IMMUNITY PLUS: PREFACE

Of all the events which mark human history, the emergence of infectious scourges leaves the deepest impression. The passing of kings, even of great wars, fades with time, but the Black Death and the Great Plague still strike a chill chord in our collective memory. Today we face the challenge of another infectious scourge which could similarly scar the consciousness of our species.

AIDS has the potential for changing the course of human development. While nothing which causes misery and death is welcome, the lesson of history is that we can respond positively to tragedy. The nature of the changes precipitated by AIDS will depend upon whether we can defeat the cause or be forced to learn to live with it. For the foreseeable future we all have to live with it; even if a vaccine is found, it will take some time, perhaps decades, to eradicate the virus.

In the age of AIDS, we all need to change the way we think about health. While infectious diseases are having a resurgence, to remain healthy we have to act to resist all infectious diseases. Once we become the victim of one infection, we are more likely to succumb to others.

Improving immunity is relatively easy. This article will explain, in straightforward and practical terms, how the complicated human immune system works, what we can do to enhance its operation, and what disrupts its efficiency. When medicine has no answer, positive action of this sort is the only sensible course.

Ultimately, as new disease entities emerge, survival may depend upon changing the way we think. This change has occurred with other types of disease. Heart-disease fatalities have dropped as people change their lifestyles, for it has been accepted that much of the disease can be avoided by thinking in the right way and making appropriate choices.

With hidden threats, such as AIDS, we need to adopt both the right attitude and the right action. In addition, since we will not always be able to avoid infections, we also need to ensure that we live in ways which will enhance our immunity. With AIDS the attitude we must adopt is that everyone could have the virus, and we need to behave accordingly. Gays and drug addicts may have fallen victim to AIDS first, not directly because of their exposure to the virus (although exposure among these groups was high), but because promiscuity and drug abuse damage and compromise the immune system. These cultural sub-groups are much more liable to suffer from other infections for exactly the same reason.

The lesson is clear. We must all do whatever is needed to improve our resistance to infections. This will make us healthier, and healthy people limit the spread of all illness. There is no other choice.

Because we are all different and our degree of susceptibility to illness varies widely, there is no single simple-minded answer to the problem of creating health. Improving your immunity, and creating lasting health, depends first upon getting the basics right. Once these are established, you can use your experience and knowledge to modify the subtle factors which are relevant to you as a unique individual. The recommendations we make will spell out the basics and give you insight into possible further requirements.

Diseases are changing and evolving all the time. If we stand still, we will be overcome and will fail. The winning strategy, for all of us, is not to wait passively for 'others' to find that single simple-minded answer, for most such answers are illusory. We progress against disease by consolidating the hard-won lessons of the past, of hygiene, nutrition, lifestyle and behaviour; we have to add further sound structure to these foundations. Waiting for medicine is a last resort; our elevation of it to first and only resort may be seen historically as a trap. Those waiting for medicine today may find it arrives too late. With improved immunity, and generally increased health, you will find that medicine becomes your last resort. When you use it rarely, its minimal intervention brings more benefit.

Your immune system protects you all the time. Its ceaseless and automatic action is easy to overlook, to take for granted.

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