Bach flower "remedies" no longer licences.

I agree Jess. My sister is a fan of Bach remedies, I asked her once why she didn't just have a nip of Brandy and she became indignant that it was the special properties of the flowers used ... Yes poppycock

I have only read of his work durhamjen, never tried the Australian essences

nightowl! Come on! At least the drugs companies, most of the time, produce drugs really beneficial to the human race.

And, in any case, two wrongs don't make a right.

Good heavens. I'm agreeing with jings again.
No problem with therapeutic massage. Can relax people and reduce stress hormones etc.
Peddling water or little bottles of alcohol and claiming they are medicines. How can that be anything but fraudulent?

Must admit, Annie, that I couldn't have afforded to go on his courses.
He travels all round the world doing weeklong courses and giving talks. He was very interesting, and I probably learnt just as much as if I had been on the course. We did not even know who he was when he booked!

durhamjen, must have been so interesting talking to Ian White, I have read of his work

A good friend was always jumping on the latest herbal or homeopathic bandwagon but when her husband got a bad bout of bronchitis, she had him at the GP for an antibiotic pronto. I never saw any difference in her from the different potions she was taking!

Nelliemoser, that was so sad and so unwise, but the same has happened with Christian Scientists who believe pray will heal and medical help is not needed.

If any homeopath advised a client to ignore medical advice they should not be practicing. Both can work together and more doctors are now accepting this. At our surgery we have the medical practice and the complimentary clinic plus osteopath in the same complex.

I will never give remedies to a woman who is depressed after having a baby , always tell her to speak to her health visitor , if someone is grieving I will give a remedy plus the telephone number of cruise. Everyone can work together not work against each other - in my opinion anyway , but no way do I think medical opinions should be ignored

Sorry to hear about that, Nellie, but that could happen today.
I just looked up sinusitis on the NHS choices website. It says that only one third of people with symptoms of sinusitis need to see their GP. How do you know if you are in that third unless you see your GP?
In the August before he died my husband had a fit in the car. He went to hospital and after a few hours of tests they decided it was because he had a urine infection for which they gave him antobiotics then sent him home.
At the end of September he was having minifits, so again was sent to hospital. He was going to be sent home again after being in hospital for two days. When I explained that the GP thought he might have had a tia, they decided to do a brain scan, where they found his tumour. He died in the January. Even the GP has asked what would have happened if they'd found it earlier. The truth is, nobody knows.
This poor mother has to live with that for the rest of her life, but I bet she still uses homeopathy when she feels like it.

Anniebach Over 20 yrs ago there was a woman local to me who believed implicitly on using homeopathy. She tried treating her 21yr old son who had what was thought by Mum to be something like sinusitis.

He died. On the P.M it turned out to be septiceamia caused by an abscess which had burst into his brain. You cannot blame the medication itself, but her unshaken belief in homeopathy meant he did not get the treatment he needed.

Annie, when we had the guest house in York, we once had Ian White to stay, he of the Australian Bush Essences. We had some very interesting conversations over breakfast. He was running a course in York, but was usually late, because he had to meditate first.
One of the other guests at the time was on the course, and she used to tell me that the other participants used to get very annoyed with him for always being late. I wonder if he gave them free essences to make up for it.
I think he was fourth generation, through his mother and grandmothers. He had a son who was in Papua New Guinea whom he hoped would come into the company, but they did not want to force him.

When all that normal medicine can do has been done, all that you are left with is alternative, Riverwalk. When Macmillan nurses and GPs have decided to take you off all your medication apart from insulin, all that's left is CAM, which is the term for complementary and alternative medicine.
My husband also used Bach remedies to help his feelings. So did we as a family.
Anyone who is still paying for prescriptions, Jings, ought to know that homeopathic remedies cost less than a prescription. Phil Hammond recommends a website if you are given a prescription by your GP to find out whether the drugs actually do what they say on the tin. It's called Rxisk.

I fear drug companies far more than companies who produce homeopathic remedies . I am sure if homeopathy has killed anyone we would all have read of this. We are not told the number of people who have suffered from taking authodox treatments , yes we know of thalidomide , of the thousands who endured years of torture from taking 'mothers little helpers - Valium ' , but how many other drugs have caused serious damage to body and mind .

I would never suggest anyone turn to homeopathy and ignore medical advice, but I think it wrong that some doctors still do not believe in treating the whole person, body and mind. I accept this is difficult when they only have five minutes to reach a diagnosis, but surely a doctor should not have a problem with a patient who chooses to take homeopathic remedies if they give relief .

Why can't people be more open minded and admit there just might be something at work here we cannot understand, yet. I cannot myself see the science behind it, but whatever is working and doing no harm, then what's the problem?

I use Reiki in certain situations, only on friends, family and animals. In the situations I choose to offer it (pain relief) it works. I don't know how or why, but when I do my hands get significantly warmer and I can feel heat passing from them to the other person. The person also feels a strong heat and the animals react in different ways.

I don't understand why this happens or where the heat comes from. But it is quite definitely there. No scientific explanation I can think off.

Fat Cats jingl? As opposed to the drug companies who control medicine and medical research in this country? And are of course entirely neutral and ethical in their practices?

Massage is very therapeutic and can be very beneficial - I think we all know that.

It's also not 'alternative' as such, it's complementary. I assume no-one uses massage as an alternative to conventional medicine for a life-threatening illness.

My GP is a homeopath. Homeopathy does not appear to have harmed the royal family who have been using it since Victoria's age.
When my husband was dying, we were put in touch with a charity called Lifespan, which deals with people with life-limiting conditions. He would have an aromatherapy massage which would send him into a deep sleep for hours, and he would wake up feeling very refreshed, having not even noticed the carers who came and changed him while he was asleep.
If anyone in the North East watched the weather forecast on Burns night, with Paul in his kilt, that was from Minster Acres, which is Lifespan's head quarters. They are run solely by donations. They have doctors working there as well as alternative practitioners.
For a year and a half after Ken died, I was still having head and shoulder massage from the woman who came to help us. My grandson watched one day, and the next time he saw her, he asked if he could do the same for her. So she sat and he massaged her shoulders and neck, for which she was very grateful. I am still in touch with her.
That's alternative care, people who think of you as a whole person, not just a collection of diseases, and have time to listen and talk.

It's all Prince Albert's fault!

Apparently, with homeopathy, it's all to do with how they shake it. Any old shake just won't do. You have to learn it.

As I said - fat cats! Grrrh! Feeding on people's emotional upset.

I think it was only a 10ml bottle, Riverwalk! One of the small ones, anyway.

Says it much better than I could. Particularly the bit about 'if you think it's a load if rubbish don't take it - no one's forcing you'. But why get so het up about the fact some people choose to do so?

www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/james-delingpole/6705113/if-homeopathy-is-just-water-and-sugar-pills-why-do-doctors-get-so-upset-about-it/

But businessmen become fat on the profits made from them!

They are feeding off of people's gullibility.

If it makes you "feel" better it has done its job. Never knock the benefits of "good bedside manner" and placebos.

Particularly with anything that might be stress related. Relaxation tends to reduce sensitivity to pain, just as stress and tension exacerbates it.

Such "wisdom" has been known by the medical profession and a good few alternative practitioners for years.

JessM can correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that stress also has a bad effect on the immune system.

yes, that's your opinion riverwalk , I have heard it from others too, some place all their faith and trust in science, some accept that science cannot explain all in life . An atheist will dismiss the power of prayer.