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

[Loveafridaynightchippy]

Has anyone else had a change of opinion about things that they’ve not really questioned and always just accepted before, in the last few years?
It could be since a became a mum, but I’m wondering if it’s more.
My Dd has been very ill recently and I’ve gained much better help, advise from less traditional Drs-think medical Drs who focus on naturopathy too, homeopathy and so on, I never knew anything about homeopathy before my Dd got ill. The results I’ve seen are incredible and much more positive that traditional things like antibiotics, painkillers and so on.
I used to be a teacher and loved it, but I’ve found myself really questioning if this is the right system and the right way of doing things and am increasingly doubting traditional schooling. Even the way the majority of us work, the 9-5, the commutes, snatched weekends with loved ones, the yearly holiday.
Maybe I’m just becoming an old hippie! 😂
Does anyone else feel like this?

Oh dear OP .
It is great news that DD is feeling better.
Conventional medicine is not good at managing certain symptoms and conditions eg chronic pain, the common cold and many many others.
It is clear to all medics that there is a link between diet , activity and health and going down this route will help us all.
Some alternative therapies are definitely helpful eg acupuncture and talking therapies.
Some herbal medicines are effective eg St John's wort are also effective but tend to require an expert practitioner with knowledge of eastern and western medicine so that the point of overlap doesn't cause harm.
The placebo effect is real and to be welcomed.
Homeopathy has been scientifically debunked I'm afraid so don't waste your money unless you are enjoying the holistic experience so much that you want to keep going.

It's not dangerous, unless it stops you getting proper treatment. Homeopathy is just water.

As a GP, I'd love to spend time helping patients sort out their BP with diet and exercise, I'd love to have lots of consultations with my patients with MH issues and help them to slowly come off their drugs - I'm sure a lot of them could.

I don't have the time.
We are fire fighting.

Blame the politicians of every colour (Blair included, though everyone wrongly thinks he was a hero to the NHS) for that.

You know what else - the whole premise of homeopathy is that water remembers. So they put the water on sugar pills and the water evaporates and you take the sugar pill - what are we saying now, that sugar also has a memory?!

FFS - the whole world used to believe the world was flat and that the sun orbited the earth - didn't make it true.

It conveniently forgets all the poo it's had in it.

I think it really is what you make of it - there is no one way that's better to live your life and you just need to do what works for you.

ie the 9-5 I have struggled with in the past. When I had a spiritual experience and subsequent life crisis I quit my 9-5 and went self-employed, I've since gone back to a 9-5. All I can say it is all about perspective and how you individually view it. The 9-5 and snatched holidays etc can seem a bit soul destroying if you're actively burnt out and unhappy but there's plenty of good too. I like having a regular income and am grateful to be living a fairly cushy life. Yeah capitalism isn't great but I choose to wake up with gratitude, it is all about perception and your reality if that makes sense.

Medicine is the same, it's what works for you. A hollistic approach is best and realistically we are so limited in what we know of our bodies, the mind-body dialectic is so interesting and we've scratched the surface of what we understand of how mental state plays into physical health etc.

tldr it's not about being a hippie necessarily, plenty of 'hippies' will be just as narrow minded as the people they criticise. Just be open-minded, informed, open to all sides of the topic in question.

Yes, I worded that badly!
Remedies aren't dangerous per se, but replacing effective treatments with remedies is!

France has not covered homeopathic treatment for a while because it doesn't actually do anything. It IS used in Europe but the use of it is changing, like a lot of things that are shown to not actually work.
Also, only about half of German health insurances are paying for homeopathic treatments, by far not all.
I went to the emergency pharmacy in Germany one Christmas a few years back because dd had bad earache, we hadn't brough any calpol with us and all my sister's friends with small children just had homeopathic "remedies". When I said to the pharmacist that I don't want anything homeopathic, she said "oh good, someone with some sense". I asked her why they sell it in the pharmacy and she told me that it keeps the pharmacy in profit.

But it does stop people getting proper treatment. People have been given homeopathy instead of antimalarials.

All of Mumsnet: It’s water. It’s fake. It’s placebo effect.

OP: No it’s not.

May I offer a cheaper miracle cure? A wet paper towel works wonders in most UK primary schools. Can be used for any bump or scratch, across the forehead for headaches, back of the neck for sickness.

Tbf, a lot of GP practices do now have pharmacists reviewing patients' medication, particularly those who are on a polypharmacy rollercoaster.

I also don't think that anyone is claiming conventional medicine is without its weaknesses and can't be improved. But it's based on a colossal canon of knowledge and experience, whereas much alternative medicine, and homeopathy specifically, just isn't.

Nobody is stopping individual patients from participating actively in their healthcare either. To run with your blood pressure example, anyone on antihypertensives can monitor their own blood pressure and see if the drugs are helping or not, and ask for a review if they aren't. We all also know what lifestyle changes improve blood pressure, and there's a considerable amount of support available now via primary care for weightloss, smoking cessation etc. However, the truth is that high blood pressure is largely familial, and there's a limit to what can be done about that. You are right that the percentage difference many drugs make is small, and likewise the percentage difference made by lifestyle changes, but cumulatively they can prevent or mitigate cardiovascular events, renal damage, eye damage and vascular dementia. Show me an alternative therapy that can do that - certainly not homeopathy.

But you are right that bad experiences can damage trust, and in my experience that does hold true for alternative medicine too, which is abysmally badly regulated. Try getting a complaint against a homeopath investigated.

No. I like knowing that there's proper medical care out there for my children if and when they need it.

DS had a milk and soya allergy and reflux as a baby. Even when the milk allergy was under control, his reflux was so bad he was vomiting as he was feeding. It was fucking horrendous; his mouth was so inflamed from the acid and I can't imagine what his insides must have felt like.

The wife of one of DH's friends was into this homeopathy nonsense. Telling me I should be offering a two month old baby all sorts of "cleanses", sending me links to herbal treatments. Fuck that. He got put on liquid omeprazole and was a different child within a week.

Equally, I have coeliac disease and I've had these sorts telling me it'll all be cleared up with charcoal, apple cider vinegar, raw milk, and marshmallow root or whatever other ingredients. No. I have a lifelong disease only managed by not eating gluten. Which I found out about because the nice doctor shoved a tube down my throat and inspected my insides.

We used to have an actual NHS homeopathic hospital in my city, and there is still the NHS centre for integrative care (former Glasgow Homeopathic hospital)…you’d be surprised that rational medical professionals do sometimes do use it!

**

@TempestTost

I think you are too gentle on conventional medicine. It's not just that it can seem cold and impersonal, it can be practiced this way, it can be damaging, doctors can ignore the actual outcomes and health goals of patients.

Thats certainly true. There’s much that is structurally problematic about the infrastructure of health. There are well documented problems with resource. The medical establishment is conservative, patrician and doctrinaire. And actually accessing conventional medicine is really soul destroyingly difficult.

But the thread of your argument is really problematic. It pushes people to believe that quackery like homeopathy is a solution because patients feel like they are being “heard”.

Its really not OK. Feeling that the medical establishment doesn’t hear them should not be an excuse for people who are at best naive and scientifically illiterate and worst manipulative to sell useless and potentially dangerous products to sick people.

I understand the shortcomings of conventional medicine but this is a dangerous dichotomy and it drives more people to seek out this sort of nonsense.

Why is homeopathy not illegal? As far as I can tell it’s not even regulated. I think it’s an absolute scandal tbh.

@Outofthere
Period pains too !

I think you'll find that all the NHS homeopathic hospitals now do other things, they don't do actual homeopathy, including that one in Glasgow. There will always be doctors who are guided by their wallets, sadly, those are the ones who offer homeopathy privately.

🤣🤣🤣 piss ears!

I think if someone put hot piss in my ears I'd be reluctant to admit to any future earaches as well!

@Thepeopleversuswork throughout this thread there has been repeated conflation of homeopathic, holistic and naturopathic therapies.

Homeopathy and holistic therapies do no actual harm. Holistic therapies can do a lot of good. The caveat is so long as they are used alongside conventional medicine.

So I wouldn't want to see them banned though I believe they should be regulated.

Naturopathic remedies on the other hand can be a menace. Herbal remedies sound harmless but they can be very dangerous with no true control of dosage of powerful chemicals.

I take shed loads of warfarin for a blood clotting disorder. If I were to start taking natural remedies either alongside or instead of my warfarin it could kill me either by causing clots or by causing uncontrollable bleeding.

@Comedycook I use them too, always have done, always will. I was just commenting that I’ve tried something else that appears to be working in a better way for my Dd, how, I don’t know, but it is.

PLACEBO EFFECT!

THATS WHY!

Came to say exactly the same thing.

When I've got a cold, I don't blitz my soups. I leave them chunky with broth. Why? Because my brain tells me it's more nutritional. This is, in fact, utter horseshit. I feel better while I'm eating it but it doesn't actually fix my cold. Nor does the soup. It's just soothing.

Take your child to a doctor, OP.

Shouting doesn't make you right, people!

@GiddyRobin Been to three separate ones, thanks, don’t tell my what to do with my daughter 👍

@Loveafridaynightchippy

What kind of treatment is it, OP and for a condition of what kind?