- di 04 mar 2008, 06:49
#926718
Nosodes: An Alternative to Vaccination?
By Christie Keith
When I first started questioning vaccination, my holistic veterinarian told me about "nosodes," homeopathically prepared medicines made from diseased body fluids and tissues. I did some reading on them, and while there wasn't much, what was there seemed interesting enough for me to consider using them. Many people, when they first hear about nosodes, are very excited, thinking that there is a way they can protect their dogs from infectious disease without the risks of vaccines. Many holistic vets and breeders use and recommend schedules of "vaccination" using homeopathic nosodes mutliple times over the first few months of a puppy's life, similarly and even more frequently than vaccination.
As I learned more about homeopathy, I made the decision not to use nosodes "instead of" vaccines. I don't think they work very reliably at all, and I consider the repeated administration of nosodes in a healthy animal to be dangerous. You are introducing the energy of a disease, over and over and over, in an effort to prevent that disease. I feel you can cause many of the same problems with nosodes used in this way as you do with vaccines!
The classical homeopathic use of a nosode (other than using it just like any other homeopathic remedy) is during an epidemic, following a known or suspected exposure. If I took a dog to a dog show and found out the next day there was an outbreak of kennel cough at that show, and I gave my dog a kennel cough nosode after this exposure, that would be a classical preventative use of a nosode. If I found out a dog my dog played with came down with parvo, I could give a parvo nosode. But to just give all these disease nosodes, repeatedly and in combination, to prevent illness from a virus they might encounter at some time in the future.... well, it has no science or homeopathic theory behind it, and I just can't do it or recommend it.
There is a lot of controversy in homeopathic circles about nosodes. To pretend there is some accepted truth on this issue is absurd. There is not. But in general, classical homeopaths rarely use nosodes and when they do, they use them in ways that do not make them a "substitute" for vaccination. I think one of the best explanations of the history and various therapeutic applications of nosodes is the article Nosodes by homeopath David Little.
There are also some good thoughts by Dr. Larry Bernstein on nosodes, one of the most pertinent being:
"Think about the flu. If you have the flu the chance of getting more flu is small since you already have it. If you are giving a parvo nosode you would hope that the same applies and it may. However there is a catch. You should only administer the prevention type nosodes to homeopathically healthy animals and these are precisely the animals that can fight things off on their own."
I truly believe that the repeated administration of nosodes on a preventative schedule is dangerous and WILL induce disease in your dogs and cats. Giving the epidemic remedy, be it a nosode or some other remedy, after exposure or during an outbreak, once or twice, will possibly be protective. But to put dogs or cats or people on a regular schedule of prevention, giving the nosodes over and over, is superstition and is coming, again to quote Dr. Bernstein, "from a place of fear or lack of understanding."
If you decide to use nosodes, at least realize this is an area about which many, many people who have studied homeopathy seriously for decades have grave concerns, and educate yourself before giving them to your dogs or cats. If you decide I'm wrong on this one, fine, that is your choice. But please, learn about the theory behind them, their history and development, and the basis of the controversy, before giving them to your animals or relying on them to prevent acute disease as a "substitute" for vaccination.
