Book Review: Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs

How Surgery Can Be Hazardous to Your Health - And What to Do About It by Dr Harvey Bigelsen, MD

In this book, Dr Bigelsen, originally a conventionally trained ophthalmologist describes his growing frustration with the medicine he had been taught and his own personal journey of discovery of natural approaches including live blood microscopy, homeopathy, osteopathy and acupuncture over a period of several decades.

He argues that the current obsession with germs of one hue or another attacking an otherwise seemingly healthy body is faulty thinking and that surgery creates a great deal of lasting health consequences which are largely going unrecognised.

"Medical doctors doing surgeries and prescribing drugs are the the number one cause of chronic disease today."

Realisation dawns

His thinking relating to the impact of surgical procedures on health was initiated by a patient who was a young female medical student who presented to him when she had rapidly become degeneratively ill with hepatitis C and was awaiting a liver transplant.

On examination of a sample of her live blood he found evidence of inflammation and 'dirty' blood. She had had a copper IUD fitted some time previously and these work to prevent implantation of a fertilised egg by causing chronic inflammation of the uterine lining.

He suggested removal of her IUD and the day after the device was removed her blood showed remarkable signs of improvement. It took a full year of supportive treatment for her exhausted body to fully recover, but the cause had obviously been removed that day.

When she returned to her doctor at the end of the year, she tested free of hepatitis C and he began to wonder if the IUD had created a massive inflammatory response that had caused the destruction of her liver producing what had tested as hepatitis C.

Since this first case, he has observed that there is always a physical injury that has set the processes of chronic inflammation in train that underscores chronic and degenerative illness.

The flawed allopathic medical approach

Medical students are taught that the body has no intelligence of its own - that it is effectively a machine to support function of the brain. And like a machine, they are taught that parts are replaceable and that some parts are not even necessary.

He points out that just because we don't fully understand the function of some organ, does not mean that it is superfluous. This has started to be recognised with tonsillectomies being conducted a lot less frequently than was the case 30 years ago. And recent research has shown that the appendix - far from being redundant - is an important component of the immune system. 

As he says, a single missing screw can stop a clock working, so why should the human body be any different? And, in spite of whatever the doctors may tell you, replacement parts are never as good as the original and they too need regular replacement.

As a medical student you are taught how the body functions system by system (anatomy and physiology), then you learn about the disease processes that 'attack' the body (pathology) and these topics are always regarded as discrete and unrelated to all other concerns.

Somehow allopathic medicine regards the body as being exempt from the laws of nature and this way of thinking leads to enthusiastic 'intervention' to resolve a problem. This means that C-sections are now seen as routine, but nature had designed the contractions of normal labour to stimulate the functioning of diaphragms within the baby and to promote the circulation of fluids and this crucial developmental event is now surgically circumvented in an ever increasing number of individuals.

Allopathic medicine also defines health in terms of the absence of disease. And unfortunately, many natural health practitioners tend to follow the allopathic model of addressing clusters of symptoms they have labelled as being specific diseases.

But all illness is connected - with different symptoms merely representing different points on a continuum. And since disease is a by-and-large a process, so is recovery. He also points out that contrary to the allopathic approach very sick, very weak people need a slow treatment programme, whereas someone who is fairly strong can take a more intense approach.

Most natural health practitioners regard health as being a state of balance, but Dr Bigelsen states that he does not even like this term because it implies a linear relationship of two forces opposed to each other rather than the complex holistic state of equilibrium that is actually the case.

"Every day I hear people's stories. I see and hear lies and propaganda on television. And I am getting more and more outraged. What is going on today in the name of health care is an absolute nightmare. Increasingly, needless and damaging surgeries are being performed. We are given chemicals and poisons under the euphemism of prescription drugs. The worst part is that all of this is done with incredible arrogance. Our allowing it is quite literally killing us and destroying society. We, as a society, have become sheeple. We have accepted that the letter MD and AMA equals 'expert'."

The trouble with germ theory

Terrain is the French word used by Claude Bernard over a century ago to apply to the sum total of all our emotional and physical experiences, and how they are stored as memories in our body and mind. Coming originally from the Greek word for soil it also encompasses the external environment of the individual including work, food and leisure. 

Both the body and mind keep a store of our memories and whilst the body remembers movement, shock, fear and anger the mind memory may be completely at odds with the body memory. This may result in suppression of the body memory and the individual may be, for example, left with a persistently tight muscle and a tendency for their back to go out.

Pasteur and Bernard were famously at odds during their lifetime, but Pasteur is said to have declared on his death bed that "Bernard was right, the terrain is everything, the germ is nothing."

Tiny granular structures have been observed in live blood samples and given different names at various times by different researchers. Called symbionts or somatids by some, these tiny structures are of plant origin. Somatids - rather than dying with their host - help to decompose it and to create a new one and it is changes in acidity that cause the somatids to change their form into a variety of microbes.

In fact, not only are bacteria not the enemy - since all of life originally stemmed from bacteria - they are actually fundamental to life. Our bodies are communities of cells and our bacteria help to create our terrain and to keep it in balance. Nature does not discriminate between 'good' or 'bad' - only balance and imbalance.

Health is about relationships and everything in nature works together so that all actions affect, reflect, act upon and influence everything else. As Albert Einstein observed: action and reaction are endless. 

The longterm consequences of surgery

As Dr Bigelsen sees it, there are three main problems with surgery.

The first problem is that even though you may understand the need for surgery and may have willingly submitted to undertake it, that this is mind stuff because the body always perceives surgery as a potentially deadly assault. At a cellular level the body will always detect a wound serious enough to place its continued survival in peril.

The second factor is that on a primal level the general anaesthetic immobilises the body to a point near to death, and since the normal responses to danger ie: flight or fight are not available to a body on the operating table, it may respond in the only way possible: by freezing.

These two factors combine to create a sense of impending death, and the body creates a natural dissociation which can stay with the individual long after the anaesthetic has worn off (which also takes a lot longer than imagined). 

The third factor is that ALL surgery is an assault on the body and creates scar tissue at every level within the tissues - not just the visible, superficial scar.  

The process of inflammation is necessary to healing by surrounding and isolating an insult from healthy tissue thus enabling the area to be cleaned and restored and then the temporary structure to be dismantled. However, when it is not possible to bring this process to a satisfactory conclusion, then chronic inflammation will remain.

The scars become dams within the body - dense, tight bands of tissue that don't stretch and through which blood and other fluids cannot pass. This means that scar tissue does not receive the nutrients and toxins required and that wastes cannot be removed.

The processes of inflammation become unresolved and unresolvable and this can wear the body down ultimately creating fatigue states, immune deficiencies and diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. The amount of inflammation within the body can be detected by measuring C-reactive protein levels in the blood.

"An injury creates a scar. The scar is dead tissue; it's both a wall and a black hole. It's a wall that stops all movement, all circulation. The scar is a black hole that pulls all the tissues toward itself, that collects all the waste that ought to circulating normally out of the body." 

The adverse effects of scars

We are mostly water. We were created in water and even the most solid structure - bone - is 20% water. Fluid flow is basic to all physiological processes and its movement is key to our wellbeing. In fact, osteopaths regard the motion of fluids in our bodies as our primary respiratory system.

There is a constant flow caused by the automatic pulsing of the coccyx which causes cerebrospinal fluid to circulate up the spinal cord toward the skull. And the action of swallowing a couple of thousand times a day also creates a suction that causes the cerebrospinal fluid to circulate around the skull.

As a stone or log in a stream creates a place where leaves and debris can become stuck, decompose and circulate to the next barrier, scars always cause stagnation and toxicity. 

And the greater the insult, the greater the inflammation and the longer the scar has existed for, the more negative the effects are likely to be. And as with a dam: the greater the stagnation and the longer it has been in place, the greater the eventual release when the issue is resolved.

Even more alarmingly, there is a growing fashion not only for what might be regarded as more 'essential' surgery such as fixture of broken limbs, but for elective surgery for all sorts of reasons including cosmetic surgery. This is often sold to us as being 'minimally invasive' along with the suggestion that it is desirable or 'normal'. 

The author notes that the top 3 doctors in New York as listed in one magazine were all cosmetic surgeons and declares that this is not medicine - but barbaric cosmetology!

Even with the less invasive laparoscopic abdominal surgeries, gas is pumped into the abdomen creating thousands of microtears and drying out the moist visceral surfaces so that they adhere to one another when the abdomen is deflated creating adhesions.

As he says: Surgery IS a big deal and the only minor procedure is one done on someone else! 

ALL surgeries reduce your overall quality of life and life expectancy, and you never return to the same level of function you had prior to the surgery. In Dr Bigelsen's estimation, these interventions result in most people functioning at about 50% of their capacity and regarding that as being 'normal'.

Causes of scar tissue

Sadly, practically no one gets to the age of 20 without being set up for chronic inflammation by having been exposed surgical procedures including:

• Orthodontic work and any associated tooth extractions
• Wisdom teeth/tooth extraction
• Root canal treatments 
• Periodontal (gum) surgery
• Appendectomy, hernia repair, etc
• Tonsillectomy
• Caesarian sections and episiotomies 
• Trauma during birth (forceps or ventouse delivery, strangulation with the umbilical cord, etc) and severing of the umbilical cord (if too short)
• Laser eye surgery
• Abortion(s), uterine Dilation and Curettage (D and C), or Evacuation of Retained Products of Conception (ERPC)
• Sterilisation including tubal ligation (in women) and vasectomies (in men)
• IUDs and hormone implants
• Laparoscopic procedures eg: gall bladder removal 
• Biopsies and other surgical investigations
• Cyst or mole removal 
• Cosmetic surgeries including breast implants, nose jobs, liposuction and tummy tucks
• Insertion of prosthetic joints, pins, plates, etc
• Removal of bunions, in-growing toenails, etc

In addition other traumas inducing chronic inflammation include:

• Broken bones, sprains, slipped discs, etc
• Accidents, blows, whiplash and embedded foreign objects
• All pharmaceutical drugs are toxic (they have to be to be licensed) and cause widespread inflammation throughout the body as a foreign agent alien to the body
• X-rays, ultrasound investigations (eg: during pregnancy) or lithiotripsy (ultrasound stone breaking)
• Chronic tight areas caused by hanging on to emotions and
• Emotional and physical traumas.

Such scars can be softened using neural therapy which involves injecting local anaesthetic into the scar tissue combined with various forms of body therapy including osteopathy, cranial therapy and myofascial release. 

Surgery, scars and fatigue syndromes

Dr Bigelsen states that the processes of chronic inflammation can ultimately weaken the body resulting in exhaustion and physical breakdown. It is as though the body were devoting one or two of its six cylinders to constantly attempting to resolve the inflammation.

The immune system becomes unable to tend the terrain which in turn becomes progressively more toxic. Eventually it becomes so unbalanced that it cannot restore homeostasis on its own and requires significant nourishment, support, rest and assistance to regain balance.

In particular Dr Bigelsen has observed a connection between the insertion of an IUD and the later development of fatigue states such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. In patients diagnosed with Lyme disease but with no known history of a tick bite, he often finds a history of multiple procedures or one or two major surgeries. And in fibromyalgia patients, he often finds a history of injury to the neck or upper spine.

The importance of the mouth to health

Dr Bigelsen regards the status of the mouth as being highly significant to the health of the rest of the body and refers to the mouth as the 'base of the temple'. To support his case, he cites the fact that there are more sensory neurons devoted to transmitting information from the mouth than from the rest of the body put together.

He states that the mouth is one of the first places to suffer when we are under stress. Stress reduces the blood available to the gums and supporting bone, and deprived of oxygen and nutrients the processes of inflammation are initiated. Any surgery or procedures involving the mouth or insertion of foreign materials into the mouth ie: most dental procedures can also cause inflammation.

Added to which, the teeth are living tissues and each tooth is on the pathway of an energy meridian. This means that any adverse influences in the mouth can cause far reaching effects on other body organs and systems.

The paired 11th cranial nerves which emerge from the base of the brain - the spinal accessory nerves - unusually serve only one pair of muscles: the sternocleidomastoid muscles. These muscles are the big strap muscles that attach the base of the skull behind the ear (the mastoid process) to the body at the sternum and serve the important function of keeping the head aligned in relation to the body.

They are an important part of the primitive righting reflex which helps us to keep our head level and which also tells us which way is up when we bend, twist and turn. Any changes to the mouth, skull or jawbone can potentially change the righting reflex causing the shoulders and hips to tilt in compensation. Tension of the sternocleidomastoid muscles can also prevent proper drainage of the mouth creating stagnation and inflammation.  

In developed societies our jaws have shrunk massively as a result of malnutrition and we can no longer routinely accommodate the full quota of 32 teeth. Our orthodontic solution to this tends to be to shrink the larger jaw to fit around the smaller jaw by extracting 2 or more teeth. This is in preference to expanding the jaws using functional appliances during childhood or active growth periods such as adolescence to accomodate the full quota of teeth.

The shrinking of our jaws also means that most people need to have their wisdom teeth extracted in addition to the 2-4 other premolar/bicuspid teeth often extracted for orthodontic treatment.

Finally, Dr Bigelsen suggests that the well recognised connection between periodontal disease and heart disease is not a causative microbe, but rather the more general processes of inflammation initiated in the mouth by oral bacteria. 

Further resources

To listen to Dr Bigelsen talk on the topic see under Natural Recovery in the Audio Hub or to buy his book go to Amazon UK or US.  

You might also be interested in the following:
	The Descent Into Illness Illness IS Toxicity Live Blood Analysis The Story of Royal Rife Infective Organisms and Fatigue Syndromes A History of Medical Horrors Botox and Fillers: The Case Against Acupuncture Meridians: The Proof Dental Cavitations For a comprehensive approach to recovery after chronic illness using natural means, please refer to The Natural Recovery Plan book
	Or for all media use the Search facility at the top of the page
Doctors are more harmful than germs book review: Article summary This article offers a book review of Doctors are More Harmful Than Germs by the medical doctor and holistic practitioner, Dr Harvey Bigelsen. This book explores the chronic inflammatory processes initiated by surgery and the creation of dams of scar tissue within the body which cause stagnation, decomposition and toxicity. In Dr Bigelsen's experience resolving the problems posed by such scars using a combination of neural therapy and manipulative techniques can help to resolve long standing chronic illnesses of all hues.    Click the icon for the blog version of this article  Click the icon if you would like to republish this article
To receive a FREE report and the newsletter fill in your email details in the box on the top left. The Natural Recovery Plan Newsletter October 2011 Issue 22. Copyright Alison Adams 2011. All rights reserved Dr Alison Adams Dentist, Naturopath, Author and Online Health Coach www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com