Biodefense Strategy

Yesterday Donald Trump announced the formation of a US Biodefense Strategy unit to mark the 17th anniversary of the Anthrax attacks. So instead of working toward the elimination of such materials we can expect a vast expansion as the DoD engages in modernising its stockpiles of biological weapons. In an era of ever restrictive funding for public health programmes and national infrastructure the Trump administration finds another way of spending billions of dollars on unusable weapons of megadeath. – Wot? One of the hallmarks of cancer is its ability to hide from the body’s immune system so protecting tumour cells from attack. Natural methods of weakening tumour defences concentrate on breaking down their protective films. We often find that the same protease enzymes employed for digesting meat are redeployed to attack the tumour. The body has its own, very effective, biodefence strategy. To activate it requires that we pay attention to the nutrients we ingest – both to weaken the cancer, or other pathology, and also to bolster the immune system. Although the human immune system has evolved perfectly to cope with all threats, today’s environment places unprecedented stresses on it such that we now need to make conscious efforts to change our circumstances. The trajectory of our ‘autopilot living’ is taking us where we’d rather not go. Naturopathic doctors, Chiropractors and Functional Medicine practitioners have great respect for the healing potential of the human body. Like Voltaire they know that ‘The physician’s role is to keep the patient amused while the body heals itself’. They have a very active role in helping the patient to create the optimum conditions for healing. The healing journey begins as soon as the causative factors of a patient’s illness are removed. A Health Coach can assist healing by raising client confidence and helping them break down their challenges into manageable steps. – The hardest thing any of us do is to break the habits of a lifetime. With each successful change a client introduces their destination no longer looks so unachievable and their health steadily improves. So too in the wider arena of international affairs, the seemingly intractable can be satisfactorily resolved, and tensions reduced, where there is a will to do so. Aggressive posturing, such as with the introduction of a ‘biodefence strategy’, is not the way to reduce world tensions. Nor is the building of walls between nations, either physically or through raising trade tariffs. At least two things need to happen – • We need to dismantle the defence of an unsatisfactory status quo whose purpose is to raise fear and mistrust among peoples so that real democratic values can be restored and the cancerous growth of the Military Industrial Complex in all nations can be halted. • We must respect and protect the natural environment from the ravages of commercial exploitation so that the planet can heal from decades of unsustainable overuse and a poisoning of the commons – everything from oceans of plastic waste and subsea oil slicks to polluted air and water. It’s time for people of awaked consciousness to heed Voltaire’s words so that we can keep the world’s populations amused, through cultural appreciation, shared endeavour and respect for nature, while our planet heals itself. We will then understand that paradise is already here and awaiting our protection.