To cancel the appointment because homeopathy is a load of crap?

[HowdoIgetbacktothe80s]

I’ve had chronic health issues for years. These issues are getting worse and completely ruining my quality of life.
Despite lots of tests, consultant and GP appointments via the NHS, I am definitely getting worse not better.
I know and appreciate the NHS is on its knees but I am fed up waiting up to a year for consultation appointments, having them cancelled at last minute (one was even cancelled whilst I was in the hospital waiting room ffs!) and when I eventually get seen it is often a rushed 10 minute appointment. I am getting nowhere fast and pretty desperate right now despite investing so much in the hope of feeling well and trying many things myself. I don’t want to keep taking up NHS space when someone worse off than me needs the services, I would love to find someone out there who can help me heal.
I am contemplating turning to ‘alternative’ healthcare. I asked on my local town’s FB group for recommendations and several recommended a local homeopath.
I have had a 30 minute free call with her. She was so very lovely and for the first time I felt listened to and validated.
She explained how she had experience of my health issues herself and how homeopathy could indeed help me. She said that because my issues were long standing it would take some months to start to feel better.
So I have booked to go and see her in a month.
The consultation is £100 with the homeopathic tinctures being an additional £25 which she said would last about a month and I would probably need to see her for several months. Each follow up appointment will be £80 (probably every other month or so). She wasn’t pushy at all and it was left up to me to make any decisions.
I have told my dh and friends and they think it’s a utter waste of my money and homeopathy is nothing more than a placebo. They truly believe I will not get better via this route but am now having a wobble about it as it is a lot of money for me if it doesn’t help.
Of course if you look on the NHS website it will tell you much the same. But the NHS hasn’t been able to help me and I am now at a loss, stuck in limbo land and getting desperate.

What is everyone’s opinion or experience on homeopathy?
Should I pursue this route or cancel now?
I dare say that am going to get flamed on here. I know I am probably grasping at straws but I just want to feel better.

YABU - homeopathy is useless, you may as well throw the money down the drain don’t be so gullible!
YANBU - I believe in homeopathy, it works

weRone I do already practise hypnotherapy. I have had face to face and currently listen to a hypnotherapy app every day. Lovely and relaxing but sadly doing little for my health issues.

I hear acupuncture actually does work as an alternative therapy (for some things anyway!). I am sure it's actually clinically proven to work but we don't really know why!

I have tried everything Icanbetherubberband

the one that said it was cured by retirement , I know there is a cost of living crisis etc but is there any way at all you could take 8+ weeks off work, just eat whole foods cook from scratch gentle exercise and nothing else, no using the time to declutter or projects just a gentle simple way of life potter in the garden if you want etc

It doesn't work directly.

However, placebo effect as others have said. If someone convinces themselves that taking a pill with a memory in it will cure their aches and pains (minor ones) then they will feel better. People are odd things and telling someone that a spirit is watching over them might work, or popping hands a couple of inches away to 'heal them' works and some are so suggestible that they believe it and pain goes...

Some people believe all sorts of nonsense.

Im intrigued when people say stuff like this

everything in the world is made of natural ingredients.

what do you think the alternative is?

using the word "natural" attracts a certain type of person, but it doesnt have any meaning

Definitely a good suggestion.

Gut health is critical to overall health.

Well worth investigating how to strengthen it.

A break from gluten, dairy and all meat would be a great start to rest your system.

Eating within a 6-8 hour window also is a great way to rest your system.

@PlusLaMeme exactly. Many people use alternative or herbal remedies but confuse homeopathy which is just rubbish. I mean who believes that water has a 'memory' complete and utter tosh.

The post below from Billy again confuses some complementary medicines that work (and lists some) with homeopathy which doesn't apart from as a placebo....

"billy1966 · Today 12:57
I believe in complementary medicine and have used a homeopathy very successfully.
I have friends who use a herbalist instead of HRT and they are very pleased.
I brought each of my children to a cranial osteopathy after being born.
Obviously I absolutely believe in ordinary medicine.
My son had dreadful headaches and nothing was working, CAT scan clear.
One session of acupuncture and his blinding headache was gone.

If the homeopath has a good reputation I would give her a go.
I have only gone to those with a great rep.
Best of luck. How can you have a good reputation when telling someone that water has a memory!

Do you have an idea what area of speciality you're condition would likely to come under? Might be worth finding eg. An endocrinologist who you could see for a private consultation.

And those two things are unrelated. Because if drug companies started providing the tinctures wouldn’t it be another drug. Also it would be difficult to get the patent there really wouldn’t be the type of money in it for drug companies based on their business model

Im not saying it works, I’m saying it doesn’t fit with the healthcare business model.

you seem extremely angry, maybe you should make yourself a lavender pillow and drink some camomile tea. Maybe take up some daily breathing exercises

emptythelitterbox I have daily ongoing digestive issues. After lots of very uncomfortable and lengthy tests I have been diagnosed with IBS and functional dyspepsia. I am literally in constant discomfort on a daily basis from stomach through to the end of my colon, every day and often am woken through the night with it. I can not eat like ‘normal’ people, food triggers the symptoms and I have to follow an extremely bland and boring diet. I am exhausted. I also have ongoing gynae issues with periods so heavy I ended up with ferritin levels of 2. I have had infusions and an ablation to help but still have cyclical pain and I am sure the two issues are connected somehow. Tbh, the reason I did not specify my issues in my op is due to the fact that I have previously made a thread and had lots of really helpful and kind advice but I have tried them all and have had little to no relief. I didn’t want to waste peoples time repeating the same thing.

WingingItSince1973 going by your user name we share the same birth year. Did you find your issues were getting worse in your 40’s? I was not doing too badly then hit 45 and it has all gone pear shaped.

20% of people think you should give it a go. Mumsnet is not the most welcoming of places to stick one's head above the parapet and say.. yes homeopathy worked for me.

Often, people turn to homeopathy when allopathic medicine does not have the answers for them. And sometimes, things improve. Happy to chat more in PM if you wanted to.

Ariela I am already on a strict low fodmap diet and have removed my known triggers of gluten, wheat and diary. It hasn’t eased my issues sadly.

Cottagecheeseisnotcheese I could if I were to win the lottery lol!

billy1966 I am already on a strict diet, I drink only filtered water and eat from 10am-6pm. I can’t see what more I could do diet wise?

@ChristmasFluff theres plenty of evidence that SSRIs work. To get a drug licence there has to be trial evidence of benefit. And double blind trials eliminate the placebo effect
and herbal/ homeopathic medicines often contain ingredients that are nothing to do with the ingredient that ms meant to have an effect. They aren’t subject to manufacturing processes like incensed medicines. So many examples but a tincture is made using alcohol, if something has grown in contaminated soil and you dry it without any purification it can lead to concentrated toxins. So yes it’s absolutely possible for something to have no effect but contain damaging chemicals!

Have you seen a dietitian?

Icanbetherubberband I really don’t tbh. I have come across several health conditions which mirror my symptoms, I think, maybe, the sensible route would be to start with a private GP and ask for their advice which avenue to follow?

I have only had very positive experience with homeopathy in both preventative and acute situations. In Europe it is much more widely accepted and is often practiced by GP’s alongside general medicine.

I could not have got through the menopause without it, I begged for HRT and it was suggested I try alternatives, within a week it was so much better and within a month was controlled. Medication was then reduced over the next ten years but I never had to take a single hormone.

The UK has always been fairly anti non conventional medicine, I do think you need to be very careful who you see as there will be lots of rubbish and unqualified people out there. Check out your therapist carefully and give it a go for a couple of months.

If a placebo makes you feel better, what’s the problem?

Thank you ChateauMargaux I suppose I have nothing to lose by purchasing some homeopathic remedies and trying them, it’ll be cheaper than giving the homeopath £300

I have BungleandGeorge they were the ones to advise the low fodmap diet.

I want to say it's hokum but I've seen amazing results in animals with one client having subclinical mastitis in a herd of pedigree Holsteins that every modern western medicine had failed to cure. I'm on the fence.

Have you changed your diet at all OP?

I could not have got through the menopause without it, I begged for HRT and it was suggested I try alternatives, within a week it was so much better and within a month was controlled. Medication was then reduced over the next ten years but I never had to take a single hormone.

So why aren't the drug companies busy developing homeopathic menopause cures? They would make billions: a never-ending supply of menopausal women needing help. Because it doesn't work. Because for every woman who responds to the placebo effect there are hundreds who don't.