Astrology

Anniebach - my description of 'water dripped onto sugar pills' is an accurate one - by the time the homeopathic dilution levels are reached there isn't a single atom of any substance other than the water in the dose. The only thing that can be achieved with such a 'remedy' is placebo effect, pure and simple.

I had some teeth extracted in the London Homeopathic Hospital many years ago - but the treatment I received was purely conventional medicine. Oh, there was a corridor lined with dusty books and a bust of the German Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann (1755-1843) who came up with the notion - it was at least less harmful than the bloodletting which was standard treatment in the early 19th Century - but that was all the homeopathy I encountered there!

No Annie, it cannot and does not work for some people - or any people. There is not a shred of evidence. What may work is the placebo effect but this has inherent dangers in the medicalisation of all problems and the belief that there is a pill for every ill.

Annie some alternative therapies do work. There's that one with needles, which has been shown to ease pain and I gave personal experience of Reike when I injured my knee. I believe I needed my Chakras balancing.

Reiki. Yes, it does work.

I've heard of Reiki but don't know anything about it. What does it work for?

Homeopathy worked for me.

It worked for my dog as well durhamjen. Difficult to see how that could be explained by the placebo effect.

Anya Acupuncture.

I've used aromatherapy in the past with good effect. Clary Sage on a burner or sprinkled in a bath can lift the spirit when feeling down.

Lots of infections, illnesses and conditions clear up of their own accord after a period of time. If you have placed your faith in what is supposed to be "water with a memory", homeopathy could very easily convince you that it worked. And Reiki?

That's the word I was struggling for Ruby - acupuncture (had a very exciting but tiring day yesterday so brain a bit overworked) . Have used it successfully with horses in the past using a reputable practioner. Also a dentist friend of mine has used hypnotherapy successfully on patients with needle phobia.

I'm surprised by those who haven't heard of the pain relieving power of Reiki.

Agree Absent that many infections etc clear up of their own accord.

I think that alternative therapies definitely have a place on the NHS. There is a trend for the NHS to become impersonal and not to be treating the whole person.

When my DH was dying in hospital I had to keep reminding the staff that he had once been a dynamic man with a fine mind and a huge amount of life experience. They were treating him as a body and not as an individual.

I have taken a Reiki Course in healing and while my husband was in the hospital I gave him some healing where the cancer was in his esophagus. He relaxed visibly and said "this cancer is too strong for it" but he acknowledged that something good was happening and it gave him some relief, mentally and physically.

Homeopathy has had a bad press but it means that a patient can sit and talk to a professional without feeling time pressured. The human mind is complex and I believe that each person has a soul, in there somewhere. Call me a bit daft if you like but I would like to see a sign over each patients' bed giving listing their hobbies, star sign,spiritual orientation etc., and not just their name.

Apart from anything else it would give the staff and visitors something to talk about with the patient.

When my DH was in hospital his bed number was 13. I kept on and on to have this removed because in our culture 13 is an unlucky number. I couldn't believe that the staff treated me as a nusiance over this but eventually someone listened, probably one of the wonderful foreign nursing auxiliaries) because I eventually found the sign on the floor half under the bed.

I would love to see hospitals where healers went about offering help where asked for and lots more priests, vicars, nuns etc., giving solace and comfort.

I find a glass or two of wine helps in all sorts of situations- I suppose it's my first line alternative therapy! And as absent says, lots of things resolve themselves spontaneously ( with dogs and horses as well) and are erroneously linked to an alternative therapy. As for aromatherapy, I put badedas in my bath - I find that the very act of a long bath, bubbles and its perfume, altogether, help me relax, unwind and feel better. As for Reiki, as I said, I had no idea what it was supposed to do - so it relieves pain? What sort of pain in what sort of circumstances? There is no evidence I am aware of. With acupuncture, there has been a great deal of research and yes, it does work for some types of pain. So the placebo effect and the fact that many health problems resolve themselves without treatment explain rationally why some people think an alternative treatment has worked. Why does this matter? Because some people may delay getting treatment for symtoms that are serious and also because most alternative therapies are unregulated and can, and do, make misleading claims as to their effectiveness.

The placebo effect is highly potent and sometimes works even though the patient knows that they are being given a placebo. No-one knows why it works but it seems to be something to do with the attention they are given.

It is difficult for a doc to prescribe a placebo, although when my OH forst joined his rural dispensing practice there were large flagons of luridly coloured "medicine" that used to be decanted into bottles - tonics and the like, which were probably more placebo than anything else.

I am not going to get involved in long arguments about homeopathy and alternative therapies, but would like to just put my own experience forward. When DS was a baby he developed colic, quite common, but also distressing. As I was feeding him myself, I did the usual things such as not eating spicy food,coffee, etc., but still every night he would be bent double and screaming. I went into our local health food shop, owned and run by a charming Indian man, he recommended chamomila drops. The evening, DS started screaming, I gave him one drop on his tongue and watched the clock as the directions said can be given every 30 mins if needed. So watching clock for 8pm......DS never had that second drop and never had colic again. Yes, it may have been a co-incidence, but it certainly wasn't placebo in a 6 month old child. This started my interest in homeopathy and I studied it and have used it on my family ever since. Stomach upsets, hayfever, mild asthma, teenage anxiety have all been controlled and I sailed through the menopause. I think there is a place for alternative therapies working alongside conventional medicine, I do not advocate return to pre-modern medicine, but anyone who has spent time in a hospice and seen the wonderful work done by reiki practitioners and reflexologists would have to be very narrow minded indeed to dismiss all alternative therapies as witch craft or nonsense. Like Falconbird I think we should remind medical staff that the patient is also a person, and when someone once challenged me about homeopathy and dismissed it as 'just a long heart to heart with a sugar pill' my reply was 'well, if it works, why not?' So often just offloading worries and concerns can help the healing process, and sadly GPs just dont have the time to do any more than tap on their laptop and scribble a prescription. We are more than the total of our symptoms.

I suppose we will all continue to believe what we believe based on our own experiences. I would never try to persuade anyone to accept my point of view about complementary (not alternative) therapies but I would be happy to talk to anyone about my experiences if they asked. I have equal amounts of scepticism about mainstream (allopathic) medicine and complementary medicine, but I will continue to use both. I have never been advised by a homeopath to reject conventional treatments, and I would be concerned about the practitioner if that happened.

Crossed posts Gill. I think our views are similar.

Yes nightowl no reputable homeopath would suggest stopping conventional treatments. Sadly, I did come across some people while I was studying who were very against conventional medicine, even sneering slightly at one other student who was on thyroxine, so narrow mindedness is not only in the conventional camp!I too prefer the term complementary, rather than alternative, and I think there is a place for both.

@Anya - all I have heard about Reiki is that it is merely magical hand-waving, and is utterly ridiculous - oh, and patter about 'adjusting energy flows' and other sciency-sounding nonsense.

There are many different ways of helping the body get on with its healing abilities and helping the mind rebalance itself and its moods. If you really believe that a certain method will have a good result - or even unconsciously hope that it will - then it is more likely to succeed.

Some things improve with a little time, whatever you do or don't do. A bit of TLC can do wonders, too, and administering even just water containing one molecule of active ingredient to each 100-to-the-power-of-32 molecules of water is TLC, in spite of being highly unlikely to get that those molecules in your teaspoonful.

If you wish to use homeopathic remedies that is your choice. Personally I would not use them.

An aquaintance of mine when suffering terminal cancer had Reiki regularly to relax her and got enormous comfort and benefit from it.She even persuaded her H to go for it as he was very distressed over her illness.

@Feeltebaum - you've obviously been hearing done odd things. No wands involved. Are you perhaps thinking of Harry Potter? I was taking the ** having a laugh about chakras. Tried Reiki on a friend who was skeptical 'load of rubbish' and all that, and he admitted, reluctantly, yes the pain was eased.

Absent of course dogs and horses may well get better 'spontaneously' but not usually immediately.

done some

I prefer the term 'complementary therapies' also.

An old friend who said she had healing abilities put her hand on my aching back many years ago. From that day onward, I've had very little trouble with that joint. So yes, 'there are more things in heaven and earth...', but I still can't see that groups of stars, which may be thousands of light years away from one another, could possibly influence our fate or our healt.