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OCTOBER -NOVEMBER 1994 The Viral Theory of Disease Causation ~ Initially, the word "virus" meant poison, and the word "virulent" meant poisonous. Today, virus means a submicroscopic entity, and virulent generally means conta gious. Modem medicine has employed the term virus to mean an ultra-minute form of life that infel:ts cells, and which is blamed for causing more and more of our dis eases. According to the popular portrayal of Ithe virus, it is a form of life that parasitises allUfe forms including animal, plant, and saprop'hytic (fungi and bacteria). In de-scriptions of viral disease, viruses are credited with such actions as "injecting tbem_selves", "incubatin-g", "laying in wait", "invading", having an "active stage". "c.om manding", "reactivating". "disguising themselves", "infecting", "conducting sieges" and being "devastating" and "deadly". Conventional medical theory explains that viruses come from dying cells which thcy have infected=the virus "injects" itself into the cell and "commands" it to reproduce itself, and this occurs until the cell explodes from the burden. Viruses are then free to seek out other cells to repeat the process, thereby infecting the organism. Virologists admit. however, that although viruses are distinctive and defrnitely organic in nature, they have no metabolism. cannot be replicated in th-e laboratory, do not possess any characteristics of living things and, in fact, have never been observed alive!! "Live Viruses" Are Always Dead The term "live virus" means only those created from living tissue cultures in vitro (with in the laboratory) since trillions of them result from "live" tissue. But herein lies the point: even though some laboratory cultures are kept alive, there is massive cell turnover in the process, and it is from these dying cells that "viruses" are obtained. They are always dead and inactive because they have no metabolism or life, except being molecules of DNA and Jprotein. Viruses contain nucleic acid and protein but lack enzymes, and carmot support life on their own since they do not even possess the first prerequisites of life. namely mctabolic control mechanisms (and even 'lowly' bacteria have these). Guyton's MediJ::a/ Textbook acknowledges that viruses have no reproductive system, no locomotion, no metabolism, and carmot be reproduced as live entities in vitro. The Mit9chondria Connection Since "viruses" are not alive, they cannot act in any of the ways as ascribed to them by medical authorities except as a functional unit of our nonnal genetic material inside lJle cell's nucleus or the mitochondrian nucleus within the cell. Mitochondria are living organisms~just one of many of the varying organelles (little organs) within each cell of our body. Mitochondria are about the size of bacteria, both of which have their own DNA and! their own metabolism. The mitochondria metabolise glucose into ATP molecules, which is ready-made energy usable when called upon by the body. What do these facts have to do with "viruses" as slich? Everything, as you will see in just a moment. For anyone who has studied cytology (cell stn!cture), the greatest number of life-forms within a cell are the mitochondria-the creators of our energy. Simple single-celled protozoa thave up to a half-million mitochondria within them. Human c.ells have fess-from a few humlred in blood cells, to 30,000 pr morc in our larg er muscle-tissue cells. Since the entire human body contains some 75 to 100 trillion cclls, NEXUS • 35