Homeopathic Protection Against Epidemic Diseases

(Homeoprophylaxis)

Part B

(The protective use of homeopathy against disease symptoms is called homeoprophylaxis (pronounced, ho-me-oh-prof-il-ax-is) - a somewhat long name and quite a mouthful. For the purposes of this article it will be shortened to HP.)

Homeopathy has a 200 year-old-history of being used by homeopaths and informed medical practitioners to safely protect people and populations against some of the world's worst epidemic diseases. It has also had a high success rate in doing so.

Last month, Part A of this article looked at two large-scale and recent studies in which Homeoprophylaxis (HP) protected against Meningococcal disease. This month, Part B will:

1. Consider other instances in which HP has been used to protect "at risk" populations from the effects of epidemic diseases.
2. Discuss recent Australian research that shows HP to be both safe and effective, and a healthier option for immunisation than vaccination.

In the Beginning

The first documented use of HP was by the founder of Homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, during an epidemic of Scarlet Fever in 1801. While using homeopathic Belladonna to treat patients already infected, he made an interesting observation. Those who chose to take the remedy before catching the disease, remained uninfected and healthy in spite of coming into contact with it.

This startling observation led to Hahnemann and other Homeopaths exploring the use of Homeopathy to prevent as well as treat epidemic diseases, usually with marked success. Homeoprophylaxis (HP) was born.

HP in Action

For the past 200 years, Homeopaths and medical doctors aware of HP have used it around the world to provide short and long-term protection against diseases such as: Poliomyelitis; Chicken-pox; Hepatitis (all types); Japanese Encephalitis; Hib; Influenza; Measles; Pneumococcal disease; Cholera; Smallpox; Meningococcal disease; Typhoid; Typhus; Whooping cough; Rubella (German measles); Mumps; Diphtheria; Malaria; Yellow Fever; and, Dysentery. Quite a list!

For example:

• During a Poliomyelitis epidemic in Buenos Aires, practitioners (Homeopaths and Doctors) distributed the HP remedy, Lathyrus sativus, to over 40,000 people. Not one of them went on to develop Polio during the epidemic.


• Only 6.5 per cent of people contracted influenza when given a homeopathic preventative, compared to 20 per cent of those who had not received the HP. Those who did contract the 'flu following HP recovered more quickly and lost significantly less working hours than others infected (this confirms the repeated experience of practitioners through history that contagious diseases tend to be more mild if contracted in HP groups).


• The Indian government and Public Health Centres recently distributed homeopathic Belladonna for prevention during an epidemic of Japanese Encephalitis and achieved a rapid decline in fatalities.


• Records from a Smallpox epidemic show that out of 2806 protected by the HP remedy, there was a 97.5% efficacy in 547 cases that had a known exposure to the disease.


• Nurses and patients from the London Homeopathic Hospital were protected by HP with perfect success during a 3 year period in which they were regularly exposed to Diphtheria.


• Children, prior to vaccines being available, escaped the disease of Whooping Cough if they were protected by HP.

You may already have read in Part A of this article how Meningococcinum was able to protect against Meningococcal disease in two Brazilian epidemics. Take the time to read further about the above examples, and other accounts and studies on the effectiveness of HP.

Animals as Well

HP is just as effective in protecting animals against many of their epidemic and infectious diseases. Studies and accounts of Veterinarians and Homeopaths using HP for diseases such as: Kennel Cough, Parvovirus, Heart Worm, and Distemper in dogs; and, Panleukapenia in cats, make interesting reading. HP has even been shown to protect against porcine (pig) stillbirths and mastitis (udder infection) in cows.

British HP studies for bovine (cow) mastitis have had a huge impact. Today, the majority of Britain's dairy herd farmers incorporate HP into their farming practises on purely economic grounds. Sick cows and veterinary treatments cost money and erode profits. HP stops this. Increasingly, Australian dairy farmers are doing the same as they too become aware of the benefits of HP.

Ground-Breaking Aussie Research

The largest study ever undertaken anywhere in the world on the long-term health effects of HP was completed by Dr Isaac Golden at Melbourne's Swinburne University in 2004. His doctoral research¹ analysed 2,304 responses from 1,159 children, each response covering one year of a child's life. For some children, multiple years were analysed. The study showed that:

• HP had a 90.4% efficacy against epidemic childhood diseases - a rate comparable to that of conventional vaccines.
• HP remedies were non-toxic and safe - free of the side-effects or damage listed for vaccines.

A second study followed the incidence of chronic disease that arose in 781 children between 4 - 12 years of age. This study placed the children into one of four groups according to the choice of immunisation made on their behalf. The children had been either:

1. Protected only by conventional vaccines
2. Protected only by HP
3. Protected by a mix of "constitutional" measures from alternative therapists such as naturopaths, osteopaths, and chiropractors, as well as homeopathic constitutional treatment (but not HP)
4. Protected by nothing at all

Some parents used protective measures for their children from more than one of the above groups.

The incidence within the children of the following chronic diseases were measured and sorted according to the method of immunisation used.

1. Asthma
2. Eczema
3. Ear and hearing problems
4. Allergies
5. Behavioural problems

What it Showed

The results verified what has been seen in clinical practice for decades. The group that fared the worst in the health stakes was the fully vaccinated group - so much so that children from this group, for instance, were 15 times more likely to suffer from asthma. Unsettling as the thought may be, children exposed to vaccines unfortunately seem to generally have more health problems than those not vaccinated. The Golden research, the first of its kind in examining the long-term health impact of immunisation choices, confirms this and what Homeopaths and other therapists have been saying for a long time - a problem exists. One has to wonder, when children are being mass medicated with vaccines, why this sort of study had not been done previously, and who will fund and undertake further ones.

The group with the fewest chronic health problems was the one that had received the homeopathic immunisation (HP). They had less asthma, eczema, allergies, and behavioural problems. An unexpected surprise for the researcher was that this group was even healthier than the constitutionally protected children where "natural" and preventative measures had been taken in an attempt to raise the children's health to optimal levels. This encouraging result from the HP group is certainly consistent with homeopathic philosophy that has always understood that a subtle, dynamic challenge of a homeopathic potency to the immune system has a strengthening effect that makes the individual less susceptible to subsequent disease.

Research Findings

To quantify the results even further, the following conclusions were drawn from the research:

1. Immunisation by HP only, was associated with a lower than average chance of acquiring asthma or eczema and less risk of developing allergies.
2. The incidence of asthma (3%) in children who were immunised only by HP was well below the national average of 19%.
3. The incidence of behavioural problems in children immunised by HP was extremely low compared to the other methods of immunisation.
4. In relation to asthma, immunising a child with HP alone was 15 times safer than immunising by vaccines, and 6 times safer than doing nothing for immunisation.
5. In relation to eczema, immunising only with HP was 7.4 times safer than immunising with vaccines and 2.8 times safer than doing nothing about immunisation.
6. In relation to allergies, immunising only with HP was 5 times safer than by vaccines and 2 times safer than no method of immunisation.

Summary of the HP Benefits

To repeat the concluding points from Part A

1. HP is extremely safe. Because homeopathy is an energetic system of medicine that prescribes potentised doses of ultra-high dilutions, - poisonings, addictions, and other damaging side-effects are non-existent. Chemical interactions with other medications do not occur. Homeopathy does not harm.
2. HP provides protection against diseases for which no vaccine exists. This has already been discussed in Part A concerning the 'B' strain Meningococcal disease.
3. HP can protect when vaccines may not be suitable, e.g. those who have already had an adverse vaccine reaction; the malnourished; the sick and debilitated; the immune-compromised; the pregnant; those allergic to vaccine materials; and, those on steroids. HP can be safely given to all these groups.
4. No method of immunisation gives 100% protection but recent Australian research has shown that homeopathy, for childhood communicable diseases is able to provide 90.4% protection. This figure is consistent with results from overseas studies on other epidemic diseases and compares favourably with the 75-95% protection rates offered by vaccines.
5. HP is inexpensive. For example, I provide HP for a range of childhood epidemic diseases to my patients at the cost of a $95 consultation fee. HP can be provided bulk to third world countries at a fraction of this cost - less than ten cents per person. This is a boon for poorer countries where the cost of vaccines places them out of reach for most of the population.
6. HP is easily distributed and dispensed. One dose usually consists of a small medicated sugar pilule that is dissolved in the mouth - well-liked by the young and not so young. It does not use needles and syringes, require refrigeration, or depend on teams of trained health workers to dispense it. Homeopathy is truly a medicine of the people.
7. Homeopathic remedies are prepared from naturally occurring substances. Because of this, they cannot be patented, meaning that their production and distribution cannot be restricted or controlled by corporations for profit or political gain. Perhaps this is why there is usually vigorous opposition when HP is discussed in the public arena and why so few people are informed about it - vested interests have a lot to lose.

* Part C of this article will follow next month. The use of Homeopathy for both the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases will be revisited. The homeopathic treatment of vaccine side-effects will again be explained and consideration will be given as to why Homeopathy has not been more widely promoted as a viable option for disease treatment and prevention.

1 Golden, I. (2004) Homoeoprophylaxis - A Fifteen Year Clinical Study (A Statistical Review of the Efficacy and Safety of Long-Term Homoeoprophylaxis) Daylesford: Aurum Pty Ltd.