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This sort of answer stems from the germ theory of disease, which states that specific diseases are caused by specific disease-causing agents. For example, the flu is caused by the flu virus, tuberculosis is caused by the tuberculosis bacteria, malaria is caused by the malaria parasite, and so on.
Pneumonia does not really fit into this theory, since it has so many possible causes. It is not a case of one type of "germ" causing one type of disease.
Medical literature even talks about an idiopathic cause. It actually means "unknown". But doctor's won't admit that they don't know, would they? So they invent a fanciful word to sound as if they know.
They also invent different names for different types of pneumonia. So they tell you that viral pneumonia is caused by virus, bacterial pneumonia is caused by bacteria, fungal pneumonia is caused by fungi, and so on. Never mind if all these different types of pneumonia are basically the same. They all have the same symptoms and victims all suffer in the same way -- they have difficulty breathing, fluids accumulate in their lungs, they feel very weak overall.
How helpful is such an answer? If you are told that what causes pneumonia could be whole long list of known and unknown factors, how is this information going to help you protect yourself?
Rather than cling to the germ theory of disease, it is more useful to look at what causes pneumonia from a different angle, in terms of what factors bring about this condition. In other words, what factors make a person succumb to virus, bacteria and the various other causes.
From that perspective, the causes of pneumonia become obvious -- it is the inability of the body's immune system to fight the many "disease causing agents". So now we ask: What causes the immune system to weaken.
Poor health is what causes of pneumonia
This leads us to two answers.The first is poor health. Seldom do we hear about normal, healthy people who suddenly develop pneumonia and then die. There could well be isolated cases. But more often than not, people who get pneumonia are those already ill from some other disease to begin with, such as the flu, Aids, or cancer. They develop pneumonia as a "complication" of their existing disease.
Or, they had just undergone surgery, in which case pneumonia becomes a "complication" of their surgery.
Pneumonia from medical treatment
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Indigestion drugs Acid-suppressing drugs for acid reflux and heartburn significantly increase the risks of pneumonia, reports The Journal of American Medical Association (Oct 27, 2004;292). In a study of 364,683 subjects, of whom 5,551 had pneumonia for the first time, researchers found that the incidence of pneumonia in those who took drugs for acid-reflux and heartbuarn was 2.45 out of every 100 people a year. Among those who did not take such drugs, the incidence was just 0.6 per 100. Also, within medical records of some 500,000 patients, researchers found that those using drugs to treat heartburn and indigestion were four times more likely to have pneumonia than non-users. |
Medical treatment has nothing to do with it. If at all, isn't medical treatment supposed to help them avoid or recover from pneumonia?
Think again... Many different types of drugs -- from common antibiotics and painkillers to powerful drugs used in chemotherapy treatment -- suppress the immune system.
Could this be also what causes pneumonia? While they may not directly cause pneunomia, by supressing immunity they create the conditions for pneunomia to strike.
The website WrongDiagnosis.com has a "partial" list of 45 medications and substances whose side effects include pneumonia.
One highly recognisable name in the list is Tamiflu, the drug most widely used to treat the flu.
More information comes from the drug information portal, www.DrugLib.com, which publishes details of 90 cases of death where the suspected cause of death was Tamiflu. Seven of the 90 cases were due to pneumonia. Most of these reports come from Japan, where Tamiflu is much more widely prescribed than in other countries.
This is ironical because Tamiflu is supposed to treat the flu. Yet it is one of the possible causes of pneumonia, which is a complication of the flu that can result in death.
Still on the subject of medical treatment being one of the causes of pneumonia, there is in fact a medical term for it: hospital-acquired pneumonia. The Medical Encyclopedia writes...
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Hospital-acquired pneumonia tends to be more serious, because a patient's defense mechanisms against infection are often impaired during a hospital stay. In addition, the types of germs present in a hospital are often more dangerous than those encountered in the community. Hospital-acquired pneumonia occurs more often in patients who require a respirator (also called a breathing machine or ventilator) to help them breathe. When pneumonia occurs in a patient who is on a ventilator, it is known as ventilator-associated pneumonia. |
So even the medical establishment acknowledges that what causes pneumonia could include a hospital stay -- and this form of pneumonia tends to be more dangerous!
What causes pneumonia? Suppression of symptoms
Whilst drug side effects are unintended and might only affect a small percentage of people, the very approach of modern medical treatment may also be what causes pneumonia.The strategy of modern medical treatment is primarily one of reducing or suppressing symptons. In the case of the flu, this involves suppressing symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, etc.
In general, suppressing the symptoms of disease will lower the body's immune response, since the body is "tricked" into believing that it is not so sick after all. And lowering immune response will naturally make the person more susceptible to diseases like pneumonia.
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How high is high fever?
Normal body temperature is about 37.0 deg C / 98.6 deg F. We are told we might have the flu if our temperature goes above 38.0 deg C / 100.4 deg F. A fever starts to become dangerous only after it exceeds 39.0 deg C / 102.2 deg F. Above 41.0 deg C / 105 deg F, death will likely occur. |
According to some reports, viruses that replicate or "reproduce" themselves in our cells cannot leave the cells and spread to other parts of the body when the body temperature is around 39.0 deg C / 102.2 deg F.
By suppressing a fever, we actually create the conditions for viruses to replicate and spread throughout the body. And when the viruses attack the lungs, pneumonic develops.
A tricky balancing act is needed here, because 39.0 deg C / 102.2 deg F is also the borderline temperature beyond which a fever might become dangerous, causing problems like dehydration and even brain damage.
So we should not let the fever rise too high. But pushing the temperature down with the help of drugs is not a good strategy either. It could contribute to pneumonia.
What causes pneumonia - the bottom line
In conclusion, we see that what causes pneumonia is a lot more complex than the theory about viruses and bacteria. If we go by the germ theory of disease, catching pneumonia is more a matter of "chance" -- if we are unlucky enough to come into contact with the virus, bacteria, fungi, protozoa or unknown causes that "cause" penumonia, then too bad, we might die from the disease.
In real life, this seldom happens. Although it is classified as an infectious disease, pneumonia is very unlikely to be contagious. It is almost impossible to "catch" pneumonia from someone who is already infected, unless you are also weak from illness or have a suppressed immune system, perhaps due to taking medical drugs.
If we examine the issue deeper, we find that medical treatment and drugs are, in fact, what causes pneumonia. Yet the medical establishment has a way of brushing this aside and not taking responsibility for it, by describing the situation as being due to "complications".
Click here for an ariticle on what causes pneumonia and why pneumonia is more a condition of the body than an infectious disease.