Follow a natural health philosophy? Vaccination may have more in common with it than you think – The Conversation AU

The natural or alternative health community is often held up as being vaccine hesitant.

Yet, the relationship between the natural health community and vaccination is complex.

Stories such as the Adelaide naturopath recently disciplined for using a newspaper column to spread vaccine misinformation may make headlines.

But other stories like the director of Australias largest natural medicine society or even Nimbins herbal medicine columnist publicly advocating for COVID vaccination are more representative.

Although the link between natural health beliefs and vaccine hesitancy gets a lot of public attention, theres actually little evidence on the topic.

I led a 2016 review which found opposition to vaccination was a minority opinion among natural health practitioners and users. Opposition was more likely related to an individuals personal beliefs than a default philosophical position associated with natural medicine.

Some have suggested natural health practitioners could even help support vaccination activities. This isnt as far-fetched as it sounds. There are growing communities of natural medicine practitioners highlighting the alignment between vaccination and natural approaches to health.

One thing people often overlook is the adaptive immune response caused by vaccination is natural. Vaccination prepares the bodys immune system in the same way natural exposure to infection does. It just does it in a safer, controlled way with a much lower dose.

Given theres no underlying reason why natural health and vaccination cannot coexist, why does this perception exist, and why does it persist?

One main reason for historical opposition to vaccination in natural health communities wasnt due to the vaccine. It was because they rejected germ theory itself the concept that unseen external pathogens like bacteria and viruses led to disease.

Early naturopathic pioneer Henry Lindlahr rejected vaccination in the early 1900s because germs, bacteria and parasites are products of disease rather than its cause. He argued germs themselves cannot create disease if they could, humanity would soon be extinct. Also in the early 1900s, chiropractic founder Daniel Palmer rejected the notion there was any cause of disease beyond misalignment of the spine.

Its important to view this historic opposition in context, given germ theory had only become mainstream in conventional medicine in the recent decades before these statements. Views of these natural health professions have similarly evolved.

Natural health communities sometimes raised toxins in vaccines as a concern. Its important to remember, however, that vaccines up until the mid-1900s werent like the vaccines of today. First generation smallpox vaccines, for example, were crudely produced from calf lymph in a process considered cruel by animal rights groups, which were often closely linked with natural health movements.

Also, the natural health community didnt reserve judgement for vaccines and pharmaceutical medicines. Natural health adherents saw other drug systems, such as herbal medicine and homeopathy, as equally invasive and unnatural. Although few would see these therapies as incompatible with natural health today, their adoption by naturopathic practitioners caused significant tensions in the budding drugless profession.

Just as vaccine hesitancy can be a proxy for deeper concerns about medicine and the state, conflict between the natural health community and medicine also came to influence vaccine views.

Opposition wasnt always a given. One of Australias earliest Australian naturopathic journals blamed medicine for stealing vaccination from natural healers without credit.

Towards the second half of the 20th century, anti-vaccination statements increasingly began to target those vaccinating (usually medical doctors) as much as the vaccine. Eventually the oppositional stance of alternative health subsumed parts of the natural health community.

Due to their marginalisation by the medical community, parts of the natural health community started taking on positions that were more about opposing conventional medical practice than about aligning with natural health philosophies.

These underlying factors are similar to why so many people opposing COVID vaccines as unnatural put their faith in equally unnatural alternatives such as ivermectin today.

To put it bluntly, there arent any.

Homeopathic remedies are marketed by some practitioners as alternatives for childhood vaccinations. The most commonly promoted are those claiming to protect against infectious diseases such as malaria and even COVID. A 2011 survey found nearly one-quarter of Australians thought these homeopathic vaccines were an effective replacement for conventional vaccinations. Some have even unknowingly received homeopathic vaccinations thinking theyre conventional vaccinations.

Linking homeopathy and vaccination isnt surprising. Both emerged during the same period in the 1790s and both focused on infectious diseases (vaccination for prevention of smallpox, homeopathy to address symptoms of malaria).

Homeopathys founder Samuel Hahnemann viewed vaccination not only as effective and powerful, but also as an extension of and validation of his own theories.

It might not surprise you homeopathic vaccination alternatives arent supported by the scientific community. But it may surprise you to know theyre not supported by the homeopathic community, either.

According to homeopaths, this is because the mechanism of action of homeopathic vaccination is wholly incompatible with homeopathic theory.

Homeopathic vaccines are neither homeopathic nor are they vaccines.

Some natural health practitioners have claimed their therapies can offer similar immunity as vaccines. However, these views are usually fringe and roundly rejected by their natural health practice and research peers.

Whats more, boosting for a bigger immune response isnt necessarily better. Boost the wrong parts in favour of others, and a hyperactive immune system can make things worse in the short term, as well as the long term. Autoimmune disease (where an overactive immune system starts attacking the body) is thought to be one of the causes of long COVID.

In natural health we talk about the therapeutic hierarchy. This recommends using low level interventions which encourage self-healing processes to avoid more intrusive and invasive therapies where possible.

Vaccines once properly tested and assessed for safety and efficacy clearly fit this bill. Theyre a minimal dose, preventive intervention that support and develop the bodys own healing resources to fight disease.

And they offer the opportunity to avoid the alternative of aggressive treatment and management of infection and associated symptoms later on.

Ultimately vaccination, like the use of natural therapies, is a matter of personal choice. But as someone passionate about both natural health and public health, its one I would highly recommend people take up.

If youre hesitating to get vaccinated because youre concerned it may not align with your preferences for a natural approach to health, theres no need to be. Vaccines may have more in common with natural health approaches than differences.

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Follow a natural health philosophy? Vaccination may have more in common with it than you think - The Conversation AU