Homeopathizon Horizon presents to you the Interview of Dr. Isaac Golden, the living legend who is considered a world authority on Homeoprophylaxis interviewed by Dr. Punit Srivastava, Chief Editor, Homeopathic Horizon. Here he explains about What Homeoprophylaxis is, its methods and how it is different from Vaccination. He also advises how can HP be applied in Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Punit Srivastava (PS): Greetings Dr. Isaac Golden, it is a pleasure for all of us here to meet you.
Dr. Isaac Golden (IG): Greetings Dr. Srivastava, It's my pleasure too.
PS: Dr. Isaac you have given around 35 years to the field of Homeopathy, before that you were into Economics. That's surprising. For a person to have so varied an interest from calculations to a healing art. How did you manage it? How did you come into Homeopathy?
IG: I had always had a feeling for natural health options, without studying them formally. Then when one of my children was vaccine injured, and my family were badly treated by the orthodox system, that made me decide to begin studying natural therapies.
PS: What made you choose Homeoprophylaxis as your topic of interest?
IG: I started studying other natural methods. Then a friend suggested I look into homeopathy. I immediately fell in love with it – the idea that we need to treat the inner person as well as the physical totally resonated with the esoteric studies which I had been pursuing since my late teens. But I did not initially learn about homeopathic disease prevention. And then I purchased Hahnemann's Lesser Writings and read his essay on the Cure and Prevention of Scarlet Fever. I was totally amazed that Hahnemann had discovered and used homeopathy to prevent targeted infectious diseases. It was something I wished I had known before I had vaccinated my own children. I decided that this would be my dharma, I designed my first HP program in 1985 for parents to use instead of vaccines if they so chose, and of course began using that on my own children. I realized that there was very little data of the effectiveness of HP, and so right from the start began collecting data on the safety and effectiveness of my program. I love data, and that became a focus for me as well.
PS: Here speaks an accountant…hahaha..Dr. Isaac you have contributed so much to the subject, it is our honor to know about the subject from the legend himself. How can we define Homeoprophylaxis?
IG: Homoeoprophylaxis (or HP) was first defined by Dr Burnett in 1884 who said "that likes are prevented by likes, I could adduce very many examples to show", and that HP is "the prevention of disease according to the law of similar"1
I use the following definition: Homoeoprophylaxis (HP) is the systematic use of potentized substances selected using the Law/Principle of Similars and administered using the Law/Principle of Minimum Dose to prevent the development of the characteristic symptoms of a targeted infectious disease in previously unprotected persons (i.e. have not had the disease nor used vaccination or HP).
But Burnett got it right first time – disease prevention according to the law of similars.
There are arguments by some whether it only refers to the use of genus epidemicus (GE) remedies, or to both GE remedies and nosodes. Some academics say it should be termed isotherapy (which is ridiculous when it uses GE remedies). There is really no need to argue – its disease prevention according to the law of similars.
PS: Is it some form of Vaccination in Homeopathy?
IG: Definitely not. Vaccination and HP have one goal in common - the wish to prevent distressing symptoms of potentially serious diseases from manifesting, but apart from that they are totally different. HP does not work on the antigen-antibody immune pathway as does vaccination. When it comes to infectious disease outbreaks it has many advantages over vaccination, including:
- flexible – the appropriate HP immunisation remedy can be produced within a few weeks of a new outbreak and adapted as quickly if disease strains change.
- economical – doses can cost as little as a few dollars, or less.
- readily reproducible – large numbers of doses can be quickly prepared.
- easily distributed – it does not require formally trained medical professionals to distribute doses to large populations. It is oral, and not injected.
- well accepted – the remedies in pillule form taste sweet and are popular with children.
- safe – the remedies are non-toxic and contain no biological or chemical materials. The method does not increase the burden of chronic disease amongst users.
It is an all-too-common error to say HP is a form of vaccination. Once again, the use of GE remedies shows how inappropriate this is.
PS: What are the common methods used to practice Homeoprophylaxis?
IG: There are five ways to protect against a targeted infectious disease. The last four are, to me, all methods of homoeoprophylaxis :
- the constitutional remedy.
- the genus epidemicus.
- the similar Nosode.
- the HP remedy groups of remedies.
- the HP complex.
- The first method of disease prevention is the use of the constitutional remedy – a remedy chosen from those mental, emotional and physical symptoms that are unusual or peculiar to the individual patient. This remedy strengthens the vital force in a general manner by removing predispositions, increasing vitality and raising general immunity to stress and disease. However, it is clear that in practice this does not provide the maximum level of protection against a targeted infectious disease. A disease-specific (HP) remedy is needed.
- The first method of homoeoprophylaxis is the use of the genus epidemicus - remedy that is especially useful in offering protection against acute epidemic diseases. This remedy is chosen by analysing the symptom patterns of a number of patients with the prevailing disease, and finding the remedy that best fits the majority of cases. For example, every "flu season" a different genus epidemicus appears, and is useful treatment for most patients during that particular season, as well as being an effective preventative.
- The second method of homoeoprophylaxis is the use of the similar Nosode. In this method a Nosode of the targeted disease is given as a preventative to that disease. Homoeopathic Nosodes have a wider band of action than orthodox vaccines since they only need to be able to produce similar symptoms, which differing strains of an infectious disease often do. For example, the remedy Meningococcinum has a protective effect against meningococcal disease because the symptom picture of the remedy is similar to the symptom picture of the disease (Mroninski et al., 1998).
- The third method of homoeoprophylaxis is the use of a HP remedy group. This is the method used in the largest HP intervention ever recorded – the prevention of Japanese encephalitis in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States in India from 1999 to 2009. This involved over 30 million people over 11 years with around 220,000,000 annual doses given over that time. But each dose was a series of 3 remedies over 1 month (Belladonna, Calc Carb and Tuberculinum).
- the fourth method of homoeoprophylaxis is the use of the HP complex. This is the method generally used in the very successful HP interventions in Cuba from 2007 to 2014. The use a mix of relevant Nosodes and GE remedies. I know that some readers will find this idea offensive, and not in the spirit of homeopathy. I was personally challenged by this concept when I first went to Cuba in 2008 as I regarded myself as a "classical" homeopath. With treatment I still use only single remedies. However, I would like to point out two things:
- the method works, and works because it uses remedies that are similar to the disease to be prevented, and
- if we proved the complex it would then be capable of being prescribed "classically".
HP may be used both for short-term prevention and long-term prevention (mainly using GE remedies or single Nosodes, but as with homeopathic treatment – we use what is most appropriate for each individual/situation.
PS: Seeing the recent scenario of Covid-19 pandemic; what can you say about contribution of HP to the present conditions.
IG: I wrote an essay titled Preventing COVID19 – How Homeopathy Can Help in February about HP in the current crisis2. My own opinion is that right now the best method to use is the HP complex (what I call the Cuban protocol). I believe this because there are a number of GE remedies which are being commonly used around the world (especially Arsenicum Album, Bryonia and Gelsemium) – so which one to use? We also know that that a number of Nosodes are being sold, but my understanding is that there may be issues with confirming the actual source and extraction methods used to produce the Nosode. Further, the virus is mutating, and the different mutations are producing different symptom pictures (probably accounting for different GE remedies) – so which Nosode to use? Given these questions, I believe that the Cuban protocols which combine "similar" Nosodes and GE remedies will give an appropriate remedy.
PS: Similar nosodes?.. what it means..sounds interesting.Thanks Dr. Isaac. We will continue the series to the next issue.
IG: Thanks Dr. Srivastava, You are welcome.
