This is part of the “Germ Theory denialism” movement, which denies the now established, repeatedly proven fact of the existence of microorganisms (and viruses) and that some of them – some bacteria and viruses – cause disease. This crank pseudoscientific position usually includes the claim that Louis Pasteur’s model of infectious diseases was wrong, and that Antoine Béchamp’s model is “correct”. In fact, the origin of this belief (for it cannot be called anything but a belief) is rooted in Béchamp’s empirically disproved theory of pleomorphism.
At the end of the 19th century, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Joseph Lister, and others found that certain diseases are caused by living organisms that attack the body. At that time, viruses were not yet known and people had big problems with viral diseases like rabies and smallpox, but with this therapy (or rather, theories) they were on the right track. French scientist Antoine Béchamp rejected it.
Old pseudoscience
Antoine Béchamp believed that biological fluids are the fundamental units of life and called them microzymes (micro enzymes) that can produce both cells and enzymes and denied that bacteria are the cause of some diseases. A few years after that, viruses will also be discovered, and the denial that bacteria cause disease will be transferred to viruses as well.
Béchamp even proposed a kind of evolution of those microzymes – first they are fluid, then they become bacteria, then fungus.
The theory itself has a long history and was shaped through Galen’s “theory” of miasma – that infectious air causes diseases. Miasma is closely related to the ancient teaching about spontaneous generation that living things can arise from non-living things.
Of course, although this theory is not correct, people noticed a long time ago that diseases can still be transmitted through the air and that polluted air causes health problems, which we can see today in the example of smog. So there was some wisdom in these hypotheses, but they did not explain the cause of infectious diseases.
They were based on what people then were able to understand and to prove. Or another example – fly larvae develop in meat. They did not connect the landing of adult flies on meat that was not protected, but assumed that the larvae develop from the air.
Germ denialism movement: believers in crank
Supporters of this crazy pseudo-scientific and anti-scientific idea, a subgroup of believers in alternative medicine, claim that toxins always cause diseases, and toxins occur either due to exposure to some factor or due to improper nutrition. And then the whole story about detoxification, enemas etc. starts. This group continues to promote Bechamp’s teaching.
It should be understood that this very group often violently pushes the pseudoscientific teaching that many diseases are caused by the development of fungi, because they believe that microzymes evolve into fungi. It is especially widespread among chiropractors, where there is a belief that immunity depends on the alignment of the spine and the ability of the brain to effectively communicate with the body and that the disease has nothing to do with external pathogens. It is also common among vaccine opponents, who use this teaching to argue that vaccines are unnecessary.
In Bechamp’s teaching there is a hint of something that will turn out to be true – that there are “good bacteria” that, under the influence of the environment, can lead to disease – this is precisely the core of what we know about the behavior of our bacterial endosymbionts. Disease can occur if the balance of the microbiome is disturbed.
But it is a completely different situation if the organism is infected with pathogens such as bacteria that cause plague, tuberculosis, typhoid, pneumonia, whooping cough or the measles virus, SARS-CoV-2, smallpox. These are not natural constituents of our organism, like, eg. Escherichia coli. So, the context of the microbiome and infectious diseases are not the same, so although there is a hint of microbiome science in Bechamp’s theory, this is not a reason to put this thinking on the same level as recognized and proven scientific theories. It is a historical backlog, an incorrect explanation, an atavism, which has grown into a pseudoscience. Not a single scientist of repute today rejects the germ theory and the existence of microorganisms.
Autor: Jelena Kalinić, MA, biolog, naučna novinarka Društvo za promociju Prirodnih nauka “Nauka i svijet”, Dobitnica EurekaAlert (AAAS) Felowship 2020. za naučne novinare. Short-runner, drugo mjesto u izboru za European Science journalist of the year za 2022. godinu. Internews Health ambassador 2022.
