Homeopathy offers an alternative for the flu

It is early September. My husband and I accompany Sahara (5) and Aysha (6) to their beginning-of-the-year school assembly with mixed feelings: it’s nice to get a bit more time to ourselves, yet summer was so much fun that we wish it weren’t over quite so soon. During the assembly, the principal mentions swine flu, a topic that has been mentioned a lot by the media during the past few months. The principal assures parents that the school will not be closed if some of the students become infected with swine flu. I am relieved to hear that, since I am very critical of all the scare tactics that the mainstream media has resorted to regarding the supposed swine-flu “epidemic”. Also, unlike many other parents, I am not worried at all if my kids are exposed to either the regular flu or the swine flu, because I have had years of formal training in classical homeopathy, a natural healing art that has been used successfully for the treatment of all types of flus for more than 200 years.

My kids will not be getting either the swine-flu shot or the regular flu shot this year. Thanks to long-term constitutional homeopathic treatment, my kids have a strong immunity. So I don’t even have to worry about protecting them against the flu, because most people who die from the flu have compromised immune systems. But if for some reason I were worried about my kids getting the flu, I would give them the homeopathic remedy influenzinum. Influenzinum is made from flu viruses and then prepared in a homeopathic manner so as to render it safe and nontoxic. It has been used for at least the past 150 years as a natural flu preventative. In 1998, the Société Franí§aise d’Homéopathie conducted a survey of 23 homeopathic doctors and 453 patients concerning their use of influenzinum as a flu preventative over a 10-year period. Results of the survey were remarkable. In approximately 90 percent of the cases, no instances of the flu occurred when influenzinum was used.

My children are young, and their immune systems are still developing, so there is a chance that they will end up getting the flu this year. If they do, I will be treating them confidently with homeopathy, which was used effectively to treat one of the deadliest strains of flu in history, the 1918 Spanish flu. During the Spanish flu, Americans who were treated with traditional medicine had a mortality rate of 28.2 percent, while those who were treated with homeopathic medicines only had a mortality rate of 1.05 percent, according to a report by the American Homeopathic Institute in 1921.

There are many possible remedies for the flu, depending upon the particular symptoms that the infected person is experiencing. During the Spanish flu, homeopathic gelsemium was the most frequently used remedy. In general, gelsemium is thought of as the number-one remedy for the flu. Homeopathic bryonia and Eupatorium perfoliatum are also very frequently used remedies.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about homeopathy is that it is often difficult to decide between one homeopathic remedy and another. If you are not sure which remedy to use for the flu, a sure bet is Oscillococcinum. Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic remedy invented in 1925, made from the liver and heart of a Barbary duck. There have been two large double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials measuring the efficacy of Oscillococcinum for the flu. The results of the first trial were published in 1989 in Britain’s Journal of Pharmacology, and the results of the second trial were published in 1998 in the Homeopathic Journal. The studies showed that Oscillococcinum reduces the duration of the flu, speeds recovery, and reduces flu symptoms such as pain, fever, and backache.

Homeopathy is a safe medicine for the flu, with no side effects; the same cannot be said for traditional flu treatments.

Sonya McLeod is a Vancouver homeopath. The views expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Georgia Straight.

Comments

43 Comments

steveisgood

Sep 19, 2009 at 6:08pm

Maybe the editorial staff can do a little more research about the financial conflict-of-interest with the owner/operator/distributor of homeopathy advocating people opt not for medical science, but for her own services which she will generously supply for a hefty fee (such as $120 for a homeopathic first aid kit).

http://www.somecanadianskeptic.com/2009/09/homeopathy-attempting-to-stri...

Tricia D.

Sep 20, 2009 at 3:53am

This article was welcome relief to the inundation of " swine flu will kill you" messages in the mainstream press. I am with Sonya McLeod ! No flu vaccines for my family either.
Also no Guillian Barre disease ( known flu vaccine side effect ).

Pharmacist Scott, the World Health Organization has NEVER warned against the use of homeopathy for the flu. A group of " scientists" funded by pharmaceutical companies sent out press releases, misleadingly giving the impression that the WHO was down on homeopathy. Their only statement is that it is not the treatment they recommend.

Steve, speaking about financial interests, what about the billions of dollars of our tax dollars being squandered on vaccines, and advertising for a vaccination that many Canadians do not support and are having nothing to do with ?

Good on you, Georgia Straight, for speaking for some of the rest of us.

Chris MacDonald

Sep 20, 2009 at 9:06am

This is incredibly irresponsible, both on the part of Ms McLeod and on the part of the Georgia Straight.

Homeopathy has been show time and time again to be no better than a placebo -- that is, the best conclusion is that it IS a placebo. To promote the use of homeopathy for the prevention or treatment of a potentially fatal disease is very, very dangerous.

(I notice that Ms McLeod's blog is advertised at the side of this page -- if she's paying to advertise, and being allowed to write editorials, I smell a clear conflict of interest at the editorial level, here.)

stopjenny.com

Sep 20, 2009 at 10:04am

If you need to know how vaccines work compared to magic water or sugar pills, then please go to http://www.stopjenny.com/VaccineInformation.html
Build up immunity naturally with vaccines and don't pin your hopes on soemthing that will do nothing for your immunity. I'll bet who penned this nonsense doesn't even know the difference between a virus and a bacteria!

RossW

Sep 20, 2009 at 11:36am

Utter, psedo-scientific rubbish. Your supposed "Natural Healing Art" has not ONCE been shown to do anything more than would a plesebo

Dangerous nonsense!!

NitricAcid

Sep 20, 2009 at 12:15pm

Recommending that people use homeopathy, rather than medicine that actually has been shown to work, is ridiculous. Homeopathy has no side effects only because it has no effects. The Oscillococcinum recommended by the author has nothing in it but lactose- it does not contain a speck of duck liver, and is supposed to work by the homeopaths by "remembering" the trace of duck liver that was mixed with one tablet that brushed up against another tablet which was seen from a distance by the tablet you've been told to swallow.

What will be next on Straight.com- recommendations on using voodoo dolls to ward off AIDS?

Sequana

Sep 20, 2009 at 2:55pm

How is it possible to deny the OFFICIAL RECORDS kept at the many homeopathic and allopathic hospitals where flu victims were treated in 1918? The mortality rates at the allopathic hospitals were 28% and over, while those at the homeopathic hospitals were under 1%. These are the figures from OFFICIAL JOURNALS. They cannot be denied. The patient records in these journals number in the TENS OF THOUSANDS. The proof is in these historical records. Homeopathy is far more successful than allopathy in the treatment of flu. That's a fact.