Questions Regarding Health in Light of Spiritual Science

It is certainly emphasized by some—again not entirely without justification, but also only with one-sided justification—how this conventional medicine has actually caused a fear of bacteria and germs. But on the other hand, research has led to an improvement in health conditions over the last few decades. Proponents of this approach proudly point out the percentage by which mortality has actually decreased in various areas over the last few decades. However, those who say that it is not so much external causes that are important when considering illness, but rather the causes that lie within the individual, so to speak their predisposition to illness, their sensible or unreasonable lifestyle, will again emphasize that, although mortality rates have undeniably decreased in recent times, the incidence of disease has increased alarmingly. They emphasize how certain forms of disease have increased: heart disease, cancer, forms of disease that are not even recorded in the writings of earlier times, diseases of the digestive organs, and so on. The reasons put forward by one side or the other are certainly noteworthy. From a superficial point of view, it cannot be argued that germs or bacteria are not pathogens of the most terrible kind. On the other hand, however, it cannot be denied that, in a certain respect, human beings are either strengthened and protected against the influence of such pathogens or they are not. They are not if they have deprived themselves of their resistance through an unreasonable lifestyle.