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Bach flower "remedies" no longer licences.

(155 Posts)
JessM Tue 04-Feb-14 08:50:58

The medicines licensing body have decided that these seductive little bottles are not a medicine. It appears they are a food - I wonder will they apply to be allowed to make "health claims" - the EU licensing body are pretty rigorous these days so I would predict they will be unbending.
But the alcohol content is so high that perhaps they should be sold in off licences. grin

http://www.nightingale-collaboration.org/news/157-bach-flower-remedies-foods-not-medicines.html

JessM Mon 17-Feb-14 16:40:50

I was reading something earlier about the placebo effect in some Parkinson's patients causing dopamine to be released in the brain. Where I was reading it, cannot locate.
But it was still the case that placebo effect only affects symptoms.
yes I think it is aka - brains and bodies are just a bundle of very complicated chemistry after all.

jinglbellsfrocks Mon 17-Feb-14 16:29:24

I thought it was well recognised that mind and body are inter-linked.

But I have never experienced a placebo effect.

Aka Mon 17-Feb-14 16:21:55

The Placebo Effect is very curious. If something can make us feel better then it points to the body being able to control pain, for example, by suggestion....a bit like hypnosis.

So the question arises just how does it do that?

If this programme is 'same old' then I'll be disappointed as I'd like to know if we're any nearer working out the physiology and/or psychology behind it.

jinglbellsfrocks Mon 17-Feb-14 16:17:38

Same old, same old?

durhamjen Mon 17-Feb-14 14:15:29

Horizon on BBC2 at 9p.m. The power of the Placebo.
Who's going to be watching?

Anniebach Tue 11-Feb-14 11:21:29

No Jingle, I spoke of faith in a God as an example of what can be proved or not, I was not comparing homeopathy with the loaves and fishes or the parting of the Red Sea

jinglbellsfrocks Tue 11-Feb-14 09:35:49

So is the "effect" something along the lines of a biblical miracle anniebach?

Could be.

Anniebach Tue 11-Feb-14 09:26:44

I think some need science to explain everything, others accept science cannot explain everything. Rather like believing or not believing in God I suppose.

Ariadne Tue 11-Feb-14 03:45:52

Hello! I'm just wide awake, in very, very wet and windy Devon.

I do find it hard to accept that these remedies can be effective, but if people are happy with them, and feel they work, then so be it.

About the shaking of the bottles of remedies - about thirty years ago, DD was living in Fulham, and her GP referred her to the London Homeopathic hospital. Can't remember why - but she said the sounds in the background were of bottles / vials being constantly tapped, over and over again.

Paige Tue 11-Feb-14 03:19:29

Welcomemarji41 I'm in the U.S. so im around later than most. smile

marji41 Tue 11-Feb-14 03:14:04

Hi...this is my first post on what seems to be a very interesting site. Have read all of the views of Bach Flowers and can only say that in my experience they do work with animals. We recently got a cat from a rescue centre. He was very scratchy and frightened and was advised to give him a little rescue remedy. It is now in spray form. A few days of a quick spray on his tongue in the morning soon had him relaxed and friendly. My sisters dog is terrified of thunder and fireworks and the rescue remedy works every time. Much better than the drug she got from the vet. We live in Australia....in Tasmania....and look I forward to being part of this forum.

harrigran Thu 06-Feb-14 17:59:11

" Expected to buy in to what we are told " takes us full circle back to the discussion about Bach remedies, we are expected to believe because someone tells us that it works.

durhamjen Thu 06-Feb-14 14:27:34

Aspirin was first discovered in 1763. It took over two hundred years for them to discover its use for heart attacks and strokes.
Fortunately for Oxford University, there was no medicines board to ask them to do all the tests. Otherwise nobody would not be able to sell aspirin now.

The latest is nanotechnology. If you can believe in that, why not Bach remedies.

The reason drug manufacturers do not research into flower remedies is because they make more money from the chemicals they sell.
They cheat on the results, they do not list all the adverse side effects. The yellow card system is a sham. Then we are expected to "buy in" to what we are told.

Aka Thu 06-Feb-14 14:13:44

Sandwiches and knickers Elegran shock

Elegran Thu 06-Feb-14 14:09:55

Like sand grains.

Aka Thu 06-Feb-14 14:04:41

Still those subatomic particles get everywhere grin

Elegran Thu 06-Feb-14 13:35:58

Yes, that thought is a wee bit wide of the mark of Bach remedies.

Aka Thu 06-Feb-14 12:47:57

Don't go there Elegran just back away slowly from that idea!!!

Elegran Thu 06-Feb-14 12:19:32

I read somewhere that tap-water in London has already been right through at last eleven people before it reaches a glass. I wonder what memories it retains?

Aka Thu 06-Feb-14 12:12:47

I didn't say it worked did I? I said the memory idea was patently ridiculous if you read my post to the end (though I don't blame you if you didn't grin).

What I am disputing is when people say there is none of the original compound in there.

That's all.

JessM Thu 06-Feb-14 12:09:18

A subatomic particle cannot retain an essence of rose, or arnica. It's the molecules - big complicated ones - that are unique to the plant. This stuff is desperate post-hoc justification by those who want to believe, or want other people to believe (because they are making a living out of it).
As many people have pointed out, if water retained the memory of organic compounds after a bit of agitating then every drop of water you consume will have the memory of most plant species on earth. As well as dinosaur blood and trilobite slime.

jinglbellsfrocks Thu 06-Feb-14 10:42:16

Righto Aka . Next time you get a cold don't forget you only need one tiny grain of paracetamol. Cos it's all in the memory.

Elegran Thu 06-Feb-14 10:40:25

So future drug manufacture should be by recovering the memory of the active ingredient? Reusing the original ingredients could lead to cheap treatments if they only need to be briefly in contact with a mass medium (water, alcohol) to be effective.

Extrapolated into other fields, this could be interesting. When oil supplies start to get low, we could use water as fuel, so long as it has been exposed to a molecule of a hydrocarbon.

We could make a nourishing soup out of twenty gallons of water, one chicken drumstick and half an onion. Oh! That has been done before, in workhouses all over the country.

Just meeting Stephen Hawking and shaking hands could make "A Brief History of Time" perfectly clear to us.

harrigran Thu 06-Feb-14 10:30:56

DS has read A Brief History of Time but he did study Astrophysics at uni.
Sun's energy, memory in a petal, sounds poetic.

Anniebach Thu 06-Feb-14 10:27:11

Thank you Jingle