Nevertheless, the fact that large numbers of people experience some form of illness during their lives raises some fundamental questions, not least of which is: why does it occur? In other words, what really makes people ill?

The usual responses to such questions refer to two interrelated ideas, both of which are widely believed to be fundamental truths. The first of these ideas is that illness occurs because a person has contracted a disease of some description. The second is that each disease is a distinct entity that can be identified by the unique symptoms it produces within the body. This book will also demonstrate that these ideas are not truths.

The conventional approach to illness adopted by virtually all systems of ‘healthcare’ is one that employs remedies, or ‘medicines’, that are claimed to alleviate or bring an end to a patient’s symptoms. This approach is based on the idea that the cessation of symptoms indicates that the disease has been defeated and that this successful outcome has been accomplished solely by the ‘medicine’. However, despite their common approach, different healthcare systems employ the use of different types of ‘medicine’ in the treatment of human disease; these ‘medicines’ may take the form of natural substances or products derived from natural substances, or they may be in the form of products manufactured from synthetic chemical compounds.

The use of ‘medicine’ to treat human disease is encapsulated by the quote attributed to Voltaire, the nom de plume of François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), that opens this Introduction. However, most people will no doubt consider the 18th century idea that doctors have little or no knowledge about medicines, diseases and the human body to have no relevance to the 21st century. It is highly likely that this viewpoint will be based on the notion that ‘medical science’ has made significant advances in the past three centuries and that 21st century doctors therefore possess a thorough, if not quite complete, knowledge of medicines, diseases and the human body. This book will demonstrate otherwise.

The advances made in the field of ‘medical science’ have been incorporated into the healthcare system known as ‘modern medicine’, which is claimed to be the only system of evidence-based medicine that has a solid foundation in science. The idea that ‘modern medicine’ is the best and most advanced scientific form of healthcare has been used as the justification for its promotion as the only system to be implemented by the governments of all countries around the world.

It is because ‘modern medicine’ is claimed to be the only system capable of delivering genuine healthcare that it forms the main focus of this book. However, as the ensuing discussions will demonstrate, this claim is unfounded. They will also demonstrate that virtually all of the information about disease promulgated by the medical establishment is erroneous and that the reason for this is because it is based on ideas and theories that are fundamentally flawed. The flawed nature of these ideas and theories means that the words of Voltaire remain applicable to the 21st century medical system known as ‘modern medicine’; a system that continues to operate from the basis of a poor level of knowledge about medicines, diseases and the human body.

The term ‘medical establishment’ is used in this book to refer to all of the people, organisations, industries, and academic and research institutions that practise, research, teach, promote and otherwise support the system of modern medicine.

It is a truism that a problem can only be solved if it has been thoroughly understood and its root causes have been correctly identified, because problems only cease to exist when their causes have been removed; a truism that inevitably applies to the problem of illness. Yet illness not only continues to exist, it also continues to worsen for large numbers of people, despite the treatments and preventives employed by ‘modern medicine’.

The logical, and correct, conclusion to be drawn from this is that ‘modern medicine’ has failed to thoroughly understand the nature of the problem and has similarly failed to correctly identify all of the root causes. The consequence of these failures is that the measures employed by the medical establishment are entirely inappropriate as solutions to the problem of disease. Although claimed to treat and prevent disease, these measures, which are usually comprised of pharmaceutical products, do not remove their causes, they therefore cannot solve the problem; but more worryingly, these products invariably exacerbate the problem.

The failings of modern medicine with respect to ‘disease’ are solely due to the flawed nature of the theories on which its practices have been based.

This statement will, no doubt, be regarded by the vast majority of people as highly controversial; but that does not deny its veracity. It is requested that, whilst reading this book, readers bear in mind the following saying that is attributed to the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860),

“All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

In addition to revealing the flawed nature of the ideas and theories of modern medicine, the discussions within this book will explain the real nature and causes of disease and provide readers with information to enable them to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions for the benefit of their own health.

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Doctors are taught at medical school to prescribe medicines for the treatment of a disease that has been identified according to a patient’s symptoms. The discussions in chapter one reveal why medicines do not restore a patient to health and explain the reason that pharmaceutical drugs are harmful rather than beneficial.

Vaccinations are widely believed to be the safest and most effective method of preventing the diseases that are claimed to be caused by ‘infectious agents’. The discussions in chapter two explain the reason that vaccinations are ineffective and dangerous and also reveal that they have no basis in science.

The idea that certain diseases are infectious and caused by ‘pathogenic microorganisms’ owes its origin to the ‘germ theory’. The discussions in chapter three demonstrate that this theory has never been definitively proven; they also reveal that virtually all of the information promulgated about the microorganisms referred to as ‘germs’ is entirely erroneous.

The refutation of the ‘germ theory’ in chapter three raises questions about the real nature and causes of the diseases referred to as ‘infectious’. The discussions in chapter four examine many of the major diseases claimed to be ‘communicable’ to reveal the inherent problems within the explanations presented by the medical establishment; they also provide a number of more credible explanations for their occurrence.

A number of diseases are claimed to be transmitted between animals and humans. The discussions in chapter five examine a number of animal diseases to demonstrate the flawed nature of this claim and provide more credible explanations. This chapter also explains the basic problems with vivisection, which is the use of live animals in experiments conducted for disease research purposes.

Environmental pollution due to ‘harmful substances and influences’ is a far greater and more serious threat to human health than is acknowledged by the scientific community, including the medical establishment. The discussions in chapter six explore the major sources of ‘poisons’, both chemical and electrical in nature, that pollute the environment and refer to some of the main applications of these poisons. This chapter also discusses the use of toxic chemicals as ingredients of a wide variety of everyday products, such as household products, cosmetics and personal-care products, foods and drinks, as well as some lesser-known applications.

The medical establishment admits to not knowing the ‘exact’ causes of most, if not all, chronic health problems, more commonly referred to as noncommunicable diseases. The discussions in chapter seven examine a number of major noncommunicable diseases to expose the existence and extent of these ‘knowledge gaps’; they also examine some of the known causal factors and reveal the existence of an underlying mechanism common to virtually all of them.

Health problems cannot be considered in isolation; they are invariably associated with other circumstances, most of which affect a significant proportion of people throughout the world, especially in countries referred to as ‘developing’. International organisations, especially those within the UN system, claim to be able to resolve all of the problems that confront humanity in the 21st century; but this claim is unfounded. The discussions in chapter eight examine the most recent efforts to implement measures claimed to provide solutions to these problems, with particular emphasis on those that impact human health, whether directly or indirectly, and reveal that these measures are inappropriate as solutions, because they fail to address and thereby remove the real causes of these problems.

The reason that ‘modern medicine’ employs inappropriate solutions to the problem of ‘disease’, despite the unimaginably huge sums of money that have been, and continue to be, expended on the development of medicines and vaccines, is largely due to the influence of ‘vested interests’. The existence and influence of these vested interests over key areas of human life, including the healthcare system operated by the medical establishment, are discussed in chapter nine.

Having revealed the problems with the explanations presented by the medical establishment in the previous chapters, the final chapter explains the real nature of ‘disease’. It also discusses how illness is almost always the result of multiple causes and reveals the existence of a common mechanism. In addition to discussing the problems, chapter ten provides information about how people can reduce their exposures to these causal factors and take responsibility for, and control over, their own health.

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The definition of each ‘disease’, referred to as the ‘establishment definition’, is taken from the 2007 edition of the Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary, unless otherwise stated.

All emphases in quoted statements are as they appear in the original.

All articles and web pages from which extracts have been quoted are listed in the References section at the end of the book, unless the web page has been deleted or the website is no longer active.

The dynamic nature of the internet means that web pages and fact sheets are often updated; the information used in this book was correct at the time of writing.

All quoted extracts from the published books listed in the Bibliography are considered to be consistent with Fair Usage.