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[Mid A 15]

Given the recent recommendation from a high ranking doctor that the NHS should not fund alternative treatments I wondered what people thought on here.

We have nurses, midwives, beneficiaries of acapuncture (?spelling) etc as well as NHS managers and admin staff on the forum.

What do you all think?

[Tim_MaA_MidB]

"The more you know, the more you realise how little you know."

I think that's how the quote goes anyway...


Also,

the power of some alternative medicines may lie in the mind of the patient, ....I read somewhere that people on the receiving end of the dummy medicine in clinical trials, sometimes react as if they had received the real medicine.

[Mrs C.]

How does that explain homeopathic treatments working for animals then?

[BTaylor]

Given the recent recommendation from a high ranking doctor that the NHS should not fund alternative treatments I wondered what people thought on here.

We have nurses, midwives, beneficiaries of acapuncture (?spelling) etc as well as NHS managers and admin staff on the forum.

What do you all think?

The group of doctors (not just one) didn't actually say that no alternative treatments should be funded. They said that treatments that could not demonstrate clear clinical evidence of success should not be funded by a cash strapped NHS.

I don't necessarily agree with the assertion, but it's been poorly reported in the media.

[Tim_MaA_MidB]

How does that explain homeopathic treatments working for animals then?

It doesn't, all I'm saying (trying to say) is, that it is wrong to say that alternative treatments don't work just because you can't explain how they work. No one knows how to explain the recovery of people who take a panacea.... but it has been demonstrated. So, have the benficial effects of many alternative fields of medicine.

Sometimes the explanations for phenomenae(sp?) that you don't understand are just around the corner.


(Sorry my English is going down the pan...too much time spent trying to learn Portuguese... that's my excuse anyway.)

[englishangel]

Phenomena is the plural, phenomenon is the singular.

On the thread Jude started I said that chiropractic had dealt with a 20-year-old back problem, proved on X-rays by the way.

[Katharine]

It all depends on what you mean by alternative medicine. I have great respect for some traditional medicines and healers - but not all. Sadly the problem is finding which is which. Part of The Royal Geographic Society's Expedition to Borneo that we were involved with was investgating local medicine lore. The scientists frequently found that there were active ingredients in the plants used and that these same ingredients, or synthetic forms, are in use in Western medicine.

[marty]

Blair defends huge GP salaries - all doctors to be offered peerages

Tony Blair has come out in defence of GPs after it was reported that some of them earn even more than he does: "The extra money that New Labour has pumped into the NHS is paying off," said the Prime Minister, "it's paying off the doctors to be precise. And they can now afford to give some of that money back to New Labour in return for a nice red leather seat in The House Of Lords."

The latest news has sparked an outrage amongst nurses' and patients' groups: "We're outraged!" said a nurses' union. "It's outrageous!" said a patients' group. "It's fantastic!" said a doctor from his large yacht in Barbados.

The Liberal Democrats were quick to condemn the figures: "This another example of the government's appalling mismanagement of, of ,of....b****r it - what are talking about again?" said Menzies Campbell.

Tory spokesman Dr Liam Fox meanwhile was unavailable for comment: "Liam's away in the Caribbean," said a Conservative official.

The BNP declined to condemn or praise the news on account that they were unsure as to the ethnic backgrounds of the doctors involved.

[cj]

I believe that the traditional way in China is that you pay your acupuncturist while he keeps you well, and not when you are unwell. But then it is a whole philosophy of mind and body, yin and yang, of holistic well-being with regular treatments, not a quick fix, pill-popping exercise. In no way am I knocking the NHS and those practitioners who work within the remit of conventional medicine, but a few thousand years is a hell of a time to develop and understand a subject, albeit one as complex as the human 'bean'. And just because it cannot be understood in a Western framework of thought, does that make it any less valid?

[englishangel]

Incidentally osteopathy and chiropractic is used on horses too.

[Tim_MaA_MidB]

In Brazil, they are paranoid about bio-piracy. Very strict penalties are imposed on individuals and companies that try to take plants and animals out of the country to research them for their beneficial properties.

"In broad terms, biopiracy removes the rights of communities (mostly in developing countries) and instead supports the rights of private institutions (mostly in developed countries) that are granted patents."

"...According to one estimate, for example, the germplasm from developing countries being used in the global pharmaceutical industry was worth at least US$32 billion a year in the early 1990s. Yet developing countries receive only a minute fraction of this for the raw materials and knowledge that they contribute to the growth of some of the world’s largest industries."

Unfortunately the laws that Brazil (and other countries) have implemented are stifling research even in the developing countries where the biological material originates.

[DavebytheSea]

Incidentally osteopathy and chiropractic is used on horses too.

...... and guinea pigs.

[cj]

And acupuncture can be used successfully on animals also.

[BTaylor]

And acupuncture can be used successfully on animals also.

Mmmmmm...kebabs.

[J.R.]

Incidentally osteopathy and chiropractic is used on horses too.

How the hell do you stay on a horse while being treated, Mary ???