93-year-old - 'I KNOW THEY WORK' Homeopathic Remedies

May 25, 2006

93-year-old - 'I know they work'

A group of Britain's leading doctors have urged the NHS to stop

funding the use of complementary therapies and only for

medicine " based on solid evidence " .

But Jane Gilchrist, 93, who uses homeopathic remedies, says she has

seen " great benefits " .

Ms Gilchrist had a heart attack in 1976. Since then, she has taken a

homoeopathic remedy every day to help her heart muscles.

For the same symptoms, people might have different medications

Jane Gilchrist

She told the BBC: " I know they work.

" I travel up to town on public transport, and I have a voluntary job

at a homoeopathic hospital.

" I don't know many 93-year-olds able to do that. "

'A fraction of the cost'

But she added: " I do think quite a lot of it is in the genes. I don't

claim it's all homoeopathy - but I do believe in it. "

And she said: " Of course, there's a placebo effect.

" But that doesn't work for animals or babies - and homoeopathy does

work for them - and they don't know what we're doing. "

" I understand the difficulty of proving it, because homoeopathy

particularly is based on people and not symptoms, and so it is

difficult to do data and double-blind testing.

" But it saves an enormous amount of money, as our remedies cost a

fraction of orthodox remedies and, secondly, people aren't

continually going back. "

Ms Gilchrist said the reason it was difficult to provide proof from

research that alternative medicines worked was because they worked

differently on individuals.

" Everyone is unique. For the same symptoms, people might have

different medications. "

However, she said that the proof they helped was shown by the number

of people who wanted to use alternative medicines.

" More and more want to take these remedies - there must be a reason. "

Story from BBC NEWS:

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