Selection of Positive Comments on Daily Mail ALTMED Debate

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Selection of Positive Comments on Daily Mail ALTMED Debate

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:40:32 +0100

 

 

 

 

Some of the best comments from the debate below (out of 85!) The Anti

ones (mainly rather illogical thinking) were posted at the top and

repeated at the bottom and the 'Look Here' section was devoted to

Anti-Alternative Medicine articles. So we know which side the Daily

Mail's bread is buttered on! Zeus comment was not published...

 

*** Do also see important scientific evidence (at the very end of

email) from a debate on Homeopathy in the British Medical Journal

exactly 3 years ago in June 2003.

 

* * * * * * *

The great health debate: Complementary medicine

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article\

_id=387335 & in_page_id=1774 & in_page_id=1774 & expand=true#StartComments

 

I'm fed up with scientific bias masquerading as rationality. First of

all, there's no such thing as 'alternative/complementary medicine'

which can be slashed at a single stroke. There are instead numerous

therapies, some wholly irrational and weak and others with a strong

track record and a good research base. The House of Lords Science and

Technology Sub-Committee classified therapies in an appropriate way

and placed emphasis on the 'Big Five': homeopathy, herbalism,

osteopathy, chiropractic, and acupuncture. In the US, the National

Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a governmental,

well-budgeted centre for research and CAM development. Many US

hospitals and medical schools now use and teach CAM. Homeopathy has

almost never been tested properly: rather than condemn it for not

being like conventional therapy, scientists have a duty to devise

tests appropriate to it. Until then, the jury is out. I doubt if Baum

et al have ever spent time in a CAM practice.

 

- Dr Denis Maceoin, Newcastle, UK

 

We have forgotten Hippocrates who in 400BC stated in his Epidemics,

Bk. I, Sect. XI. " As to diseases, make a habit of two things — to

help, or at least to do no harm. " He also stated that you should " Let

Food Be Your Medicine, and Let Medicine Be Your Food. " Or indeed

Paracelsus, the Father of Pharmacology who said in 1887, " Everything

man needs to sustain health can be found in nature " .

We have been lied to by the drug companies. Every drug does harm to

our body in some way, drugs are designed to rapidly treat the symptom

and not the condition. Drug companies fund medical schools to teach

young trainee doctors how to prescribe which drug for which condition.

Drugs are not the answer to disease. Drug companies are not in the

health business they are in the disease business. It is not in their

interests to `heal the world'. Drug's do not heal, they harm.

Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Herbal Remedies, and many other

practices all remember Hippocrates and Paracelsus.

 

- Marc, Bournemouth

 

My dog was cured of her stomach problems by homoeopathy. A GP who

practised homoeopathy made the bottle up for my dog. As he said,

'Animals don't understand about placebos!'

 

- Barb, Sussex

 

Complementary therapy where I am from (East Africa) mainly uses a lot

of plants, which are the raw materials of modern medicine. My aunt

used to cure malaria in no more than two days by administering to the

patient (of which I was one on more than one occasion) the stock of

certain boiled plant leaves.

 

- Susan, London, England

 

I listened and watched with great interest the Prince's intervention

at the World Health Assembly yesterday. For years the WHO has tried to

encourage greater emphasis on a holistic to health care and therein is

the clue, " care " . We in the UK seem to rely on treatment rather than

prevention; the pharmaceutical industry holds us in thrall - or maybe

not any more. The emphasis should be on good health not on curative

medicine.

 

Prince Charles was not saying " no " to conventional medication but

urging the holistic approach and marrying the old and the new. One

thing is certain, homeopathy, reflexology and acupuncture do not

result in the side-effects we get from chemically-produced

pharmaceuticals.

 

There is room for both.

- Sue Shaw, Morpeth, UK

 

I actually find it quite heartening that these dinosaur doctors have

launched this attack - it's a sure sign that they're falling off their

pedestal at last. Their 'scientific methods' in the field of - for

example - chemotherapy for cancer, have resulted (according to a

recent meta survey by Australian oncologists) in a 2% improvement in

the 5 year survival rate. This pathetic improvement results from

billions of dollars spent (the main beneficiaries being the

pharmaceutical companies, the equipment manufacturers and the medical

profession themselves) over decades, and have involved cancer patients

in some of the most gruelling and toxic treatments ever devised.

Enormous numbers of patients have died from cancer treatments as many

of the drugs as well as surgical biopsies and radiotherapy actually

cause cancer - but this is not a statistic you will find recorded!

Thankfully the British public has the sense to recognise the gaps in

their medical model and is voting with their wallets!

 

- Robin Daly, London England

 

The professors who have condemned the use of CAM in the NHS should

first concentrate on the interior of the vast glasshouse they inhabit

and the disease culture over which they reign. They and the `health'

service continue to preside over continued rises in the chronic

diseases of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, asthma etc. in

our people. In the never ending pursuit of treating these diseases

they have persuaded the government to throw vast amounts of tax

payers' money into the NHS black hole.

 

The money spent on CAM in the NHS is tiny compared to the waste over

which they preside. Their attack comes from the fear that maybe the

Prince of Wales is right, that there is another way, a way that gives

patients back the responsibility for their health, that seeks to

address the causes of ill-health rather than simply treat the end

product of a disease, a way that respects and stimulates each patients

own self healing capacity.

 

- Stephen Gordon, Kenninghall, Norfolk

 

With more and more people looking for alternatives to ailments I think

Prince Charles is right, health authorities should open themselves up

to complementary therapies. GP's are all too quick to push drugs on

people for ailments that could be helped with alternative forms of

treatment and without the side effects drugs can have.

For a number of years I was taking medication for migraine which never

really helped and I couldn't always take them because my stomach would

'shut down' so I turned to alternatives and found a migraine cap that

has benefited me greatly and I am sure that if the health authorites

exposed this Migracap to sufferers of migraine and headaches it would

benefit a lot of people not just for the treatment of this

debilitating condition, but their health in general. Plus it would

reduce the drug budgets, release more money to GP's and NHS to

concentrate on other areas that require funding and nothing can be

done about it because they are always cash strapped.

 

- Louise, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales

 

Are the pharmaceutical companies and scientists finally getting

nervous, far more people are beginning to see that chemically based

products may be producing more harmful reactions in our bodies,

remember we are a naturally made species and therefore should be

treated with natural substances, this goes back to the beginning of

time before we had scientists and there labs, a lot of medicines are

actually based on nature base products to start with plants etc.

Scientists with funding from pharmaceutical companies are only trying

to finding un-natural ways to replicate them, why when they can

sometimes do more harm-pesticides comes to mind. Let the indivdual

decide what they wish to try and let these people stop playing god.

 

- Heather Richards, East Dulwich, London, London, England

 

I have a scientific background and used to knock complementary

therapies. Then I developed chronic fatigue - and conventional

medicine made me worse. I think many people who turn to complementary

medicine do so because conventional medicine fails them. I started

treatement with a homeopath and am getting better, slowly, gently and

permanently. My period pain is controlled by homeopathy, and I soon

notice if I have missed a dose, because I am in much more pain! There

is no doubt that it works. I have tried so many things to cure my

symptoms and heal my body, that the placebo effect is negated.

None of us knows everything, regardless of our experience, so drop the

arrogance and keep an open mind. One day, it might help you.

 

- Jo Gawn, Paignton, England.

 

Medical intervention is incredible when there has been trauma, but I

think there is too much interference when someone is displaying

disease. No illness is a lack of a drug. Either there is an invasion

by a foreign body or it is an imbalance within the body's very

delicate and precise chemistry, which can be complicated and give rise

to side effects when alien chemicals are introduced to the already

ailing body. Over the years people have been treated like cars, just a

group of component parts, but humans are so much more complex our

physical health is very tied in with our mental and emotional well

being and spiritual beliefs. This has huge impact on how we deal with

illness and how we would like to be dealt with. The NHS is for the

people and should offer a wide range of therapies. Drugs are not the

only answer.

 

- Alison, Bournemouth UK

 

Oh they are so short sighted! This surely must be the pharmaceutical

companies speaking.

 

- Maggie Knight, Plymouth, Devon

 

Complementary therapies such as Reflexology have helped me enormously.

In fact they have probably saved the NHS lots of money in prescribing

me unnecessary drugs. Reflexology would never have survived for

centuries if it didn't work. I am a huge fan of it and many of my

family and friends have reaped the benefits too. If more complementary

therapies were available the GP waiting rooms would be much emptier as

stress seems to be the root-cause of most illness. Reflexology is

great at releiving stress and tension etc. We need to be more open to

these things, it's the way forward.

 

- Julie, Kenilworth, Warwickshire

 

Complementary and alternative treatments are so safe and very rarely

have side - effects. If only doctors could spend more time in finding

out the causes of a patient's problem instead of dishing out drugs to

" cure " a problem, which in effect really is suppressing the symptom of

the problem, many people would benefit in that they will not run the

risk of having to take more drugs to combat the side effects of the

first drug, thereby saving the NHS loads of money. I know of so many

people who take a cocktail of drugs. They started with one drug, and

then had to have another to combat the side effect of the first, and

then the vicious cycle begins. There is so much to be said of

complementary/alternative treatements such as homeopathy, reflexology,

acupuncture, etc. Patients should have more say in the choice of

therapy that they should have. More education/informaiton on the

benefits of natural foods, alternative & complementary therapies

should be made more readily available.

 

- Sheila Murray, Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK

 

A true scientist understands that lack of evidence is not the same as

ineffectiveness. Most of currently accepted research is designed for

the testing of pharmaceutical drugs and is inappropriate to

traditional therapies. It is also extremely expensive, and as

treatments and whole herbs are not patentable, the money is not

forthcoming. Support needs to be given to inexpensive and appropriate

methods of assessing efficacy, such as appropriately designed outcomes

research. As a practicing herbalist I am confidant that such research

would easily prove the efficacy and cost effectiveness of my therapy.

 

- Sally Owen, Builth Wells, Wales

 

I am appalled at the comments made by doctors and scientists that

Complementary Therapies should not be funded by the NHS. As an

undergraduate therapeutic bodywork student, I am fully aware that

complementary therapies are beneficial to helping people with all

sorts of complaints. As for myself personally, I have PCOS and am

being treated with herbal medicine because I am sick of the side

effects I get being on the pill and yes, it is working! I am sick of

ignorant people slagging off my profession. They obviously do not

fully understand the benefits of complementary treatments and not

enough research is carried out on the good it does. I am not in the

slightest bit anti-orthodox, but people should be given the choice of

using alternative treatments. If it is so bad, will someone please

tell me why it is that an increasing number of doctors and nurses are

doing courses in herbal medicine, homeopathy and acupuncture to boost

their skills?

 

- Gemma Ryder, Hillingdon, UK

 

There is a significant issue involved here besides whether these

substances work or not. It is the freedom to use food supplements such

as vitamins or minerals without having them policed like narcotics.

The NHS may be brilliant in as much as it provides a lot of medication

at subsidised prices, but when all is weighed, my body does not belong

to it. The day may come when we see arrests for possession of vitamin

c - and that's your Ribena bottle. No, I'm not laughing. Neither

should you.

 

- Jim Caldwell, Sydney, Australia

 

I seem to remember that last year the president of one of the main

drug companies announcing that the only drugs that worked were one or

two antibiotics. As an alternative practitioner I could cite many

cases where people have been greatly helped by complementary

therapies, without ruining themselves financially in the process.

Another problem with allopathic medicine is for people taking several

drugs for different conditions with no studies done on whether they

are compatible or whether they nteract badly and set up more problems.

 

- Diana, Geneva

 

There is certainly loads and loads of empirical evidence that supports

amazing results people have obtained using a huge range of

complementary medecine, herbals and functional beverages.

 

As members in free societies, we surely retain the right to freedom of

choice in matters or our health and well being and still get to own we

making those decisions.

 

Our community is growing more regulated and our regulators are being

more influenced by the big end of town while we stand oblivious to the

real reason it is happening!

 

Both traditional medical practices and major pharmacetical

corporations are feeling confused and threatened by their scientific

failures!

 

It is up to us all to ensure that the original and ancient approaches

to preventitive medicine are once again empowered amongst us!

 

- Noel Crowe, Sydney, Australia

 

Homeopathy has failed every fair test thrown at it.

- John Hankinson, Watford, UK.

 

That is a very sweeping and untrue statement. The European Network of

Homeopathy Researchers have produced a document containing a sample of

positive homeopathic research. Also, a recent six year study that

tracked around 6,500 patients with chronic health problems for six

years, discovered that homeopathic remedies helped in 70 per cent of

cases. The researchers tracked a similar group who had not been given

homeopathy but instead were prescribed drugs, and they were no better

after the same six years had elapsed. (Source: Journal of Alternative

and Complementary Medicine, 2005; 11: 793-8).

 

Homeopaths face a difficult task trying convince the scientific

community about the efficacy of homeopathy. Even when evidence is

provided that shows homeopathy has an effect, it is contested and

discounted on the grounds that the principles underlying homeopathy

are unscientific or implausible.

 

- Angela Galley, Leyland, Lancashire

 

Someones out to make money and I don't think it's the Natural Health

products. I thinks it's the corporate owned and patented products.

They will create laws and make this happen to secure " their teritory " .

 

- Andrew Macdonald, Sydney Australia

 

To Graham of Stockton, let's see the evidence that people have died

from herbal medicine in this country. I should be very interested to

read this.

 

If recent history had this evidence it would be headline news round

the world.

 

I should also like to know of the devastating side effects as, just

like with conventional medicine this would also be headline news.

 

- Marilyn, Tiverton, UK

 

Why do we become awestruck when the word " scientific " precedes a noun?

Science may well have some of the answers but it doesn't yet have all

the answers and is in no way all embracing. It's so easy to denigrate

that which we do not fully understand. Is there a scientific

explanation for God? I don't think so and yet if we gave Him/Her/Them

the bashing that periodically is given to complementary treatments, we

would be arrested for infringement of human rights, intolerance etc.

Those who shout loudest are the biggest bullies- and cowards.

 

- Evie Ironside, Warrington, Cheshire

 

Cancer is set to touch every household, if not already doing so.

People who turn to complementary are frequently those who have

experienced first hand the best that conventional medicine has to

offer family members with cancer and vowed that no more of their

family members will suffer that way again. My own family member said

the treatment was 100 times worse than the disease. We have all heard

people say " I did this and that and the doctor was amazed and said

there was no sign of the malignancy " or as one man said to me recently

" I used the drops the homeopath gave me and not only did I not go

blind within a year as the Consultant told me ( and the 2nd opinion

agreed ) but I no longer need to use glasses and can drive again and

read small print " Wonderful. So where are all the doctors who should

be banging on his door for details to help others. They are bound and

gagged by people like the ones at the bottom of your article. Shameful.

 

- Chris, UK

 

I'm 68 years old and I have NOT been to a medical doctor since I gave

birth at 33 years of age. I've been using Alternative Methods of

healing all these years and that includes homeopathic tissue salts. I

wonder how much money my family and I have saved the government for

health care? I

 

- Lilian Stefiuk, Armstrong ..Canada

 

I have seen both sides of the issue personally. I have been helped by

conventional medications in the past but I've also seen the damaging

effects of anti depressants on my older daughter. I believe there is

room for both conventional and natural approaches. Everyone's

metabolism is different, what helps one might have the opposite effect

for another. It's too simple to just say " lets do away with

alternative treatments. " We don't live in a one size fits all society

and how dare anyone deny someone from living as healthy as possible.

Sure there are charlatans in this world who would think nothing of

taking your last dollar. I have no doubt they exist in alternative

medicine, I also happen to believe there are a great many working

within the pharmaceutical industry.

 

- Gerry, London, Canada

 

_____________

 

Letter from Paul Shreder, M.A.(Oxon.), B.Sc. published in a British

Medical Journal debate on homeopathy (2003)

" Experiments carried out by the Swiss scientist Louis Rey, using a

technique called 'thermoluminescence' and published in the New

Scientist, showed that certain effects observed for normal solutions

of lithium chloride and sodium chloride were found to be still present

even when the solutions were diluted down to the kind of levels used

in homoeopathic remedies.

 

Further justification for homoeopathy also seems to be provided by an

earlier article, also in 'New Scientist', by Nobel Prize-winning

physicist Dr.Brian Josephson, of the Cavendish Laboratory in

Cambridge, who wrote (concerning the molecular structure of fluids) :

" Advocates of homoeopathic remedies attribute their effects not to

molecules present in the water, but to modifications of the water's

structure. Simple-minded analysis may suggest that water, being a

fluid, cannot have a structure of the kind that such a picture would

demand. But cases such as that of liquid cystals, which while flowing

like an ordinary fluid can maintain an ordered structure over

macroscopic distances, show the limitations of such ways of thinking.

There have not, to the best of my knowledge, been any refutations of

homoeopathy that remain valid after this particular point is taken

into account. "

 

The full set of articles, both supportive and critical, are on the

site below:-

 

http://careerfocus.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7396/S151

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