Modern Medicine and Germ Theory

(image via tbSmith on Flickr)

The germ theory is something that our culture believes to be the cause of disease and other problems of the body. It is important to be familiar with this theory if you want to have healthy children because you need to be empowered and informed about what makes them sick. The following examples are not necessarily what everyone believes, but they are the modern beliefs that many people hold.

A cold: A cold is caused when we have some type of contact with someone already infected with a cold. When they sneeze on us, touch us or otherwise transmit the disease to us and we then touch our eyes, nose or throat, the infection is passed on.

Chicken Pox: The highly contagious chicken pox disease is caused by the chicken pox virus. After you have had the chicken pox, your body develops immunity to the disease. It is preferable to contract this disease in childhood rather than adulthood, since getting chicken pox as an adult carries more serious consequences.

Poor Vision: Weak vision results from an unfortunate combination of genetic material (DNA) that you inherited from your mother and father. Soon, science will identify the genes responsible for poor vision and be able to prevent it.

Diet: Diet does not have a dramatic influence on our health. A healthy person can eat almost any type of food without harming his or her body. The only rules to remember are to avoid unhealthy unsaturated fats (use unsaturated vegetable oils instead), eat lean cuts of meat, avoid fat, and have plenty of servings of grain every day.

Degenerative diseases: Doctors and scientists do not understand what causes cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or any other disease. There probably is not just one cause, but rather several factors that are involved. Scientists believe that genetics play a role in just about every disease. They say that there is no known cure for most diseases, and the secrets to preventing them are not yet known.

Again, these beliefs are not universal. These examples are merely meant to clarify our typical cultural beliefs about what causes disease.