondary adaptogens have helped to balance and normalise the immune system, nervous system and hormone system. Those most recently studied (and which I use) include gotu kola (Centella asiatica), wild oats (Avena sativa), astragalus (Astragalus membranaceous), burdock (Arctium lappa) and ligustrum (Ligustrum lucidum).
All adaptogen herbs can be used daily as food, in herbal teas, as tinctures or in capsules. They are ideally suited to combine with other plants as they mix well and remain balanced and supportive.

Although it is called a ginseng it is in no way related to other ginseng's, either by its action or its botanical structure. It got its name purely because it gave vitality. It is a shrub which mainly grows wild in Russia. In order to avoid confusion it may be wiser to refer to it by one of its other common names, Eleuthero.

This is a by an now almost 'famous' herb. Britain and Europe cultivate it but, the only place it still grows in it's natural habitat is North America. (It is pronounced eke-nay-shuh, to sound most like the Native American name.) Native American Indian tribes have been aware of the benefits of these herbs for many centuries. The white Americans grudgingly accepted this towards the end of the eighteenth century. This has only comparatively recently reached Europe. Amongst other things it cures deadly rattlesnake bites. It was used as a major immuno stimulator by the indigenous peoples who loved this pretty purple-rayed flower with its yellow centre. They sucked on the root with its tingling, almost metallic taste, all day when they were sick.
The tingling is caused by a chemical called Isobutylamine and many herbal scientists said the tingling is incidental to it's healing properties. Full time practitioners have proved time and time again that is actually vitally important. Echinacea Augustifolia is the preferred species. The tingling and numbing of the tongue should be the deciding factor when buying the tincture. Alternatively, you could make your own.
Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche, Pawnee and other tribes all over America used it to help in anything from stimulating energy to toothache. It was a hard battle to get it accepted by the medical profession. They viewed it as a type of 'quack' medicine. Yet by 1914 it was scientifically proven to activate phagocytes (immune cells that disarm and help recycle bacteria and other wastes in the body). Recognised in the 1930s in Germany it has been re-welcomed in a new wave of interest there; being used even more than ever. Germany is the largest producer and importer of echinacea in Europe, using the superior fresh tincture from wild organic plants in America. More recently they have been growing their own and making fresh tincture from this. They also produce hundreds of medicinal products with echinacea as one of its ingredients.

Garlic - The Immune System's Greatest Friend.

Fresh garlic, which is a stronger anti fungal than Nystatin; has been proven to destroy viral infections on contact such as measles, mumps, chicken pox, herpes simplex 1 & 2, herpes zoster, viral hepatitis, scarlet fever, rabies and more. It also kills many types of bacteria including streptococcus, staphylococcus, typhoid, diphtheria, cholera, bacterial dysentery (travellers' diarrhoea), tuberculosis and tetanus etc.

Garlic juice diluted 1: 25,000 has been found to inhibit bacterial growth, killing bacteria. This makes it a useful broad spectrum antibiotic, which encourages friendly bacteria and improves intestinal flora and digestion. It should be used daily to keep immune levels balanced.

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Probiotics, Ecobiotics and Soil Organisms

Probiotics are organic substances 'for life' as opposed to antibiotics (which kill germs, very often indiscriminately). Ecobiotics treat intestinal flora but very often Ecobiotics are also called Probiotics. The term was first used by a woman called Monica Bryant in 1986. Probiotic bacterial supplements have been used by vets for a long time to treat animals. It is only comparatively recently that these substances have been put to use with humans. What we now realize is that a balanced beneficial bacteria ratio will protect and prevent intestinal toxicity and give good general protection from infection. Most high numbers of beneficial bacteria are situated in the small and large intestine. It is said, as many as 1,000 billion micro organisms. This flora itself can easily weigh around four pounds! All bacteria have different actions, some 'living' in intestinal walls, others moving on and through, working as needed. In all, this protection deals with invasive parasites, yeasts, and so on. Their other jobs include helping to break down bile sufficiently in order to inhibit pathogenic organisms assisting complete digestion and helping to reduce toxic residues that encourage putrefactive bacteria. They make sure B vitamins are made and important enzymes for digestion - particularly Lactose.

Where do Probiotics come from? Some come from milk products, but others from Lactic-fermented vegetables and a very strong one comes from the earth! Try Kiki Ltd on 01603 891678 and www.kiki-health.co.uk for SBO’s and Cytoplan for acidophilus and other similar products, www.cytoplan.co.uk and 01684 312002.