To be looking so differently now at Drs, schools etc etc

Probably Arnica.
Arnica does work for inflammation.
Lots of people use it.

Oh dear -- I saw PANDAS/PANS mentioned. This is a minefield.

Don't get me wrong: It's very real. However there is a subset of the internet that is dedicated to suggesting that PANDAS/PANS is the cause of all sorts of issues that it is not. In some cases I think it is desperation to avoid diagnoses like OCD or Tourette's.

The other issue is that it can be quite difficult to diagnose and treat and that is a ripe field for quacks. You see this also with Lyme disease, particularly in the USA though there is a very suspicious clinic in Belgium.

Homeopathy simply doesn't work. The theory is bad, there is no evidence, absolutely nothing adds up. Practitioners often conflate various forms of herbal medicine with homeopathy because herbal medicine can work (it's not inherently superior just because it's natural, but some of the remedies do work). But there's no active substance in homeopathic remedies. It's a completely bonkers theory about water having a memory.

A lot of holistic and natural practitioners rely on the feelings you get when you go. There's no being rushed in and out, no feeling like you've been given a standard remedy, 10 days of amoxicillin and off you go! They do a very in depth questioning so you feel like you have been truly listened to, that the plan has been thought out specially for you. This is really important to the placebo effect. Many conditions will improve on their own without treatment, so when you go to the doctor and get better, you attribute the improvement to the doctor rather than to the passage of time. This is an issue in standard medicine as well; it's why it can be so hard to explain to patients that they don't need antibiotics because their disease is viral (for example). They've had antibiotics before and got better; clearly the antibiotics worked.

OP, the homeopathy may well be working. If it is (or you think it is) and you are still pursuing traditional medical routes as well, there's no harm in it. It's just sugar pills/water. The risk comes if you decide to go against the advice of doctors and not give your daughter traditional treatment.

As others have said, the placebo effect is actually amazing (it even works in animals*), as is the effect of having someone spend time and listen. If you have the money, and it's working for you and your daughter, go with it. Just please don't start to use it instead of real medicine.

Naturopathy is more dangerous. There are absolutely alternative medicines and therapies that do work. It's just with alternative medicine it's not just sugar pills - they might conflict with medication your doctor has prescribed and vary in intensity so you do need to consult your doctor (not your natropath). Where a 'natural' medicine/treatment has been proven to work it normally becomes 'real' medicine. For example, you can get acupuncture on the NHS.

• Multiple studies but eg https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19912522/

Mostly people just hate quacks and charlatans.

Mumsnet hates homeopathy

I also have Parkinson's and my neurologist has never mentioned anything to me either about AI having practically cured it. Also, if that is true, why do I keep on having strong drugs 4 times a day, which do help some aspects of my Parkinson's, but which also have some very unfriendly side effects?

I will be very interested to see or read about these amazing advances as well if @harrumphh replies to you @AllTheChaos!

OP your argument would make more sense if you meant HOLISTIC treatments rather than homeopathy. You talk about the gut/brain relationship. Yes. Very interesting stuff and worth exploring. It is real science though.

You sound like a teenager who has thought deeply about something for the first time and now feel superior to the ‘sheeple’ with their blind trust in government and science.

And the question—“We can’t all be wrong, can we?”—yes, that’s entirely possible. Until less than 200 years ago, bloodletting was a common practice. All those people were wrong!

I agree with you to an extent - homeopathy is valid for some health concerns - I would treat covid or viruses or minor wounds with herbal extracts etc but the worry is when you listen to quacks, they will persuade you to treat EVERYTHING with it. A balance of both is good - you shouldn't mess around with an infection that has progressed too far, anything with the young or old that could progress to being fatal if not treated etc.

A lot of people say homeopathy when what they mean is natural medicine. The former is a theory with no evidence based and it also doesn't make sense. But natural medicine is a lot wider a category and does include things that probably do work. I think what can often make those practitioners effective though is taking more time to talk to the patient and try to get at what's going on. A lot of conventional doctors are too rushed and in the end treat everyone like a number, it's like taking your car to the garage at the dealership.

Anyway OP - yes, I have changed my view on doctors in recent years. A lot more than I realized seem quite stupid, and have little or no relation to evidence based medicine or, it seems, science.

There's a finite amount of water on the planet and now it all contains (or not? if that's how homeopathy works) an extremely diluted amount of the cure for everything so just keep drinking it.

😂

You realise that people can train as both right? Conventional + alternative medicine.

The original post made me smile but your response actually made me cry with laughter!

I hope your daughter will soon be old enough to learn about the placebo effect, and that she'll be able to make her own medical choices.

Fwiw I know a woman who avoids medical professionals (because they are part of The System 🙄) and loves quackery. Didn't get her kids vaccinated. Guess what, her now-adult kids got themselves fully vaccinated and seek medical attention as needed.

Well she said she's in Europe so there's a possibility that they are actually a GP with years of medical training who has done a qualification in homeopathy and is flogging this shit to patients.
Plenty of them in Austria.

So... by 'traditional doctor' you actually mean a GP (with many years of actual medical training)?

And by 'non-traditional doctor' you mean a quack? Because they are NOT actual 'doctors' are they?

🤦‍♀️

You're not imagining the result but its a placebo - you improve because you expect to -it doesn't mean the improvement doesn't happen necessarily

You (and presumably because of you your daughter) believe in homeopathy/had a tendency to believe in it- otherwise you wouldn't have gone to one of these practitioners in the first place
Whereas i don't believe in it at all and would not visit one so it wouldn't work. I definitely wouldn't call them doctors

You need a lot of those tiny bottles to do that!

😃

You can get it cheaper from the tap.

Dehydration. It cures dehydration.

I agree. And the ones peddling woo bollocks to cure cancer in both children and adults.
Making money out of the ill and disabled,and as you say the parents who love their children and will stop at nothing to help their child.

Worse is the woo-people who prey on parents of kids with disability and illness. The ones who “cure” Downs Syndrome etc

Hope there is special place in hell for them.

It’s funny how people forget that less than 100 years ago millions of people died annually from simple infections , TB was a death sentence, hundreds and thousands of children were maimed by measles, diabetes killed swiftly, polio and smallpox were unstoppable.

Yet to my knowledge not one of these once terrifying illnesses - not to mention all the other medical procedures we take for granted - have been cured , eradicated or halted by homeopathy. It has taken conventional medicine to find vaccinations and cures.

In fact I am trying my hardest to think of one homeopathic cure that has been adopted by conventional practitioners because they recognise that it works. There must be one, surely.