BY ROGER WATSON

Nonsense has a new name, and it is ‘terrain theory’. Never heard of it? Read on and you will not be able to say that again. Terrain theory is aptly described by Wikipedia as an ‘obsolete variation’ of ‘germ theory denialism’. Obsolete it may be, but it has not expired.

To understand what germ theory denialism is, you need to understand what germ theory itself is. For that, you need to visit the mid to late Victorian era before germ theory explained what infections really were. Until that time, starting in the 1860s, the predominant theory of infection was the theory of spontaneous generation proposed originally by Aristotle to explain observations, for example, that worms appeared in the earth and limpets appeared on rocks by assuming that these non-living materials could give rise to living organisms. The theory was later extended to how rubbish heaps gave rise to rats, dung heaps gave rise to flies, how food went bad, and wounds became infected.

Despite the fact that the theory of spontaneous generation was administered the coup de grâce in the 1860s, it had adherents up to the start of the last century and a leading proponent was Florence Nightingale who believed that infections arose from foul smelling miasmas. Although she got a lot right with her methods, it was for the wrong reasons. The theory of spontaneous generation was disproved by Louis Pasteur in his famous swan neck flask experiment whereby he showed unequivocally that a sterile broth did not become spoiled when left open to the air but protected from particles in it by the shape of the neck of the flask. However, if he tipped the flask up and allowed the particles to enter the broth it became spoiled. At around the same time Robert Koch established that a series of diseases such as TB and anthrax were caused by bacteria.

The current adherents to terrain theory do not, strictly speaking, adhere to the theory of spontaneous generation. I am sure that even they understand how rats appear in refuse heaps and flies appear on dung heaps (although I have not, in fact, confirmed this); nevertheless, they are germ theory deniers. They do not believe that infections arise from outside the body—meaning they do not believe in the spread of infections between people—they believe that bacterial and fungal infections arise when the body, ie the ‘terrain’, is in poor condition. As for viral infections, these are not real as according to the terrain theorists, viruses do not exist. Therefore, the ‘friendly’ microbes (‘commensals’) that inhabit our body, exterior and interior environments turn on us when there is some imbalance in our body. As for viruses, these are the breakdown products and fragments of human and microbial tissues when the body is sick.

Most of this is scientific nonsense. I say ‘most of this’ advisedly because, like most illusions, there is sufficient verisimilitude in their arguments to mislead the unwary. In the fields of biology and medicine, it is already known that we live in harmony with a myriad of microbes and that these are generally harmless until the condition of the body is compromised nutritionally or immunologically or if the balance of our commensals is upset, for example, by chemotherapy treatment for cancer or by taking a course of antibiotics. But we do not live in harmony with disease causing microbes (pathogens); these are acquired such as those causing anthrax and cholera or can spread from person to person such as the bacterium responsible for TB.

Of course, in the face of overwhelming evidence against their beliefs the terrain theorists complete the picture by demonising Pasteur and Koch and rubbishing the whole field of epidemiology, as they do in one of the canons of their creed Virus Mania. Consequently, they ignore modern medicine and especially the use of allopathy: the use of modern drugs to treat disease. Thus, they eschew antibiotics and vaccines and, again, use verisimilitude to mislead the unwary. We know that the widespread and indiscriminate use of antibiotics has been disastrous in terms of leading to resistant variants of bacteria and, more than ever in the wake of the Covid-19 vaccines, we are aware of the potential harms of vaccines. These things are not news. But the terrain theorists and doctors who adhere to this do not use or prescribe antibiotics and, needless to say, they are ‘anti-vaxxers’.

While modern medicine will acknowledge some of the truths contained in their theories, their approach is uncompromisingly all or nothing regarding acceptance of their beliefs and rejection of modern medicine. They also point to the excesses of Big Pharma, as if this had not already been done from within modern medicine by brave people such as Ben Goldacre author of Bad Science and Bad Pharma. But Goldacre’s approach is, while calling out the miscreants, to suggest improvements in conducting science and drug testing as in his effective AllTrials campaign for proper registration and regulation of clinical trials.

I do not doubt the sincerity of their beliefs, but you do not have to dig very deep to discover that the terrain theorists are not detached from the potential to profit from their theories. Thus, by exploring a few websites you will see that they have goods to sell such as books, diets, access to podcasts and invitations for public speaking. They also sell bogus diagnostic methods such as ‘digital photoplethysmography’ and ludicrous dietary supplements such as ‘liposomal bovine colostrum’ (milk!). My guess is that it is OK to introduce something into your body provided you have bought it from a terrain theorist. I call them terrorists because to challenge them, as I will undoubtedly find out again once this article is published, is to invite ridicule, disclosure of private comments, personal attacks by sockpuppets, questions about the state of your mental health and even the threat of non-materialising legal challenges to frighten you into silence. As a firm believer in free speech, I would never dream of trying to silence them, I disapprove of attempts to cancel them and welcome anything they have to say. But I will not be silenced.

Roger Watson is a Registered Nurse and Editor-in-Chief of Nurse Education in Practice.