Off the Record: What Naturopaths, Chiropractors and Homeopaths May Say About Vaccines

Many Canadian parents ask their naturopath, chiropractor or homeopath about vaccines — people who are not trained or licensed to give them. Their regulatory colleges have rules about what they may say. The rules differ from province to province and profession to profession, and the gaps between them are where vaccine doubt gets in.

1. The rules, college by college

None of these professions has vaccination in its scope of practice. What their colleges say about talking about vaccines varies a great deal.

College rules change, and several Canadian colleges have merged since 2018. Check the current standard with the college before relying on it in a complaint.

2. What happens in practice

In August 2025, researchers led by Samantha Meyer at the University of Waterloo published interviews with 16 Ontario chiropractors and homeopaths about what they say when patients ask about vaccines (Archives of Public Health). Their findings:

• About 10 of the 16 strongly supported childhood vaccination; about 6 were hesitant or opposed, often citing a preference for “natural immunity.”
• Many referred patients to a doctor or public health nurse, as their colleges require.
• But many also gave indirect guidance: sharing their own vaccination choices, urging parents to “become more informed,” or calling vaccination “a personal choice.”

That indirect guidance is the problem. A practitioner who tells a worried parent “it’s your choice — do your research” has not technically advised against vaccination, but the parent hears doubt from someone they trust. Few college rules address it.

3. Nosodes: “homeopathic vaccines”

Nosodes are homeopathic preparations made from diseased tissue or discharges — for example, from a measles or whooping-cough patient — diluted until nothing of the original remains, and sold as “homeoprophylaxis.” They do not protect against any disease. Health Canada nevertheless licenses some as natural health products. Immunize Canada has a plain-language explainer on why they are not an alternative to vaccination. Our page on Anke Zimmermann and homeoprophylaxis covers the best-known Canadian case, in which a child was given a remedy made from rabid-dog saliva.

4. The gaps

• Indirect doubt. “It’s your choice” and “do your own research” are rarely covered by any rule.
• Social media. Personal posts by practitioners often fall outside what colleges treat as practice or advertising.
• Province by province. A naturopath in Ontario may not discuss vaccines at all; one in B.C. may, with conditions; in several provinces naturopaths have no regulatory college at all.
• Complaints only. Colleges act almost entirely on complaints. If no one complains, nothing happens. The College of Chiropractors of B.C.’s 2019–20 web-monitoring of pregnancy claims showed a college can act on its own; few do. See our page on the Webster Technique.

5. How to complain

If a regulated naturopath, chiropractor or homeopath advises you or your child against vaccination, offers a vaccine “alternative,” or posts anti-vaccine material in their advertising:

1. Write down what was said, when, and by whom. Take screenshots of websites and posts, with the date.
2. Find the college: College of Chiropractors of Ontario, College of Naturopaths of Ontario, College of Homeopaths of Ontario, or the equivalent in your province.
3. File a complaint and quote the college’s own standard back to it. Our how to complain page explains the routes, and our Anti-Vax Rap Sheet lists practitioners who have been disciplined.