by Miranda Castro, FSHom, CCH

This page shows a chart listing remedies to take before, during and after the flu.  It includes 10 remedies, symptoms and modalities to help you treat the flu.

The chart shows:

Remedy
Onset
Fever
Pain
Cough/Coryza
Head/eyes
Thirst
Worse for
Better for
Miscellaneous

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Flu shots are touted as a way to avoid discomfort and health risks, raise grades in school, and protect earning potential and productivity. But is there another side to the story?

A September 2, 2008, New York Times story, “Doubts Grow Over Flu Vaccine in Elderly,” reports: “A growing number of immunologists and epidemiologists say the vaccine probably does not work very well for people over 70, the group that accounts for three-fourths of all flu deaths.” It cites a recent study of 3500 people aged 65–94 reported in The Lancet (2008;372:398–405) and also notes that the flu vaccine was never put through rigorous placebo-controlled trials before use.

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If not the flu shot, then what?
There are plenty of ways to protect yourself and your family aside from the flu vaccine.

1. The old standbys: good food, plenty of rest, and moderate exercise all reduce stress and enhance your immune system. The best protection against flu is good health!   To avoid the virus, wash your hands frequently and thoroughly during flu season, which can last from October through April in the Northern Hemisphere, and keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth.
2. Preventive remedies: certain homeopathic remedies can be used as flu prevention. The recommended dosing schedule is generally once a month during the flu season, once a week if flu is active in your area. Influenzinum is the primary remedy used for this purpose, although many homeopaths also use Oscillococcinum® in this way. If the flu breaks out in your area, everyone around you seems to be succumbing to the same type of flu, and a genus epidemicus has been clearly identified as the homeopathic remedy that is helping (see related main article), some homeopaths recommend that you take this remedy preventively. This method has proved to be an effective protection for many people throughout the history of homeopathy.  If you feel you’re coming down with the flu, you can take three to five doses of one of the above prevention remedies in one day. Even if you don’t ward it off completely, you are likely to lessen the flu’s effects and shorten your time in bed.
3. Tried and true remedies: if you or a family member gets socked with the flu, use the information in these pages (34 to 39) to choose homeopathic remedies to relieve symptoms and speed healing. Or consult your homeopath to help you.
4. Tap all resources: if the flu breaks out in your area, share your experiences with others who are using homeopathy. Consult with local study groups and practitioners to determine what remedy or remedies seem to be helping most often (genus epidemicus). The Internet is a great tool for this, and the NCH’s website will soon have a networking function up and running to facilitate such communication.
5. Visit www.NationalCenterForHomeopathy.org: and click on Flu Articles for a wealth of detailed information from renowned practitioners on how to treat the flu. You may also wish to consult the following books on the subject: Flu: Alternative Treatments and Prevention by Randall Neustaedter, OMD, CA; Homeopathy For Epidemics: Homeopathy in times of crisis by Eileen Nauman, DHM, DIHom; and The Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza: Special Bird Flu Edition, by Sandra J. Perko, PhD.

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Dependable, tried-and-true method for flu and other epidemics, used worldwide
by Ann E. Jerome (Croce), PhD, CCH, RSHom(NA)

A few years ago a friend called me late at night. Her eight-year-old son Brian had the flu and couldn’t sleep. He kept tossing around in bed, demanding water and then taking only a sip of it, asking for more covers and thrashing around so that he got tangled up in them. He had a fever and said his “bones hurt” all over. Was there anything homeopathy could do to help?

This year’s flu season had just begun. I had heard of a few cases in our town but had seen none yet among my clients. I’d need to find out more in order to help Brian, but I did know the answer to her question: yes, homeopathy could help.

Every year, the airwaves and print media take up the cry: get your flu shot before it’s too late! Scarcity of vaccines makes for especially good press because it sells, as every fear tactic does. While flu shots may be advisable for certain people, their efficacy and safety are still under debate (see box). Certainly the flu can be serious and requires care, but fearmongers have little sway over those who know what homeopathy can do.

Extraordinary Track Record

Over its 200-year history, homeopathy has proven extraordinarily effective in flu outbreaks and other epidemics. Samuel Hahnemann, the physician who founded homeopathy, successfully treated epidemics of scarlet fever, typhus, and cholera between 1800 and 1831. His contemporaries and successors faced these diseases over and over again, as well as yellow fever, diphtheria, polio, and many kinds of influenza. Mortality rates reported for people treated homeopathically in all these epidemics were far lower than for those treated conventionally. In the devastating 1917-1918 flu pandemic, for example, two independent researchers surveyed over 26,000 cases and found the mortality rate for conventional care to be 28% and that for homeopathic care a little over 1%.

A Dependable Method

The homeopathic method has been consistent since Hahnemann’s time and continues to provide a dependable way to approach illnesses, including epidemics. The steps are orderly and logical:

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