An understanding of the ‘brick effect’ is central to an understanding of how and why our health breaks down. The brick effect holds that a given disease syndrome results from the cumulative effects of a number of less potent factors rather than one principal factor and that where a principal factor does exist it lacks potency when not augmented by the sum total of the lesser factors.
To explain: If you were to place a brick on someone’s head it would more than likely cause little discomfort. A second brick would probably give a sensation of significant weight and a third would cause some pressure and discomfort. A fourth brick may well cause a headache and the removal of the fourth brick may be all that’s needed to reduce it completely. To blame the fourth brick only for causing the headache is to deny the role played by the other bricks in contributing to the overall weight and pressure needed to produce a headache.
So it is with all other disease processes in the body. Seldom, if ever, is there one cause for one disease. If there was everyone would catch the ‘flu during a ‘flu epidemic. Even injury from motor car accidents which are clearly the result of physical impact-principal cause—can have many lesser contributing factors. A driver may lose concentration behind the wheel and hit another car because he has: (1) been working long hours lately; (2) been skipping meals; (3) not been taking vitamin supplements; (4) been suffering from the ‘flu and is still working; (5) had one or two drinks after work to relax; and (6) missed lunch that day. Any one of these factors alone would not be enough to induce significant lapses in concentration. Added together they can.
Most allergies have their genesis in a genetic predisposition to allergy combined with lowered immune vitality. Lowered immune vitality can result from any of a number of factors—malnutrition being a significant one. Malnutrition itself can result from a number of things—poor diet, skipping meals, crash diets, poor digestion and absorption, to name a few. Poor digestion and absorption can result from a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Hydrochloric acid deficiency can result from vitamin and mineral deficiency; eating on the go (adrenalin); being tired due lo over-work and/or over-exercising; over-eating and eating too quickly. Over-eating can be a result of malabsorption-induced hunger. Eating too quickly can result from over-commitment, which can result from dire approval seeking (inappropriate attitude). And so it goes clown the line, each contributing factor being a brick which is singularly not enough, to reduce immune vitality.
Because so many component factors make up a disease syndrome, the afflicted person must be viewed as a whole and treated as a whole if a cure is to be achieved. Just as any disease condition has a multiplicity of causes its treatment requires a multiplicity of therapeutic modalities. Giving a drug to suppress the symptoms of a given disease is not the answer. Diet and the drinking, breathing, working, exercising, socialising and resting habits must all be taken into account and modified where necessary.
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