Affinity Holistic Clinic

02/20/2026

What to Say to the Vet When You Don’t Vaccinate Your Pet
If you’ve chosen a vaccine-free lifestyle for your pet, you’re not alone—and you’re in the right place.
One of the most common concerns among natural pet parents is how to handle vet visits when you’ve decided to skip all vaccines. Whether it’s your first time saying no or you just want to feel more confident standing your ground, this guide is here to help.
Inside, you'll find supportive language, practical tips, and empowering reminders to help you protect your pet and stick to your values—without fear, guilt, or pressure.

1. Vaccines to Avoid? All of Them.
Here’s our stance: no vaccine is safe, necessary, or without risk.
That includes:
Rabies
Parvo, Distemper, Adenovirus, Leptospirosis
Kennel cough (Bordetella), Lyme, Influenza
And any combination injections (DHPP, DA2P, etc.)
NOTE: Also avoid chemical flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives—these neurotoxic cocktails can be just as harmful as vaccines and carry serious risks to your pet’s nervous and immune systems.
What About Titer Tests?
If your pet has never been vaccinated, titers usually aren’t needed—your pet’s natural immune system, when supported with proper nutrition and care, is fully capable of protection on its own.
However, if you’re in a situation where you must show proof of immunity (such as for travel, boarding, or to satisfy a vet’s record), titer testing is a much safer alternative than giving a vaccine. It simply checks for existing antibodies—not injecting anything.
Always remember: titers are a tool—not a requirement. Use them only if needed to navigate the system while keeping your pet vaccine-free.

2. What to Know Before Your Next Vet Visit
You are your pet’s legal guardian—not the vet, not the government. You have the right to say no to all vaccines, even in places where rabies is legally required. Here’s how to approach it:
Know your local laws. Some areas are stricter than others. Look for holistic or exemption-friendly vets who are still licensed but more aligned with a natural, vaccine-free approach.
Get clear on your values. Don’t go into a vet clinic hoping for approval—go in knowing where you stand.
Choose vets carefully. Holistic or integrative vets may be more understanding. But even conventional vets need your informed consent to inject anything.

3. What to Say to the Vet (If You Must Go)
Here are some respectful but direct ways to decline any and all shots:
“We don’t vaccinate. Please make a note on the file that all vaccines are declined.”
“We won’t be giving our dog/cat any vaccines now or in the future.”
“We’re not here for any injections—we’re focused on natural care only.”
If they push back, stand firm. You do not owe anyone an explanation, but you can remind them that vaccines are not mandatory for care.

4. Why I’ve Chosen Not to Vaccinate — What You Can Say
You don’t have to explain your decision—but if you feel comfortable sharing your reasoning with a vet (or anyone who asks), here’s a simple way to express it:
“I’ve done my research, and I’m not comfortable injecting substances into my pet that I know can carry serious risks—especially when we’re focused on building long-term health naturally.”

5. Bring the Research — Let the Evidence Speak
One powerful tip that’s helped many pet parents navigate tough vet conversations: walk in with the research printed and ready.
This came straight from a holistic animal conference roundtable with veterinarians and professionals who work inside the conventional system. Their advice was clear—don’t debate, don’t argue, and don’t expect a busy vet to “look it up later.” Most won’t have the time.
Instead, calmly hand them credible, peer-reviewed or professionally presented research. When studies come from respected institutions or veterinary researchers, they carry far more weight than opinions alone.
If you choose to use this approach, print a copy and simply say something like:
“I wanted to share the research that informed our decision.”
No arguing. No convincing. Just informed consent.
Here are a few well-known resources many pet parents bring with them:
Dr. Todd Cooney’s Updated Parvo Data (2025)
Downloadable and easy to print:
https://www.thedogbreederstore.com/dr-todd-cooneys-parvo...
The Purdue Vaccine Study (Full Study)
A landmark study frequently referenced in vaccine discussions:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/.../1999-purdue...
Vaccine-Associated Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia in Dogs
Published on PubMed:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8884713/
One-Minute Video Overview (Quick but Powerful)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_NaOzGnPuc
You don’t need a vet’s approval to protect your pet—but walking in prepared, calm, and informed can completely change the tone of the visit.

Here are a few key reasons many pet parents in this community avoid vaccines entirely:
6. Harmful Ingredients
Many pet vaccines contain toxic additives such as:
Aluminum or mercury-based adjuvants – known to disrupt the nervous system and trigger chronic inflammation.
Formaldehyde – a known carcinogen.
Foreign animal proteins and DNA – which can confuse the immune system and lead to autoimmunity.
Polysorbate 80 and other emulsifiers – linked to neurological and hormonal issues.
Long-Term Health Risks
We’ve seen too many cases where pets developed:
Seizures
Digestive disorders
Aggression or behavioral changes
Skin issues or chronic itching
Organ damage or cancer
Allergies and autoimmune conditions..shortly after being vaccinated. These reactions often go unacknowledged by conventional vets—but they’re real, and they’re devastating.

7. Supporting Your Pet’s Health Naturally
What keeps your pet healthy has nothing to do with pharmaceutical products—and everything to do with real, daily choices:
Species-appropriate raw or fresh food
Clean, filtered water
Natural detox support (like herbs, homeopathy, or minerals)
Exercise, sunshine, and grounding
Toxin-free home and lifestyle (including no chemical flea, tick, or heartworm preventatives)
Minimal stress and lots of love
A well-nourished body with an uncompromised immune system doesn’t need injections to stay well—it simply needs nature.
This approach prevents disease without ever needing to inject it.
Know that your decision is based on truth, care, and a desire to protect your animal. You are your pet’s only advocate, and you have every right to choose this path.

8. You’re Not Alone Here
Whether you’re just starting this journey or have never vaccinated any of your animals—this group is your tribe. Ask questions, share experiences, and know that you are not crazy, paranoid, or selfish. You are informed, empowered, and brave.
Together, we’re raising a generation of naturally healthy, vibrant pets—and proving that real health doesn’t come in a syringe.
Feel free to share any comments below.

Filmed at the 2017 Young Living Animal Conference, Dr. Barb Fox DVM provides practical advice when approaching your veterinarian about integrating essential...

05/20/2025

What is "Vaccinosis", and Why Do We Talk About it with Pets but Not Humans?

01/03/2025

The federal government has a new program called the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), now in effect on a "voluntary" basis, and scheduled for full mandatory compliance in January, 2009. Formal, public announcement of the program will be made in April, 2007.

NAIS has, of course, a noble stated purpose, which is rapid response to an outbreak of animal disease within these United States. Mad Cow disease and Bird Flu are examples of potentially devastating agricultural animal diseases that need to be discovered, contained, and eliminated as quickly as possible, to protect the health and food supply of our citizens.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags implanted inside, or attached to each animal will enable identifying and tracking of every domestic animal within the human food chain. An RFID tag hidden in your purchase is what sometimes triggers the anti-theft alarm as you walk past the security panels when leaving a store.

RFID has enough capacity to allow a separate tracking number to be assigned to every individual item of commerce; every shirt, book, box of cereal, roll of photographic film, everything you buy, own, and use. RFID can track every animal you eat, all the way from the newly born piglet on the farm, to the package of pork chops in the grocery store.

RFID can be used to track all property and inventory. The research and development of RFID devices, now underway, will soon enable the federal government to track all government property and inventory, including the ability to track and control the government's human property known as "you."

The convergence of NAIS and RFID enables the Beast Computer to place its mark on every item of commerce. If the Beast Computer does not, will not, or is instructed not to recognize its identifying mark, the Beast will not let you buy, or sell. Conform, bow down, or starve. Will you let this happen? Almost all of the masses will comply, without complaint or dissent because of the so called war on terror.

NAIS begins this year, in April, when 25 percent of all "premises" where agricultural animals are kept are required to be registered with the federal government. By January, 2008, all premises and all agricultural animals must be registered. By 2009, a fine of up to $1,000 per day, in direct violation of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, will be assessed for failure to comply.

There is a fee of $10, per year, to register your premises. You must provide extensive, detailed information to the federal and state governments about your property and animals. Keeping and submitting those records will be a burden. Registration surely will create eventual authorization for Animal Rights activists and Environmentalists to enter and search your property for violations of animal welfare and environmental regulations.

You must report every chicken that hatches, every pig, every horse, every agricultural livestock animal that is born, sold, eaten, escapes, or dies. Currently, there are exceptions only for catfish and goldfish. Under current language, you must declare and inventory all other animals, even a litter of kittens or puppies, or your pet iguana. If you take your animals for veterinary treatment, and your registration permit is not current, the vet will be required to turn you in to federal authorities for prosecution, including fines and jail.

In typical government fashion, driven and crafted by lawyers, bureaucrats, and nit-picky Department empire-builders, "premises" presently includes every place where an animal resides. Not just farms, not just your horse at the boarding stable, but even Grandma's chicken coop, your home where you have a dog, cat, and canary, and an apartment building in downtown St. Louis, where a child has a pet hamster. All those places and animals must be registered with the federal government, or eventually draw up to a $1,000 per day fine for non-compliance.

It always is easier to win a game, if you can ignore the rules that your opponent must follow. In typical federal agency fashion, that includes ignoring limits placed upon the federal government by the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution does not mention, among the enumerated powers granted to the federal government, the power to control private property within states, such as the Animal Identification program.

"An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed." Norton vs. Shelby County , 118 US 425 page 442). See also the 9th and 10th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Under NAIS, animal owners still "own" animals, and pay for the animals' upkeep, but the federal government controls how animals are produced, kept, sold, and used. Private ownership of property, under government control, is Fascism.

You will become a criminal, if you raise or have animals without government permission, even if you raise livestock only for your own personal consumption and enjoyment. If you become a criminal, then your entire life will fall under government control. The animals you thought were yours are yours no longer, but become part of "the national herd" under supervision and control of the federal government, and probably under eventual control of United Nations Global Government. Karl Marx wrote, "Communism can be summarized in one sentence: The abolition of private property." Marx would be pleased with the folks at NAIS.

Your would-be owners in government say NAIS is necessary to protect America 's food supply. It isn't. The confirmed outbreak of Mad Cow disease in Washington state in December, 2003, was discovered and eradicated without recourse to elimination of private property rights and criminalization of livestock owners.

NAIS would force you to give up your rights, and your private property as security against an animal epidemic that has not happened, and may never happen in these United States. Shield yourself against attack by Terrorist Pigeons. Remember the comment by William Pitt in the British House of Commons, who said:

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt could have been talking about NAIS.

Texas has enacted, and Tennessee is considering, legislation implementing NAIS. If there is no public outcry for repeal of NAIS and punishment of the NAIS perpetrators, NAIS will spread nationwide, like a Socialist poison gas that expands to fill every space available. States that sell out to NAIS will be richly rewarded with grants of federal money, obtained from the same taxpayers that NAIS bureaucrats want the authority to put out of business. Life for the farmer and private citizen will follow Orwell's book, 1984.

NAIS can be stopped, but it will take good citizens to notice, to care, and then to act decisively, to end this sneak attack on private property and Constitutional rights.

For more information, on the Internet go to http://www.usda.gov/nais. Click on "Draft Strategic Plan" on the right side of the page under the "What's New" heading, and read the 22-page implementation plan for yourself. For comments from the Farm For Life organization and others opposed to NAIS, do a Google search on "Mary Zanoni" + "Farm for Life."

07/24/2024

https://rumble.com/v57lksk-shocking-mistakes-pet-owners-make-vet-reveals-all.html

In this incredibly informative interview, Dr. John Fudens, a well-known and trusted veterinarian, shares essential pet care advice with Lisa Thomas. Learn about vaccines, common pet illnesses, warning

03/24/2024

www.disruptnowprogram.com/blog/the-power-of-homeopathy-for-our-animals

Interview of homoeopathy in animals

Discover the profound essence of life's communication through vibration and frequency in this insightful episode featuring Dr. John Fudens, a distinguished Doctor of Homeopathy. Wi

03/16/2023

How Homeopathic Medicines Work: Nanopharmacology At Its Best
New scientific evidence is beginning to explain how homeopathic nanodoses work, and nature is replete with mysteries and with numerous striking examples of the power of extremely small doses.

Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH Feb 13

It is commonly assumed that homeopathic medicines are composed of extremely small doses of medicinal substances. And yet, does anyone refer to an atomic bomb as an extremely small dose of a bomb? In actual fact, there is a power, a very real power, in having atoms smash against each other.

Homeopathic medicines are made through a specific pharmacological process of dilution and vigorous shaking. However, when skeptics say that there is nothing but water in homeopathic medicine, they are proving their ignorance, despite the incredible arrogance in which they make these assertions. Dr. Martin Chaplin, a respected British professor who is one of the world's experts on water, has verified that "homeopathic water" and "regular water" are not the same, and his review of almost 2,000 references to the scientific literature on water (!) confirm this fact (Chaplin, 2009).

It should be noted that a large number of homeopathic medicines sold in health food stores and pharmacies are made in doses with known physiological doses. In fact, there are several thousand (!) studies in conventional scientific journals showing a wide variety of biological effects from extremely small doses of various substances on specific systems.

Homeopathic medicines can and should be considered to be a type of "nanopharmacology" (Ullman, 2006). Although the word "nano" also means one-billionth of a size, that is not its only definition. In fact, "nano" derives from the word "dwarf," and "nano" is the only word in the English language that is used on common parlance as denoting extremely small AND yet extremely powerful. Homeopathic medicines are both extremely small in dose and yet extremely powerful in their therapeutic effect.

For 200 years now, millions of physicians and hundreds of millions of homeopathic patients have observed and experienced the power and effectiveness of homeopathic medicines

The Power of Nano-doses

Precisely how homeopathic medicines work remains a mystery, and yet, nature is replete with mysteries and with numerous striking examples of the power of extremely small doses.

For instance, it is commonly known that a certain species of moth can smell pheromones of its own species up to two miles away. It is no simple coincidence that species only sense pheromones from those in the same species who emit them (akin to the homeopathic principle of similars), as though they have developed exquisite and specific receptor sites for what they need to propagate their species. Likewise, sharks are known to sense blood in the water at distances, and when one considers the volume of water in the ocean, it becomes obvious that sharks, like all living creatures, develop extreme hypersensitivity for whatever will help ensure their survival.

That living organisms have some truly remarkable sensitivities is no controversy. The challenging question that remains is: How does the medicine become imprinted into the water and how does the homeopathic process of dilution with succussion increase the medicine's power? Although we do not know precisely the answer to this question, some new research may help point the way.

The newest and most intriguing way to explain how homeopathic medicines may work derives from some sophisticated modern technology. Scientists at several universities and hospitals in France and Belgium have discovered that the vigorous shaking of the water in glass bottles causes extremely small amounts of silica fragments or chips to fall into the water (Demangeat, et al., 2004). Perhaps these silica chips may help to store the information in the water, with each medicine that is initially placed in the water creating its own pharmacological effect. In any case, each medicinal substance will interact with the silica fragments in its own idiosyncratic way, thereby changing the nature and structure of water accordingly.

Further, the micro-bubbles and the nano-bubbles that are caused by the shaking may burst and thereby produce microenvironments of higher temperature and pressure. Several studies by chemists and physicists have revealed increased release of heat from water in which homeopathic medicines are prepared, even when the repeated process of dilutions should suggest that there are no molecules remaining of the original medicinal substance (Elia and Niccoli, 1999; Elia, et al., 2004; Rey, 2003). Also, a group of highly respected scientists have confirmed that the vigorous shaking involved with making homeopathic medicines changes the pressure in the water, akin to water being at 10,000 feet in altitude (Roy, et al., 2005). These scientists have shown how the homeopathic process of using double-distilled water and then diluting and shaking the medicine in a sequential fashion changes the structure of water.

Further evidence of the persistence of nanoparticles of the original medicine in water solutions was discovered by testing six minerals and using three types of spectroscopy to find nanoparticles of the original minerals. This research was published in the famed scientific journal, Langmuir, which is published by the American Chemistry Society (Chikramane, Kalita, Suresh, et al, 2012).

One metaphor that may help us understand how and why extremely small doses of medicinal agents may work derives from present knowledge of modern submarine radio communications. Normal radio waves simply do not pe*****te water, so submarines must use an extremely low-frequency radio wave. The radio waves used by submarines to pe*****te water are so low that a single wavelength is typically several miles long!

If one considers that the human body is 70-80 percent water, perhaps the best way to provide pharmacological information to the body and into intercellular fluids is with nanodoses. Like the extremely low-frequency radio waves, it may be necessary to use extremely low (and activated) doses for a person to receive the medicinal effect.

It is important to understand that nanopharmacological doses will not have any effect unless the person is hypersensitive to the specific medicinal substance. Hypersensitivity is created when there is some type of resonance between the medicine and the person. Because the system of homeopathy bases its selection of the medicine on its ability to cause in overdose the similar symptoms that the sick person is experiencing, homeopathy's principle of similars is simply a practical method of finding the substance to which a person is hypersensitive.

The homeopathic principle of similars makes further sense when one considers that modern physiologists and pathologists recognize that disease is not simply the result of breakdown or surrender of the body but that symptoms are instead representative of the body's efforts to fight infection or adapt to stress.

Using a nanodose that is able to pe*****te deeply into the body and that is specifically chosen for its ability to mimic the symptoms helps to initiate a profound healing process. It is also important to highlight the fact that a homeopathic medicine is not simply chosen for its ability to cause a similar disease but for its ability to cause a similar syndrome of symptoms of disease, of which the specific localized disease is a part. By understanding that the human body is a complex organism that creates a wide variety of physical and psychological symptoms, homeopaths acknowledge biological complexity and have a system of treatment to address it effectively.

Although no one knows precisely how homeopathic medicines initiate the healing process, we have more than 200 years of evidence from hundreds of thousands of clinicians and tens of millions of patients that these medicines have powerful effects. One cannot help but anticipate the veritable treasure trove of knowledge that further research in homeopathy and nanopharmacology will bring.

Nobel Prize-winning Scientist on Homeopathy...

Brian Josephson, Ph.D., (1940-) is a British physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for work he completed when he was only 22 years old. He is currently a professor at the University of Cambridge where he is the head of the mind-matter unification project in the Theory of Condensed Matter research group.

Responding to an article in the New Scientist (October 18, 1997) that expressed skepticism about homeopathy, Josephson wrote:

Regarding your comments on claims made for homeopathy: criticisms centered around the vanishingly small number of solute molecules present in a solution after it has been repeatedly diluted are beside the point, since advocates of homeopathic remedies attribute their effects not to molecules present in the water, but to modifications of the water's structure.

Simple-minded analysis may suggest that water, being a fluid, cannot have a structure of the kind that such a picture would demand. But cases such as that of liquid crystals, which while flowing like an ordinary fluid can maintain an ordered structure over macroscopic distances, show the limitations of such ways of thinking. There have not, to the best of my knowledge, been any refutations of homeopathy that remain valid after this particular point is taken into account.

A related topic is the phenomenon, claimed by Jacques Benveniste's colleague Yolène Thomas and by others to be well established experimentally, known as "memory of water". If valid, this would be of greater significance than homeopathy itself, and it attests to the limited vision of the modern scientific community that, far from hastening to test such claims, the only response has been to dismiss them out of hand. (Josephson, 1997)

Later, when Josephson was interviewed by the New Scientist (December 9, 2006), he chose to emphasize that many scientists today suffer from "pathological disbelief"; that is, they maintain an unscientific attitude that is embodied by the statement "even if it were true I wouldn't believe it." Sadly, such scientists are simply showing evidence of an unscientific attitude.

Quantum Medicine

Quantum physics does not disprove Newtonian physics; quantum physics simply extends our understanding of extremely small and extremely large systems. Likewise, homeopathy does not disprove conventional pharmacology; instead, it extends our understanding of extremely small doses of medicinal agents. It is time that physicians and scientists began incorporating both Newtonian and quantum physics into a better understanding of what healing is and how to best augment it.

The founder of homeopathic medicine, Samuel Hahnemann, MD, rewrote and updated his seminal work on the subject five times in his lifetime, each time refining his observations. Homeopaths continue to refine this system of nanopharmacology. While there is not always agreement on the best ways to select the correct remedy or the best nanopharmacological dose to use, the system of homeopathic medicine provides a solid foundation from which clinicians and researchers exploring nanopharmacologies can and should explore.

03/16/2023

Don't Confuse Real Healing With Suppression Of The Disease
When a person experiences relief from any treatment, conventional or alternative, one should not necessarily assume that a real healing has occurred.

Anyone who has taken a painkiller certainly knows that there is a big difference between temporary relief and real healing. Even though a person who takes a painkiller may not consciously feel pain, it is widely understood that this relief does not necessarily mean that a "cure" or a “healing” has occurred.

And yet, it is surprising how many people think that various conventional drugs have performed some type of miracle just because they provided short-term relief of pain or discomfort. Little do many people know that when a drug “works,” this may be the “bad news.” It may be that the drug works by suppressing the disease, thereby creating a much more serious physical and/or mental disease.

Although antibiotics and select other drugs may be an exception to this general observation, getting rid of an infection will not influence the immune factors that led the person to be susceptible to infection in the first place, and in fact, antibiotics are known to disrupt one’s inner ecology, disturb assimilation of nutrients, and even tend to make the person more susceptible to new infection (a future blog will deal more directly with this issue).

Painkillers, on the other hand, may provide great reduction in pain, but this may result in the person continuing to walk on that injured ankle and cause increased injury. The person with arthritis, as another example, may continually take one or more painkilling drugs that provide some relief but these drugs also create their own tolerance, addiction, or pathology, usually leading to much more serious health problems.

A smart person might consider taking a conventional drug that provides temporary blessed relief while concurrently seeking some more deep treatment that nourishes, nurtures, or augments the body’s own defenses. A problem, however, is created when a sick person frequently relies upon a drug to provide temporary relief and does not seek a real, more profound healing.

Differentiating Real Healing from Suppression of Disease
When a person experiences relief from any treatment, conventional or alternative, one should not necessarily assume that a real healing has occurred. While it is possible that the person may really have been healed, it may also mean:

the symptoms went away on their own, and the treatment had nothing to do with it.

the treatment palliated the symptoms, providing short-term relief but resulted in the recurrence of symptoms in the near future.

the treatment “worked” by suppressed the person’s symptoms or his/her own immune and defense system, thereby pushing the disease deeper into body. Although suppression of symptoms may cause them to disappear, they tend to be replaced, sooner or later, with more serious, deeper symptoms that are more discomforting and potentially dangerous.

Homeopaths and naturopaths both assert that there is a big difference between real healing, palliation of symptoms, and suppression of disease, even though each of these results may initially seem to be the same.

What people don’t usually understand is that there may be a danger in the frequent or recurrent application of treatments that suppress symptoms. The concept of suppressing symptoms is well accepted and understood in psychology. It is commonly observed when a person suppresses his or her emotions, such actions tend to push the emotional turmoil deeper, leading the person to explode at some future time, often at people who are not directly related to the origin of the person's problem.

While people may be familiar with the problems associated with the suppression of emotions, people are generally not familiar with the possibility that many conventional medical treatments can suppress their physical symptoms, driving the disease deeper into the person. And yet, suppression of disease is so commonplace in today’s medical treatment that it is virtually ignored.

Doctors and drug companies tend to minimize the real problems of suppressing the disease process by referring to the “side effects” of a drug. And yet, pharmacologists commonly note that the determining a drug’s “effects” and its “side effects” are completely arbitrary. They are both the direct effect of the drug upon the human body.

Ironically, many conventional drugs are touted specifically for their ability to “suppress” symptoms…or even suppress the body’s own immune system. Ultimately, pushing the disease deeper into the person is the result of using pharmacological agents that are explicitly prescribed for their ability to control or inhibit symptoms that are the natural defensive functions of the body. Suppression of disease may provide the semblance of benefit (or at least short-term benefit), but ultimately may make the person much sicker. Such suppression of the disease process may lead to increased chronic disease, immune dysfunction, and mental illness, all of which we are seeing together in epidemic proportions.

The father of American homeopathy was a German physician named Constantine Hering, MD (1800-1880). Hering was a respected conventional physician who was hired by a publisher to write a book critical of homeopathy, and in his research on the topic, he became convinced of its efficacy. After many years of practicing homeopathy, he observed that people go through a specific healing process after being given the correct homeopathic medicine. He developed guidelines in which to determine when a real healing is taking place. These guidelines have been called "Hering's laws of cure," but some homeopaths prefer to call them “Hering's guidelines of cure.”

To understand these guidelines, it is first useful to know that homeopaths carefully evaluate the evolution of a person's physical, emotional, and mental/spiritual symptoms. Homeopaths consider mental/spiritual symptoms to be deepest to the core of a person's being for they represent the will, the ego, the sense of security that the person feels, and the person's overall state of consciousness. Homeopaths today wonder if the immune system’s important ability to identify “self” from “non-self” is dynamically connected to a person’s mental/spiritual state of health, thereby linking mind and body health. The emotional symptoms are external to the mental/spiritual level of the person because imbalances in the deeper level will create increased propensities to various fears, angers, depressive states, and other emotions. The physical symptoms are the most outer manifestation of the person, though every level can and will influence the other.

Also, each level has certain symptoms that have more or less influence on a person's overall health. For instance, a person's asthma will be deeper than his or her skin rash, a person's fear of death will be deeper than his or her irritability, and a person's loss of self esteem will be deeper than a subtle reduction in memory. Likewise, when comparing symptoms on different levels, a person's heart disease will more profoundly affect his or her health than a difficulty in concentration experienced on the mental/spiritual level.

In light of these levels of the human being and the degrees of intensity to which a symptom impairs a person's ability to live, Hering found that healing progresses:

· From within to without (from the deepest part of our being to the most external);

· From the most recent disease back in time to previous ones (a reversion of the disease process);

· From the top of the body to the bottom of the body.

Ultimately, basic concepts of survival and evolution are at the heart of this understanding of the defenses of the body. The human body can and will defend its most vital functions first before defending its more superficial functions.

Homeopaths observe that a truly effective therapy sometimes elicits a temporary exacerbation of certain symptoms, usually in the superficial ones or sometimes ones that the person had many years previously. Homeopaths assert that a true healing is taking place when a person's present symptoms are more superficial than previous ones. One of the reasons that homeopaths and their patients have come to believe that homeopathic medicines are not simply placeboes is their observations that some symptoms tend to increase in the process of a curative response (healing from within to without…and the above other guidelines).

This “externalization” of symptoms is commonly observed by homeopaths who witness that approximately 20-30 percent of their patients with a chronic illness tend to experience skin symptoms, nasal or bronchial discharges, diarrhea, early menstruation with clots, profuse perspiration, or some other externalization of the disease process after an effective homeopathic treatment is provided.

On the other hand, if and when a person takes a conventional drug and his or her symptoms disappear but new ones that are more serious develop, this result suggests that the treatment has suppressed the person's condition and has made them worse. Unknown to most physicians and patients, people undergoing conventional medical treatment are commonly having their disease suppressed. Homeopaths assert that one of the reasons that there is increased mental disease and increased chronic disease at earlier and earlier ages is because of effective suppression of the disease process by conventional medical treatment.

Distinct from methods that suppress disease are those that help disease express and externalize itself. Homeopathy's use of the principle of similars (using medicines bases on their ability to CAUSE the similar symptoms that the sick person is experiencing) is one important safeguard against disease suppression because it mimics the wisdom of the body rather than suppresses its symptoms.

I like to call homeopathy a type of “medical biomimicry” because a homeopathic medicine is chosen for its ability to mimic the symptoms that the sick person is experiencing. Because there is a certain wisdom to the body mind, mimicking this wisdom is a good way to elicit a real healing.

Dana Ullman MPH CCH