Janet Levatin, MD, Holistic Pediatrician
Homeopathy is a wonderful healing tool that has been used since the late 1700s for treating numerous types of acute and chronic illnesses and all types of health disturbances. I have been using homeopathy with great success in my medical practice and with my family for almost 30 years. It has multiple benefits and often has advantages over conventional medicine.
In addition to treating illnesses, infections, and health imbalances, homeopathy has another important use: homeoprophylaxis, or homeopathic prevention. This means using homeopathically prepared substances to help prevent people from developing the symptoms of infections when they are exposed to pathogens (viruses and bacteria).
Vaccination is promoted as a way to avoid contracting specific infections, but many people are turning away from vaccinations for a variety of reasons. Vaccines contain known toxins and they can cause serious side effects. As if that were not enough, they do not work very well to prevent illness. It is well documented that many vaccines fail to perform as intended, including influenza, pertussis, measles, mumps, pneumococcus, Hemophilus influenza B, and chicken pox. More and more doses of these failing products are recommended or in some instances required for children and adults. More and more people are starting to say no, and rightfully so.
Thankfully there are other ways to stay healthy. There are general, non-specific measures as well as infection-specific ways to develop and maintain a healthy immune system.
Nonspecific health-promoting measures
Nonspecific measures are habits and practices that universally promote health in general ways. Here are some of the lifestyle recommendations I suggest to my patients for promoting robust immunity in a general way:
- Eat healthfully. Avoid refined sugars, preservatives, artificial colorings, and the packaged/processed foods that are all too common these days. Focus on fresh vegetables and fruits grown in nutrient-rich soil without toxic pesticides. If you use animal products, be sure they hormone and antibiotic free. Ideally, they should be from pasture-raised, grass-fed animals.
- Avoid chemicals. Obviously it is not possible to completely avoid all chemicals, but do your best to avoid fragranced cleaning and laundry products. For personal care products, choose natural brands that are free of dyes, fragrances, petrolatum, propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, and other industrial chemicals.
- Avoid pharmaceuticals. Do your best to avoid medications such as steroids, antibiotics, and of course, vaccines whenever you can. All of these synthetic chemicals can alter and suppress the immune system. Some drugs can have devastating consequences.
- Use simple supplements regularly. Vitamin D and Vitamin C used regularly will greatly enhance your resistance to illness-producing pathogens. Use immune supporting herbs such as elderberry and Echinacea when exposed to, or experiencing, minor infections.
- Stress reduction. Do your best to avoid unnecessary stress. Be sure to get enough sleep, fresh air, and sunlight. These measures help maintaining a robust immune.
- Breastfeeding for infants cannot be overemphasized. Human breastmilk is the biologically normative food for human infants. There is no adequate substitute. Breastmilk contains innumerable factors that promote healthy immunity, both in general ways and specific ways.
Infection-Specific Protection
Homeoprophylaxis (HP) was developed over 200 years ago as a technique to protect people from experiencing the symptoms of specific infections. It has been successfully used to prevent serious, life-threatening epidemics of scarlet fever (in the pre-antibiotic era), smallpox, leptospirosis, meningococcal disease, and Japanese encephalitis. HP has also been used as a substitute for infant-childhood vaccination programs for more serious infections, including pertussis, pneumococcus, tetanus, and Hemophilus influenza B; and also been used to promote resistance to less serious infections such as measles, mumps, influenza, and chicken pox. Recommendations can be made for adolescents and young adults for infections as strep throat, mononucleosis, and more.
HP has also been used to help travelers avoid waterborne infections such as cholera, polio, and hepatitis A, and mosquito-borne infections such as chikungunya, malaria, and yellow fever.
In modern times HP has been used extensively in infants and school-aged children in Australia, by Dr. Isaac Golden. After analyzing data he collected over many years, he estimated that HP is approximately 90% effective for preventing symptoms of illness, while at the same time being extremely safe.
How Homeoprophylaxis Remedies are Manufactured
Homeopathic remedies can be made from any substance, including plants, minerals, and animal substances, such as venom and milk. Remedies can also be made from bacteria and viruses. When bacteria and viruses are used, the remedies are called nosodes. Most of the remedies used for HP are nosodes. Occasionally other types of remedies are used, such as Belladonna, a plant, for scarlet fever, and Lathyrus, another plant, for poliovirus.
During the manufacturing process, the material being made into a remedy is put through a series of dilutions. After each dilution the solution is vigorously agitated, a process called succussion. After a substance is put through a series of 1-part-per-100 dilutions, it no longer contains the original substance, and thus is completely non-toxic. Homeoprophylaxis remedies are diluted this way 200 or more times. The succussion procedure imparts an energetic frequency to the remedy, which allows it to work in a subtle but profound way on the energy body (also known as the vital force, chi, innate intelligence, and other terms).
Some of the Benefits of HP
Using HP has many benefits to overall health. Here are a few:
- No injections/tissue damage. HP remedies are administered orally. This is much safer than injected vaccines and allows the remedies to be given at home when it is convenient.
- No fear of doctors instilled in children. When children are repeatedly restrained, with no option for “fight or flight,” and injected with toxin-containing vaccines, it can be frightening and can potentially be psychologically damaging. If you look at it from the point of view of a pre-verbal child, for all he knows the vaccine administrator could be trying to kill him. Even more disturbing, the person he is supposed to trust most in life, his parent, may be helping to restrain him. This is not a way to nurture trust in a child! These early painful experiences — starting on day one of life — may even be a contributing factor to the epidemic of violence and psychological problems manifesting in our society today. In stark contrast, HP does not harm a child in any way.
- Cost effectiveness. HP remedies are inexpensive to produce compared to the cost of conventional vaccines.
- No Side effects. While minor reactions may occur while the body’s defense mechanisms interact with HP remedies (this occurs in less than 2% of doses administered), there are no side effects associated with the HP method.
- Confers protection up to 90% of the time. As mentioned above, Dr. Isaac Golden’s research has shown that HP is protective approximately 90% of the time when it comes to preventing the targeted infections.
- Promotes general health. In addition to preventing specific infections, research on HP has shown that it also promotes health in more general ways. Health outcomes of children using a long-term HP program were compared to health outcomes of children using conventional vaccines and those using no specific prevention method. The children using HP were found to have a lower incidence of allergies, asthma, eczema, and behavior problems (see Dr. Isaac Golden’s book The Complete Practitioner’s Manual of Homoeoprophylaxis for details).
HP is an important alternative for the increasing numbers of parents do not want to vaccinate but want to do something to help their children develop immunity against unwanted infections. It is also an option for travelers who wish to avoid toxic travel vaccines.
For more information on the HP programs offered and please contact our center to book an appointment to speak with me about this important program.