I am a relative newcomer to homeopathy. My introduction to it occurred a over three three years ago when my wife took our (then) baby daughter to see a homeopath about some eczema she had developed on her cheek. This was the first time I had ever heard anyone talk about about hereditary dispositions to certain ailments.

Despite my initial scepticism, there was some plausibility to this homeopath's diagnosis, so I began reading up on homeopathy, starting with Hahnemann's book on the Chronic Diseases. After reading his book, it struck me that if the chronic diseases are hereditary, then they must also be genetic. If they are genetic, then this raises the question as to what causes genetic disease (bearing in mind that cancer and heart disease are hereditary and therefore genetic)?

As I have since discovered, it appears that genetic diseases are mostly caused by genetic viruses. These are viruses that have mutated over time and have embedded themselves in the human DNA, to the extent that approximately 2-4% of the human genome is made up of genetic viruses.

Sticking to this viral theme, there are many similarities between the behaviour of viruses and the behaviour of chronic diseases, as documented by Hahnemann.

Most interestingly, conventional medicine has not yet discovered a way to treat and cure viruses. I believe there are virtually no virucidal medications available. This fact helps to explain why so many conventional medications appear to be ineffective in providing a full and proper cure for many homeopathic symptoms listed in the homeopathic repertories.

The reading I have done so far seems to indicate that there is a viral element to the action of homeopathic remedies and this has so far remained scientifically unproven. If that is the case, then homeopathy could have potentially far reaching implications for medical science, particularly with regard to the treatment of hereditary diseases caused by genetic viruses, as well as other microbiological parasites such as bacteria and prions.

I was wondering whether anybody else has been doing any similar research in this field and had any comments to make on these observations.

The idea that "hereditary" is the same as "genetic" doesn't hold. "Genetic" means that the disease information is somehow carried in the genes and is passed on when that genetic material is replicated and decoded.

Trying to find a viral cause for illness (or genetic, where science is now focused) is really no different from blaming an organism, or too much blood, or an "overhanging, lingering fog" for disease. Disease is not caused by "materia peccans", as Hahnemann so ingeniously pointed out.
Certainly, viruses, microbes, prions, gasses, and genes may be present in the body while it suffers from disease, but they are in no way its cause. Removing them from the body does nothing to cure the disease--in fact, the disease is just suppressed so that it is forced to take a more dangerous and deeply seated form.

In order for you to understand homeopathy and how it can cure, you must stop trying to view it in the allopathic or conventional medical paradigm--which has only changed superficially since Hahnemann's time. I recommend reading the Hahnemann's Organon so that you can understand the homeopathic paradigm--very different from conventional medicine's understanding of health and disease. Until you understand that you have to stop thinking about material causes of disease (biochemical sciences) and start to comprehend that disease and health depend on the vital force of each human being (more like physics), you won't grasp the ideas behind homeopathy.

Happy reading,
Divina

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Divina,

Please don't make the mistake in thinking that treating viruses is the same as suppressing them.

Complex viruses (and possibly bacteria and prions too)survive in the body by taking over a cell, whereupon they interfere with that cell's metabolic function, which is the production of chemicals and proteins. As these virally impaired cells cannot function adequately, this leads to the production of chemical imbalances in the body. Some homeopaths have often referred to disease causing toxins in the body and I think these toxins are nothing more than virally induced chemical imbalances.

So far, the medical profession has tried to correct these chemical imbalances artificially. For example, insomnia, especially in old age, is caused by a shortfall of melatonin. The medical responce is to prescribe melatonin tablets, thereby artificially raising the level of melatonin in the body. It is my thinking that this artificial manipulation of the body's chemistry actually ends up aggravating the virus. If the medication prescribed is strong enough, it is possible that it will cause the virus to mutate, which is why diseases become more complex and deep-seated. This mutation process has been going on for a long time with bacteria, as a result of the wide-spread use of anti-biotics. It is possible that the same thing has been occurring with viruses, which is why homeopaths refer to disease being "suppressed".

If homeopathic medications are able to treat complex viruses, as I have come to suspect they are, then this will have a completely different effect. By treating and removing the virus, homeopathic medications actually will be removing the cause of disease, which is not the same as suppressing it. Once the virus is removed, the cells in the body will be able to function unhindered, which means they will no longer produce further chemical imbalances. As a result, patients will no longer experience the symptoms listed in the homeopathic repertories. As these chemical imbalances are often the precursor to more serious diseases (such as heart disease), hopefully we will start to be able to prevent these serious diseases from developing.

The major gap in my explanation is that medical science has not yet attributed the cause of the chemical imbalances to viruses (or bacteria for that matter), but there is some evidence around to suggest that this is the case - see www.ccid.org for more information on complex viruses.

I hope this has helped to clarify why this approach will not result in disease suppression. I am aware of the notion of a "life force", as described as Hahnemann, but I do not accept that such a "force" can manifest itself in the body out of nowhere. There has got to be a biological cause for these diseases and I have come to suspect that that cause lies in viruses and bacteria.

In his work, Hahnemann did refer to disease as a "living" organism and this does not rule out the possibility of disease being caused by microbiological organisms. There are many parallels between the behaviour of viruses and the behaviour of disease that Hahnemann described and I suspect that the "life-force" of disease that Hahnemann referred to is nothing more than the survival behaviour of complex viruses and bacteria. We now know that bacteria and viruses mutate, but I don't think that was common knowledge in Hahnemann's day, which is possibly why he did not make the connection between them. In fact, given the rudimentary knowledge and facilities he had available to him, I am continuously amazed at the astuteness and accuracy of Hahnemann's observations. I hope that one day his genius will be more widely recognised than it is today.

I hope this has helped to clarify some of the points you raised.

Thanks and best wishes
Nuno

Excuse me for interrupting...but in light of what you are saying where do these concepts fit in:

Some people get exposed to something...but they don't get sick but they can pass it to someone else. Does this mean that they are living in peaceful coexistence with the virus?

Why have we always seen viruses as the "enemy". Is it when we become weaker in mind...from outside forces having nothing to do with viruses...that the peaceful coexistence changes to something else...as if the virus is saying...wait a minute...you're not doing your part in this cooperation, partnership...so I have to work harder..produce more? And is the symptoms from their working harder just their little contribution to awakening us...so we can find the simil..and go back to symptom freeness. Again...can we change our view of viruses to "not the enemy".

This may have nothing to do with what you are talking about, which is so interesting...but it got me thinking.

Hi Nuno,

I did not much agree with how you expressed things (homoeopathically)in your first post, but the second one did put things better. Are you a biologist?

Well, there's a very simple way of understanding what the homoepathic remedy is doing, with bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. IT is the balance of host and environment factors in an individual. That I'm sure will be familiar to you.

Disease occurs when the host is down and the environment gets the upper hand. I would say that allopathy works on the enviroment factor, while homoeopathy works on the host factor. Of course in all this, chemical and hormonal reactions and balances are taking place, put correctly ... along the PNIE axis (Psycho Neuro Immuno Endocrine axis).

So in effect, what is happenning with viruses (Simple or complex) is that the immune system is able to get rid of infected cells through phagocytosis or whatever other sophisticated mechanism, including the appropriate secretion of interferons and interleukins that overcome the strength of the viruses in situ. At the same time, healing of the host is occuring at the 'chemical' and cellular level. This is the superiority of homoeopathy over allopathy.

In the case of Viruses, Modern Medicine has now come up with a lot of antiviral preparations like Interferon, Acyclovir etc, that work very well too. But there are artificial, while the homopathic medicine gets the body's own immune system to do it. The basis of other medcicnes esp antibacterials/antibiotics, antifungals etc are all cytotoxic and obviously cannot be used for viruses for the reasons you described.

Does this clarify things?
The main topic, the link of hereditary and genetic diseases... I think requires a discussion completely different from this one, adn is not directly or solely linked to viruses.

You said:
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>As I have since discovered, it appears that genetic diseases are mostly caused by genetic viruses. These are viruses that have mutated over time and have embedded themselves in the human DNA, to the extent that approximately 2-4% of the human genome is made up of genetic viruses.

<hr></blockquote> Dont' know if this is a correct interpretation... but I did see the site that mentioned about "Stealth Virues".... and as such this is still theory.

Regards,
doctorleela

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http://www.homeopathy2health.com

Hallo Nuno
I find your point very interesting and want to add the following:

Disease-symptoms do not coincide with the presence of a bacteria or viruses.

To clarify this point, I want to draw your attention to tuberculosis.
The tubercular bacteria ( bacterium tuberculinum) is ubiquisious and can be found on the skin of every human. At the onset of the disease you meat with clinical symptoms, but neither Tine, nor waterman test show higher presence of the bacteria for the first 10-14 days. Only then there is a significant rise of the bacteria tuberculinum, which then confirms the clinical diagnosis.
The other way around would be this example:
The positive HIV-test does not coincide with the disease: Aids.

This rectifies the view, that the human economy was already out of order at the onset of the disease, and consequently a rise in certain bacteria or Viruses in the testmedium is experienced after the manifestation of the disease.
This contradicts your view, that bacteria and viruses are the cause of disease, and speaks in favour of Hahnemann’s observation, that the derangement of the lifeforce, or the living principle, as he calls it, is the cause for disease, expressed in signs and symptoms.
Hahnemann uses the term Miasm to express infection from one person to another.
He relates to living creatures as in contrast to dead bodies, which cannot get sick.
This links disease to live.
Hahnemann as a doctor of chemistry was well aware, that the isolated element found in the human body makes no reference to being of a living or dead body, so that he was of the opinion, that neither chemistry nor physics are able to explain live as such, and therefore resorted to a ‘’living principle’’ inherent to creatures alive, of which he says, that it can only observed by its actions, but not as such. The same applies to magnetism, electricity which you use without any problem.

Hans Weitbrecht
homeopath

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This is a reply to carolorr.

In answering your question about exposure to viruses, we need to make a distinction between chronic and acute cases.

My understanding is that an acute illness is a short-lived ailment that the body's immune system can overcome of its own accord. Virally, this would equate to catching the flu virus, which will knock you back for a few days until your body can overcome it.

A chronic disease is different, as your body's natural defences will not be able to overcome it and the disease will eventually be terminal. There are some viruses and bacteria around that can kill you if you are unfortunate enough to contract them.

However, not all viruses which cause chronic disease are fast acting and some of them can remain undetected in our bodies indefinitely, which has led to them being called complex or stealth viruses. These viruses tend to weaken our organs and waste away our health and vitality over extended periods of time.

We also inherit thousands of complex viruses from our parents. These are complex viruses that the human body has never been able to overcome and, over hundreds of thousands of years, these viruses have accumulated in the DNA of our ancestors and have been passed down from parent to child. These genetic viruses now make up between 2-4% of the human genome. To my mind, these viruses are the cause of the chronic hereditary diseases identified by Hahnemann. I suspect that the continual accumulation of viruses in the genome is one of the reasons why our medical problems (such as cancer, heart disease and obesity) tend to get worse over time rather than better.

To answer your question, viruses are the enemy and we have been co-existing with them since the beginning of time and will continue to co-exist with them into the future. However, I think that over time, viruses are slowly getting the better of us, as evidenced by the increasing demands placed on medical services around the world. In future we will need to find effective anti-viral medications, so that we can clear our systems of the genetic viruses that we already carry and keep them clear of infection from new viruses.

Unfortunately, I am not medically trained, so I can't answer your question about why some people can pass on viruses to others and yet don't get sick themselves. Most of my research has been on hereditary viruses and I can't really comment on the way we react to acute viral infections.

I hope this keeps you thinking.

Regards
Nuno

This is a reply to doctorleela.

From reading your comments, there are several key issues that need to be raised.

Firstly, I question your assumption that we start off from a point of balance (between host and environment) and that disease only occurs when that balance is disturbed. Before I came across homeopathy, I also used to think that we began life in a fairly healthy state and that we acquired the majority our illnesses from our environment and from our lifestyle, such as lung cancer from smoking, asthma from pollution, skin cancer from too much exposure to sunlight and heart disease from a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. I used to think that hereditary factors only accounted for a minority of cases.

Since researching this subject, I have come to realise that the opposite is true and that hereditary factors account for 80% of the problem, while environmental factors only account for 20% of the problem. Hahnemann himself pointed out that no one had ever discovered how to treat the Chronic Diseases, which had been afflicting mankind since the beginning of time. As these diseases were hereditary, they were passed on through the generations, with the result that almost everyone is born with an element of disease inside them. Hahnemann’s observation is corroborated by the fact that we are all born with a percentage of genetic viruses in our genetic makeup.

Therefore, we do not start off life in an optimal and healthy balance. Those people with a higher percentage of viruses in their constitution will be those people that have a higher predisposition to contracting ailments and illnesses in later life, irrespective of environmental factors. For example, some people can smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and live to a sprightly old age, while others can contract lung cancer by the age of thirty-five. I would be willing to bet that those with lung cancer were the individuals who were born with higher levels of the relevant viruses.

Another statement I question is that the immune system is able to get rid of the viruses or the infected cells. We know that the immune system is not getting rid of the viruses, because there are genetic viruses embedded in human DNA. As these viruses survive by taking over a host cell, I don’t think the immune system is getting rid of infected cells either. Some of what you say might be happening with acute viral infections, that the body can overcome of its own accord, but it is not happening with complex viruses that remain in the body unaffected by the immune system.

I also question the effectiveness of the anti-viral medications you mention. I have not heard of Acyclovir, but I have read about Interferon and its use in treating hepatitis (hepatitis C, if my memory serves me correctly). Interferon is able not remove the virus from the body, but merely stops it from replicating and spreading within the body. It is, therefore, “suppressing” the virus and I have wondered whether it could actually cause the virus to mutate in order to get around the effects of the medication.

As far as the “Stealth Virus” site is concerned, the main point of interest there is the behaviour of viruses and similarity between some homeopathic symptoms and the viral symptoms mentioned on the website. This site is mainly concerned with acquired complex viruses, such as the Aids virus, whereas my interest lies mainly in hereditary viruses.

Finally, you are right in saying that everything I have mentioned is only a theory, but every piece of information I come across fits very well into this jigsaw. It has got to the stage where I was sure enough of my findings to approach some medical research institutions to see if we could do some blood based tests to see if homeopathic remedies did, in fact, have an effect on genetic viruses. I don’t think the tests would be highly complex or expensive to do but, unfortunately, the medical profession is very scornful of homeopathy and no one was remotely interested in doing any tests. I think it is time to approach a wider audience on this subject and that is why I put my request for information on the internet. With any luck, I hope to find someone who may be involved in a similar line of research and is interested in investigating my approach a little further.

Regards
Nuno

I have a pet theory that viruses, as pieces of RNA floating about the environment usually keyed to specific species, may in fact serve a particular purpose - to create disease for the purpose of healing and to force those species to adapt and change.* IF * this were the case, then they could be likened to the action of a homoeopathic remedy, which also creates a disease for the purpose of healing and strengthening the host.

This is a fascinating idea. They are like computer programs, each designed to produce a particular effect in the host. They are unliving, inert unless coming in contact with the host cell.

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David Kempson.<br />Dip.Homoeopathic Medicine.<br />Lecturer Australian College of Natural Therapies (Brisbane Campus)<br />Member AHA, AROH, HMA<br />Member Australian Homoeopathic Association. Member#0442.

So my grandfather had malaria before he had children...does that mean I have malaria something or rather attached to my genes or and as well...is there inside my psyche somewhere the psychological state of my grandfather when he got malaria?

Nuno...have you read the thread of rh negative blood changing from a remedy? Seems like that would be a pretty cheap experiment to start with.Though I'm also sure that if you've thought of it...so has someone else and if you keep searching you'll find someone doing this research somewhere.

David..I love that idea of virus' heralding something new. I've known a couple of people who when they made significant changes in their life...leaving people or new relationships...have gotten very sick with high fevers. Don't know what it means but I've seen it.