to wonder why dr's are so dismissive of "alternative" therapies?

[tialys]

For example - ds1 was a very difficult baby - he either cried or fed. He saw a cranial osteopath (as a last resort) when he was 5/6 months old. Within 2 days, he was a different baby. Dr's completely dismissed it as coincidence, as CO is completely untested and unresearched.
So 5 years down the line, it must have been another coincidence when ds2 underwent a similar miracle cure?

Another example - I've spent the last few months with terrible asthma - hospitalised 3 times, nothing the dr's did made any difference at all.
I've started having accupuncture (again as a last resort) and within 2 weeks, my asthma is better than it has been for years. Saw my dr, who said "ah good - looks like your steroid inhaler is finally doing its job" (I started it months before the astham attacks started ) and warned me away from charlatans like acupuncturists.

Why can't they accept that sometimes, alternative therapies can be more effective than giving more and more drugs to their patients?

Message withdrawn

Trillian I was just thinking the same thing about starting a thread of its own. It could bring up some very interesting theories!! Thanks for your input!!

I know this is pedantic and irrelevant - but I can't help myself...

there is a difference between the words Complimentary and Complementary.

Complimentary = free of charge or to give someone a compliment

Complementary = to go with something (eg. complementary therapy.)

Sorry - as you were....

but complimentary therapy would probably work:

'Sorry to hear about your back pain, but you do have lovely hair.'
Guaranteed to cheer you up and stop you focusing on the back pain

Am liking idea of complimentary therapy 'don't you look faaaabulous today' etc.

I got given a voucher the other day that had the words Complimentary complementary therapy voucher written on it... It pleased me that it was correct

Can I have some complimentary complimentary complementary therapy?

It would be free, tell me I looked lovely, and go nicely alongside any other treatment I ws having

I am so opening that therapy centre

oh hang on... there's clearly no money in it..

A cranial osteopath we went to see told me that he is actually doubtful about the benefits on children because of a case he had.

He had an appointment to see a 5 year old that suffered from a form of gigantism and had never spoken. The first appointment was originally on the Tuesday but moved to Thursday. On Wednesday he spoke his very first word. He said if the original appointment had gone ahead, the parents would have said it was the CO that had worked, but in fact it was just a coincidence.
Alternative medicine/complementary medice is a huge industry, don't get me started on allergies and alternative allergy testing

There is a name for effective alternative medicine - 'medicine'

Oh dear it's all a bit muddled isn't it? I know i may be a bit fragmented with my opinions. it all stems purely from my experiences with homeopathy (this cured my ds's eczema but not his asthma) that was cured by chinese herbs.Work that one out!! the normal(dr.s) treatment was making him iller than the disease.
The placebo effect which I know is cited to do with homeopathy can't very well remove weals on a 2year old 's legs can it?? If so it's very powerful ain't it, praps should be on the NHS?
Oh i also cured my dog's shakes with homeopathy,do you think the dog believed in it??

iggypiggy - tis posts like yours that make me love MN so

"as CO is completely untested and unresearched."

there you have it. If you are wondering why some doctors dismiss untested,unresearched methods which aren't subject to peer review then I don't know what to tell you.

I used to have a GP who was also a homeopath. Best GP I ever had

But to veer away from the anecdotal, what frustrates me in these sorts of conversations is that all non-pharmaceutical remedies are lumped in together. Herbal medicine is not the same as homeopathic medicine is not the same as flower remedies (which are entirely based on Dr Bach flouncing around a garden, deciding what flowers were speaking to him.)

Many herbs for example have very dramatic known effects. Some (like digitalis) have been well harnessed by drug companies, most are under-researched. Plenty of other cultures have used various herbs to great effect for millenia but we don't like to trust other cultures, preferring a few decade old industry. I'm not judging that industry (today). They've saved countless lives but they are driven by self-interest and if it's not in their self-interest, you don't get to hear about it.

Homeopathic medicine is odd. (In fact, homeopathy - treating like with like - is a reasonable concept - vaccines are technically homeopathic.) I'm on the fence with homeopathy.

There are many arguments against it as it stands. The main one being that under 'scientific' testing, homeopathy doesn't stand up - that there are no detectable molecules in there of anything active. I don't really buy this argument, because as with acupuncture, we are holding this rather arrogant notion that science as we know it today knows everything. It is perfectly feasible that there may be energy patterns (for example) which we currently don't have the technology to detect. I'm not convinced we are using the correct tools to measure homeopathy. I am more swayed by how it stands up against a placebo though.

TENS is another 'alternative' therapy which really ought to become mainstream. It has very measurable benefits.

What I'm trying to argue is you can't lump all alternative therapies together and a doctor who does that, dismisses all of them and relies only on the propaganda of pharmas is probably American not as informed as he or she could be on techniques which could help the patient.

otter glad to be of service

Blimey what a lot of gullible people there are. I'm with meltedmarsbars look at bad science.....basically alternative medicine is mostly a lot of hogwash. It makes me so angry that so many people spend good money on this stuff. Grrrr.

It is a money spinning industry in itself snowflake, I agree.

Carmen - the whole of science and the scientific method is based on the belief that we do not know everything. Your claims of scientific arrogance are nonsensical.

The fact that a cure is thousands of years old does not make it better than a new one. Child sacrifice has been used an alternative therapy for thousands of years.

You can't possibly just say everything outside the realm of Western medicine is hogwash. That's as blinkered as people who say all pharmaceutical medicine is evil.

Plenty of alternative treatments from TENS to yoga have proven therapeutic and physiological effects. Plenty of herbs have proven benefits (under Western methods) - they're just not marketed to doctors.

I've been to a private GP who also does acupuncture. As others have said, there is some evidence that it works; more trials are needed.

A GP who does homeopathy... what a scary thought. I would run fast and far. There are significant cash prizes available for anyone who can prove it to work, plus a noble prize, and no one is any closer. It performs as well as a placebo (which means pretty well.. placebo effect is very fascinating and worthy of a lot more study in and of itself.) So anyone considering going to Bots and buying a £3 pack of arnica, knock yourself out. Just don't spend £300 going to a homeopath unless you really don't have anything better to do with the money.

My sister was going to take DN to a homeopath, and asked me if she could borrow the money. I talked her out of it. About a month later, he "grew out of" (as her GP put it) the medical issues she'd been concerned about. If she'd taken him, she could well be on this thread extolling the virtues of homeopathy.

I prefer the term 'Complementary' to 'Alternative' as 'alternative' suggests that you use a therapy instead of medical advice given by a doctor and as a Complementary (Bowen) therapist I would be irresponsible to advise a client to do this. I have had and still have negative reactions from medical doctors but I have to say that I think this is changing and that a lot of doctors are more open minded than ever to complementary therapies. The really good ones realise that we can support them rather than undermine them and will refer to us. The last Bowen course I did was made up of mostly Asthma nurses,Physio's and Chiropractors -experienced people that wanted to know more about Bowen because of it's success rates. It was so encouraging. I think if something is working for you whatever it is then go with it whether it's conventional medicine or a complementary therapy and remember that a certain amount of input is required from the patient/client themselves to ensure good/improved health.

got no problem with proven stuff...it's the stuff that has no evidence to back it up. Homeopathy being a prime culprit...it is just a sugar pill ffs.

And why do some of these things appear to work? because time is the best healer for a lot of things. Does aromatherapy heal cancer? No. It just smells nice and so relaxes you getting rid of a headache. That's ok...but the further claims just piss me off.

Some herbal stuff does work (fenugreek for milk production seemed to do the job) but you can find research to back it up.

sorry breast feeding and one handed typing so may be mistakes.

I'm not really a great believer in homeopathy or acupuncture, but I am open minded, particularly on acupuncture which didn't work for me, but I believe has some quite convincing early research.

Milly, the overarching philosophy of science may not be arrogant and may be built on everything being a mere theory that can be revised, but tell that to the media and the layman who hangs on the words of scientists as infallible. The homeopathy protestors are a good example of that - their entire argument is based upon the chemical make-up of homeopathy, which while pretty compelling is not a 100% conclusion that it is worthless.

I fully agree with science, I simply think there is plenty we do not understand (such as how acupuncture works, if it does).

Electricity or radiation have not been detectable until recently.

yay go go go carmen san diego!!

Actually, aromatherapy is more interesting than that, sn0wflake. There is evidence that olfactory signals reach the same part of the brain that processes memory and emotions which is in turn linked to various hormone and enzyme producers.

It's unlikely to cure cancer, but it may well lower blood pressure, for example. I don't really buy into the specifics of various oils for various ills, but some are clearly stimulating or calming, at least.

I think there is a lot more research that could be done in this area.

Acupuncture is thought to work on the pain-gate principle.

The entire argument about homeopathy is not based on the chemical composition of homeopathic products. Even if the whole process was secret, and you were just presented with the product and asked a scientist what they thought about it - they would test it and find that it doesn't work. The theory just adds giggles, tbh.