Homeopathy

One of the reasons that these "alternative" therapies gain traction is that there is often a disconnect between conventional medicine and actual valuable holistic treatment combined with a lack of simple explanation of what surgical and prescription interventions are doing and why they do and sometimes don't work. Peddlers of "alternative" therapies are often quite keen to explain in simplistic terms as to why their method actually works.

A lot more could be done to reduce the impact of charlatans like this if conventional medicine were to forge better links with proven and functional alternative therapies for holistic treatment of a patient.

"Proven and functional alternative therapies"?
Name one.

There aren't any, its like Tim Minchin said in his fantastic beat poem Storm. When they are proven and repeatable they are medicine, because thats what medicine is.

Hmm, let me see;

aromatherapy, meditation and similar therapies are proven to reduce stress and help with mental health issues as has guided exercise which also helps with things like condition management and recovery times. Similar for deitetic support and counselling.

They aren't about curing illnesses but about making the passage of surgical and medical treatment easier, reducing recovery times and, with things like cancer, trying to optimise the odds of remission and recovery. They're proven and functional because we know what they do and why they help rather than things like homeopathy which demonstrably does nothing.

Oddly we're now making swift progress in useing non-medical therapies to support medical intervention in things like limiting the effects of dementia but failing to apply simliar principles elsewhere.

Except when it isn't. Not all non-medical interventions are for everyone. Not everyone can do meditation or can stand being in a room with some smelly shit. Neither of which can or should be described as medicine. But where these therapies do work with with an individual undergoing medical or surgical treatment, conventional medicine should be supportive. It would also allow them a better voice on highlighting quackery such as those saying that these therapies are better than medicine.

Those things you have mentioned though make no claim of cure. They are all supportive systems unlike alternative therapies which are marketed as an alternative to a medical approach. It is not claimed that you can cure disease or injury through them. As you say, they are not for everyone either they require a buy in to have any effect, much as a placebo. I cannot name the paper but I have read that the effectiveness of meditation follows a similar curve to that of a placebo but finds a slightly different demographic. Aromatherapy I imagine could be different, who knows what gasses could be pumped into you?

Also mentioning 'dietic support' alongside meditation and aromatherapy is strange as any form of nutritional support if done correctly is entirely scientific, as opposed to the others which are relaxation help. Though this is not necessarily regulated properly, hence scam artists like that gillian mckeith being able to claim all sorts of ridiculous and unsupported things.

Im trying to be careful with my choice of language as I dont wish to come across as being offensive or dismissive while discussing this. I also accept that I may not be correct, I dont claim to be an expert. I always try to revise anything to the best available evidence.

I also accept that I may not be correct, I dont claim to be an expert.

Wrong forum, buddy.

I dont know, seems pretty fair here.

A lot more could be done to reduce the impact of charlatans like this if conventional medicine were to forge better links with proven and functional alternative therapies for holistic treatment of a patient.

If you change one word in there, it would make a million times more sense. What you're talking about isn't 'alternative', it's 'complementary'

complementary (adj.): combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another.

Sorry, but complementary and alternative are just another name for bollocks.

I've got cancer. It will probably kill me.

Someone giving me a nice smell or a hug or sticking a pin in me isn't going to make that go away.

The only thing that makes things a bit better for me are really expensive drugs, or really fucking nasty radiation, and in the meantime I don't mind if I have a bit more morphine. It's quite moreish, now that you mention it.

If poncy herbal tea worked, the NHS would be all over it.

Hmmm, I'm aware that might come across as a bit negative.

Herbal tea, actually is ok. Ginger tea is quite good at calming down the nausea from chemotherapy, in my experience. I'm sure that some of these crystal healing things seem to work for some people.

It's all pretty much a placebo though. Some of these hippy magic miracle cures probably do make some people feel better for a bit, but there is no proof that any of them extend life for a single day.

For me, Sambrooks Wandle ale and toulouse sausages are currently working a treat.

complementary and alternative are just another name for bollocks

No, they are two different things.

Ginger tea is quite good at calming down the nausea from chemotherapy, in my experience

And for a lot of other people too, and with some actual evidence AFAIK. That's a complementary therapy - doesn't actually have any effect on your disease, but makes the actual treatment more tolerable.

Left and Right?

Sorry, but complementary and alternative are just another name for bollocks.

Scientists seem to disagree about that, frequently, in peer reviewed papers. Multiple papers found that psychological well-being and stress reduction has an impact on the effects of medical treatment and subsequent outpatient progression. Perhaps you could point me to one that says it does bugger all.

Crystal healing, homeopathy and so on are definitely bollocks, there's no observable output. Aromatherapy, while definitely not for me and apparently not for you, does. I gives a direct neurological stimulus not entirely dissimilar to listening to music, visiting an art gallery.

If your susceptible to a particular input and the outcome of that is beneficial to the progress of treatment, why is it bollocks?

Where exactly is the science that says that drugs and radiation work best with no other consideration for other aspects of a cancer patient's health and well-being? Seriously, point me to a definitive paper.

As someone who went to a Steiner School, going to the school nurse was basically never heard of because no matter how badly you got fucked up climbing trees or whatnot, she'd just give you Arnica.

It took one visit after being knocked-out from falling off "the castle" on my second week to figure that out.

Dont even start me on Arnica

Sugar for shock?

By the time the arnica's out, the bruise is already forming and the shock is subsiding.

I prefer Smarties anyway. I mean, they have the answer.

An astonishing story from Germany--a load of healers and homeopaths hold a 'seminar' and take an illegal hallucinogen called 2C-E or Aquarust (no, me neither), triggering a major call-out of 150 firefighters because the seminarians are observed writhing around in the garden in obvious pain. I imagine the fire brigade was called because there was a suspicion of poisonous substances having been released into the air when it was actually apparently a voluntary experiment. They clearly should have stuck to homeopathic doses.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/niedersachsen-herumtorkelnde-heilpraktiker-loesen-grosseinsatz-aus-1.2635804

There's probably going to be an English version of the story doing the rounds soon.

Calling Darwin Awards....

Well Aquarust cannot be a homeopathic remedy as it had a noticeable, quantifiable, (if negative), effect.

Oliver was working metaphorically in here, let's turn a blind eye for this time, usually he is very accurate though.

You just don't know what Aquarust can do when it's diluted properly.