Vaccine Nosodes:A Holistic Alternative to Conventional Vaccination?

In my last article, I discussed a holistic approach to vaccination. Rather than simply vaccinate your pet each year with every vaccine in the doctor’s refrigerator, I recommended a blood antibody (titer) test to determine if your pet even needed any vaccines (most don’t need annual immunizations.) In this article, I’ll discuss another holistic option for immunization, the use of homeopathic nosodes.

Homeopathy was developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in the nineteenth century.With homeopathy, we use the principle of "similars" to treat the pet, not just the symptoms. Homeopathic remedies are made from herbs, plants, minerals (elements), and various animal toxins. In their natural, undiluted form, these compounds would be very injurious and possibly even fatal. Homeopathy uses extremely diluted substances, prepared from a parent compound (mother tincture). There is literally so little of the parent compound left in the diluted final product that none could be detected by chemical means.

How then do homeopathic remedies work? Homeopathy believes in a "vital force" in each and every organism. When this vital force is altered, disease occurs. By stimulating the vital force, we can help the body cure itself, which it wants to do (no organism prefers illness over health.) Through serial dilution, the vital force of the compound is released.

The more dilute the final product, the more vital force it contains. Extremely diluted substances are very potent homeopathic remedies, and care must be chosen in their selection. The proper dose or dilution is the minimum that is required to cure the pet.

Nosodes, a special type of homeopathic remedy, are prepared from infectious organisms such as distemper virus and parvo virus. Nosodes are homeopathic remedies made from various infectious organisms. For example, the distemper nosode is made from the distemper virus or secretions from a dog infected with distemper. A variety of nosodes are available, both for the treatment of infectious diseases and for vaccination against some of these diseases. Vaccine nosodes can be used in place of traditional vaccines for those owners wanting a more natural approach to immunization.. Since the nosodes do not contain measurable amounts of infectious product, they are without any appreciable side effects.

But do nosodes work? Some doctors seem to prefer nosodes manufactured by specific homeopathic pharmacies, as they feel there is a definite difference in the ability of nosodes to stimulate the immune system. In their opinions, the manufacturer of the nosode is important and some vaccination nosodes work better than others. Nosodes are supposed to work in the same manner as conventional vaccines, namely by stimulating antibodies to fight off infections. I am not opposed to using vaccine nosodes, but I do question how effective they might be when compared to conventional vaccination protocols.

There are anecdotal reports from the literature showing that nosodes administered to pets in the middle of an epidemic seemed to protect the pets from infection. However, this is not conclusive proof of their effectiveness, as the pets may have had immunity from prior immunization that would have prevented infection.

How can we test nosodes to see if they are equally effective as vaccines are in preventing disease? One way to test and see if they work is to subject them to the same testing vaccine companies use. After vaccinating a number of pets with nosodes, these pets should then be exposed to the infectious organisms to see if they become infected or remain protected. While this technique may be acceptable in the laboratory, I don't know any owners who want to subject their pets to potentially fatal doses of infectious organisms just to see if nosodes work.

There is another way to evaluate the ability of nosodes to work. First, run antibody titers to see if the pet's immune system needs stimulation. If the titers are low, administer the nosode. After administering them to the pet, run antibody titers to see if the nosodes have effectively stimulated the immune system. If the antibody titer is high, then the nosode has been effective. Otherwise, the nosode has failed to work properly.

There is one problem with this approach though. It may be that the nosodes, like conventional vaccines, also stimulate the cell-mediated part of the immune system. This part of the immune system is also important in protecting pets against infectious diseases like parvovirus and distemper. It is very difficult to easily and inexpensively measure this part of the immune system. Still, if nosodes work by stimulating the cell-mediated immunity, they could still offer protection despite the fact that measurable antibody titers are not detected.

So where does this leave us? I don’t like vaccinating every pet each year with every vaccine in my office refrigerator. I prefer to run antibody titer tests, and only immunize based upon these tests.

While some of my homeopathic colleagues believe in the effectiveness of vaccine nosodes, at this point it is hard for me to give an unconditional recommendation to using nosodes in place of conventional vaccines. Owners must discuss these options with their doctors. I feel uncomfortable with using nosodes in place of vaccines if no measurable titer is detected, although I have no problem using them annually when antibody titers are detected as an extra measure of protection (without the side effects of vaccinations.) For owners who are totally opposed to annual vaccinations, nosodes should be administered as they are unlikely to harm the pet and may offer some protection. I hope to see research done in the future to help solve the question of just how effective vaccines nosodes are in protecting pets. Until then, owners must decide which approach they believe is best for their pets.

by Shawn Messonnier DVM, author of:

The Allergy Solution for Dogs,
the award-winning The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats, and 8 Weeks to a Healthy Dog.
Check out Dr. Shawn's column, The Holistic Pet, in your local paper, distributed by Knight Ridder.
www.petcarenaturally.com
naturalvet@juno.com