As the debate rages on about if and when to vaccinate children, there’s a quieter discussion underway: Can homeopathy accomplish the same thing, but with no risk of injury? Less intrusive and easier on developing bodies, it’s slowly growing in popularity, though not without criticism.
How it works is similar to mainstream vaccines in principle, but with a significant difference. Allopathic vaccinations deliver a diluted strain of a virus the body theoretically can learn to fight off, whereas for homeopathic immunizations, the illness’ original form is sufficiently diluted in water or alcohol to create a non-material energetic dose that then works its way through the system. In other words, the amount of the original substance is measurable only at the quantum level.
In working with patients, Stuart Garber, a Los Angeles-based homeopathic Ph.D. uses the vaccinations in several ways. Some parents choose the allopathic method and he recommends homeopathic remedies to ease symptoms. In other cases he’ll give the homeopathic version of a vaccine after a child has been vaccinated allopathically to forestall “any energetic disturbance from the vaccine that can be problematic down the road.”
Others parents choose to fully vaccinate homeopathically, in which case, “We give them a series (as pellets) to be taken one at a time, usually about eight or ten in total, which is very different from giving your child 20 or 30 bunched-up vaccines,” Garber explains. Unlike the acronymed allopathic vaccines whereby pharmaceutical companies partner two, five or more vaccines to more cheaply produce a cocktail of substances—measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT), and so on—homeopathic vaccines can be administered individually and are less likely to overwhelm a child’s still-developing immune system.
Garber reports that out of 100 children he’s treated with vaccines over the years, none has exhibited negative side effects. In fact, he claims that many parents of kids he’s treated have subsequently sent the child to a sick friend’s home in an attempt to expose them to an illness, only to find that they don’t catch it.
Richard Hiltner, a 35-year-old medical doctor and homeopath from Ojai, similarly reports that children rarely—if ever—have negative physical repercussions from homeopathic immunizations. “I’ve seen it work time and time again,” says Hiltner. “I’ve done my own study over 15 years with 200 children, and none had any problems.”
So why aren’t homeopathic vaccines more widely used and accepted? For one reason, the fact that homeopathic vaccines have been diluted to such a degree that the original material is gone from the final products is difficult to explain. “When you say the substance is diluted so that it’s no longer toxic, and no longer has anything in it, you lose people,” says Garber. Yet although it may sound like hocus pocus, homeopathic immunizations date back to 1831, when the founder of homeopathy, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, treated patients through an Adriatic cholera epidemic. In 1905, 3,000 U.S. patients were treated against smallpox with a 97.5 percent success rate. And in 2007, the Cuban government used homeopathic vaccinations against an illness called lettosprosis with solid results. By the time allopathic vaccinations were introduced, many serious illnesses were already on the decline thanks to homeopathic treatment.
Before homeopathic vaccines are more widely accepted in the United States, both doctors agree that a lot has to change. Even “many homeopaths question it,” notes Hiltner. “Most feel the effects from regular immunizations are best because they can produce an antibody.”
Large-scale studies and research are necessary in this area, but funding is a difficult question. The bulk of health studies are paid for by well-funded pharmaceutical organizations, and as Garber points out, “The pharmaceutical companies are some of the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world. There’s not much profit in homeopathics.” At present, none of the primary so-called “health insurance” companies cover homeopathic treatment.
Although homeopathic vaccinations have yet to completely prove themselves as a failsafe alternative for prevention, the allegations against the safety of allopathic vaccines are steadily mounting. Nobody wants to take chances with a child’s life, but sometimes it’s unclear which course is riskier.
