HERPES/HOMEOPATHY?

[dazed and confused]

Hi, I have a female relative who recieved herpes in March during her college spring break. She has had 1 outbreak since in April(now it's been 7 months outbreak free) At my local drug store I stumbled upon some homeopathy medicine. The name of it is HRPZ Drops. I looked at the ingredients and it has Herpes Zoster, Herpes I and II in it along with some other ingredients. She took it in April 1 time. You're suppose to put some drops in water and drink it. She did this and has not had an outbreak since. She is not on suppessant medicine either. I have done some research on the homeopathy theory and they think by giving your body a dose of the virus a little at a time it's able to see the virus and fight it off. Kinda like the flu shot. Could it be possible that her body was able to fight it off, and she doesn't have herpes anymore? If so, what test can she take to find out?

[TheOneInFour]

A homeopathy remedy claims to contain the herpes virus?? That's a new one on me.

My understanding of homeopathy is that it is based on the principle of "like cures like," using the *energy* of that substance. So it would make sense that within that logic, a form of the virus would be used to cure or at least treat the virus in a person.

Homeopathic remedies are solutions with the ingredient in question that has been diluted so many times that only the "energy" remains and virtually none of the actual substance. So perhaps the makers of this remedy your relative found had combined the base liquid (water or alcohol usually) with something that contained the herpes virus(es). (Sounds a bit gross, if you think about it. LOL) Then diluted the solution in the usual way so that only the "energy" remained. I'm theorising here; I've never heard of such a remedy.

So it's different from what a flu shot does. A flu shot injects you with actual antibodies. A homeopathic remedy operates on an "energy only" principle, and as such has typically been panned by traditional doctors.

If your relative becomes cured (no trace of the virus in her system), it will be a first. I doubt this would be the case, but she could take a blood test I guess. I don't know if that would accurately test it though, since a blood test measures antibodies which are an "after-the-fact" phenomenon and probably linger in your system forever. It wouldn't necessarily tell you if the virus has been destroyed at its source. I don't know if there's a way to measure that without going to a research lab for special testing (which would be very expensive IF she found someone willing to do it).

I would think a remedy like that would be more likely to treat an outbreak, rather than eradicate the virus altogether. It would be interesting to monitor any changes over time for her if she continues using this stuff. She might want to keep a record of when she uses the remedy, when she gets ANY symptoms, etc. However, I think it would be wise for her to still treat sexual encounters as risky for transmitting the virus, to be fair to her partner(s).

TheOneInFour

[Nonexist]

I keep reading about "cures" and I have heard of people who had herpes and do not have it anymore. I have tried to get in contact with one, but I received no reply to an email address posted on a message board over a year ago. Apparently, there are people who don't ever get outbreaks. Personally, I believe that it is possible right now to cure herpes, but what method I believe actually does the job I don't know. I've never read about the homeopathic cure but you've sparked my interest - I'll have to add this to my list of "Quests" for a cure, LOL.

[dazed and confused]

I don't know that much about homeopathic medicine. That's why I didn't know it was "energy" and not the virus itself. If you look at the product it tells the ingredients. It say herpes zoster 12x,herpes I and II 12x. All I know is, we got it at our local drug store, she took it one time and has not had an outbreak since. It made since to me that her body sees this virus or "energy" and kills it. Is it unusual for people not taking supressent medicine to not have an outbreak in 7 months? If anyone else has info on this product or another one like it I would love to know. Thanks so much.

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[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 01-04-2003).]

[TheOneInFour]

Originally posted by dazed and confused:
Is it unusual for people not taking supressent medicine to not have an outbreak in 7 months?

No, it's not unusual for someone to go for long periods of time without an outbreak, but every person's pattern of outbreaks, sets of triggers, etc. are different. If she wants to determine if the remedy is the cause of the reprieve, she could try going off it for a while and see if they come back. But it may not come back for a while and it can be very hard to know for sure. I was on antivirals for 1-2 years and I went without an OB for close to a year after I stopped them. Now they seem to have settled down to 3-6 per year and I take antivirals to speed healing.

So I suspect that anything that breaks the rhythm of your outbreaks could possibly disrupt it for a while even after you stop, but that doesn't mean your body doesn't have the virus anymore and it doesn't mean you're not shedding the virus without symptoms.

TheOneInFour