Your Immune System        
By Dr. Bruce Fife, a certified nutritionist and naturopathic physician

Why do we get sick? Is it because we come into contact with germs? The answer is “No.” Contrary to popular belief, germs don’t make you sick. They can be involved in the process, but they don’t cause it. Germs live around us every second of every day. If they caused sickness why aren’t we all sick all the time?

I’m going to answer this question using an analogy with a garbage can. This analogy illustrates why we develop degenerative health problems, why we get sick, and how our immune system works. It also describes the difference between a healing crisis and a disease crisis.

The body can be viewed as a container filled with various levels of garbage. Throughout life garbage is dumped into the trash can. This garbage represents all the toxic substances that enter and accumulate in our bodies. Fortunately, we have a release value located near the bottom of the can. As garbage accumulates, this valve drains it out. This prevents the can from becoming too full. We can visualize the release valve as our immune system working to empty or clean our toxins and germs. That’s what the immune system does – clean toxins and other harmful substances from our bodies.

If, however, you fill the trash can up faster than the drain (immune system) can empty them, the can will eventually overflow. This would be the point at which death occurs – when the container can no longer hold any more garbage. The more garbage you have in your trash can (i.e., your body) the closer you are to disease and death.

To prevent trash from accumulating too fast, the release valve is designed to open up extra wide when the container becomes too full. The release valve is forced open extra wide whenever we become sick. Toxins accumulate in the body to such a high level that life is threatened, so the release valve pops wide open in an effort to quickly flush out the toxic debris.

As long as the valve works as it’s suppose to, you can live a long healthy life. However, if you keep dumping toxic sludge into the trash can it will begin to corrode the release valve. Over time the release valve loses some of its ability to open. This allows more trash to build up, filling the can higher and higher. Because the valve is corroded it takes more pressure, or a higher accumulation of trash, to force over the valve. As the valve becomes more corroded its ability to open fully decreases and the can slowly fills up. As the can reaches it capacity, health deteriorates and symptoms often associated with degeneration or aging, appear. The fuller the can, the more severe the symptoms until the can is full and we die.

Now, if you reduce the amount of trash you put into the can, you may eventually empty out a lot of toxic debris and prevent sickness and physical degeneration. You can, figuratively speaking, wash off the corrosion and lubricate the release valve. You can do this a number of ways. Most anything that improves health will do this. Some things work faster than others. JC Tonic^®, for instance, stimulates detoxification (i.e., lubricates the release valve) allowing the valve to open fully and expel a huge amount of debris. This rapid release of toxins would be the equivalent of a healing crisis. Afterwards, our garbage can holds less debris. Symptoms of ill health disappear because toxins in the can have dropped to a more tolerable level.

Germs don’t cause illness any more than flies cause garbage. Flies are attracted to garbage; they don’t cause it. Likewise, a person full of garbage attracts germs. Cold and flue germs can only grow in a body that is filled with garbage. This is because the immune system is so overworked it has difficulty fighting off and removing infections.

Germs that surround us every day are only able to take hold inside of us when our immune systems become overworked. As germs begin to grow, the toxic level inside us reaches a critical point and our bodies go into a state of panic and toxins are flushed as quickly as possible to prevent death. We call this a sickness of a disease crisis.

From this explanation you can see that a healing crisis is a process in which the body is becoming stronger and healthier. The immune system is able to work efficiently because it is healthy and has less garbage to remove. In contrast, a disease crisis is a process in which the body is struggling to survive; the immune system is so overworked that it can barely maintain life, let along optimal health. In the next issue I will tell you what steps you can take to cleanse the body and strengthen your immune system.