Phoenix Homeopathy

Please note that information in this posting  should not be taken as being a replacement for conventional medical advice.

I’ve been inundated with queries about swine flu over the last week, with worried patients asking about vaccinations, nosodes, suggestions for homeopathic help, and ideas for  natural health steps they can take to protect themselves and their families.

Swine flu fear seems to be on the increase, so here’s the latest update from the Phoenix Homeopathy clinic.

The first and most important thing to say is: please don’t panic. At the time of posting, although the virus is unusual in that it’s spreading during warmer summer months, there’s no evidence that the swine flu virus is mutating into a more virulent strain. Homeopaths know that stressors like fear can affect the immune system, so do your best to keep calm, and keep things in perspective. Meanwhile, you can access the latest UK government information and advice here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Swineflu/DG_177831?CID=SFlu&TYPE=sponsoredsearch&CRE=2.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are reported as saying that the virulence of the swine flu is greater than with normal flu, but it’s hard to know what sources to believe. The UK‘s Independent newspaper reported the UK’s Prime Minister as saying today, “Cases of swine flu in the UK have so far proved to be generally mild in most people but they have been severe amongst a small minority, mostly where patients have had underlying health problems”.

Vaccination

Many homeopaths consider that natural immunity is the best defence to most infectious diseases, and there are concerns that vaccination can cause or worsen health problems for some people.

Human trials on swine flu vaccines are apparently underway.

The Independent newspaper reported today that the UK’s vaccine contracts with Baxter and GSK are worth £155.4 million over four years, which gives pause for thought.

As always with conventional medicine, we can’t advise on the wisdom or otherwise of accepting the vaccination when it becomes available, or what the likely chances of suffering side-effects will be.

Prevention – nosodes

There’s no scientific proof that homeopathy can be used to prevent you catching swine flu. However, some people feel that taking a homeopathic ‘nosode’ may be helpful. A nosode is a potentised remedy which is made from massively diluted and succussed - or energised - diseased matter, but it doesn’t contain actual molecules of the crude substance, so is entirely safe to take, even for babies.

From my understanding of homeopathic philosophy, I have some doubts that homeopathic prophylaxis really makes sense, but as we don’t yet know how homeopathy works, it is of course possible that homeopathic nosodes might be helpful alongside the usual conventional preventative advice like frequent handwashing.

At the moment in clinic, we’re constantly being asked for the swine flu homeopathic nosode, so we’ve bought supplies in for those patients who want to take it. The remedy is available to registered Phoenix Homeopathy clinic patients only, to order: it’s called ‘Cold & Flu with Swine Pneumonia 30c’, and is generally taken three times daily on one day of the week for four weeks, then three times daily on one day every fortnight after that, depending on your homeopath’s advice. (If you’re not a registered patient, it’s best to contact Helios or Ainsworths or one of the other homeopathic pharmacies direct for help and advice.)

Another option (ideal if you already have supplies of the remedies needed) is to take the standard annual homeopathic flu prophylaxis (because homeopathic philosophy is based on treating with something similar to your disease, not something identical, it shouldn’t matter if the Influenzinum you take hasn’t been made from the current virus). With this option, you can either take Anas barb 200c (brand name Oscillococcinum 200c) once per week, or take the combination remedy Influenzinum/Bacillinum 30c daily for three days, then weekly for a month.

Prevention – constitutional homeopathic prescribing

As ever, my best advice is to get some good constitutional homeopathic prescribing, with the aim of helping to stabilise and balance your immune system.

Naturopathic support

As there may be some risk of the immune system over-reacting and producing a dangerous cytokine storm, it’s best to focus naturopathic efforts on balancing the immune system, rather than boosting it. Whilst herbs like Echinacea and Goldenseal may be safe, it might be wise to avoid these totally, and use the Chinese herb Astragalus instead. As both are included in the Immune-stim blend, so it’s worthwhile putting this to the back of the cupboard for now, and getting in a little plain Astragalus tincture instead.

Other herbs worth considering include Skullcap, Cats claw and St John’s Wort. Green tea, vitamins C and E, freshly-pressed organic apple juice, garlic from freshly-pressed cloves, and turmeric have also been suggested as being of potential use.

Be prepared – add the following to your natural healthcare kit now

• Homeopathic self-help remedy kit (available from Holistic2go.com under ‘Homeopathy’)
• Astragalus herbal tincture (not if you’re taking conventional medications, as herbs can interact with these)
• If desired, one of the homeopathic nosode programmes mentioned above
• Anas barb 200c

Treatment – conventional

As with vaccination, we can’t advise you about conventional medications for swine flu. If you think you might have swine flu, you can check the official advice on the NHS Direct website at http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/, where there’s a link to a helpful online symptom-checker.

Treatment - homeopathic

Although homeopaths consider that susceptibility (the state of your system) is more important in disease than the presence of an exciting factor (like the virus itself), it makes sense to take steps to minimise your exposure to the virus.

We’re well-used to treating patients via phone and Skype, so if you think you’ve developed swine flu and want some homeopathic help, it’s best to stay at home and call us for a phone or Skype appointment, rather than coming into the clinic.

Please note that in the event of an increased demand for our help, priority will be given to advising patients already registered with the practice, and to children and young people.

Paul Herscu, an eminent homeopath, has argued that the swine flu genus epidemicus (remedy of wide application, suitable for most cases) is the homeopathic remedy Nux vomica. See http://www.hersculaboratoryflu.org/research/swineFlu_1.html. Nux vomica is included in the blue 36 remedy homeopathic self-help kit available from www.Holistic2go.com.

In terms of homeopathic remedies generally, as usual it’s a case of treating what is uppermost, and choosing the homeopathic remedy to match the patient and their most marked and characteristic symptoms. The self-help booklet in your homeopathic remedy kit will help, but from the symptoms of swine flu collected so far, homeopathic communities worldwide are predicting the following remedies to be useful in swine flu cases. Many more remedies may get added as the time passes and we collect more information.

Please note that this information is hypothetical and has not been tested in the field.

Homeopathic remedies marked with an asterisk are included in the blue 36 remedy self-help homeopathic kit available from www.holistic2go.com. Other remedies mentioned are available from Phoenix Homeopathy (registered patients) or from www.holistic2go.com or Helios Homeopathic Pharmacy (www.helios.co.uk).

Aconite*: A intense flu, with sudden onset with fever, anxiety, constricted pupils, and strong thirst, is likely to respond to this remedy. The person may feel fearful or agitated, and the fever can alternate with chills. Symptoms are often worst around midnight. Exposure to cold wind or a shock of some kind often precedes the illness.

Anas barb (Oscillococcinum): often given routinely in flu cases, in alternation with the indicated remedy.

Ant tart*: Shaking, loose cough, with oppressed breathing, which is relieved by expectoting; gastric symptoms.

Apis*: This remedy may be helpful if a person has dry fever that alternates with sweating, facial flushing, and a very sore throat with swollen tonsils. Pain may extend to the ears, and the eyelids may be swollen. Exposure to cool air and cold applications may bring relief. Despite the fever, thirst usually is low. The person can be very irritable, disliking interference.

Arnica*: A person who needs this remedy during flu feels shivering all over the body. Heat and redness of head, while rest of the body is cold. Limbs and body ached; as if beaten, as if sprained. Bed feels too hard. Sore, lame, bruised feeling all over the body. Respiratory symptom includes paroxysmal cough aggravated in night and during sleep. Pneumonia; approaching paralysis.

Arsenicum album*: A person who needs this remedy during flu feels chilly and exhausted, along with an anxious restlessness. The person may be thirsty, but often only takes small sips. If the digestive system is involved, nausea with burning pain, or vomiting and acrid diarrhoea may occur. If the flu is respiratory, a watery, runny nose with sneezing paroxysms and a dry or wheezing cough are often seen.

Baptisia: Looks drowsy and drunk.  Flu with sudden onset and high fever and a feeling of being bruised all over, the body and limbs feel as if they are scattered. Profuse sweating with a high fever and an intense thirst. Dull red face, looks dazed and sluggish as if they may fall asleep at any time. The bed feels hard . Stupefying headache, with confusion.  Delirium with strange sensations, like as if there is somebody else in bed with him, parts of her body are separated, etc.  The keynote of the remedy is every discharge is very offensive.

Belladonna*: Sudden, intense symptoms — including fever, red face, hot skin, and extreme sensitivity to light and jarring — suggest a need for this remedy. The person may have a very red sore throat, a throbbing headache, a tickling short throbbing cough, or other throbbing and inflammatory symptoms. Despite high fever, the extremities may feel cold.

Bryonia*: When a person is very grumpy and feels miserable with the flu, wanting only to lie still and be left alone, this remedy is likely to be useful. Headache, muscle aches, and coughs or stomach pain may be the major symptoms.  If the digestive system is involved, nausea and faintness when rising up may occur. The key note of the remedy is everything feels worse from even the slightest motion. The person’s mouth usually is dry, with a thirst for long cold drinks.

Eucalyptus globules: This remedy may be helpful during flu with high fever. As compared to high temperature the pulse is not so strong. Stuffy nose with watry coryza. Excessive saliva with slow digestion. Acute diarrhoea preceded by sharp pains. Acute nephritis, complicating influenza.

Eupatorium perf: Flu with aching pain, with soreness of flesh in back and in bones of extremities, often responds to this remedy. Pain may be felt in the eyeballs, with a heavy sensation in the head. Illness often begins with chills and thirst, followed by high fever. Chills may be felt the back and legs, and the aching in the bones is worse from motion. The person feels “wiped out” and miserable.

Ferrum phos: This remedy may be helpful during flu with fever, headache, rosy cheeks, and a feeling of weariness. Sensitive eyes, a short hard cough, strong thirst, and vomiting after eating are other indications. This remedy is often helpful in early stages of flu or fever, even if symptoms are not especially clear.

Gelsemium*: Dullness and achiness that come on gradually, increasing over several days, may indicate a need for this remedy. The face feels heavy, with droopy eyes and aching. A headache may begin at the back of the neck and skull, and the person may feel chills and heat running up and down the spine. Complete absence of thirst is a keynote for the remedy. Anxiety, trembling, dizziness, perspiration, and moderate fever with chill are other indications for Gelsemium.

Kali sulph:  Fever with easy sweating . Yellow slimy tongue, nasal discharge, ear discharge, diarrhoea. Cough with easily-expelled yellow slimy sputum. T hirsty.  Averse to hot drinks. Wants to lie down, but it makes the patient worse, who wants to walk for relief.

Lachesis*: Feels worse after sleep; fever worse in afternoon; sweat without relief.

Merc sol*: Increased salivation, offensive breath, profuse and offensive sweat. Filthy tongue, large, flabby, with indentations from the teeth. Thirsty, craves bread and butter. Worse:  night, heat of bed.

Nux vomica* (possible genus epidemicus – see above): When this remedy is indicated in influenza, the person may have high fever, violent chills, strong nausea and cramping in the digestive tract (or a painful cough and constricted breathing if the flu is respiratory). Headache usually occurs, along with oversensitivity to sound, bright light, and odors. A person who needs Nux vomica is often very irritable, feeling worse from exertion and worse from being cold in any way.

Phosphorus*: When this remedy is needed during flu, the person has a fever with an easily-flushing face, and feels very weak and dizzy. Headache, hoarseness, sore throat, and cough are likely. If the focus is digestive, stomach pain and nausea or vomiting usually occur. A person who needs this remedy often has a strong anxiety, wanting others to be around to offer company and reassurance. Strong thirst for the cold water, with a tendency to vomit when liquids warm up in the stomach, is a strong indication for Phosphorus.

Pulsatilla*: Chilliness that comes and goes; chilly areas of the body.  Chilly in a warm room. One-sided chilliness with heat and sweat.  One cheek red, the other white. Palpitations with anxiety: must throw off the clothes. Dry cough at night, better sitting up, worse on lying down again. Thick yellow-green discharge from nose.  Yellow-green expectoration.   Craves butter, cream, pastries. Thirstless. Tearful, craves company and sympathy. Worse: external warmth, closed room; Better: open air, outside, slow motion.

Pyrogenium: Septic states. Extremely restless.  Has to keep on moving, rocking or wriggling, for momentary relief.  The bed feels too hard, aching everywhere, feels beaten and bruised. Everything is offensive: sweat, breath, discharges, stool, etc. The pulse is abnormally rapid for the temperature. High temperature with slow pulse, or the reverse. Creeping chills in the back, with a thumping heart. Bursting headache. Rapid bedsores. Feels as if someone else is in his bed. Consciousness of the heart beating.

Rhus tox*: A person who needs this remedy during flu feels extremely restless. Fever is accompanied by bone and muscle aches. Sore throat, red tongue, a teasing cough, and nausea and bloating are other likely symptoms. Soreness and stiffness may be felt all over, with improvement from hot showers or from getting up and pacing. A person who needs Rhus tox usually feels worse when waking up, beginning to move, after lying in bed, or from keeping still too long. Symptoms are relieved by continuous motion, rubbing and stretching, but especially by warmth and movement.

Sabadilla: Lachrymation in open air, when looking at bright light, when coughing or yawning. Sleepy in day time; chillyness, with heat of face; cough on lying down.

Sanguinaria: Smell in the nose like roasted onion; wheezing-whistling cough and finally diarrhoea, which relieves the cough.

Sticta: There is general feeling of dullness and malaise with raw throat. Dropping of mucous from the posterior sinuses/down the back of the throat. Dry, hacking cough at night; worse when breathing in.

Sulphur*: This remedy may be useful if a flu is very long-lasting or has some lingering symptoms—often after people have neglected to take good care of themselves. Symptoms, either digestive or respiratory, will often have a hot or burning quality. The person may feel hot and sweaty, with low fever and reddish mucous membranes. Heat aggravates the symptoms, and the person often feels worse after bathing.

Additional homeopathic resources

http://nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org/articles/view,323

Information collected by Mexican homeopaths: http://www.hpathy.com/papersnew/galicia-Observations-Mexican-Flu-2009.asp

For more information, contact the clinic.

Stephen Gordon, the General Secretary of the European Council for Classical Homeopathy, asks that the following information be made known:

“Two new studies conclude that a review which claimed that homeopathy is just a placebo, published in The Lancet, was seriously flawed.

George Lewith, Professor of Health Research at Southampton University comments: ‘The review gave no indication of which trials were analysed nor of the various vital assumptions made about the data. This is not usual scientific practice. If we presume that homeopathy works for some conditions but not others, or change the definition of a ‘larger trial’, the conclusions change. This indicates a fundamental weakness in the conclusions: they are NOT reliable.’

The background to the ongoing debate is as follows:

In August 2005, The Lancet published an editorial entitled ‘The End of Homeopathy’, prompted by a review comparing clinical trials of homeopathy with trials of conventional medicine. The claim that homeopathic medicines are just placebo was based on 6 clinical trials of conventional medicine and 8 studies of homeopathy but did not reveal the identity of these trials. The review was criticised for its opacity as it gave no indication of which trials were analysed and the various assumptions made about the data.

Sufficient detail to enable a reconstruction was eventually published and two recently published scientific papers based on such a reconstruction challenge the Lancet review, showing that:

• Analysis of all high quality trials of homeopathy yields a positive conclusion.
• The 8 larger higher quality trials of homeopathy were all for different conditions; if homeopathy works for some of these but not others the result changes, implying that it is not placebo.
• The comparison with conventional medicine was meaningless.
• Doubts remain about the opaque, unpublished criteria used in the review, including the definition of ‘higher quality’.

The Lancet review, led by Prof Matthias Egger of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Berne, started with 110 matched clinical trials of homeopathy and conventional medicine, reduced these to ‘higher quality trials’ and then to 8 and 6 respectively ‘larger higher quality trials’. Based on these 14 studies the review concluded that there is ‘weak evidence for a specific effect of homoeopathic remedies, but strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions’.

There are a limited number of homeopathic studies so it is quite possible to interpret these data selectively and unfavourably, which is what appears to have been done in the Lancet paper. If we assume that homeopathy does not work for just one condition (Arnica for post-exercise muscle stiffness), or alter the definition of ‘larger trial’, the results are positive. The comparison with conventional medicine was meaningless: the original 110 trials were matched, but matching was lost after they were reduced to 8 and 6. But the quality of homeopathic trials was better than conventional trials.

This reconstruction casts serious doubts on the review, showing that it was based on a series of hidden judgments unfavourable to homeopathy. An open assessment of the current evidence suggests that homeopathy is probably effective for a number of conditions including allergies, upper respiratory tract infections and ‘flu, but more research is desperately needed.

Prof Egger has declined to comment on these findings.

References

Lüdtke R, Rutten ALB. The conclusions on the effectiveness of homeopathy highly depend on the set of analyzed trials. J Clin Epidemiol 2008. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.06.015

Rutten ALB, Stolper CF. The 2005 meta-analysis of homeopathy: the importance of post-publication data. Homeopathy 2008. doi:10.1016/j.homp.2008.09.008.”

Disclaimer: Any views or advice in this weblog should not be taken as a substitute for medical advice or treatment, especially if you know you have a specific health complaint. Please remember that homeopathic remedies should be individually-selected to match the whole person, not just the unwelcome symptom. For chronic, severe or long-standing complaints, seek professional advice rather than self-prescribing.

The Daily Mail’s front page story today carried warnings of a more severe than usual flu season this winter. Yet it seems that the flu vaccine may not give as much protection against flu as is commonly thought, despite it being aggressively marketed and available in many high street pharmacies.

Does the flu jab work?

The flu vaccine’s creator, Dr Graeme Laver, is reported as saying of the flu jab “I have never been very impressed with its efficacy” and “It is better than nothing and I wouldn’t want to advise people not to take it, but you can’t rely on it doing any good.”

What’s in the jab?

This might come as a bit of a shock to the 15 million Britons who have the flu jab each year, and is a pretty worrying confession, given that recent flu vaccines have been reported as containing thiomersal (can lead to poor memory and confusion), formaldehyde, three different antibiotics, as well as three strains of flu virus - in my view, not ingredients to have injected into one’s body lightly!

Are there any risks?

According to the Lancet (1998; 351), the flu jab can be a trigger for asthma, and has little effect against flu, flu-like illnesses or pneumonia for older people living in their own homes (Lancet 2005; 366).

Side effects of the flu jab include flu-like symptoms, allergic reactions to the egg protein it contains, and joint or nervous system inflammation.

Flu in vaccinated people

There are many flu-like illnesses, and flu viruses are constantly changing and mutating, meaning that the strains of flu in the jab may be superseded pretty fast. At best, the jab may give three months’ protection from the flu strains included in it. Homeopathic remedies don’t have the same problem. This is because the remedies don’t have any direct effect on the virus itself.

Instead, they seem to modify our body’s response to it by enabling our defence mechanisms towards a better recognition of what needs to be fought off.

Flu treatment options

Last winter in the Phoenix clinic, two patients reported suffering flu: incredibly, both had been vaccinated against flu during the preceding month!

Dr Laver is concerned that new flu treatment medicines like Tamiflu should be made more widely available in order to save lives.

Certainly, flu needs to be taken seriously, because it can kill, and quickly.

However, given the excellent survival statistics for homeopathy in the terrible 1918 Spanish (bird) flu epidemic (at the time, homeopaths reported a 1% mortality rate, whereas conventional doctors were losing at least 30% of their patients), at home we put our trust in homeopathic remedies like Gelsemium (Yellow Jasmine), my number one homeopathic remedy for flu and flu-like illnesses (indicated where there is great weakness and heaviness of the limbs, eyes, head and body, and the patient is thirstless and has chills), Eupatorium perf (indicated for flu with bone pains as if the bones are broken, or flu where even the eyeballs are sore), or Bryonia (can help where the patient is very hot, dry, thirsty for cold drinks, and needs to lie perfectly still) .

Homeopathic help

Given the latest concerns about a flu pandemic, now might be a good time to consult a homeopath for:

• constitutional treatment to address current health problems and boost immunity
• specific remedies to help to prevent flu-like illnesses
• acute remedies to aid recovery from fever and flu

Phoenix also has limited stocks of a free Flu Information leaflet, available to registered patients.

After (rather inaccurately, in my view - click the research tag) announcing ‘the death of homeopathy’ recently, The Lancet is at it again, publishing another article that fails to give readers a balanced view of modern homeopathy. No wonder more and more people are asking: is this the latest in a series of attempts to repress homeopathy in the UK?

Here’s the Society of Homeopaths’ response to the Lancet article, which makes interesting reading:

Letter to the Editor of The Lancet

Dear Sir

We read your Special Report on homeopathy in Britain (Vol 370) with interest. For a publication that bills itself as the world’s leading medical journal, we were surprised that Udani Samarasekera’s report merely rehashes time-worn arguments, without presenting any new information to your readers.

As you know, we provided you with a six-page set of responses to questions posed in connection with this report. We find it fascinating that not one of those responses was actually printed.

To better inform your readers, we would like to point out that The Society of Homeopaths is the largest professional organisation registering homeopaths in Britain, representing more than 2,300 members overall. We are committed to fostering an integrated, patient-centred approach to health and wellness, treating each person’s symptoms as unique and each person’s care as an individual programme.

Society registered homeopaths have satisfied The Society’s educational and professional requirements and agreed to practise in accordance with The Society of Homeopaths’ Code of Ethics & Practice, the Core Criteria for Homeopathic Practice and the National Occupational Standards for Homeopathy.

We concur with our colleagues across the medical profession that proper regulation is essential to delivering integrated, patient-centred care and we welcome increased regulation of the homeopathy profession. In fact, it is something that we, as the leading professional organisation, have been advocating for years.

Kind regards,

Paula Ross
Chief Executive

Society of Homeopaths
11 Brookfield, Duncan Close, Moulton Park, Northampton NN3 6WL
Tel: 0845 450 6611 Fax: 0845 450 6622 Email: info@homeopathy-soh.org

In answer to the recent media criticism of homeopathy, Jeanette Winterson, award-winning author of ‘Oranges are Not the Only Fruit’ and other works, spoke out in favour of homeopathy this week in UK national newspaper The Guardian, describing her own dramatic experience with the remedy Lachesis, and defending the forthcoming symposium on homeopathy and HIV. Read the full story here.