host posted on January 01, 2009 12:47
A friend of ours is dying of lymphoma. He and his wife have been living on-site at a prestigious cancer center for over a year now. That means a year away from his three young children in Oklahoma, including the son who is celebrating his birthday today, (the day in which I’m writing this). It’s so sad.
The wife sent out her normal weekly update e-mail today. She said that, to the doctor’s surprise, my friend has a raging fungal infection, and it’s deadly. The doctor claims to be puzzled by this because this particular species of fungus is only supposed to be present in “tropical environments.”
I had actually never heard of this species of fungus, myself, so I began researching it. Sure enough, the traditional source books did say that it was, in fact, a tropical fungus.
But here’s where the story takes a turn.
I used to be a lab tech, and I sometimes find helpful information in laboratory textbooks. Lab techs have to do a number of things, one of which is to figure out how to “grow” enough germ cells in order to have enough of them to study. This is called “culturing.” So if they wanted to grow a fungus, for example, they’d obtain the spores and put them in an environment that will lead to their growth and reproduction. I like reading about how they grow different fungi because that is exactly the opposite thing I’d like for fungus to do in my body!
So I researched this species of fungus, and the laboratory guide said that it might be tough to grow. They described various techniques, but none worked very well. They had one last suggestion if all else failed: You can use a piece of bread to grow the fungus; it “is commonly associated with bread”!!
In other words, this supposedly exotic, tropical fungus that is so incredibly difficult to grow…. Is “commonly associated with bread”?? And the doctors are scratching their heads wondering how my friend could have possible picked up this particular species of fungus!
Now, in defense of the doctors, you can’t be an expert about every single source of every single germ that comes down the pike. It’s just impossible. But what concerns me is the wholesale disregard for people like Doug who has devoted his life to this subject, and who wrote easy-to-read books about it. The Germ That Causes Cancer was actually originally written for doctors and is filled with references that validate Doug’s philosophy. But, because of the system that these doctors have to work within to maintain their licenses, they have almost no chance of ever even seeing this information, much less using it for their patients. (The only physicians I have a gripe with are the ones who know nothing of the fungal link to disease, yet still criticize Doug for promoting it.)
Back to the story.
The textbooks that the doctors read talk about where those fungi typically live, geographically. The lab texts, however, talk about where they’ll grow, agriculturally. In other words, will it grow on sugar? On bread? On corn? On peanuts? Whichever medium it’ll grow on is all that concerns the lab tech, and that’s much of what concerns me.
This story demonstrates several things:
• It shows us that we live in a world community. Here’s a “tropical fungus” that will grow on sandwich bread, and infected a person who has never been to the tropics. How did it get here? How could it survive a non-tropical environment? I don’t know. But I do know it loves bread. I do know that it follows the same general principles of fungal biology that Doug has preached for years – one of which is, if you eat bread, you may be risking a fungal infection.
• Next, it shows how fungus can attack nearly any organ. One textbook says that this fungus species generally attacks the lungs and blood vessels and can actually cause death to the surrounding tissue. When people hear “fungal infection” or “yeast infection,” they almost never think about lungs or blood vessels or heart or brain. But fungi can attack most any organ at will.
• This story shows how woefully ignorant our medical community is of the study of fungus. Truth be told, the cancer, itself, needed to have been examined from a fungal perspective.
• The story also should speak to you. You subscribe to Know This!. You likely watch Know the Cause! Maybe you’ve read one or all of Doug’s books. But are you using the information? Doug has shown you how bread can bring on yeast, and how yeast can attack virtually any organ, causing any number of symptoms and diseases. So, are you still eating bread? Or corn? Or peanuts?
It’s January, and it’s time to reassess our goals. Maybe now is a good time to commit all over again to doing the simple things every single day that could make profound differences in our lives. While we still have a chance to do so, why not choose the best health habits?
Not everyone, (including medical professionals), know the information that you know. They haven’t learned what you’ve learned from Doug over the years. Please, take full advantage of it! You have the opportunity to do what others don’t even know to do.
Kyle