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the 40 variations of antibiotics available for the treatment of TB, only one or two still seem to have an
effect.
Nobody can foresee the consequences of our collective action in making antibiotics the treatment of
preference for infectious diseases. You may remember from chapter 8 that sunlight used to be the
preferred and most successful treatment for TB (more about this below). UV-light still is the natural
antidote to any germ, including super-bugs, yet our obsession with drugs prevents us from even
considering the use of a cost-free solution with no side effects. But you and I can make a difference when
it comes to creating a healthy world by choosing not to take antibiotics.
Several years ago a major report on drug prescription revealed that 80 percent of all prescribed drugs
are of only “marginal” use, which means that it does not make a difference whether we take them or not,
except for the side effects they produce. We are now reaping the consequences of this massive abuse of
“medical” drugs. We have created an entire armory consisting of highly sophisticated antibiotic-resistant
weapons— superbugs that defy even the smartest of treatments.
TB took 1,000 million lives within the previous two centuries, but then the deadly disease was nearly
eradicated from the earth through a combination of public hygiene measures and antibiotics. One may
argue that without the use of antibiotics the disease could never have been brought under control.
However, the latest statistical reviews show that TB had decreased dramatically through the introduction
of new hygiene measures before TB-antibiotics were introduced. This clearly demonstrates that
antibiotics did not eradicate TB, but improved hygiene measures did.
Today, the situation is not much different. TB strikes where hygiene is poor since dirt is a major source
of spreading infectious diseases. Good hygiene, however, does not only include clean fresh water,
nutritious food, and proper sanitary conditions, it is also a matter of cleanliness inside our bodies. Modern
lifestyle and eating habits have turned our intestines into pools of filth—ideal breeding places for
pathogens.
TB and other infectious diseases that defy modern treatment compel man to make major changes for
himself and his world. In fact, to live comfortably and without mass epidemics we will have to change
nearly everything, from improving our diet to balancing our lifestyle, drastically reducing environmental
pollution, regularly exposing the body to the sun, and increasing psychological health. These factors make
all the difference with regard to building natural resistance to disease-causing germs of any kind,
including TB.
Just one simple adjustment in a person's lifestyle—regular sun exposure—could save millions of lives.
Researchers from Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, and the Wellcome Trust
Centre for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, carried out a study at
Newham University Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital in London with patients who had been
exposed to TB. They found that over 90 percent of TB patients had a vitamin D deficiency. Their findings
came from a study that identified an extraordinarily high incidence of vitamin D deficiency amongst those
communities in London most at risk from the disease, which kills over two million people each year. In
Britain, the amount of sunlight between October and April is usually insufficient to make vitamin D in the
skin so much of the population becomes deficient during the winter and spring.
It is a fact that the main source of the body's vitamin D comes from exposing the skin to sunlight.
Scientists have shown that a single 2.5mg dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system
to fight against tuberculosis (TB) and similar bacteria for at least 6 weeks. Of course sunlight is more
effective than supplementation. Regular sun exposure, which is a necessity for healthy vital humans,
animals and plants, could prevent and eradicate TB for good.
Antibiotic-resistant organisms cannot be eradicated from the surface of the earth, and this may not
even be necessary, as we can see from the above research. Although genetically mutated, these and other