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

I would look at Sally K Norton on YouTube. Her symptoms might ring a bell too.

@OMG12
I am angry. This issue is one that I will never take lightly. If a substance has active properties that can be used for actual medical purposes, drug companies would develop it. They can't replicate homeopathic substances because they would lose their license to make medicines for fraudulent practices. Complementary treatments like massage may be of benefit. Magic isn't.

I'd try it. If you can afford it. If nothing else has worked I'd give it a go you never know.

There's a few posters on this thread getting confused between homeopathy and herbal medicines.

Herbal medicines can be very helpful, and not just as placebo. Homeopathy is only of use as a placebo.

The main reason is that feeling better isn't the same as being better. With genuine medical conditions, that's harmful.

I appreciate you sharing.

I started having digestive issues around that age too and also had the "bloody massacre" as I called it.

I do follow a rather bland diet as so many things set it off and also terrible heartburn. Sometimes I feel I live on Gaviscon!

With bloody massacre, turns out I had massive fibroids.
I was offered the coil, told to take NSAIDS and wait it out until menopause.

So I suffered. Menopause finally came at age 55.

What I wish I would have done is persist in getting a hysterectomy, even if I had to pay for it myself!

As for the digestive, I would find the best specialist you can and persist until they figure it out and can treat it.

How are your work and relationships? Are you stressed at work or at home?

I know there are medications that work on pain receptors. They're not narcotics or anything like that. People with diabetic neuropathy take them. Had to look it up. One is Duloxetine and it seems to work for some for IBS.

Anyway, just some suggestions to ask your GP or specialist about.

Yes. There have been many alternative medicine companies prosecuted for hazardous materials in their products. A homeopathic remedy producer in the states was recently prosecuted for actually including the substance advertised in their product. Kafkaesque levels of stupid.

I have, in the past, paid to see private consultants and have drawn the same blanks as with the NHS consultants, the only difference there is they have more time to discuss medications/options etc.

The reason that it works for some people is not the pills, but because a nice, kind person has sat and listened to you for an hour, so you go away feeling better.

Even with prescribed drugs, the placebo effect is 30-40%, so it stands to reason that if someone you see is kind and thoughtful, and gives you some tablets, 4 out of 10 people will feel better ( and claim it was the tablets.)

Interestingly, in some research, people even get better when they are told their drug is a placebo.

The mind is very powerful.

German here. You're misrepresenting the situation. Germany has a long-standing lobby for homeopathy given it was the cradle of this cult. As a result, there's a special approval regime for homeopathic preparations (no need to prove effectiveness) and parts of the medical profession get side qualifications in it to use for easy profits. However, official training is finally being discontinued - there's no training in voodoo either after all. But quite a few insurance companies still.offer coverage since patients who want homeopathy tend to be higher earning- think the green alternative bourgeoisie - and given insurance contributions are charged proportionally to income and patients can choose which scheme to join that's a big deal. As to doctors - there are some old-fashioned true believers, yes. But mostly it's a way for getting patients off their back who'd otherwise nag them for antibiotics or other treatments that actually impact the clinic's prescribing ceilings. Also, a lot of what Germans call homeopathy is actually naturopathic medicine, e.g. arnica preparations that aren't diluted to near-zero according to the homeopathic method.

Homeopathy is completely without merit. It lacks any evidence-based support and is not even a logical science. However, there is one valuable lesson that modern medicine professionals could learn from homeopaths: the importance of taking a comprehensive medical history, actively listening to patients, and giving them ample time to explain their health concerns
I don’t want to waste my money and time on sham treatment

That sounds very sensible. I can see the allure of what the homeopath is offering and can see that, if money weren't an object, it might be worth it for both the reassurance and the hope it brings you, but otherwise what you really want is an answer and a course of treatment or action that you know has been proven. The soft words and empty promises can feel like a balm, but won't solve the root problem. I hope you get some answers soon.

In desperation we consulted a homeopath for DD when she was about 5 for asthma and eczma.
She gave us some tablets for her (and a big bill) but DD found them and ate them all. I phoned the homeopath in a state to check what they were before rushing to A&E and she said that there was no need as they were completely harmless.
Which made me think that it was all a pile of shite - also made us fit a lockable medicine cabinet too

You are correct @Hobbi however, there is always one that trots the 'it worked for me line' ignoring the placebo effect it had on them. Or the 'drugs companies don't use it because they can't make money out of it' - ignoring that the OP said £100 fee to see plus £25 tinctures which is more than a prescription medicine.

Pharmaceutical companies cannot make money out of a silly pill with the memory of water to cure all range of things including disability - was suggested for a child with autism too - crazy batshit water memory to cure all cannot be licenced because it is rubbish.

Good point. The time taken to sit down and listen helps but then at £100 for a session and £25 per crap treatment it's not something a lot of people can run to.

Awful isn't it that a homeopathy can sell you a pill to cure things with nothing in it but water with a 'memory' - snake oil practices make money.

On the positive side your DD was fine and would have been if she had eaten 6 or 7 bottles of the 'cure'.... harmless but also pointless waste of money.

😂 by the logic of homeopathy, the only way to overdose would be to have less than you were told!

That's brilliant and very accurate and yet people cannot see that at all. Thanks, that made me smile

I don’t know what your issues are but I would try acupuncture and chinese
medicine before homeopathy first. Proper chinese specialists must go to medical school and then 4 years of the specialty training. There have been studies showingit can really help
certain conditions. Acupuncture can really help with a huge range of issues. I’ve had acupuncture for several issues myself and I absolutely love it.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/astrology-with-needles/

A friend in spain practices, gave me some stuff once and did nothing...there is a cold and flu remedy which gets good reviews but didnt work for me...personally i think its all nonsense but i dont discuss this with my friend. However i have a lot of time for acupuncture and this really works, i have it for colds and virus and fatigue and it works 100%. try that.

I worked for a company that made and sold homeopathic remedies. I can confirm there is nothing in them apart from whatever the carrier is made from.
With the exception of the arnica gel and cream. And the water containing naturally occuring iron.
Since I left they may have more products with something actually in them but I haven't kept up with their range.
It is indeed a load of bunkum. And the company made a fortune from selling cheap brandy in tiny quantities, water and sugar pills.
Some of the creams were good but didn't contain any active ingredients.

in the medieval times there was only homeopathic remedies, which often worked. Indeed a lot of modern medication has homeopathic elements, including aspirin

i used it short term and it helped, each person is different

You're conflating homeopathy, that was invented by a German bloke in the 18th century, with herbal medicine.
There are no elements of homeopathy in modern medicine at all. It's bunkum.

A lot of the situations it 'works' for are self-limiting conditions anyway - eg teething, colds and flu, headaches, even infant eczema. If it clears up, you think the homeopathic remedy worked. If it doesn't, you discount it.

What annoys me most about homeopathy is that a lot of people seem to think it's an ancient medical tradition, and thus has centuries of validity or at least usage, but it was just made up by some German guy in the 19th century on a whim. And it's not even logical.

I see I cross posted with pingopango. Homeopathy is made up modern nonsense.