The Health Forum

A place for open discussions – with no cover ups – about health issues

by Richard Seah

Among alternative, natural treatments for the flu, probably the most surprising are osteopathy and chiropractic. These are manipulation therapies where all the practitioner does is make some adjustments to re-align your bone structure. They are most commonly sought for aches and pain.

I made a surprising discovery back in 2005 when I had a bad flu (H1N1 wasn’t active then but the scare at that time was over the bird flu) and my osteopath friend remarked that I “didn’t trust him”.

I was taken aback. What did he mean? “You never come to me for treatment,” he said. “Don’t you know that osteopathy is very effective for treating the flu?”

Sorry, no. Although I knew the osteopath for 16 years, I never knew that osteopathy could treat the flu. I decided to give it a try. Within minutes, my breathing became deeper, my cough became shallower, I started feeling very much better.

Some weeks later, I was surfing the Internet when I found an article about osteopathy and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918:

The mortality rate in US medical hospitals fell between 30 percent and 40 percent, with the exception of a rate of 68 percent in medical hospitals in New York City…

The American School of Osteopathy, now the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine of A. T. Still University of Health Sciences, in Kirksville, MO, contacted all their alumni. This effort culminated in 2,445 osteopaths responding in treating 110,122 patients with influenza, with a resulting mortality of 0.25 percent. One of the few osteopathic medical hospitals, 400-bed Massachusettes Osteopathic Hospital, in Boston, also reported a mortality of 0.25 percent for that period.

I searched chiropractic, which is similar to osteopathy, and found this:

Chiropractors at the Palmer School of Chiropractic adjusted 1,635 cases, with only one death. Outside Davenport, chiropractors in Iowa cared for 4,735 cases with only six deaths – one out of 866. During the same epidemic, in Oklahoma, out of 3,490 flu patients under chiropractic care, there were only seven deaths. It was chiropractic’s success in caring for flu victims that led to the profession’s licensure in many states.

The idea that adjusting the body – particularly the spine – can fight the flu might seem far fetched. But not if you understand the basic tenet of osteopathy and chiropractic: “structure governs function”. It means that the structure of the body influences the function of the body and its many systems, including the immune system. By restoring the structure of the body to its optimal balance, all the various body functions – including immune function – will get better. And natural immunity is the most powerful weapon against the flu, more so than any man-made drug!

This idea is not new. About 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates said: “Look to the spine for the cause of disease.” Also, many Eastern forms of martial arts and health practices, including yoga, taiqi, qigong, karate, aikido, etc, emphasise the importance of keeping the spine straight.

Is it scientific? A “partial list” compiled by the World Chiropractic Alliance cites 109 scientific references linking osteopathic / chiropractic treatment to improved immune function.

Fixing the back is, of course, not the only way to boost immunity and fight the flu. I highlight it because it seems so unlikely, yet has an impressive track record.

As John Yeo pointed out in an earlier article, homeopathy, too, has a proven track record, with a mortality rate of only about 1 percent during the Spanish flu outbreak. There are lots and lots of other ways to build up immunity and prevent as well as fight the flu. It is not difficult to find them. We need only to look outside the box called “medical science”.

by John Yeo, 17 Nov 2009

The Straits Times in Singapore today (17/11/09) carried a photo of the Health Minister getting the H1N1 vaccine shot. My colleague James Ong had written to him two weeks ago to warn him of the dangers of vaccination. Obviously he has either not received the letter or he has great faith in the medical system. Like everyone else, we are led to think that the vaccine is completely safe and effective.

I am so glad he has not made the vaccine compulsory for the general population. However, I am not sure if certain front line professions like nurses and NS men are effectively not given the choice not to receive the vaccine. According to a survey by the French national union of professionally qualified nurses, 65% of all nurses in France will refuse the vaccine over safety concerns.

However, the public is scared, thanks to the media and the way public health organisations have painted the picture. What should we do? Nothing really, if you dare. Many prominent doctors have been saying that H1N1 is just another flu with relatively mild symptoms. However, fear has been put into everybody’s mind that what if the virus mutates and the symptoms become worse?

For this, we can look towards the experience of the last major influenza pandemic of 1918. Hundreds of million of people were affected severely, with total deaths estimated at between 20 million and 100 million. This was a real pandemic, not the one declared by World Helath Organisation (WHO) which is a “technical” pandemic. Here, the numbers are there but the symptoms and death rates lack the seriousness to warrant the emotive word “PANDEMIC”. Many are still questioning why the WHO was so eager to press the panic button.

An article published in the Journal of the American Institute for Homeopathy May, 1921 recorded some statistics. (Julian Wilson Archives)

Dr. T A McCann, Ohio reported a death rate of 28.2 percent in 24,000 cases of flu treated with conventional medicine. Another group of 26,000 patients suffered only 1 percent death rate when treated with homeopathic medicine. This success rate was repeated in another situation. A Dean WA Pearson of Philadelphia Hahnemann College reported that of 26,795 cases of flu treated with homeopathic medicine, only 1 percent death rate was recorded.

Homeopathic medicine are made mainly from plants and minerals and diluted many times. The homeopath matches the individualized symptoms of the patient to the characteristics of the medicine in a “like cure like” manner. The medication stimulates the immune system of the patient to deal naturally and effectively with the flu.

In conventional medicine, drugs are used to kill the virus or bacteria. It is hoped that by killing off enough of the bugs, the disease will leave the body. If not, a stronger dose will be administered. Often, such “strong arm” tactics can succeed in killing off the disease but leave the patient weak and vulnerable to other complications.

Those who choose to treat illnesses with drugs are basically opting for the “strong arm” approach. As shown in history, more than one in four influenza patients eventually died using this kind of approach. Those who choose to treat influenza with homeopathy suffered only one death in 100. The choice is yours to make, provided the people in power allow that choice.