It is probably of no surprise to anyone who has read my blog entries, I am a proponent of vaccines.\u00a0 They give the most bang for the infection prevention buck, and many of the childhood illnesses covered by the vaccine are now so rare that many physicians, even in Infectious Diseases, have never taken care of cases of measles or mumps or German measles, etc.\u00a0 It is\u00a0 a remarkable triumph of modern medicine.\u00a0 Of course, the decline of infectious diseases is always multifactorial: good nutrition, understanding of diseases epidemiology, and good hygiene all have contributed to the decline of many diseases, vaccine preventable or not,\u00a0 The application of science has resulted in an almost inconceivable decline in contagions that have killed and injured millions.<\/p>\n
It is always better to prevent an illness than to have to treat it.\u00a0 An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.\u00a0 Even those who erroneously believe that standard vaccines are not effective and\/or dangerous understand that it is better to prevent illness with some sort vaccine.\u00a0 But rather than use an effective vaccine, they choose, instead, other options.\u00a0 Like homeopathic vaccines.<\/span><\/p>\n Vaccines offer a small, fixed amount of a pathogen (antigen)\u00a0 to the immune system.\u00a0 A touch of\u00a0 bacterial carbohydrate here, a smidgen of viral protein there.\u00a0 Something that the immune system can recognize and respond to, so that when the patient is exposed to the real infection, with its relatively massive amounts of antigen, the immune system is prepared and can react immediately to minimize the damage, rather than the usual delay it takes before immunity kicks in.\u00a0 You know, like FEMA and New Orleans.\u00a0 Or maybe not.\u00a0 Perhaps my metaphorableness is lacking today.<\/p>\n There has to be something there, a real molecule of some sort, for the immune system to recognize and respond to. There is a threshold below which foreign material will not be recognized.\u00a0 Tetanus is an interesting example.\u00a0 An\u00a0 impressively awful disease in those suffering from it, with every muscle contracting due to the tetanus toxin.\u00a0 But interestingly, there is sometimes not enough toxin causing the disease to result in\u00a0 an immune response, and those who get tetanus still need the vaccine after they recover to prevent recurrence.<\/p>\n Homeopathy is the art of giving absolutely nothing and believing that it is something. Kind of like election year promises.\u00a0 A reader sent me an article on homeopathic vaccinations, which is one of the more bizarro concepts I have yet to discover in my wanderings in SCAMs.\u00a0 I sometimes feel like someone is pulling an elaborate prank on me.<\/p>\n The first ‘law’ behind vaccines and homeopathy is the same: like cures like. Vaccines are the only medical validation of the first\u00a0 ‘law’ of homeopathy of which I am aware.\u00a0 It is the second ‘law’ of homeopathy where medicine, and reality, part company with homeopathy, the ‘law’ of dilutions.\u00a0 Where vaccines are given with a well characterized concentration of antigen, homeopathic nostrums are often diluted long past the point where anything remains behind.\u00a0 If a homeopathic nostrum is\u00a0 20X, then there is no longer even a molecule of the original substance in the mixture.\u00a0\u00a0 Which can be a good thing, since homeopaths\u00a0 use nosodes as their vehicle for imaginary vaccination.<\/p>\n A\u00a0 nosode “is a homeopathic remedy prepared from a pathological specimen. The specimen is taken from a diseased animal or person and may consist of saliva, pus, urine, blood, or diseased tissue.”<\/p>\n And people complain about the alleged toxins in real vaccines.<\/p>\n Nosodes are cargo cult medicine at its finest. The trappings of real medicine with none of the efficacy. Thank goodness they are diluted to the point of nothingness.\u00a0 At least with serial dilutions, HIV, Hepatitis B and C are unlikely to be\u00a0 spread from injecting the patient with concoctions derived from various and sundry body fluids.\u00a0 At least we left the techniques of Jenner behind with modern medicine.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately nosodes are used primarily in veterinary homeopathy.<\/p>\n One can purchase<\/a> nosodes for human use for everything from Anthrax to Variola (smallpox) at either 30 or 200 dilution.\u00a0 In a rare burst of honesty, one site notes<\/p>\n There are no whole molecules of the actual substance in 30C potency” and another notes “(homeopathic vaccines) do not contain Thimerosal, Aluminum, Borax (used to kill ants) and other chemical elements. Also in the studies that have been able to proceed, no child has had a any severe side effects from the homeopathic vaccines given.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Since they contain nothing, it would seem unlikely that they could have any side effects at all.<\/p>\n And they have a nosode for smallpox?\u00a0 It is supposedly derived from the ripened pustule of a smallpox patient and I have to wonder about their source.\u00a0 There has been no smallpox in the world since the mid 1970′s,\u00a0 either they have a stock of smallpox that they feed like sourdough starter or they are not really selling the real deal.\u00a0 Although even Twinkies have expiration dates, I guess the ‘energy’ in homeopathic remedies lasts for decades, with the smallpox nostrums maintaining their potency through the ages.<\/p>\n Are there any studies or case reports\u00a0 to support the use of nosodes? As best I can discover there are two clinical trials in animals of nosodes: one in calves<\/a> that did not show benefit and one in mice<\/a> that did, and both are in journals too obscure for my library to have subscriptions. There are two cases<\/a> of fatal polio after receiving homeopathic vaccinations. That is it in Pubmed.\u00a0 Not a convincing literature for effectiveness.<\/p>\n One site<\/a> does recognize that homeopathic vaccinations do not work like standard vaccines: by leading to the development of antibodies<\/p>\n Homeopathic preparations have not been shown to raise antibody levels. Smits tested the titre of antibodies to diphtheria, polio and tetanus in ten children before and one month after giving homeopathic preparations of these three vaccines (DTPol 30K and 200K). He found no rise in antibody levels (Smits, 1995). He speculates that protection afforded by a homeopathic remedy acts on a “deeper” level than that of antibodies. Other homeopaths have stated similar opinions. Golden says, “unlike conventional vaccines, the Homeopathic alternative does not rely on antibody formation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Of interest, homeopaths argue<\/a> the validity of the homeopathic vaccinations, since their nostrums are classically supposed to be effective only after symptoms have occurred.\u00a0 It does make for a curious reading, one group of nonsense arguing that another group of nonsense is, well, nonsense.<\/p>\n The sad thing is parents will be fooled into thinking that their children are protected from infectious diseases, when, in fact, they are not.\u00a0 Vaccines do not provide perfect protection; neither do seat belts.\u00a0 But a vaccine is superior to the nothing of homeopathy and I would bet that parents would not rely on a child car restraint made by the same process as homeopathy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is probably of no surprise to anyone who has read my blog entries, I am a proponent of vaccines.\u00a0 They give the most bang for the infection prevention buck, and many of the childhood illnesses covered by the vaccine … Continue reading \n
\n