A pathetic pile of misery
While thinking about this column on health, I saw a short clip from a theater show by American comedian philosopher George Carlin from the 1990s. The brilliant Carlin warned back then about the consequences of the collective fear of contamination. He wondered aloud where the fear of bacteria and viruses came from. Even then, the media were constantly reporting on possible diseases and epidemics. Salmonella, Q fever, E-Coli, avian flu et cetera. The result? That people go to the ridiculous in their fear of bacteria. Feverish hand washing, excessive use of cleaning products, food that is cooked through. Even an injection point on the arm of someone facing the death penalty is disinfected with alcohol beforehand, jokes the cabaret artist. Then he wonders where the immune system went. In his youth in the 1940s in New York, he swam with his friends in the then already polluted Hudson River. In those days there was a great fear of polio. “Thousands of kids got that disease, but we didn’t. Our immune system was boosted by swimming in a polluted river,” Carlin said.
In shorts on Kilimanjaro
George Carlin has a point. Over the past 80 years, the immune system has been reduced to a shadow of what it once must have been. The collective fear of contamination, the deterioration of our food, the vaccinations against no less than eleven diseases that we get at an early age and the comfort in which we live have reduced our immune system from a powerful and efficient army to a pathetic heap of misery. And
what happens when a stronger virus is released into the world? Right, then everyone gets sick. Like now with the coronavirus. It is not a new virus, as we know from a report by De Telegraaf in 1989. The new thing about this virus is that our immune system can’t take it anymore. When in fact it is so easy to boost your immune system. For example by cold training according to the Wim Hof method. I spent a year with Wim in 2014 and stood on Kilimanjaro in shorts in a wind chill of -20 degrees. Since then, Wim has successfully conducted a number of scientific studies that have demonstrated the effectiveness of his method. Recently, physician and scientist Geert Buijze conducted a study on the effects of cold showering with 3000 participants. What did it turn out to be? One minute cold shower
per day reduced absenteeism by as much as 25%. Ice baths, cold showers and deep breathing techniques are scientifically proven immune system boosters. Also think about de-toxifying the vaccinations you once received by means of homeopathic remedies. Also think about nutrition. Not eating compound foods and minimizing white sugar. And of course the right supplements. Think meditation, yoga and other methods that are scientifically proven to optimize the immune system. It’s not that complicated. You just have to do something for it!
"For the past 80 years the immune system to a shadow reduced to compared to what it once was Must have been.
Swimming in natural water
But perhaps the most important thing is to expose yourself to bacteria as Carlin did in his youth. You really don’t need to wash your hands that often. Just stop using all that chlorine and other cleaning products in such huge quantities. If food falls on the floor, pick it up and eat it anyway. And swimming in natural water is also a must. The latter has two advantages as winter approaches. You’re exposing yourself to germs and you’re doing cold workouts. Now I really don’t want to talk you into the hospital and you understand that the above requires a phased approach. Also, not all people are able to go along with this. But imagine if 80% of the Dutch population were to do their best to regain an optimal functioning immune system. Also the elderly and people with illnesses. Then viruses like Covid-19 would hardly have a chance and we could save ourselves a lot of misery in the coming years.