the homeopathic treatment of upper respiratory infections

Retail Clinician CE Lesson• Acute bronchitis in otherwise healthyadults should not be treated with antibiotics;delayed prescriptions may helpease patient fears and simultaneouslyreduce inappropriate use of antibiotics. 6Complementary and alternative medicineWithout the immediate use of antibioticsand with restrictions on the use of over-thecountermedications for upper respiratory infections,many advance practice clinicians maylook to complementary and alternative medicine,or CAM, approaches to the treatment ofthis common presentation. Likewise, a 2007CDC National Health Statistics showed that38% of adults and 12% of children employedsome types of CAM. 7CAM is considered those diverse medicaland healthcare approaches, practices and productsthat are not typically thought of as part ofconventional medicine. Upper respiratory infectionsare high on the charts of illnesses forwhich patients sought CAM approaches: eighthamong adults and third among children. 8For upper respiratory infections, some ofthe common CAM treatments are diet andnutritional supplementation, botanical medicineand hydrotherapy. Dietary recommendationsoften will include removing dairy fromthe diet. For some patients, dairy increases theproduction of mucus, and removing it will inturn decrease the mucus load. Chicken soup asa healing food has been used for centuries andhas enjoyed some recent scientific support asone part of treatment for URI. 9 Miso broth alsocan be suggested as a way to break up congestionand sooth irritated mucus membranes.Botanical medicine has been used for generationsin the form of teas, poultices, powdersand tinctures. In recent times, such herbsas garlic, Echinacea and Astragalus have beentouted for their antiviral effects.Hydrotherapy in the form of a cool mist vaporizer,or the use of a hot footbath, also hasbeen suggested. When using a vaporizer, it isrecommended to use distilled water, which willminimize the contaminants being sent into theair and also will aid in keeping the unit clean.HomeopathyHomeopathy is a distinct system of CAMmedicine. It has been used around the worldfor the past 200 years and offers a safe and effectiveapproach to healing. Patient symptomsare understood according to the classic physiologicmodel taught to all healthcare providers.As the patient strains against both internaland external stressors, such as viruses, thepatient develops symptoms; the symptoms areseen as the person’s way of addressing this dynamic.10 It is the gleaning and understandingof the details of and connections among thesesymptoms that lead the prescriber to a particularhomeopathic remedy.Used the world over for the treatment offirst aid, acute and chronic conditions, homeopathyhas a long history of application in thetreatment of URI and will be described herefirst in its general philosophy and terms, andthen as it applies to URIs.Homeopathic medicines have been classifiedas drugs within the meaning of the federalFood, Drug and Cosmetic Act since 1938. 11 Officialhomeopathic drugs are those that havemonographs in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeiaof the United States, or HPUS. TheHPUS is prepared by a nongovernmental organization,the Homeopathic PharmacopoeiaConvention of the United States, which is composedof scientists and clinicians trained in themedical specialty of homeopathic medicine. 12Homeopathic remedies are available overthe-counterin many pharmacies, grocerystores and health food stores. The remedies arehighly diluted substances from plant, mineraland animal sources. They are cost effective anddo not carry weighty side effect profiles. Mosthomeopathic remedies are prepared on smalllactose pills and taste sweet. Remedies are safeto use with other medications and do not interactwith over-the-counter drugs, prescriptiondrugs or with other natural medicines,such as nutritional supplements or botanicalmedicines. Homeopathic remedies differ fromother CAM approaches in that the remediesare strongly diluted and are prescribed in aunique and distinctive fashion.History of homeopathyHomeopathy was first conceived by SamuelHahnemann (1755-1843), a German physicianand chemist. Troubled by the harshnessof medical protocols of his time, as well as bypersonal family tragedies, he turned awayfrom medical practice and devoted himself tothe work of scientific translation. It was duringhis work on a translation of a then popularbook on botanical medicine, “Cullen’s MateriaMedica,” from the English into German that hebecame intrigued with the portion written onCinchona bark — from which quinine eventuallywas derived — and the close relationshipbetween its effectiveness and its toxicity. Hiscuriosity was ignited.He undertook what essentially was thefirst drug trial, known as a proving, givinghealthy subjects samples of the substance inquestion and seeing what, if any, effect it hadupon them. 13 To his surprise, in the case of theCinchona bark, a number of participants developedthe very symptoms that the herbalpreparation was known to help.From this observation was born similiasimilibus curantur from the Latin, “likes arecured by likes.” This essential underpinningof homeopathic practice can be further definedas follows: any drug that is capable ofproducing morbid symptoms in the healthywill remove similar symptoms occurring asan expression of disease. 14In his lifetime, Hahnemann conductedprovings on some 106 substances. He workeddiligently and wrote prolifically on topicsof homeopathic philosophy, the treatmentof chronic disease and the “Materia MedicaPura,” one of the earliest homeopathic drugcompendiums written. 14Hahnemann also set out to determine whatthe optimal dosage of medication would be toachieve both best clinical outcomes and theleast side effects. His ideas about using theminimal dose whenever possible have stoodthe test of time. His experimentations led toconcepts of dilution and succussion, which areused in the manufacturing process of homeopathicremedies. 14Homeopathy in practiceHomeopathy is used to treat first-aid problemsas well as acute and chronic diseases.First-aid problems are addressed in rathercookbook fashion. For example, many haveheard of using the homeopathic remedy Arnicafor the treatment of trauma. Because traumaticevents impact most people in a similar fashion,Arnica is one of only a handful of remedies tobe considered. In other words, when the stressfrom the outside is very severe, most individualsrespond in a similar fashion. That responsewill point to one of only a few remedies.For acute, self-limited problems, such as upperrespiratory infections, patients present in a3 • Winter 2011 RetailClinician.com Retail Clinician