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British homoeopathic
pharmacies are inundated with orders from anxious Americans for Variolinum
and Anthracinum — homoeopathic remedies for smallpox and anthrax.
“The figures are in the thousands,” says Tony Pinkus, the director of
Ainsworths Homoeopathic Pharmacy in London. “We’ve been deluged without
even advertising.”
He suspects that a promotion campaign in the
US would result in “hundreds of thousands of requests”.
Why Britain? Although there are American
homoeopathic pharmacies, homoeopathy is less accepted in the US. Ainsworths
enjoys an international reputation and royal patrons in the Queen, the
Queen Mother and the Prince of Wales, long-time supporters of homoeopathy.
“The fact that we make only homoeopathic remedies and concentrate on the
more esoteric stuff probably means people beat a path to our door,” Pinkus
says.
Helios Homoeopathic Pharmacy in Tunbridge
Wells confirms a flood of requests for smallpox and anthrax remedies. “Over
200 since September 11,” says its general manager, Roger Hadden.
Nelsons Homoeopathic Pharmacy in London also
reports increased interest.
Homoeopathy works on the principle that “like
cures like” — an illness is treated with a substance that could produce
similar symptoms in a healthy person.
A remedy for fever, for example, is the toxic
plant belladonna, but repeatedly diluted until nothing remains of the
original substance, literally equivalent to a drop in the Atlantic Ocean.
Homoeopaths maintain that an electromagnetic “footprint” remains in the remedy,
capable of stimulating the body’s self-healing processes, or “vital force”.
The important thing to remember is that the more diluted the
formula, the more potent it is considered.
Most homoeopathic remedies are derived from
plants or minerals — Natrum mur from salt, Rhus tox from
poison ivy. But Variolinum and Anthracinum are “nosodes”,
remedies made from diseased tissues or bodily secretions. Anthracinum
comes from the spleen of an anthrax-infected sheep, while Variolinum
(smallpox is also known as variola) originates in the pus-filled blister of
a smallpox patient.
Fortunately, there is no chance of
encountering a live spore or virus. For a start, the sheep or patient in
question would have lived back in the 1940s or 50s. For another, as the
homoeopathic physician Dr Andrew Lockie says: “You’re dealing with an
infinitesimal dilution. A 30c nosode means a one part in a hundred dilution
in alcohol is diluted again to one part in a hundred and the whole process
repeated 30 times.” A few drops of the resulting liquid is added to a jar
of lactose tablets and swirled gently so that each tablet is impregnated
with the potentised remedy.
One sample creates up to millions of
individual doses. Nor is there any sell-by date. “Homoeopathic remedies
usually last forever,” Hadden says.
Purists argue that remedies should be used
only as treatment, not preventively as Anthracinum and Variolinum
are now being sold, but both Pinkus and Hadden cite a long tradition of
prophylactic homoeopathy. “Earlier this year a number of farmers used the
homoeopathic remedy Borax successfully to prevent cattle developing
foot-and-mouth disease,” Pinkus says.
Apart from anecdotal reports, is there any
hard evidence that these remedies work? “There’s none for Variolinum
and Anthracinum that I’m aware of,” says Lockie, who is receiving
inquiries from his patients. “Though in a South American study,
meningococcus nosodes were said to reduce the severity and frequency of
meningitis as effectively as meningitis vaccine.” He compares their action
to sending an e-mail or fax into the body’s central computer. “Rather than
doing something on a physical level, it primes the computer to put a
picture of, for example, anthrax and its effects into the memory bank, so
that if anthrax comes along the body is on to it more quickly,” he says. As
an antibiotic, ciprofloxacin (Cipro) can’t be taken indefinitely.
Homoeopathic nosodes, on the other hand, at a mere £5 for 50 tablets, could
safely be used for months, even years, though nobody really knows what is
an appropriate dose. Pinkus suggests a 30c tablet once a week as a
preventative, and a heavy hit of 10,000c if you have contact with the
disease. He says there is no problem in taking antibiotics and a
homoeopathic remedy simultaneously in a life-threatening situation: “It can
actually speed things up. One stimulates the body’s ability to deal with
disease while the other is killing off the bugs.”
Pinkus has also received requests for nosodes
for other biological threats — bubonic plague, botulism and tularaemia.
“That is fine, but we feel you could help
yourself more by dealing with the anxiety that’s being generated, because
fear depletes the immune system that fights disease,” he says. To that end,
Ainsworths also markets a fear remedy kit, ten remedies associated with
responses ranging from tearfulness to aggression. Natrum mur, for
example, is recommended for anxiety and impatience, and Aconite for
acute fear and panic.
“If I was in Washington I’d take Anthracinum,”
Lockie admits, “but I wouldn’t advise people to use it unless they had a
reasonable idea they’d been exposed to anthrax or were likely to be.”
You are better off, he says, improving your
diet, taking exercise and getting plenty of sleep so that your immune
system is ready for anything.
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