Nosodes

So what is a Nosode? (from nosos, the Greek word meaning disease)

Simply stated: a nosode is a homeopathic remedy prepared from a pathological specimen. The only difference between a nosode and any other remedy, is the starting material. It could be blood, pus, any other body secretion or excretion, or even a diseased fragment of tissue, such as a growth. Rabies nosode for example, starts with the saliva of a rabid dog and is then "potentized".

A nosode could be described as an "oral vaccine" in the sense that its purpose is to "immunize" the body against a specific disease. The major difference between a nosode and an "orthodox" vaccine is of course the extremely small (if any) quantity of physical substance in a nosode. Remember, it is the "energy" pattern not the "substance" that does the job in a homeopathic remedy.

Do they work?

The method of homeopathic prophylaxis has never been rigorously tested. Nonetheless, there is some evidence suggesting that homeopathic medicines do act to prevent diseases during epidemics.

Nosodes appear to stimulate the entire natural immune system to react against a specific disease. One of the many reasons that they have not been accepted in the `orthodox' medical community, is that they do not produce specific, measurable antibodies! This "titer testing" is of little value in measuring effective immunity from nosode usage. Again, because the `mechanism' of action is poorly understood, the 'orthodox' reaction is to reject all evidence as merely `anecdotal.' Perhaps the `challenge' study by Dr. Schultz will provide more acceptable evidence to this mentality. more

"The purpose of vaccination is to protect your pet from potentially fatal infections by pathogenic (disease-causing) viruses such as distemper, rabies,and others. The way this is done is to inject either a killed or a "modified" (non-pathogenic) live virus, which sensitizes the immune system to that particular virus. Thereafter, if your dog or cat is exposed to, let's say, parvo virus, s/he will be able to respond quickly and vigorously, producing antibodies to overcome the infection.

This sounds like a pretty good plan, on the surface. However, as with any medical procedure, we must ask the simple and direct questions, "Is it safe? Is it effective? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?"

The Problems With Vaccinations

"Routine vaccination, as it is practiced today, is not always effective, and frequently has adverse side-effects, either short or long term. With the use of multivalent (combination: 4 in 1, 6 in 1, etc.) vaccines that are repeated year after year, the frequency and severity of these side-effects in our pets has increased dramatically. Not surprisingly, most of the problems involve the immune system. After all, the immune system is what vaccines are designed to stimulate. But they do so in a very unnatural way that can overwhelm and confuse the immune system. The body may overreact to normally harmless substances (allergies, especially flea allergies and other skin problems), or even produce antibodies to itself (autoimmune disease). At the same time, the body may be sluggish in responding to those things that it should reject, such as common viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. This can result in increased susceptibility to acute infections (such as ear infections in dogs, bladder infections in cats), chronic tapeworm problems, or in more degenerative cases, cancer." Dr. Donna Starita Mehan

People, become excited when they first hear about nosodes, thinking that they have found a way they can protect their dogs from infectious disease without the risks of vaccines.

Like many others, I was excited too however, as I began to read and learn more about homeopathy, I made the personal decision not to use nosodes "instead of" vaccines. I don't feel that they work very reliably at all, and I consider the repeated administration of nosodes in a healthy animal to be dangerous. After all, you are introducing the energy of a disease, over and over and over, in an effort to prevent that disease. I personally feel that you can cause many of the same problems with nosodes used in this fashion as you do with vaccines!

I truly believe that the repeated administration of nosodes on a preventative schedule is dangerous and WILL induce disease in your dogs! Giving the epidemic remedy, be it a nosode or some other remedy, after exposure or during an outbreak, once or twice, will possibly be protective. But to put dogs on a regular schedule of prevention, giving the nosodes over and over, is superstition and is "from a place of fear or lack of understanding." Dr. Bernstein

The classical homeopathic use of a nosode (other than using it just like any other homeopathic remedy) is done during an epidemic, following a known or suspected exposure. For instance, if I took my dog to a dog show and found out the next day there was an outbreak of kennel cough at that show, and I then gave my dog a kennel cough nosode AFTER this exposure, that would be a classical preventative use of a nosode. If I found out a dog my dog played with came down with parvo, I could then give a parvo nosode. But to just give all these disease nosodes, repeatedly and in combination, to prevent illness from a virus they might encounter at some time in the future.... well, it has no science or homeopathic theory behind it, and I just can't do it or recommend it.

While this may be an alternative for some, please, realize that this is an area about which many, many people who have studied homeopathy seriously for decades have grave concerns. Educate yourself before giving them to your dogs.

If you decide I'm wrong on this one, fine, that is your choice. But please, learn about the theory behind them, their history and development, and the basis of the controversy, before giving them to your animals or relying on them to prevent acute disease as a "substitute" for vaccination.

LINKS TO NOSODE INFO"
www.tarascavaliers.com/html/re_nosodes.html
www.naturalrearing.com/J_In_Learning/Immunization/NOSODES.htm
www.charlesloopsdvm.com/remedies.htm
www.caberfeidh.com/Nosodes.htm

I personally believe that if I keep my dog's immune systems as strong and healthy as possible,that my dogs will handle most challenges easily, and if they do get sick with an infectious disease, that it will be fairly easily treated with homeopathy and natrual remedies. I don't however, take that risk lightly. I accept it and prepare for it.

Juliette de Bairacli Levy, founder of Natural Rearing, wrote that after three generations of raw-feeding and not vaccinating, her dogs never again knew any kind of disease, and after five generations they knew "unbroken good health." Very few of us, (certainly not me,yet) can claim to have achieved that. I do have a few third generation dogs that have been raw fed and not vaccinated and have been remarkably healthy and am breeding towards the goal of five or more generations!

I believe that God has already provided the immune system as our dogs(and our own) defense to microbes and viruses found in our environment. The degree to which one is able to educate the immune systems to recognize invaders will help determine our dogs and ourselves ability to cope with health challenges.

I supplement my dogs with Transfer Factor in additon to their raw diet and not vaccinating.

Transfer factors are tiny protein molecules found in colostrum, produced by immune cells called T-cells. These provide "immune knowledge" from a mother's immune system to her baby used in recognizing and fighting outside threats by transferring information from cell to cell, transfer factors serve as "teachers" to the new cells, ensuring a strong immune system capable of surviving, even thriving, in its new environment. They allow the immune system to remember conditions for which immunity has already been established. When a person has been infected, for example, with chicken pox in childhood, their body develops a memory of that illness, and prevents the person from becoming re-infected with it later in life. In the future, the specific immune transfer factor molecule for chicken pox will endow the immune system with the exact ?blueprint? of what chicken pox looks like, and the body will be able to quickly recognize and respond to any possible re-infection. Many of these transfer factors - or "immune memory molecules," were introduced to us from our mother?s milk or colostrum, which is the richest source of concentrated transfer factors known to scientists.

Dr Darryl See - "There is no other product in a nutritional substance, nor a drug, that has this kind of power and ability to affect our immune system. With the increase of killer viruses, mutated germs, super-resistant germs, and food contaminations, our only hope and defense, must lie within our own immune system."