Subject: Re: [permaculture] RE: Major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 13:57:37 +0800
"Eugene F. Monaco" wrote:
>The
white man is a good example of such a hardy weed <
I
just learned last night from an MD that Americans have 34 times as many
parasites as African people, and that cancer is growing in N.
America at an epidemic
rate. Four years ago breast cancers risks for women were 1 in 34.
Today it is 1 in 8.
What
has happened in only 4 years?
What hs happened is that the latency period between population wide
exposure to long lived organo chlorine chemicals (30 years) has passed
and we are beginning to see the consequent epidemic of breast cancer. We
are also seeing early treatment and greater scanning which could cause
a short term change in your figures. But the long term trend is clear breast
cancer rates are increasing and the age at onset is falling.
A similar rate of increase amongst testicular and prostate cancer is
also beginning to show up.
Researchers
correlate the high parasites to high sugar diets, and things that convert
easily to sugar, like simple carbs. African diets are better, consisting
of more whole grains and fiber accounting for the difference.
The idea that diet is behind rates of cancer increase is a convenient
notion fostered by the chemical industry.
There
is a mindset in much of Western culture that focuses on germs. While
they are important to understand and guard against, the real power of health
(which is our true wealth) comes from building our biological terrain,
just like soil. Louis Pasteur, whose main accreditation was around
germ theory, was quoted as saying, Le gern cest rien. Le terrain
cest tout. While my French is a little rusty (too many Freedom
fries), that means: The germ is nothing. The terrain is everything.
This was reportedly said at the end of his career after the mainstream
had jumped on the germ bandwagon. Maybe its because the germ is
something we can be against and kill with warfare, while the terrain is
something for which we have to take responsibility ourselves. Who
knows?
BTW,
holistic healers recommend doing a parasite cleanse twice a year.
Natures Sunshine has a Chinese ParaCleanse formula now with Paw Paw, which
has anti-cancer properties 6000 times of the chemo therapy formulas.
You can order it at wholesale from my website listed below.
Hardly qualifies
you as an unbiased source of information :-)
Mike Elvin wrote:
I think the main thing to keep in mind
is that people not only inherit MHC characteristics, they develop them
by exposure to pathogenic organisms, toxins, environmental irritants, etc.
A breast-fed baby has a double dose, having not only the MHC inherent in
his genetic structure but that given to him in his mother's milk-- particularly
the colostrum.
The thing about Amazonian Indians is
that at the time of Columbus,
neither they nor any of their ancestors had ever been exposed to any pathogens
or allergens other than those of Amazonia.
This makes theirs a very small MHC zone. By contrast, a Peace Corps volunteer,
foreign correspondent or any world traveller has been exposed to a range
of irritants from the entire world. Every time you walk through an airport
you join the members of the worldwide MHC zone, frequently coming back
with a new form of the flu as a memento of your journey.
A number of years ago visitors to odd
corners of the world, like backpackers in rural Ladakh or Bolivia, used
to have to take care as they could so easily infect unexposed populations
to things like the measles or our common cold, which could be fatal to
a population with no endemic resistance. It works the other way as well.
Go to the back end of Gabon
and you may very well come back with a fierce case of the trots, dengue
or Lassa fever, to which you had not previously been exposed and were thus
much more vulnerable than the local population.
In the global village though, the most
hardy weeds that have established themselves all over the world tend to
be those that come from the Eurasian landmass. Being widespread in their
total range, they already have very strong resistance to most pathogens,
and can outcompete other species. The white man is a good example of such
a hardy weed. Purple loosestrife is another. Local populations tend to
be shoved aside when encroached upon by these aggressive invaders.
Not true of New Guinea and many parts
of the tropics where the 'white man' has failed to establish populations.
Generalizing about race is generally not a good idea IMHO..