Homeopathy Week 12
Identify one infectious disease which you can discuss in relation to homeopathic disease prevention. Familiarise yourself with the symptoms, treatment and prevention of this condition from both biomedical and homeopathic sources.
Discussion Questions for Tutorial:
Do you consider that homeopathy might be appropriate for preventative use in this condition if requested by a client?
Poliomyelitis
The disease I researched this week is Poliomyelitis. It has been reported by the Ancient Egyptians, around the time of 1400 BC (Ochmann, S & Roser, M 2017). Throughout history it has lived alongside humans, and statistics show that the severity of symptoms varies in Individuals. The research shows that approximately 95% of people who contract Polio have no symptoms, and 4-5 % have muscle weakness, fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting, 1-2 % have severe muscle pain and stiffness in the neck, and less than 1% develop muscle and nerve damage, which can result in long term disability or paralysis (health.gov.au).
Treatment for the prevention of Polio, is Medical Vaccination via Oral or Injection route of Inactivated poliovirus (IPV), or by Homeoprophylaxis of the Polio Nosode Haemophilus. A person who comes into contact with Polio, may have no immunity, and infection can pass through contact with infected saliva e.g kissing or sharing drinks. The other infection risk is faeces, and contaminated waste water, as Polio lives in the gastrointestinal tract.
In the early days in Australia, patients were hospitalised away from their families. This was very difficult for children and their parents. The medical care team would treat the symptoms, and put the patient in a body brace to strengthen the arms and legs. As treatment evolved it encompassed physiotherapy practices including massage and assisted movement to the affected areas (health.gov.au).
The history and perspectives of how polio originated are really interesting! I’ve researched a few articles and reported back below. If a client requests a homeopathic nosode for poliomyelitis, I support this decision. It is important to adapt to environmental and global incidences of polio, and this can be done with both a vaccine and homeoprophylaxis.
Homeopathic and Biomedical Research into Polio’s History
Homeopathy
Ochmann, S & Roser, M are researchers who’s statistical research on Polio was published at the ‘Our World Database’, titled ‘Polio‘. They also published the following article at ‘Free and Healthy Children International’ (FHCI), ‘HPx, wheat, polio, zonulin, tight junctions and leaky gut’, The authors state: ‘Polio is a 3000 year old virus that provides genetic information so humans can digest wheat’. This is an interesting perspective. The prevalence of wild polio virus was present in early civilisations to assist the gastrointestinal tract to digest wheat by down regulating the protein Zonulin and it’s protein signalling pathways. High levels of serum Zonulin may lead to the presence of increased intestinal permeability. Over time, high levels of Zonulin in the blood may lead to issues with immunity and other digestive problems. It is thought that earlier times, when an infant’s intestinal lining developed, wild polio virus, present in the environment and mothers milk conferred immunity to the virus, and assisted with the digestion of Wheat. It was a very important grain at the time, known as ‘the staff of life’, and prior to the farming and processing practices that followed – it held very high nutritional contents. The author states, ‘Einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum), is a simple diploid grain (two sets of chromosomes), high in protein, manganese, magnesium, iron, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), and pyridoxine B6. Pyridoxine (B6) serves as a coenzyme in some 100 enzyme reactions in amino acid, glucose, and fat metabolism’ (Ochmann, S & Roser, M, 2017).
Ochmann, S & Roser, M, state that random historical accounts of polio were documented by the Egyptians from 1400 BC, however it didn’t reach endemic levels until the mid 19th and into the 20th centuries. In earlier times, humans tuned into the rhythms of nature’s cycles for planting, harvesting, and storing their crops to live successfully through the seasons. When farmers began to exchange their practice of farming Einkorn wheat, for higher yielding varieties, as technology and populations grew, health and environmental challenges developed. At this time communities had increasingly become ‘hierarchical’ and ‘monetary exchange, trade, and banking systems required higher yields and increased sanitisation of practices. This disturbed nature’s balance. New farming, living, and sanitation practices, along with new sewer systems (and subsequent contaminated effluent problems) reduced people’s exposure to the virus initially, and increased it long term.
It is thought that the newly grown wheat was not grown in a way that optimised a natural balance of wild polio virus, leading to its suppression, and then proliferation amongst populations. With less wild polio virus initially, and increased production and varieties of wheat, the prior function of the protein Zonulin in the gastrointestinal tract was not down regulated, and this led to people developing ‘leaky gut’ in the population, whereby polio virus passing through the gut barrier and entering the nervous system, where acetylcholine receptors become activated lead to the development of symptoms associated with poliomyelitis. Additionally, the author states, ‘exposure to the wild polio virus in sewer contaminated water by individuals with wheat induced leaky guts, brought on polio epidemics worldwide. Without the early down-regulation of the tight junctions of the intestinal lining in infancy, the polio virus passes through the gut barrier’
Ochmann, S & Roser, M state that humanity needs to improve practices in a number of ways: changing farming practices, increasing organic wheat, einkorn wheat reintroduction (2 chromosomes), rather than the hybridised wheat (8 chromosomes), or the reintroduction of wild polio virus. As this isn’t a viable option, people can make smaller changes that will lead to new breakthroughs.
The HPx polio nosode, along with healthier living, is an option for lowering the risk of Polio; ‘the co-evolutionary relationship between wheat based agrarian culture and the need for wild polio virus to regulate zonulin has been overlooked’. By having polio nosode HPx administered, Zonulin is down-regulated and the tight junctions can close for normal digestion of wheat to occur (Ochmann, S & Roser, M, 2017).
The 19th and 20th Centuries also coexisted with Samuel Hahnemann’s views on Psora; ‘According to Samuel Hahnemann, in the evolution of Man, this construct was the first instance of disease for humans, that of Psora; the itch and struggle of a static life and scabies which propagated in permanent dwellings thrived in poor quality dwellings’ (Ochmann, S & Roser, M, 2017)
https://freeandhealthychildren.org/2021/08/06/hpx-wheat-polio-zonulin-tight-junctions-and-leaky-gut/
Biomedical / Orthodox Medicine
The National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIS) has a fact sheet at their site, stating the available vaccines, for infants, children under 10, and teenagers and adults. The fact sheet explores the known history of Polio in Australia. It is interesting to read because it’s a different perspective to homeopathic research. Governments have reacted to Polio with vaccines, because this is the best research they have in line with tightly regulated science and medical industry. It is good to see research indicating how important gastrointestinal health is in lowering the risks of serious outcomes from Polio. Both schools of thought acknowledge that polio is a gastrointestinal disease. Integrative complementary approaches can be implemented to stay healthy.
NCIS states: ‘Poliovirus is a member of the enterovirus subgroup of the Picornaviridae family and has three serotypes: type 1, type 2 and type 3. Immunity to one serotype does not provide significant protection against the other serotypes.1,2 Poliovirus transmission is primarily by the faecal–oral, or occasionally oral–oral, route’. In the GIT the local lymphoid tissue is affected by the virus, and in some cases, it moves from there into the bloodstream, and to the central nervous system and peripheral nerves (NCIS, 2021).
The polio incubation period is normally between 7 and 14 days, however it can also be 2 to 35 days. Several weeks after the infection (swabbed from the throat, and stools, or monitored through a blood test) the virus continues to be excreted in stools (NCIS, 2021)..
Infected patients, usually children, were often isolated in infectious diseases wards for weeks where they were not allowed to see their parents. The standard treatment was to isolate the person and immobilise affected limbs by strapping them to braces. If patients lost the ability to breath well due to reduced muscular function in the lungs and diaphragm, they were put in respirator chambers called ‘Iron lungs’. When patients are reunited with their families, recovery could take weeks or years depending on the severity (NCIS, 2021).
A nurse, Elizabeth Kenny began treating the physical effects of polio using warm compresses and massage. In 1932. She rejected the treatment of braces for the arms and legs, because it was limiting and uncomfortable. Soon after, clinics opened around Australia and in England to apply her treatment methods. This was a popular new approach to Polio, and these treatments (coinciding with other developments worldwide) contributed to the knowledge, efficacy, and principles that form a foundation in modern physiotherapy (NCIS, 2021).
The first western medicine Polio Vaccine was by Injection, and it was developed In Pittsburgh, USA, in 1955 by Dr Jonas Salk and his research team. Dr Albert Sabin and his team then developed an Oral vaccine in 1961. Dr Salk’s vaccine didn’t use a live virus in his injections, however it required regular booster shots. Dr Sabin’s vaccine was a live attenuated / weakened vaccine. It prevented the virus from replicating in the patient’s intestines so as to stop the transmission of the virus through infected stools, mucous, or blood, however this vaccine carried a small risk of the patient developing Polio as a result of taking the live strain of virus (NCIS, 2021). Statisticians estimate that the vaccines may have saved 600 000 lives (400 000 in Australia) since that time. The World Health Organisation declared a Polio free zone in the Western Pacific Region in October 2000 (NCIS, 2021).
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/polio-vaccine-introduced-in-australia
https://www.ncirs.org.au/sites/default/files/2018-12/polio-fact-sheet_February-2016.pdf
Current Research
In The Hopkins Institute for Research article, ‘The Gut: Where Bacteria and Immune System Meet’, Dr Peterson and Helen Field, States: ‘Certain cells in the lining of the gut spend their lives excreting massive quantities of antibodies into the gut’. The immune system inside the body interacts with the bacteria outside the body. The GIT can be seen as more external because it is a passageway from the mouth to the anus. Researchers are trying to understand what types of antibodies are being made, and how the body is regulating it’s constant internal and external interactions in the environment. The Human Microbiome Project is investigating this further (Field, H 2015).
Explain your adopted position with reference to your personal position or experiences, reference to the policies of conventional medical, government or homeopathic professional bodies, research and scientific literature, the characteristics of the disease condition, and homeopathic philosophical literature.
I’m happy to take most vaccines, because the environment we live in is not following the natural rhythm of nature. I understand that unless I’m particularly healthy, I may be at risk. I believe in Individual choice, freedom of information, and informed consent. It is difficult when governments impose new rules as we see now, due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, the rules can force people to take a vaccine to keep their jobs. This seems strange to me, and yet it’s now the norm. It’s unethical in my view. I can see how these things occur within governmental legislation and legal structures. We also see coercion from governments affecting financial decisions in families, such as having rebates in child care for immunised children only.
Complementary and Integrative medicine is an important resource at this time. There is a lot of good information on the Internet, so that families have more choices. Hopefully this information is easily accessed by everyone. Advocacy programs, and other community contributions can give people an insight into modalities such as Homeopathy, Naturopathy, TCM, and Massage, which all create improvements in well-being and function.
I would definitely use Homeoprophylaxis now that I know more about it. There is a good table and a dosing schedule for infants, children, and adults at ‘Vaccine Free: Homeopathic Education for the Immune System’, It’s really interesting to read a Homeoprophylaxis Immunisation Schedule at their site, as an alternative to the Standard Vaccine Schedule. It’s worth a read!