To ask for your views and experiences of homeopathy

[R2G]

Had anyone tried it to treat illness? Any good or bad experiences

The person I am thinking of seeing is a homeopath but also offers nutrition, reiki and other things

Hmm, "nutritionists" are often associated with quackery too. I can understand that you want to feel better, and maybe science doesn't quite know how to treat you effectively right now, but homeopathy really isn't the answer as anything other than a placebo.

Thanks @m3lon I'm not sure what I was thinking in terms of diet but more nutrition than excluding stuff. There is definitely a pattern I feel but feel the doctor treats everything one by one. I've been reading quite a lot re gut health and was thinking Long those lines but don't want it to mess with current medication.

@missconductus with regards to your auto immune, what helps?

I'm in full remission thanks to a biologic drug called Entyvio.

I've not held a reflexology qualification before but I am please to learn they are actually significantly cheaper than reiki.

Just 12 pounds...and instant!

"Reflexology Course is suitable for anyone aspiring to or already working in this field or simply want to learn deeper into reflexology Course. You will be able to add this qualification to your CV by downloading your certificate instantly without any cost."

More than worth it I think....or maybe I'll wait and buy it for myself as an early birthday present. I do love adding qualifications to my CV....

Thanks @thesmallassasin. Yes just so frustrated with current medicine. Current diagnosis are alopecia. Given folic acid as was borderline a type of anemia called megoblastic but then reading of other stuff about it should be folate and I may not be able to process it. Two teeth root resorption were extracted. Auto immune.
Depression. Anti depressants just on a rolling basis with occasional reviews keep reading linked to gut health. So many physical symptoms they sent me to a neurologist who diagnosed stress. Each time they just look at one thing and give me a pill. Really don't know where to turn

Science is learning more and more about gut health and its impact on the body. This is a really interesting area of genuine medical research.

You do really need to separate the quackery from the medicine. Make sure the practicioners you see are the right side of the divide and didn't download their certificates off the internet!

Honestly you need to speak to an expert.

@missconductus thanks. Who would you advise a gp referral to?

Ps my homeopath/GP in central london just FYI in case useful for you. DM me if so!

@m3lon I have seen 3 GPS, a neurologist, an endocrine specialist, a tricologist, two counsellors, hypnotherapist this was NHS.
Yes it's a very interesting area particularly for My depression diagnosis. I am finding it very difficult to talk to an expert. Everyone is in their own little box and don't seem to have to time to look holistically. GP won't refer re: gut health (I have had full screening and blood tests for coeliac due to my alopecia).

I wouldn't put any weight on the depression gut link. I don't think there is causation there yet - only a correlation.

People have linked depression to chronic inflamation as well in a similar way.

I actually do research on depression (though I am a scientist not a psychologist or doctor) and have suffered in the past.

Real progress won't be made till people properly accept that depression is as vague a symptom as 'sore throat'.

If you try and treat all the people with 'sore throat' the same regardless of whether or not the cause is bacterial, viral or cancer then you aren't going to do very well, and you aren't going to learn a lot about the causes either.

This problem is summed up for me by a finding that has been demonstrated multiple times. Monoamines are lower on average in the depressed than the non-depressed population. People treat this in the depressed population with anti-depressants, however even when ADs are effective they don't tend to kick in until about 6 weeks, when the monoamine level is normal within 48 hours. It is also not possible to produce depression in health patients by artificially lowering their monoamine levels.

In other words finding even a strong correlation that makes rational sense and points to an obvious mechanism (as monoamine is a neurotransmitter) doesn't mean its relevant, useful, important, or something you can base an effective treatment on....

If my depression was caused by monoamine, gut flora or chronic inflamation then all I can say is that it is odd that it was cured (after 3 years of fucking around with pills) by 5 sessions of talking therapy...all be it from a therapist with a very high level of training.

I do understand your pain in getting people to see the bigger picture and private medical care may have a real role to play in making that happen. But it needs to be private MEDICAL care, not a meeting with someone who dabbles in nutrition, reiki, and homeopathy.

God - my advert feed is now jam packed full of adverts for courses on bullshit. Apparently that 12 pound instant qualification download used to cost 459 quid....I mean...crikey...they can't have sold much at that price!

Thanks @m3lon. Glad you found a cure. I think my next step may be to a dietician nutritionist whatever correct term is. Goodnight

Absolutely useless load of rubbish - had 2 consultations/treatments with different practitioners (just to prove I could waste money twice) no actual benefits - despite my strenuous efforts to be convinced

I’m going to quote John Diamond.

“Where I stand on alternative medicine is roughly where the Pope stands in getting drunk on the communion wine and pulling a couple of nuns”.

Glueandstick - snap!

Thanks @mother87 did you find anything that helped you in the end get back to feeling healthy?

If water had memory, we'd all have died of cholera. If you're gullible enough to consult a homeopath I hope, for your sake, that you get one who knows they are conning you. Because the con artist doesn't want you to die (if you die, they can't get any more money out of you) so the con artists won't tell you to stop the conventional treatment you need to have... if you're actually ill and not a whinyarse. It's no coincidence that homeopathy 'works' on ailments that are either going to get better with no intervention fairly soon or are vague, imprecise and quite probably down to the patient being a self-obsessed whinyarse who was never' ill' in the first place but just tired or hungover.

Think I'll go to bed now. Thanks for your thoughts. I would just like to feedback that constant shouts of journo and calling me things like whiny arse and not really sick are a bit upsetting and unhelpful. Mums net used to be supportive.
This is not directed at people who said homeopathy is quackery. I'm talking about the personal comments. Night.

OP you need a dietician. You don't need a nutritionist. This is exactly what I was saying earlier. You need to work harder to separate the medicine from the bullshit.

Dietician is a protected title and you can find a registered dietician who can give you genuine medical advice.

'Nutritionist' is no different to reflexologist or reiki grand master. You can download the certificate off the internet or save money and make your own in paint.

Honestly, you deserve effective treatment and if you keep blundering around without checking whats what you are vastly reducing your chances of getting that effective treatment.

Best wishes to you OP, I hope you can take my advice seriously.

The person I am thinking of seeing is a homeopath but also offers nutrition, reiki and other things.

The term, 'nutritionist' has no meaning in English law, you want to see a dietician.

Please be very careful with alternative medicine. Homeopathy won't do anything but some herbal and OTC things can have an affect on the body.

When I was at uni one of the students was having a terrible time with her thyroid, her levels were up and down all over the place and there was talk of surgically removing it so she would be dependent on thyroxine.

What had actually happened was that she was taking thyroxine on prescription from her GP and kelp from a herbalist.

So she was taking two things that worked in opposite ways.

Well there's certainly no danger of overdosing. So there's that.

You could drown

OP, have you had your vitamin D level checked? If not, you really should.
Also take B vitamin supplements if not already.

I used it for my son's eczema when he was a baby. It worked.

As for the designation between " nutritionists" and " dieticians"..... people can study nutrition, via a real science based nutrition degree. Or they can get a certificate from the internet for £24.99, so, always check credentials!

I'm always curious about people who believe that we, as a society, are at the absolute height of knowledge and information.

I do understand your pain in getting people to see the bigger picture and private medical care may have a real role to play in making that happen. But it needs to be private MEDICAL care, not a meeting with someone who dabbles in nutrition, reiki, and homeopathy.

This. With bells on.

Please be very careful with alternative medicine. Homeopathy won't do anything but some herbal and OTC things can have an affect on the body.

Also this. Except: sometimes, it not doing anything is actively harmful.

I had asthma as a child (grew out of it, thankfully) and my lentil-weaving, tree-hugging parents decided that homeopathy was the kind and gentle way of treating it without resorting to harsh chemicals. Now in my mid-thirties, I can still vividly recall the horrible feeling of suffocating. I don't scare easily and am very laid back opposite stress in general - but a mild chest infection that causes me to wheeze a little and I develop full blown panic attacks to this day. Nothing else triggers this in me. My former GP thought it was a mild form of PTSD and had me on anxiety medication whenever I caught a cold. It also didn't precisely help my relationship with my parents when I found out that there was actual medicine for this kind of thing and they'd been letting me suffer needlessly for, essentially, ideological reasons. I've forgiven them at this point - but I still think they were dead wrong.

So, no, it doesn't do anything - but that doesn't make it harmless.

@R2G I've had homeopathic treatments several times, and they've all worked a treat.

I absolutely take on board that science suggests it's complete BS but I can only say it worked for me.

I didn't just buy homeopathic treatments from a random shop/online, I saw a trained homeopath which I think makes a difference hugely.