your opinion about alternative medicine (sinus, allergies, back pain, cold)

[a.audrey]

Could you give me your opinion about althernative medicine?
Have you tried any form of alternative medicine?What for? Was it successful?

[yellowsnow]

I'm all for whatever works that doesn't hurt you! I've never tried anything but I'm not averse to it.

[sunsprit]

Wouldn't be without it, as I find most stuff effective, inexpensive, and without any side effects.

For example, hayfever. Working on my farm/ranch, I have a lot of contact with the stuff that triggers my seasonal allergies. Prescription meds as well as over the counter stuff can deal with the symptoms (itchy eyes, running nose, sinus blockage, ear/throat blockage), but at high cost and side effects that adversely affect me. With over the counter, inexpensive homeopathics ... I prevent and/or relieve the symptoms more effectively, more quickly, and without any rebound such as one gets with nasal sprays.

I take a daily maintenance dose of basic herbs, and haven't had a cold or flu in many years, despite a lot of contact (I'm a rep making sales calls) with the general public that always seems to have a lot of these symptoms every year. I travel and stay overnight with two families that seem to have these problems almost continuously every flu season ... and never have gotten ill from being around them. This also seems to be of benefit for male pattern baldness and graying ... I'm dark haired and have almost no gray, and a full head of hair.

Same experience with my muscle/joint stiffness, or bruising when working on equipment. Arnica, in the form of topical creams, and/or 30x or 200c strength pills ... works very effectively. As good as or better than Ibuprofen (and stronger prescription muscle relaxants), much less cost, no side effects, no liver damage.

A sensitive area .... prostate. There's expensive prescription meds for shrinking this, all with side effects. Saw Palmetto is cheap, as effective (and proven in German pharmaceutical testing), with no side effects. Having the start of a problem in my 50's, I started taking Saw Palmetto daily, and have had no further symptoms.

Other alternatives: acupuncture and chiropratic. I was pretty well beat up in a car wreck (t-boned by a drunk semi-trailer driver) many years ago, with soft tissue damage in the neck and a spine that "clicked" for awhile. Conventional medicine would have resorted to surgery (which my lawyer wanted me to do, too, to further establish my medical damage claims) ... and I wouldn't do it. About 6 months of weekly treatments and I healed up, and since a year after the accident ... no further problems. I've had three get-offs from my horses in the last year ... if anything was going to aggravate my old injuries, this would have ... and had no problems getting back on my horses and riding the rest of the trail and homeward. I don't believe I'd have such a good outcome if I'd been surgically repaired way back after the car wreck.

Another major area: cardiovascular system. Due to the car wreck, there were some questions about possible heart damage. An angiogram revealed that my vascular system is typically of someone 30-40 years younger than I am. I attribute my clean bill of health here to taking a maintenance dose of CLA ... not a high dose for weight control, but just a cardiovascular maintenance dose. Cheap insurance against one of the leading killers in society today.

There's a lot of excellent books out on these topics. Start with "the Food Pharmacy", which gives you the basics of using your nutrition/diet intake to set you up for good health performance, and then go on to the homeopathic guide books. With an ND (naturopath), you can avoid much contact of conventional medicine in your life if you have the types of problems that are in their area of expertise. Of course, alternative medicine is no substitute for many serious well developed diseases or trauma requiring surgery ... but it can be effective in avoiding some of those diseases or assisting in healing from them or trauma.

Of course, too ... avoiding self-destructive behavior is essential. Toxic substances are no benefit to good health, so smoking, drug abuse, excessive alcohol intake ... are to be avoided, especially if you're seeking to achieve results from homeopathy.

[groove1]

I think it really needs to bne complimented and balanced by Western healthcare. Luckily, there is a part of Carolinas Medical Centers called Carolinas Integrative Health that combines/balances traditional and alternative medicince.

[karen_s]

I've used quite a bit of alternative/complementary medicine and have had great experiences.

I've used chiropractic for chronic back pain (from years of lifting heavy patients), saw a naturopath for some hormonal issues which she resolved with the use of vitamins/herbals, and even had a homebirth with a midwife - just a beautiful experience compared with a conventional hospital birth.
To me the methods I used above were just as important as mainstream medicine in my life. I of course would get a mainstream opinion in the case of a complicated medical problem, but my approach would be a balanced one between Western medicine and alternative therapies.

Some things I have yet to try but would include acupuncture and seeing a classical homeopath, just haven't found the right practitioners yet. The mainstream docs our family sees are D.O.'s who prefer way less medication and invasive types of interventions than most family docs I know.

[VillageLife]

I take it everyday; grapeseed extract,echinecia with goldenseal.flaxseed oil,aloe vera juice,hempseed powder,etc.

[groove1]

Originally Posted by dragonten

I take it everyday; grapeseed extract,echinecia with goldenseal.flaxseed oil,aloe vera juice,hempseed powder,etc.

I agree with all of these except GSE. I really like flxseed and flaxseed oil.

[CosmicWizard]

I strongly prefer alternative health care to allopathic medicine and traditional modalities. I always exhaust alternative options before I even consider relying upon conventional methods, which I view as a last resort.

I have experienced many alternative health care modalities. The ones providing the best results are the following in no particular order: Chinese herbs, macrobiotics, polarity therapy, EFT, TAT, regenetics, shamanism, homeopathy, rolfing, reiki, and a wide variety of supplements

The ones that seemd to do very little are the following: Chiropractric, accupuncture, NLP

Other modalities that I would like to experience: ThetaHealing, The Reconnection.

There are probably others that I could add to all 3 lists, but this is what comes to mind right now.

blessings...Franco

PS: Dragon...thanks for the rep points. I'm aiming for the gold and your support is much appreciated!

[AnyDayNow]

I enjoy the end results of acupuncture. I'm not a fan of needles, yet it is worth it for the pain relief I get. Years of western medicine treatment couldn't resolve the problem--they could only mask it with drugs, if I had nothing to do other than sleep all day. (due to grogginess caused by pills.)

I went into the acupuncturist's office not believing that it would work, but desperate from the pain so I was willing to give it a try. I walked out feeling a lot better. It was amazing to me.

Speaking of that, I think it's time to make another appt....

[VillageLife]

Originally Posted by AnyDayNow

I enjoy the end results of acupuncture. I'm not a fan of needles, yet it is worth it for the pain relief I get. Years of western medicine treatment couldn't resolve the problem--they could only mask it with drugs, if I had nothing to do other than sleep all day. (due to grogginess caused by pills.)

I went into the acupuncturist's office not believing that it would work, but desperate from the pain so I was willing to give it a try. I walked out feeling a lot better. It was amazing to me.

Speaking of that, I think it's time to make another appt....

Accupuncture is fantastic,I usually get good results even from pain in my left knee and great for losing weight