To not want to see a GP who had a qualification in Homeopathy?

[cordiality]

I've been offered an appointment with a newnGP at my surgery instead of my usual one, 'as she's a woman' (not that I requested that, but that's another issue entirely!)

I looked her up on their website and, among other specialities, she is a qualified homeopathic practioner.

Am I BU to think that you either practice mainstream medicine or homeopathy (which I, possibly wrongly, consider as being a bit 'woo') and to think that she's not the sort of doctor I would want to see?

Am perfectly open to being told I'm wrong by the way!

I genuinely laughed out loud at longtalljoise.

I would want another Dr, OP.

YANBU. It's up to you which GP you see.

Loving the irony on this thread courtesy of some of the pro science, 'anti woo' posters: dismissing the doctor out of hand without any investigation or testing of your hypothesis. Glad to see the OP is willing to give her a go.

I have had two good experiences of GP/homeopaths. The first was when we were ttc, and had male and female difficulties - the doctor did his best to keep us in the NHS system with a very unsympathetic consultant who refused to see us any longer (I assume because we were no use to his 'success' rates). Ds was conceived after homeopathic treatment! My dd2 had lymph problems a few years ago, and the medical advice was to 'avoid picking up infections'. A GP/homeopath gave her both a lymph remedy and probiotics; so far she has been OK for 3 years. On the other hand, dd1 has been unable to get rid of her veruccas with anything, mainstream, homeopathic or duct tape.

"seeker Mon 02-May-11 22:27:46
at the idea of a qualified homeopath. It's really important to be properly qualified before you give people some water."

Well yes, otherwise anything might happen. You might spill it down their new silk top. Or tip it on their cat.

all doctors are interested in finding out the cause of the disease and treating that. the homeopathy part comes because some gp's want to go above andbeyond their initial medical training, to be able to better treat a patient. All doctors are requured to keep up with the state of medicine and be informed about the latest developments in treatment. all the evidence based ones. however, some doctors go further, and learn about what their patients are interested in, so that they can better treat them.
for example, the gp i saw recently who had learnt more than just the basics of sign language because his practice had a school for hearing impaired children close by and he had found it was better for him to be able to have some sort of communication with those patients. another owuld be the gp who finds that she has lots and lots of patients come in and talk to her about the homepathic medicines that they are taking. some of them are pharmacologically active and as such she needs to know this before prescribing anything else. evveryone knows about stjohns wort, but that isnt the only alternative medication that is active. a good doctor will find out as much information as she possibly can.

quidco, I think you are getting confused between homeopathy and herbal medicine. St John's Wort is a herbal remedy

seeker, i wish i could send you the link, but it was in sceintific american a few months ago, about water memory. i didnt understand it, as was beyond my a level physics, but there is a theory that water has a memory of stuff that is more than just basic chemistry and sort of quantum.
disputing something just because it doesnt make sense to you right now is no different from people disputing the germ theory just because they couldnt see the germs. I dont believe in homeopathy, but i have seen enough anecdotal evidence to know that it should most definitly be studied properly and scientifically

yes, that was the example taht came to mind, and i realsied later that its not homeopathy. i was trying to say that things interact, and doctors need to know what interacts with what. but my brain is dead, and i havent finished my essay yet.
adieu, or sommat that means good night.

am oging to cut, paste and run I'm afraid as it's late

a few stats on homeopathy here
homeopathyresource.com/homeopathy_statistics.shtml

Here's a few relevant stats, sorry didn't have time to chase up the refs so may be dodgy but note the % of doctors trained in homeopathy in Scotland, for instance. Incidentally my comment earlier about French medicine being best in world imo was not directly linked to use of homeopathy (imo again) - what I meant was, if the best medical system in the world is quite happy to use it, why kick up such a fuss cos your GP is qualified in it? I would guess a lot know perfectly well the benefit of the placebo effect

Use of homeopathy by physicians in Europe

40% (18,000) of French M.D.s have treated 40% of the French public (Compl Med Research, May 1990, 4(2)4-8.)
40 % of Dutch
37% of British and 42% of family physicians refer to homeopaths (BMJ, 292, June 7,1986, 1498-1500)
20% of German
20% of Scottish physicians have had training in homeopathy

I wouldn't see a GP that was involved in homeopathy, this is because I think homeopathy is a crock of shit and that anyone who believes in it is a bit dim - dim is not exactly what I look for in a GP.

Setting aside the homeopathy, Morloth, presumably you don't think that trained GPs who believe in conventional medicine are 'a bit dim'? How can you discount that (significant) part of the doctor's background and how can you focus on one element of her experience at the expense of other factors? You have no clue about her overall approach to patients, and medicine, and the balance of her beliefs.

YABU. We had the most fantastic locum GP at our surgery. She took an integrative approach ie was trained in alternative medicine as well as traditional.

Whenever we went to see her she gave noticeably more time to the consultation and looked beyond the immediate physical signs and symptoms. If it hadn't been for her, I would not have been tested for my thyroid function. I had been going to the GP for months with really unpleasant symptoms of anxiety which GP after GP told me were stress-related. Turned out they were actually hyperthyroid related. Since she took the time to listen and think during our consultation I have been given the appropriate medication and I feel soooo much better.

Don't be put off, you don't have to take the homepathic remedies if you choose not to but you might get a different perspective on your illness from someone who is thinking a bit more deeply about it.

Many many posters confusing homeopathy with GP's taking a holistic approach and/or herbal medicine.

Homeopathy is unscientific & there are many many studies that prove it to be ineffective.

A holistic approach - upholds that all aspects of people's needs, physical, social, and mental should be taken into account and seen as a whole.

Herbal Medicine basically means medicines which have their origins in plants. Many conventional medicines have their roots (pun intended ;) ) in herbal medicine.link

Loved the mitchell & webb & I second LTJ for quote of the week with "A scientist?"

What is the evidence for your statement on Scottish "physicians" mercibucket? As physicians is an American term I doubt it's truth. I know alot of Scottish doctors and only know of 1 who is a qualified homopath. I don't believe there is only 1 homopathic GP in Scotland but 20% of GPs definitely aren't homopaths and very few hospital doctors outside the Glasgow homopathic hospital are qualified in homeopathy.
German docs use alot of herbal medicine, don't know about homeopathy. I'd want to see the details of those statistics before believing them.

I see you did give a link, but didn't link it properly. That link looks like pseudoscience. The statistics seem to come from 1 Egyptian guy in Cairo with no info as to how he obtained them. Think of a number time by the sounds of things.

me nether ,Cordiality

I am pleased homeopathy is being looked at sceptically.

It may have some good points. But a good doc is best

Loony is entirely right - one would hope that all doctors nowadays take a holistic approach to a patient, treating them as a person rather than just a list of diseases (a person with diabetes rather than a diabetic IYSWIM). That's the kind of doctor Accio has described. I think most doctors understand homeopahy and certainly wouldn't need to go on a course for it (how did she even get to the end?? I think I would be chucked out for hitting the lecturer over the head with a physiology textbook!)

"theory that water has a memory of stuff that is more than just basic chemistry and sort of quantum"

"Sort of quantum", is it?

If water had memory, it would be toxic. All water on earth has been recycled for millennia, holding heavy metals, excrement, dead and rotting carcasses, not to mention every single virus and bacteria. The very fact that you can drink any water and not die a slow and painful death means that water does not mimic the effect of things it once held.

Use your head, woman

I refer you back to my rather tasteless Osama joke...

cote, it was an article in a magazine/journal whatever that is considered quite respectable. I dont understand it, but then i dont understand much nuclear physics anyways.

I dont believe in homeopathy. what i believe in is science, and if anecdotal evidence suggests that something works, then i believe that scientific principles should be applied to testing whatever is in use.

A good doctor will always look at the whole person, never just the symptoms, and if the doctors client group all use a particular substance/ follow a practice, then a good doctor will find out as much as she can about it so that she can be a better doctor to her patients.

" i have seen enough anecdotal evidence to know that it should most definitly be studied properly and scientifically"

It has been studied "properly and scientifically". Do you think we are all saying It Does Not Work because we dreamt it doesn't?

Study after study after study had shown that homeopathy works no better than placebo - i.e. It Does Not Work.

In fact, there is a $1 million reward out there for whoever proves that homeopathy works. And nobody has claimed it.

Do you think that is because scientists who study the effectiveness of homeopathy don't like money? Or could it be that....

It Does Not Work!

YANBU. For the reasons you've already given.

When I see a GP, I want someone who treats according to a strong evidence base.

A history of experiments & controversy re "memory of water".