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?

cranial osteopath my arse, is my measure dresponse to this thread

Carmen, you seem to be confusing formal and relational analogies and their relative worth as evidence in science. Electricity could be tested using the scientific method. Many alternative therapies cannot have causation demonstrated or explained, so are not comparable.

We - because they don't work?

lol at trillian.

It must be the positive energy on thie thread releasing my inner hun.

science measures and replicates. if it cant do that, then at worst, it pretends it doesnt exist, at best, it pooh poos it as not enough evidence.
alternative remedies exist and continue because they do work. they just havent been tested rigourously engouh for alopathic medicine to accept. being a doctor is an art as well as a science, and doctors are human. some are more open than others to accept that there is more to the human body than the sum of its parts.

homeopathy.. i dont knowmuch about it, but its something to do with chemical memory, which has been studied though not with fabulous results, and some nuclear physics parts in it. as a general rule, we tend to think that nuclear forces arent important in the 'real' world of biolgy, but that isnt true, it just means that science hasnt gotten round to testing it.

I like this, particularly the tagline Homeopathy: There's nothing in it

The placebo effect has been demonstrated to work on children and animals. It's not terribly well understood how it works, AFAIK.

For that reason, I think that if people are "worried well" and find that completmentary medicine helps them, and brilliant, as long as it does no harm.

I have brittle asthma - it flares up when I have a cold. I am self-aware enough to know that there is a massive psychological element to my asthma, and I think that holds true for most asthmatics. Reason being, asthma attacks are scary, and once you've had one, that tight feeling makes you worried, which makes it worse... Acupuncture tends to be relaxing, which can only help. Also, you are being told that this will help, which is placebo (if you believe it.)

Another anecdote - I had reflexology when overdue with DC3. Didn't start labour, but it helped me to not be so horrifically uptight about it! So it was useful.

I'm concerned about the earlier comment about grommets - has anyone seen any research discrediting the use of them?

Very interesting thread tialys. Localised acupuncture (which is what we in the West usually mean by the term) basically works by increasing blood flow to an injured joint, so it isn?t so much a miracle cure as a means of speeding up the body?s natural healing system or, in severe cases, by stimulating that natural healing system to kick into action when for some reason it isn?t doing what it should do.

I?m an NHS physio who is trained/qualified to use this form of acupuncture and have done so very successfully on complaints such as tennis elbow and housemaid?s knee. However, I have not enjoyed anything like the same degree of success in treating backs, for example, using acupuncture.

vvvodka. How can you choose what memories water retains? Why does the single molecule of arnica affect the body (unless you touch it with your dirty faithless hands first, of course!) and not the significantly greater number of poo molecules?

In fact, why isn't every drop of water a guaranteed cure for constipation and urinary retention?

Apologies for not reading the whole thread but gotta post and run - bathtime! Not all drs are against 'alternative' medicine in fact there is a doctor in our practice who is VERY much for it, as he says 'who are we to argue with what has been working for hundreds of years' also he views it as 'complementary' rather than 'alternative'

Snowflake says 'Blimey what a lot of gullible people there are'.

I was thinking exactly the same but my critisism is focussed on those who truly believe that no alternative or complementary medicine could possibly ever be of any use whatsoever and absolutely everything GPs deal in from the pharmaceuticals is fabulous.

Personally I have had many years of extremely good results from homeopathy and from naturopathy for both me and my children. I've also had almost miraculous and immediate results from my chiropractor.

On the other hand my ds wouldn't be alive today were it not for modern medicine as he has T1 diabetes, so I don't knock it.

People are so reactionary and rude sometimes. I automatically question everything. Scientists just can't see the wood for the trees sometimes and believe they are deities. They are not. IME they often take pride in their lack common sense.

bruxeur, i dont know enough about the science behind it, but there is such a thing as chemical memory. i cant really say much more than that, i certainly cant quote chapter and verse of which scientific journal i read it in.
there is a lot more to the world than that small portion of it that science has measured so far. a hundred fifty years ago people would have poopohed the idea of elements with electrons and protons. yet know we believe them to be real, because we have measured them and they are not merely an untested hypothesis. what the alternative remedies need, is to come out from under the umbrella and be studied properly,so that results can be replicated etc etc etc.

Crikey, you checked with all the scientists and found out they all think they're God?

That was awfully thorough.

a lot of science is against common sense. so scientists have to knock that way of thinking out of themselves. but being a doctor is an art, not merely a science, and doctors are mere humans.

Complementary medicine is EXCELLENT at curing "I feel a bit under the weather" "I feel a bit rubbish" "I've got undiagnosable aches and pains with no obvious organic cause" and "I spend all my life running round like a blue arsed fly and can't give my self permission to slow down"

It's also very good at curing children who are suffering from "one to one attention deficiency" and "over-achievers syndrome".

cos they is shit innit

By the way, anyone who has an ounce of respect for that utter, utter arse-and-a-half Ben Goldacre has my scorn and my sympathy in equal measure.

Of course, scientists think they are God while complementary therapists never do

Why is he an arse, SM?

mattellie - I'm all for the idea that sticking needles in things can have an effect. Those needles are big

lol, SM, I was just about to post this when I read your last post.

I can see you wouldn't like or respect someone much when he spanks woo-heads so hard their chakras come loose.

Why is Ben Goldacre an arse?

Spidermama, did you take part in the intention experiment?

Naccety a friend of mine went head to head with Goldacre on Newsnight not so long ago and made complete mincemeat of him.

He's like an angry teenager.

It was very satisfying.

I doubt it's on youtube but will check.