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During
the past few weeks at least half a dozen anxious parents have been
telephoning Rita McGovern’s homoeopathic clinic in Surrey, each day.
They have been scouring the complementary medicine listings in the
telephone directory attempting to find an alternative to the
controversial MMR triple vaccine.
“There are a lot of worried mothers and
fathers out there,” McGovern says.
The national debate about the safety of
MMR is reflected in the world of homoeopathy. The British Homeopathic
Association, which represents homoeopathically qualified doctors,
dentists and vets, maintains that there is no effective homoeopathic
alternative to the MMR jab. “Our long-standing policy is that we advise
vaccination, in the absence of any medical contra-indications such as a
cold, flu or skin problems,” says Dr Peter Fisher, vice-president of
the Faculty of Homeopathy and clinical director of the Royal London
Homeopathic Hospital. “People who claim homoeopathy is against
immunisation are not in the homoeopathic tradition.”
But McGovern, a registered homoeopath
and nutritionist, holds a different view. She supports any decision
that parents make, but advocates the use of nosodes, or homoeopathic
prophylactics.
“Homoeopathic remedies are made by a
series of dilutions and succussion (vigorous shaking),” she explains.
“They are diluted and diluted so that in the end you are left with
merely a message from the original substance. This has no side-effects.
“When you give a vaccination, the
vaccine contains proteins, bacteria, viral particles, preservatives,
neutralisers and carrying agents. Anyone who receives a vaccine can
have an immediate allergic reaction to any of these substances. They
may also experience insidious long-term effects such as autism,
arthritis and Crohn’s disease; these are the things that people worry
may come out much later. When you give a vaccine, you are just making
the body produce antibodies. When you catch a disease naturally you get
a normal inflammatory response to that illness and the immune system is
profoundly stimulated to kill off that virus.
“As a homoeopath I would say that if you
do succumb to one of these diseases and use homoeopathic remedies to
treat each stage of the illness as it progresses, your immune system is
stronger afterwards. I recommend to parents that their children have a
good diet and live in as stress-free an environment as possible, so
that their immune system is not compromised. It is also possible to
improve their health and vitality through the use of what we call
constitutional remedies. Then, if there is an outbreak of measles, I
would give them one dose of morbillinum and repeat it a week later. I
advise my patients to keep a homoeopathic first-aid kit so that if
their children contract any of these diseases, they can deal with them.
“I am 59 and I had measles, as did all
my contemporaries, and none of us died from it. If you look at the
literature you find that the children who die from measles are often
the ones who have other problems too, such as asthma or a weak chest.
“There is an admittedly controversial
school of thought that says the reason we have so many auto-immune
diseases on the increase, such as multiple sclerosis and Aids, is
because of the mass use of vaccinations and antibiotics. Our immune
systems are not having the natural stimulation they would have had if
we had caught the standard childhood illnesses.”
For Sarah Tait, a full-time mother from
Surrey, the decision to treat her children homoeopathically, rather
than opting for an MMR jab for her three-year-old son, Joseph, and
booster for her six-year-old daughter, Chloe, has not been easy. “My
little boy had his baby jabs (diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus)
and I am not against vaccination per se, but I am worried about giving
three at the same time. I believe in using the best of orthodox
medicine in conjunction with homoeopathy.
When my children had chickenpox, I used
homoeopathy and they were fine. I like homoeopathy because it works
with the body. My main concern with MMR is that I don’t think enough
research has been done yet.
“My husband has seen how effective the
homoeopathic remedies have been with the children and now he is against
them having the MMR jab. The problem is that if you opt not to have it,
you feel persecuted, to be honest. One friend has called me ‘an
irresponsible citizen’. Before the outbreak of measles in South London,
it was acceptable to talk about your views at coffee mornings. Now
everyone has become so emotional about it, I have started to keep
quiet.
“I would still be frightened if my
children got measles, mumps or rubella if I was relying on homoeopathy
alone, but I am even more worried by the prospect of MMR. I think I am
like a lot of mothers who just don’t know what to do.”
The Society of Homeopaths, the largest
registering body in the UK, with 1,600 members, is unconvinced that
research either proves or disproves the safety of the MMR jab.
According to Melanie Oxley, the director of politics and NHS affairs
for the society: “We have a different model from the conventional one.
We are not interested in herd immunity; we are interested in the
individual susceptibility of our patients.
“We are involved in two surveys; one is
of all complementary medical practitioners in Europe which requires
them to report likely vaccine-damaged patients of any age, and another
in the UK which is of our own members, asking specifically for
parent-reported side-effects of the MMR jab. The findings of the
European survey will be reported to the European Parliament in 2004.
But even then it may be hard to draw firm conclusions. We work with
parents and support them in whatever decision they make.
“We can treat what we consider to be
vaccine-damaged children, building their immunity so that they are less
likely to suffer if they get ill. Some children have to be vaccinated
to protect themselves because they might suffer badly from the
illnesses. My query is whether children who are susceptible to measles
and get very ill are also the ones who are susceptible to side-effects
from the vaccine. Nothing is without risk and it is a difficult
decision for parents.”
What is homoeopathy
HOMOEOPATHY is a system of medicine
created by the German physician, chemist and linguist Samuel Hahnemann
in 1796. In some respects, homoeopathy is the opposite of conventional
medicine. Instead of treating illnesses with drugs to suppress their
symptoms, homoeopathy works on the principle of like treating like,
which means that a substance that can produce symptoms of disease in a
healthy person can cure the same symptoms in a sick person. It achieves
this by stimulating the body’s own powers of repair and recovery.
The remedies that homoeopaths use are
mostly derived from plants, but minerals, metals and some poisons,
which have been used medicinally for generations, are used, too. They
are made by serial dilution and succussion (vigorous shaking) in a
solution of alcohol and water. This may be done a few times or many
thousands of times. The liquid dilution is then used itself as a remedy
or soaked into tablets or granules for convenience. The medicines used
are selected by the homoeopath on the basis of all of the symptoms of
the patient. So each treatment — like each patient — is unique.
HOMOEOPATHY/MMR LINKS
www.homeopathy-soh.org
The Society of
Homeopaths 4a Artizan Road, Northampton NN1 4HU, 01604 621400
e-mail: info@homeopathy-soh.org
www.trusthomeopathy.org
British Homeopathic Association, 15 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AA
020-7566 7800
e-mail: info@trusthomeopathy.org
Rita McGovern, c/o Lifestyle Natural
Health Centre, Hersham, Surrey
01932 254624
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