Rimadyl

[Muriel]

Alexis, that's a load of questions, but I'll start with the Homeopathic one - Homeopathy is an energy medicine, ie precisely beacause there is so little of the original substance is what makes it work, it's the energy of the substance that is interacting with the body, ie tuning it into the correct frequency to restore health, does that make sense to you? Think radios and wavelengths. It's a different concept to allopathic.

 

Herbal medicine works differently, but more like allopathic in that there is an appreciable measureable amount of the plant ingested by the body. The plant is administered with the intention that it will work with the body to restore health and people who have studied herbalism will know what amount should be administered in what way for how long to achieve what result.

 

Allopathy is different in that it is administered to fight the body - antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anti bacterial, etc, etc.......... It is setting up a fight within a body whose health is already compromised, and is struggling to regain health.

 

Every physical body's optimum state is health and we, animals etc are always trying to be in a state of health. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the emotions we feel, the water we drink, etc, etc are all constantly affecting our health. When we are knocked off balance, off centre, we can become ill - when we are ill if we ingest something that works with us to restore health gently I believe that is the optimum way back to balance/centre/health, whereas if we take an antibiotic for example, our body then has in addition to trying naturally to restore itself to health, to fight this antibiotic which is imparting other toxins into our body. So then we have set up an extra struggle in an already struggling body.

 

Actually it is a miracle to me at times that our bodies can so often overcome not only the original dis-ease which made us unwell, but also fight the toxins the well-meaning doctors/vets have added in to our already struggling systems. Sadly sometimes our bodies can't defeat the toxins thoroughly and cronic illness/ low grade health can result, and of course sometimes sadly death can.

 

Watch an animal who is allowed to self treat - they will seek out the very plants that will make them well. Hannah, my first dog was a wonderful teacher. There were times she could barely walk, but she'd struggle to get to the plant she wanted, chew a leaf, lie down and wait - in a while she'd get up and walk in, perhaps to sleep for a while. She always made herself well if she could get the right plant. I recall letting her out very early one morning, much as I described - she went and chewed on horsetail which to me was a weed, now I was quietly freaking out at her chewing this weed, praying that she hadn't poisoned herself. I waited with her as she lay on the grass, stroking her, loving her, and after one of the longest half hours of my life she got up and walked in, went to her basket as I grabbed a herbal book I was given about 20 years earlier and had barely looked at - horsetail is for upset stomachs - just what Hannah had........she knew! I never saw her go near it before or since, just that once when it made her well. Another time her tummy was upset, to me seemed the same as that day so I went and got her some horsetail, she wouldn't touch it, obviously wrong at that time.

 

What made Hannah's stomach bad and gave her serious Colitis? Aspirin and Metacam prescribed by the vet. And yes, they were always given with food, and the surprise to me is that Hannah always went to the part of her food with the Metacam on it first, I can only assume there's something in it to make it taste ok as I talked to a lady once who was on the human version and she told me it burnt all the way down!

 

God gave us a medicine chest, we learnt to use it, but haven't quite got it right so are still arguing as humans are wont to do about the ways to use the plants. All forms of medicine as you rightly said start with the same base ingredients- plants - it's what we do with them that makes the difference.

 

Like you and most people, I grew up being told that doctors knew what they were doing and gave us drugs to make us well, but sadly I and others have actually been made unwell by those drugs. It took a dog who was much smarter than me to start opening my eyes and see that there are many routes to health and now I prefer to choose the natural one for myself and my animals. My dogs do much better treated naturally.

 

The vet assured me Hannah would not see 12 and if I had kept her on Metacam I know he'd have been right as she was quickly getting worse. Fortunately I read about Runaround and tried it as I had a strong gut feeling about it - she was running within a week and lived to 15. That vet retired, I would have liked to have been able to tell him as he was a carer and I'm sure would have been open to it for other dogs.

 

Hannah liked herbs, Cassie liked Homeopathy and Millie so far is physically healthy so we'll see. Animals can even choose a Homeopathic remedy - I have tried putting one on one dish and another on another and allowing Cassie to choose if I was in doubt which one was right for her - she chose and got well quickly

 

I have to agree that any medicine whether herbal, allopathic or Homeopathic if taken/given in the wrong way/doseage can have serious ill effects which is why I am often reluctant to advise and instead send people to a Homeopathic Vet who is much more experienced than I am. I am very careful about when I recommend a remedy as my intention is only ever to help. Flower Essences can do no harm, as can Reiki, so I'm much more likely to recommend then.

 

Herbal medicine has been around for thousands of years and Homeopathy for hundreds, Allopathic is relatively new, being less than a hundred years old, closer I think to 50/60, so it's still in it's infancy. I think one of the problems with 'trials' of herbal and Homeopathic is that the scientists who are conducting them do not understand how they should be used and then use them wrongly, so it then looks as if they don't work, they seem to disregard the times they have been proven because they can't believe that they work.

 

Sadly I think a lot of it is about the fact that plants can't be patented and a fortune made from them - me , a cynic? never Did you know that your doctors and vets get lovely free cars, holidays etc for selling/prescribing 'x' drug so many times? I was shocked when I saw the shelf full of Metacam in my vets office once.

 

I'm shattered now, but hope I explained it in a way you understood what I tried to say. I probably better read it in the morning and see if I do

[Muriel]

Something I forgot to say - Allopathic Drugs don't even attempt to cure - all doctors and vets try to do is alleviate symptoms. Now that can be fine for a while - you've had a dog scratching for example and the dog stops scratching after ABs...... for a while, then he starts scratching some more so you get stronger ABs, it stops...for a while, you then get steroids, scratching stops for a while maybe, dog also swells up like a ballooon, etc, etc, before you know it you have a dog who is pretty ill, looks like an old man at 3 years old, and all the vet can offer is more steroids or whatever. ( has and is happening to a wee dog just up the road from me) BUT if that dog had been seen by a Homeopathic Vet instead, they would have looked to see what was causing the scratching and then given a remedy and/or advice that would have cured the underlying dis-ease that was causing it whether that was emotional, physical or an allergy to something in the environment.

 

Homeopathy, herbs, flower essences, reiki, acupuncture, etc, etc all seek to cure and restore to full health, not simply to alleviate symtoms which will only recur possibly as a more serious illness next time as the original problem has not been sorted.

 

You may wonder why I keep spelling dis-ease with a hyphen - that's because 'dis-ease' is exactly that - the body is not 'at ease' - something is going on to create dis-ease or discomfort in some way which manifests as illness until the 'dis' part is sorted.

 

I too initially found the concept of Homeopathy very difficult to understand, BUT I saw it working on Hannah when someone advised me to try a particular remedy for something, so despite not understanding it I accepted that yes, it works. When you've got a Weimaraner with her ear swollen up like a balloon and give her Homeopathic Hammamellis and can watch that ear go back down to normal within 36 hours you gotta believe it works I had previously had another Weim with same problem which took a couple of weeks to go down. A vet would have given an anaesthetic, cut the ear open and drained the blood, sewn it up, it would take a few days to stop bleeding as ears bleed forever, much like tails, stitches to come out etc, a lot of discomfort and drugs for the dog which I now know is unnecessary. It also beats me why this blood which has been inside her body for a long time is suddenly deemed surplus to requirements just because it has collected in the ear temporarily. That's just one example. I've watched a big bruise and egg disappear with Arnica too.

 

Try checking some natural health, herb and homeopathic books out the library and having a read, they may surprise you

[alexis]

I have to disagree about allopathic medicines curing things. Antibiotics cure infections by killing the bacteria that causes them. chemotherapy works by killing off the tumour cells that make up the cancer. Some drugs do only alleviate symptoms eg antihistamines that relieve the allergic response are given because there is no way of removing the cause. The same for pain relief. As far as i am aware glucosamine doesn't cure arthritis either.

I still struggle with the whole energy concept as a theory I'm afraid.

 

I also still can't understand how a plant can work ' with the body' when the body is incapable of recognising the fact that a substance is natural as opposed to being man made. The body ingests something and then breaks it down into the component parts/ingredients/chemicals. The same thing happens whether it is man made or a herb.

Believe me doctors do try to find out what is causing symptoms and do try to treat the cause. It is not always easy to find out the cause of say skin itching.

 

I still don't understand how the body will fight an antibiotic for instance any more likely than it will ' fight ' a plant substance. If the body did fight drugs then there would be the equivalent of an anaphylatic shock reaction whenever anyone was given any drug. An antibiotic is no more likely to be toxic to the body than something from a plant. They both contain chemicals which can be toxic but it is known which ones are in allopathic medication but not in the plant equivalent.

How does a herb restore health in a way a drug can't.

I have seen no scientific evidence proving that herbal medicine cures anything but there is evidence that some help with symptoms.

 

A Norwegian multicentre study examined the association between the use of alternative medicines (AM) and cancer survival. 515 patients using standard medical care for cancer were followed for eight years. 22% of those patients used AM concurrently with their standard care.

 

The study revealed that death rates were 30% higher in AM users than in those who did not use AM: "The use of AM seems to predict a shorter survival from cancer." -- Does use of alternative medicine predict survival from cancer? Eur J Cancer 2003 Feb;39(3):372-7

 

We may have had natural remedies for many years but probably one of the biggest things this century which has made a difference to infections is antibiotics like penicillin. Surely if there are herbal equivalents which are effective they would have been more widely used?

 

I do believe there are quite a lot of times when the body heals itself and any drug treatment is not needed

at all.

Another thing that I don't understand is the fact that different people will tell you to take different herbal medicines for the same ailment. How can they all work? How can a homeopath know what is causing a problem or symptom just by looking at a patient?

[Muriel]

HI Alexis, I've had quite a day and will respond properly tomorrow, but what I do want to say right now is that a Homeopath wouldn't dream of trying to diagnose simply by looking at a patient - that's what GPs often do. A Homeopath will take at least 1 and 1/2 hours for an initial consultation which will consist of observation, and asking dozens of questions to try to arrive at a place where they can recommend a remedy. Each follow-up appointment will be a minimum of 20 minutes and that's on the NHS!!

 

I suspected you'd struggle with the energy concept, there was a time when I did too.

 

I'm not saying that the body says 'I got to fight this' when for example an antibiotic is administered, what I'm saying is that the antibiotic is intended to set up a fight in the body - look at the name "anti" as in against - it's been designed to fight something as all the anti drugs are.

[alexis]

Thanks for trying to answer my questions. Yes antibiotics are designed to be anti somethin - anti bacteria!

If herbal medicines work with the body how come they have side effects, can cause liver damage, some are carcinogenic and you can get anaphylactic or phototsensitivity reactions to them?

 

Mullins RJ. Echinacea-associated anaphylaxis. Med J Aus 1998;168: 170–171.

Crivellaro MA, Senna G, Riva G, et al. Pollen mixtures used as health food may be a harmful source of allergens. Invest Allergol Clin Immunol 2000;10: 310–311 - a man developed severe, life threatening anaphylaxis.

Mullins RJ, Heddle R. Adverse reactions associated with echinacea: the Australian experience. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 2002;88: 42–51- found patient had anaphylaxis after taking echinacea.

 

Kloutsos G, Balatsouras DG, Kaberos AC, Kandiloros D, Ferekidis E, Economou C. Upper airway edema resulting from use of Ecballium elaterium. Laryngoscope 2001;111: 1652–1655. - 42 patients with life threatening breathing obstruction.

 

If an animals know what is instinctively good for them why do horses eat things like ragwort?

Most of a GP's diagnosis is based on what the patient tells them, very little on what they see or find on examination.

There are many reports of lots of hazardous effects of herbal medicine, particularly chinese medicines.

Up to a quarter of some herbal/chinese medicines have been found to contain heavy metals or conventional medicines and sometimes in high doses.

Ahmed MT, Loutfy N, Yousef Y. Contamination of medical herbs with organophosphorus insecticides. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 2001;66: 421–426

Graham-Brown RA, Bourke JF, Bumphrey G. Chinese herbal remedies may contain steroids. Br Med J 1994;398: 473.

Gupta SK, Kaleekal T, Joshi S. Misuse of corticosteroids in some of the drugs dispensed as preparations from alternative systems on medicine in India. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2000;9: 599–602

 

In the following study 8 out of 11 creams were found to have as high a concentration of steroid in as prescribed creams

Keane FM, Munn SE, Du Vivier AWP, Taylor NF, Higgins EM. Analysis of Chinese herbal creams prescribed for dermatological conditions. Br Med J 1999;318: 563–564.

 

Kava kava and echinacea have both been linked to liver toxicity. kava has been taken off the market in several countries because of the liver toxicity.

St. John's wort can cause sensitivity to the sun's ultraviolet rays, and may cause an allergic reaction, stomach upset, fatigue, and restlessness.

[Carole Stitcher]

My age, (Which we don't need to go into right now ) means that I am one of the 'scientific generation'. We were taught at school that if something didn't have a scientific basis, then it had no merit. My age has also given me experience and the ability to observe the fact that nature has made great provision for ailments.

 

 

It did leave me in two minds about things like homeopathy and Reiki. Sootys' liver tumour and the advice and support I have had from Muriel have taught me a few things, and have taught my even more cynical OH even more.

 

Muriel has been sending Reiki to Sooty for quite some time now, and she has had a couple of crises during that time (and I do mean serious crises, where she was all but dead), Muriel concentrated the Reiki even more on those occasions, and she pulled through.

 

Muriel encouraged me to go to a homeopathic vet, but I resisted until the point where it was obvious that her allopathic vets had nothing more to offer her. We went 52 miles to get to the closest one.

 

Sooty had an hour long consult (actually it was considerably longer than that, but that's what we paid for)where the vet actually LISTENED to the things that we told him, asked questions about her, watched her as she snuffled around the consulting room etc.

 

He explained to us the basics of homeopathy, and it was obvious that he is not offering homeopathy as a money making option, he believes passionately in what he is doing. (Remember that homeopathic vets are allopathic ones first, then study further to gain a homeopathic qualification, so they are aware of both sides of the coin).

 

He explained that he needed a couple of days to sort out what was right for Sooty, based on what we had told him, and that he would send the remedies to us through the post. He asked us to keep a diary of how she reacted through the next three weeks, so he can adjust the remedies as required.

 

We are on week three now, and as I am typing this, I have heard her bark. That's the first time she has barked for over two months (she'll be telling her dad off for teasing her). Homeopathy works. I may not have believed it before, but I do now.

 

MY super cynical, 'yes we'll see a homeopath just in case but I really don't think it will help' OH was on the phone to my brother today, reccomending that he sees a homeopath for a problem he has. Homeopathy works.

 

Muriel also encouraged me to follow Sootys lead for what she wanted to eat. After her first recent crisis her red blood cell count was 15 when it should be 45. I made up a concoction of Vitamin B complex rich foods, it looked awful, smelt worse, Sooty loved it, as her anaemia has improved, she doesn't take as much. She was a junk food junkie when allowed to be, while she had the anaemia, she would only eat the 'gloop' as I call it and raw meat, particularly offal and braising steak. (She won't touch pork, maybe when she was a stray she learnt that pork made her poorly). Since she has improved, she has been allowing herself some of the 'bad' things she used to eat, but not in anything like the same volumes.

 

You probably now think that I'm a daft doting 'mum', and you could be right, but one thing I know for certain, the most dangerous thing in this world is a closed mind.

[alexis]

Homeopathy may work but the placebo effect of anything is also very powerful.

 

The more you believe you're going to benefit from a treatment, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit.

It is powerful. In a study carried out at the University of Harvard, its effectiveness was tested in a wide range of problems, including pain, arterial hypertension and asthma. The result was impressive: 30 to 40% of the patients obtained relief with the use of placebo.

 

Doctors tested a surgical procedure to treat angina. Either cutting and stitching of an artery to block it off or tried a placebo in which they just cut the skin.The placebo treated patients showed an 80% improvement while those actually operated upon only 40%. In other words: placebo acted better than surgery.

 

Up to 50% of people treated with antidepressants may get better due to the placebo effect

 

Placebos have been shown to work in animals too. some of this may be due to a sort of placebo effect by the owner believing their pet will improve and being very happy with the care so they believe things are better.Or whether the owner is less anxious and stressed and this leads to an improvement in the pet too. Positive emotions do help people get better more quickly so I would imagine when animals feel more relaxed that this is the case too.I don't know but somehow the effect has been shown to work in animals.

 

That is why conventional medicines in trials are compared to placebo, to see if they are MORE effective than placebo. This is more of what I would like to see in herbal and homeopathic trials.

[Carole Stitcher]

Homeopathy may work but the placebo effect of anything is also very powerful.

 

The more you believe you're going to benefit from a treatment, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit.

It is powerful. In a study carried out at the University of Harvard, its effectiveness was tested in a wide range of problems, including pain, arterial hypertension and asthma. The result was impressive: 30 to 40% of the patients obtained relief with the use of placebo.

 

Which could also be used as an argument for the effectiveness of homeopathy. Homeopathic remedies often contain so little of the 'active ingredient' as to be almost or actually undetectable. Long term remedies are often administered by the 'plussing method', which means that the original dosage is watered down over the course of the treatment, but in homeopathic terms more dilute = stronger.

 

Your argument of the effect placebos have would indicate that the human body IS capable of healing itself without chemical intervention, IF it is ALLOWED to do so.

 

Doctors tested a surgical procedure to treat angina. Either cutting and stitching of an artery to block it off or tried a placebo in which they just cut the skin.The placebo treated patients showed an 80% improvement while those actually operated upon only 40%. In other words: placebo acted better than surgery.

 

Or, in other words, in this particular instance, the human body was twice as effective at treating this condition than surgery.

 

Placebos have been shown to work in animals too. some of this may be due to a sort of placebo effect by the owner believing their pet will improve and being very happy with the care so they believe things are better.Or whether the owner is less anxious and stressed and this leads to an improvement in the pet too. Positive emotions do help people get better more quickly so I would imagine when animals feel more relaxed that this is the case too.I don't know but somehow the effect has been shown to work in animals.

 

I think you missed my point. I DIDN'T believe in homeopathy, but I kept an open mind and went to see a homeopathic vet in the HOPE that he may be able to keep Sootys quality of life at an acceptable level. He did not say that he would be able to cure her, the tumour is far too large and far too well established for that. What he did feel he could do was keep her as well as possible for as long as possible. It is only in this last few days where I have been less tense and stressed, as it has become obvious that the remedy certainly seems to be working. Make no mistake, the improvement she has made has been greater than I could ever have hoped for. In saying that, she could still go to the Bridge at any time, I am aware of that.

 

I am not suggesting that there is no room for the remedies of an allopathic vet, just that ALL avenues should be explored, and that if we can keep our companion animals well without filling them full of potentially toxic substances, then surely that is a better path to follow?

 

There are instances within 'normal' medical practice which would seem to bear out the homeopathic principle of fighting like with like. A prime example would be that small amounts of digitalis are used to control certain heart conditions, but a large dose will kill.

 

Yes, perhaps there should be clinical trials for herbal and homeopathic remedies, if only to prove that, like in the Nat West adverts, 'there is another way'.

[alexis]

I do not have a problem believing that herbal medicines may work but I do have a problem with the theory as explained by muriel.

 

Plants and herbal medicines are no less likely to be toxic to the body than allopathic medicines and many have been shown to cause liver, kidney and cardiac damage, all toxic and mostly irreversible effects.

 

I feel that misleading people by telling them all allopathic medicines are like 'filling the body up with toxins' is a dangerous thing to do when by taking things like kava and comfrey for example have also shown to have toxic effects and also you have little understanding of how drugs work and act on the body. At least more is known about the effects of drugs. Not so much is known about the effects of herbal medicines.

IF all allopathic medicines were 'toxic' then far more people would experience severe side effects. Many people experience very few side effects from the medication they are taking, just like millions of pets take thinsg like metacam every day with little or no ill effect.

 

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health-...avoid/index.htm

 

Both herbal and allopathic medicines are drugs. They both contain active ingredients that act on the body. glucosamine has shown to have anti inflammatory properties just as anti inflammatory drugs do. Glucosamine may have ingredients that the body uses to make cartilage as well as anti inflammatory compounds.

 

 

 

Both herbal medicines and allopathic medicines are used to treat symptoms although I do believe that herbalist and homeopaths do look at the body in a more holistic way and doctors should do more of this.

 

Digitalis treatment has nothing to do with like for like. It was a well known local herbal remedy discovered by a doctor in the 1770s.

Edited July 7, 2006 by alexis

[Carole Stitcher]

Personally, I'm not arguing the case for herbal remedies, I know way too little about them to be able to discuss them with credibility.

 

Where Muriel is indisputably correct is the fact that allopathic medicine is relatively in its infancy, and as such often opens its mouth when it doesn't have full possession of the facts.

 

Thalidomide was widely used and considered safe, that turned out to be a bit of a disaster.

 

Anti depressants were prescribed for many years without any consideration of the long term problems which we now know only too well.

 

Antibiotics were the same, now look at the problems we have with so-called superbugs, like MRSA. To add to that, 10 years ago very few people were aware that they also killed off the 'good bacteria' in our bodies. The general public are far better informed these days.

 

There are now studies which show a link between immunisation and developing auto-immune conditions. (That information was given to me by my chest consultant, so I'm assuming it's a good study.)

 

Allopathic medicine has a history of rushing in where angels fear to tread, then having to do a sharp u-turn when everything goes pear shaped.

 

I believe that it is possible, even probable, that some herbalists can do the same thing, and perhaps even some homeopaths, though my, and I have to say single so far, experience would suggest to me otherwise.

 

I went to a homeopath not because I believed in them, but because I had cause to believe in Muriel’s opinion. It seems from the results that she was right. You say you have a problem with the way that Muriel explains it, to be honest I don’t really care how it is explained, there are many things in modern allopathic medicine that cannot be explained, at this time, to my satisfaction. As researchers discover more, no doubt the explanations will come, but along with those will come more changes of direction and emphasis in allopathic medicine. What matters to me at the end of the day is whether it works. In Sooty’s case long term side effects are regrettably not a cause for concern, but short term benefits are.

 

I am not advocating that people should stop visiting their GP or vet, stop taking or giving prescribed medicines, refuse surgical options.

 

I am saying that people should always question, research the options, then determine the best course of action.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if medical people stopped being adversarial in their approach and started to work together in order to best help the patient, whether it be human or canine?

[alexis]

I worry that when people hear homeopaths and herbalist saying things like allopathic medicines are toxins that it may just well put people off from visiting drs and vets.

 

I have no problems really with homeopathic and herbal medications being used in conjunction with conventional medicine or when all allopathic and surgical options have been tried but do not think using them instead of seeking medical advice is at all safe.

 

 

A homeopathic vet would be able to recognise the symptoms of something potentially serious and life threatening but I am not sure a herbalist or homeopath with no medical training would be able to.

 

e.g symptoms of tiredness. Most cases turn out to be due to poor lifestyle and sleep patterns but can be due to things such as thyroid problems, kidney problems or anaemia which itself can be a sign of a bleeding stomach ulcer, heavy periods or bowel or stomach cancer. Would a homeopath necessarily realise this?

 

There are a few life potentially life threatening skin rashes - would they be able to recognise those?

 

unexplained weight loss is often a symptom of cancer. I would hope that if anyone went to a herbalist or homeopath with bleeding from any body orifice that they would recommend they visit their GP but I am not convinced of this since some I have spoken to are so anti allopathic medicine regardless.

 

If herbal medicine was as effective as practitioners believe then surely there would already be effective herbal medicines for life threatening conditions such as an acute asthma attack, anaphylactic shock, acute heart failure, heart attacks, meningitis and septicaemia, severe infections needing intravenous antibiotics, leukaemia for example.

It may well prove to be useful in more minor , less serious illnesses at the moment and there is promising research into different plants and herbs for things like cancer which have recently been discovered.

 

I have seen people get better from situations in which they looked like they were dying within minutes and hours due to allopathic medicine.

I am not disputing that it has adverse effects at times.

 

Herbal medicine may make some autoimmune conditions worse by stimulating the immune system when it is already overstimulated.

 

Anything in life has potential risks and benefits. Most drugs are used because on the whole the benefits of their use outweigh the risks in most cases.

[ReikiAnge]

I have seen people get better from situations in which they looked like they were dying within minutes and hours due to allopathic medicine.

I am not disputing that it has adverse effects at times.

 

I've heard of people and animals recover after being sent away by doctors/vets and told that they were "terminal" and that nothing else could be done for them, these things work both ways.

 

My husband can't seem to find any hayfever tablets that don't give him side effects - they make him drowsy when they say they won't and they also make him moody, I'd liken it to PMT. He's tried quite a number of different products. He can however receive acupuncture and/or Reiki and feel the benefits without the side effects.

 

I have a very good female GP now, but she took me a long time to find and I only see her once every year or two on average I guess. She may not look at things the way I do but she is very respectful and supportive of me and my understanding of myself. I have however had various experiences with other GPs and conventional products in the past - it hasn't made me write off all GPs but it did make me look into things a bit more. It led me to realise I didn't want to continue taking pills to mask the (my) symptoms when I should really be looking at why things happen.

 

I agree with you that some GPs and vets should look more at the whole body/mind rather than just treating a physical symptom. I think probably more are starting to do that?

 

My father-in-law is an acupuncturist. He has worked out of a room at the local GPs surgery and he has had some of the GPs refer patients to him when they felt he would be able to help more than they could. I think that's a positive example of open minds . There are also obviously vets doing additional training to become homeopathic vets, I've heard of one vet giving up normal practice to focus entirely on Reiki.

 

I do struggle when people just take everything a GP/vet says to them as gospel though - I don't intend any offence to you as an individual GP Alexis - but I really do think some people/owners would benefit from questioning things a bit more. GPs and vets are only human after all. I recall discussing a new contraceptive product with a GP many years ago and she'd not heard about it and didn't believe me - and I'd read it in Cosmo! It was later released to the market.

 

I think we're probably going to have to agree to disagree on this subject at some point as all the negative experiences I have had, have been relating to conventional/prescribed medicine rather than alternative/complementary stuff and while you would hate to see people put off going to GPs/vets, I would be upset to see people put off visiting other practitioners, due to my own experiences and those of others

 

I'm sure there are dubious alternative/complementary practitioners, but we shouldn't tar a whole profession because of some people - ditto for GPs/conventional vets.