naturalprinciplesofhealth,ofbody,mindandspirit,notjustoninindividuallevel,butalsoona
community level, a national level, and at the world level.
Thereisonemorefactorthatpointstotheillusorinessofvaccinesandextremesin
seeking hygiene.
THE FALSE COMFORT OF ‘STERILE’ LIVES 209
Even as fewer people seek vaccinations -- in part because they be-
lieve that they are safe without them -- there has been a wide-
spread increase in the use of antibacterial soaps and sprays at
home, and parents and patients demand antibiotics at every sign of
infection. These efforts at sterilizing our hands and countertops,
and at killing every infection in our bodies can have just the op-
posite effect.
Unless we soak our tables for many minutes and scrub our hands
like surgeons, we can’t kill all the bacteria on our skin, and what is
left behind to survive and multiply are the stronger and more res-
istant germs. Our overuse of antibiotics has helped foster more nu-
merous and stronger antibiotic-resistant microbes, to the point that
we’re running out of “last line” drugs to fight even the most resist-
ant bacteria.
Asthepassageabovesuggests,inordertoeradicatebacteriacompletelyitwouldre-
quireextraordinarylengthsandeventhentheideaofbeingfreefrommicroorgan-
ismsisfaulty,becausetheynotonlyliveoutsideus,butalsowithinus.Thereisa
properbalancetobemaintained,andkeepingthisbalanceinlifeallowsustolive
andmaintainaconditionwhereinthemicroorganismsare,asitwere,undercontrol.
Imaginewhatourancestorsdidbeforetheinventionofantibacterialsoaps?They
livedwithoutsterilizingtheirenvironment,orotherwisetheywouldnothavebeen
abletothinkofanythingelse.Humanlifeispossibleduetoasymbioticrelationship
betweenbacteriaandthechemicalprocessesofthebody.Withoutthisbalancelife
willnotbepossible.Infact,humanbeingsarenotindividuals.Orrather,eachindi-
vidualisawalking,talkingbundleofmillionsofindividuallivingorganisms.We
arefooledbecauseweonlyseethelargestonewithtwolegsandtwoarms.So,bal-
ance,andnotextremesbetweeneffortstowardshealthandlivingafruitfullifemust
