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7
Immunity
I have heard many stories from history and traditional peoples about the
use of plants, fire, air, and water to help the body defend itself
physically— and also the reverse. Let’s listen to a few.
Frenchwomen who packed lavender essential oil for the perfume trade
in the seventeenth century didn’t catch typhoid fever, and it soon became
evident that lavender, just by handling it, could protect against the
disease. The French are still known to use a great deal of lavender eau de
cologne. Only twenty years ago, it was often used in place of a bath, with
the name lavender stemming from the French word meaning “to wash.”
When a small band of thieves was captured in France, staggering
under the weight of gold, silver, and jewels they had plundered from the
graves of the rich (many of whom were unlucky victims of a plague, which
often killed off entire villages at a time), they were given a choice— they
could escape the punishment of death if they told how they had avoided
the plague while being continually in such close proximity to the very
infectious dead. They disclosed all! The secret was simple: They collected
a variety of wild thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and lavender, depending on
their availability. They crushed the leaves and rubbed them over the
entire body, releasing the pungent green, oily sap. A daily or twice-daily
treatment had kept them free of the plague. What we now realize
scientifically is that knowing it would work would also have increased
their “happy hormone” output, thereby increasing the body’s own abilities
to defend itself.
Our family home, which was originally medieval, is a cottage in
Norfolk; it had most of its south-facing windows blocked off during a
very virulent plague. Knowing that the plague came from London to the
south, the owners believed that a southerly breeze would surely blow the
disease in through openings as you slept.
Europeans deliberately gave blankets exposed to smallpox to entire
Native American tribes, with dire consequences. Much of the world still
lives in fear that someone will eventually use smallpox as a lethal weapon.
Dirty water carries disease, especially whenever public waterworks break
down— in war, earthquake, political upheaval, or famine. This problem
still accounts for a large proportion of disease and death worldwide.
Today the two major waterborne diseases are typhus and dysentery. The
World Health Organization estimates that 2.1 million people are killed
by these two diseases alone each year, most of the fatalities being children.
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