Here's another stick for the fire............

I think that there are valid therapies out there in the "alternative" medicine world. Several of them have even been tested by 'Scientific Method' and found to actually do what they are supposed to. Example, lavender essential oil. It does act as a calmative, it does help to lower blood pressure, it is anti bacterial. The British Medical Journal has articles on this, not to mention several hundred other medical publications / journals, never mind what you can find on the web. Let's not forget, asprin is only willow bark and digitalis is foxglove.

I do think that herbal remedies ( especially when taken in the large doses recommended by some practitioners ) should be looked at as carefully as "normal" drugs. Just because it's 'natural', doesn't mean it's safe to use without caution. Rasberry leaves contain a high level of uterinal stimulants and shouldn't be ingested by pregnant women, for example.

On the other hand,' western' medicine is now suffering because of a cavalier attitude to antibiotics. Over the course of the latter half of the 20th century, antibiotics were not only handed out at the drop of a sniffle ("just in case" attitude ) to humans, they are also now firmly entrenched in agriculture.

We now are literally having to find things, other than antibiotics, that will kill bacteria ( not unlike the situation inthe 1920's ), as so many are now at least partially resistant to the antibiotics we have. In our hospitals we have a serious problem with "hospital aquired infections". This is generally "Methecillin Resistant Stapholococcus Aureus" ( MRSA ). Methicillin is the antibiotic given to patients ( especially those with open wounds ) when other antibiotics aren't working. Because of over perscription of this antibiotic by house doctors and surgeons, we now have a virulent strain that is a constant problem in every major hospital in Britain. In the microbiology lab where I work, I've seen the section that deals with this "bug" alone, go from being an afternoon job for one technician, to being a full section manned all week by one state registered Biomedical Scientist with two lab. assistants.

Regardless of WHO gives the medical advice or WHAT form that treatment takes, medicine should be treated with a healthy (sorry) respect. This is why patients need good, consistant and most of all, accurate information when they are being treated. It should be given to them by their doctor, or else we end up going round in the circles that have started in this thread.

I'll get me coat.............

TTFN M'Lady P.