'Alternative' Medicine

[skippy66]

Thought this deserved a thread of it's own as it's important.

When I had health anxiety, I would desperately scour the internet in search of things that would reduce my symptoms. This was before I realised that curing HA is about accepting the symptoms rather than trying to get rid of them.

Anyway, I would read all sorts of testimonials and anecdotes on various internet forums where people swore blind that their [insert symptom] had been cured by some [insert homeopathic or non-medically proved product] or other.

The worst thing was I bought into these anecdotes and spent a fortune on a wild goose chase that didn't do me any good whatsoever.

Here are a few examples:

- for heart palpitations, take magnesium supplements. Tried this and they didn't do anything.

- for heartburn, try apple cider vinegar - it increases the amount of acid in your stomach and this reduces your heartburn symptoms. Tried this, it made things worse.

- for back problems try lactose-free products. Another expensive failed experiment.

- for joint problems wear a copper bracelet. No effect.

- for nausea and stomach problems, actually most symptoms, try a gluten-free diet. Rubbish unless you've been medically diagnosed with celiac disease, and gluten free products cost a fortune. Also people say you must take them for months before the effect kicks in, so more cost.

- for nausea wear one of those sea sickness bracelets. I mean come on...

- for nausea drink ginger ale. Nope...



I'm sure some of you will have your own anecdotes of things that have worked for your particular symptoms, but I am sadly extremely skeptical about these things, and how do you know that the improvement in your symptoms wasn't just coincidental? Sometimes things just go away for no reason, just as randomly as they appeared.

I don't trust anything that hasn't been proved by science, and I feel I was so naive back when I had HA - I was desperately searching for symptom-cures when I should have saved my money and focused on changing my attitude to illness - this is the true way to cure health anxiety.

[MrAndy]

I totally agree with you Skippy ,light excercise,rest and a good diet with plenty of fruit and veg are all the body needs

[Female healthanxiety]

Oh yes....my cupboard is full of stuff!

[yenool]

Some supplements, vitamins and minerals have been shown to have some benefits to some people, St John's wort for example.

But many are at best unproven or at worst total quackery.... Homeopathy for example has no active ingredients whatsoever and is working purely on placebo effect.

The other thing that gets on my nerves are websites and people that recommend extreme diets based on flushing out "toxins" from the body. They never define what the hell a toxin is though.... and if it is so toxic why aren't people dropping dead left right and centre?

[Primula]

I agree. I've tried all sorts of things in the past, and none of them work. Like you I am very sceptical unless something has been subjected to a proper scientific study.

[Serenity1990]

It's funny how the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine is funded by the NHS and is one of the most renowned and successful hospitals within the NHS then.

Some "alternative" treatments are very much founded in Science. Take acupuncture or osteopathy, for example: both are proven to be effective for many ailments however we don't fully understand how they work. Or homeopathy: this is nothing more than the accumulation of thousands of years of humanity noticing that certain things fix or improve certain conditions, without seeking to understand why as we didn't have the resources back then. There are numerous examples of modern medicine suddenly understanding why a homeopathic medicine works, where before it was refuted because there was no explanation. Thus one might argue that modern medicine in some ways is still to catch up with homeopathy. Though obviously because of the unscientific nature of it there are many treatments within homeopathy that are just complete rubbish.

My mother had very bad asthma for her entire life (as in her first attack was as a baby a few days old), and nearly died from it quite a few times. One day in her thirties she saw a homeopathic doctor, and after a few weeks bye bye asthma. She's in her fifties now and not a single attack since.

I once visited my GP with a complaint that turned out to be from nerve entrapment in my neck. He gave me amitripaline and said I'd probably be stuck with it for life. Then I saw an osteopath and in one release the symptoms were gone, never to return.

I have two friends in a developing country who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and as they don't have treatment over there they were given six months to live. Both sought alternative treatment, adjusted their diets and now both are healthier and more active than I am, twenty years later.

So yeah, there's a nutty aspect to "alternative" medicine and there are some trying to profit off of vulnerable people. But anyone who dismisses it all out of hand it frankly an idiot.

[WorriedTeen221]

I don't believe in like these mixtures that they sell, but I do believe that all you need to cure a disease is nutrients, water and sleep. It keeps all systems on check and working properly, and when they go wrong like ''toxins'' which I would class as things like aspartame, additives ect, are targeted because they bond with cells which would cause an autoimmune problem. Cancer cells occur naturally and are killed by the immune system, but when it is weak they slip through and spread. Keeping them in top shape should limit or eliminate problems with health. Following a healthy lifestyle is hard is though

[SarahH]

Ha ha ha..this made me laugh I 've tried it all (I think). None of it worked for me, I kind of think most of the "successes" are a placebo effect. Each to their own I suppose.

Serenity...I am sure you did not mean it ...but your post reads as though you are calling Skippy an "idiot"

[Serenity1990]

Serenity...I am sure you did not mean it ...but your post reads as though you are calling Skippy an "idiot"

Well I must say the irony was not lost on me of his sweeping dismissal of all alternative remedies on the basis that they are "unscientific" and "unproven" when he actively pushes his book on this forum which encourages methods which are equally so.

[SarahH]

Hey, come on we are all on here for the same reason, but we may not all have the same opinion.