also spracht martad

In the Western world, homeopathy was the first alternative therapy to challenge conventional medicine. Aromatherapy and Bach flower remedies followed within too long… and then there was the deluge.

I find it fascinating to browse through the lists of natural, alternative and complementary practices that challenge conventional allopathic medicine.

I find it even more fascinating how so many people seem to believe that the holistic approach, or traditional medicine as some like to call it, will solve all of their problems. It’s like we cannot put up with the idea of not being perfect machines, so when some part of our psycho-physiological mechanism stops working, we must find a remedy that brings it back to (supposed) perfection again.

Hey, I for one would like to be able not to get older, weaker, or less healthy than when I was at my best (whenever that was). And because I’ve always been a bit of a rebel at heart, I have used and actively been researching “alternative” medicine for the best part of (ouch!) fifty years. When I was living in Europe, I have used herbal remedies and homeopathy with satisfactory results - but here in the Southern Pacific, homeopaths and (qualified Western) herbalists are not easy to come across… so I decided to give a “fair go” to what is available locally.

I have therefore enquired with (and about) naturopaths, osteopaths, aromatherapists, body work specialists, personal trainers, counsellors, acupuncturists, massage therapists, chiropractors, Chinese (Indian, Ayurveda, Tibetan, Mayan/Atzec, Sudanese and South Tyrolean) practitioners, and many other New Agey entrepreneurs, in the hope of transforming my imperfect self into the perfect piece of human machinery that I have always wanted to be.

I have even noticed feeling somewhat better after a $60 chiropractic treatment. Yet, I have gained no benefit at all from several visits to a (friend) naturopath and many months of her suggested medication (alternative, of course, as well as outrageously expensive). Nor, to tell the whole uncomfortable truth, from ten months of “natural” mineral supplements, recommended by an otherwise absolutely orthodox GP. Acupucturists, massage therapists, aromatherapists and holistic fortune tellers haven’t helped much either - except in helping me get rid of some money, which maybe I did not need too desperately.

So today’s question is this: with such a long list of possible “alternative” therapies, how can we be sure that there are no charlatans, and how can we tell the wheat from the chaff?

A sample list of complementary medicine topics

[ 1 ] In 1842, C.F.S. Hahnemann coined the term allopathic to decribe orthodox medicine and emphasize the difference between conventional medical practices and homeopathy, the therapeutic system that he founded.

[ 2 ] WHO (World Health Organization) defines Traditional Medicine as “the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.” [ see WHO Website ]

[ 3 ] In Australia, a GP (General Practitioner) is a “generic” medical doctor.

This entry was posted on Monday, 15 January 2007 at 10:44 pm and is filed under health and wellbeing, alternative therapies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.