The NY Times reported on Dec. 7th about the link between pollutants in the air and C*VID-19 deaths. This article struck me as one of the few times the mainstream media has alluded to what we call “The Terrain” in our world of viewing patients in the context of the larger environment, as well as the milieu of their own bodies.
As many have been reporting from the holistic blogosphere and as we have advised/aim to teach, C*VID-19 pathology is ALL ABOUT THE TERRAIN.
Simply put, if you have the right combination of dysfunctional patterns in your body that create illness, you are at risk for developing a more severe acute illness as you process the genetic material that is a virus. For example, if you have been exposed to toxicants, have a broken nutritional status, as well as poor capacity to process the toxins because basic biologic functions are disrupted. It is phenomena like this that puts you at risk to develop more severe symptoms with any acute illness. Viruses are in themselves, a minuscule and essentially irrelevant player in this process, as the virus does not determine degree or severity of the symptoms, but rather the status of all of the above does. Still, people ask, ‘How do I protect myself?” Dr. Chris Masterjohn clarified this question, blogging on the research about Vitamin D, which eliminates risk for ICU hospitalizations for C*VID-19 on Dec. 7th**
Viewed in this larger context, we can make sense of one of our naturopathic colleague’s report of disparate test results and symptoms-a phenomenon I suspect we have all observed nine months into this fiasco. This doctor, having coordinated the testing of over 400 people, and found extreme variability in symptoms and manifested disease derived from their C*VID-19 diagnoses. To elucidate, a few patients were asymptomatic. A few had fatigue. One had sinus pressure and sweating. Another few reported headaches and some gastrointestinal symptoms. Some just felt poorly. Out of all of the tests she coordinated, under twenty were positive. There was a new mom who had double pneumonia and C*VID-19. She tested positive after giving birth, and then her vitals required repeated testing. Her baby tested negative. She was positive, negative, then positive again later on. Another patient had every single clinical sign of C*VID-19 including signs of “ground glass” in the lungs on CT and had spent time in the hospital but tested negative all four times.
I share this with you to help you understand that there need not be confusion about the unreliability of testing – it’s ALL about the terrain. It is your nutritional status, your Vitamin D status, your toxicant exposure, your thoughts, your fear of the virus (which Steine also wrote about extensively, and who has proved him otherwise!?), your microbiome, your immune system and your epigenetics – all coalescing to determine your health.
Be it C*VID-19, Cancer or Schizophrenia – all of these things must come into the purview of an assessment to allow each person to be a whole, unique, and vital being. Options’ success over the past twenty one years has been to work on this concept-moving away from Germ theory and toward the inherent capacity for strength & health of the individual.
