Do you ever use homeopathic or herbal remedies when you're ill, or are you somebody who will only stick to whatever the doctor prescribed you?

And would you go to an alternative therapist to treat a complaint?

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Answers

I believe in chiropractors for straightening the spine (not for all that herb stuff they sell too), and even went to an osteopath for a while (used him as a chiropractor, only).

Otherwise, I am a big beleiver in traditional medicine with scientific backing. I don't always agree with a first opinion, but I'm not going to a witch doctor to cure a cancer. Unless, of course, traditonal medicine practitioners tell me I'm screwed and the only options left are non-traditional approaches or die- then, what the heck!

I do recognize that traditional medicine in many ways has evolved from more primitive remedies, however much of modern medicine today completely dwarfs the abilities of less sohpisicated techniques.

Of course, if you are just talking about if one has a cold or flu, is it ok to light some incense or take zinc pills ... well, yeah, that stuff is fine. Most little spells of feeling "under the weather" is just a minor virus and time will take care of the problem. And if one wants to spend the time smelling incense I think one should. Of course, if one has a sinus infection, a) incence is bad for the sinuses and b)you better get some antibiotics because you risk that infection turning serious.

Mom use to go to an acupucture for some neck/back pain and thought it worked well. It provided temporary relief of pain for her, so I don't knock it for a pain releiver. Sometimes, that is better than nothing. Of course, Darviset is NOT nothing. ;-)

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

I'm respectful of traditional remedies, and have occasionally used milder ones such as chamomile (sp?) tea to sleep. I have a good friend who is a chiropractor, and she is convincing about using adjustments to cure more than just back-ache. If my wife goes past her due date again, we'll try an acupuncturist before we try Pitossin again (Pitossin bad).

But part of my respect for the herbal remedies is that I don't use them. Companies market them as "natural," as if that somehow makes them harmless. Unless the herbals are traditional foods, there's no reason to expect them to have fewer side effects than other drugs. Foxglove, deadly nightshade, and henbane are natural, and they're very effective poisons. (And one of them -- I forget which -- is the source of digitalis). I'd have to be really desperate to take a bite of herb where the active ingredient is in some unknown concentration when the purified drug is manufactured for me by someone like Pfizer, who knows they will have to pay me or my estate millions if they screw up.

Speaking of side effects, I saw an article in yesterday's news that a recent study concluded that St. John's wort appears to interfere with HIV medications and birth control pills. Anyone know anything about that?

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

St. John's wort has been shown in at least two studies to speed up the breakdown of numerous classes of medication, including birth control pills and HIV protease inhibitors. But even if this weren't the case, I wouldn't take it anyway, because it's a potent serotonin reuptake inhibitor, meaning that it's in the same class of drugs as Prozac, Zoloft, etc. These drugs shouldn't be taken without medical supervision, in my opinion.

Of course, if you got very sick or died from taking St. John's wort, Tom, you could still sue the company that made it. The real difference between traditional and herbal remedies is that the traditional medications are approved by the FDA, which means that studies need to be done showing that they are reasonably safe and effective. Of course, this isn't a guarantee that they will work and that they won't hurt you, but at least you have some indication that they've been checked for obvious problems. With herbal remedies you have no such guarantee.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Jennifer, I'd also heard that about St John's Wort, but as I understood it that was the main natural remedy which could have serious side-effects - do you know of others?

A couple of years ago I would have scoffed at anything like a homeopathic remedy, but recently I've become more interested in the possibilities. And while I certainly wouldn't drink dandelion tea to cure cancer or anything, I've had good success with Bach's Rescue Remedy (because I'm a nervy, highly-strung freak) and silicea (all those people who contributed to the 'how do I get rid of bad skin' thread ages ago - you should try this.

And I'm heard Ecninacea is excellent in fighting colds - has anybody tried this?

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

I'll try anything that works. For infections diseases it seems like Western medicine is great. For nerve and muscle things, other methods may work better.

I've seen an osteopath for years for my back. The only reason I don't see her any more is that I moved away from her area. My insurance, Aetna, paid for part of this as it would for any doctor.

I take large doses of vitamin C daily, and take echinacea and zinc losenges at the first sign of a cold. My partner has commented that I seem to get fewer colds since I've started this.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Jackie, I'm not an expert on herbal remedies, but a quick web search turned up this page which lists potential side effects and drug interactions of some common herbal remedies. But I think the scariest thing about herbal remedies is that for the most part, the side effects and drug interactions are not known! St. John's wort has been on the market for years, but we are only learning now about its potentially dangerous side effects.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Here's my experience: I'd been assigned to do a story on alternative medicine, and the morning I was going to go interview the owner of the natural foods store, I woke up with impending laryngitis.

Talk about timing.

I called the advice nurse at Kaiser, who said "well, there's nothing that can be done for laryngitis...you'd better not talk at all, because you're going to lose your voice by the end of the day anyway."

So I go down to the store, and the owner gives me some friar's balsam (you put it in water and drink it), I drank it for the rest of the day, and could still speak by the end of it. The bout was over quickly, with nary a voiceless moment =)

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Osteopaths keep me moving; I had a bad riding fall (got trampled, ouchie) followed six months later by a car accident, and had continuous and chronic problems with my neck. Osteopaths rule. She recommended magnesium tablets for muscle soreness, and it's great - if you do some unaccustomed exercise (and all exercise to me is unaccustomed), pop a magnesium before or after and it's like a painkiller. Amazing.

For sleeping, I use valerian; helps you drift off without the nasty dozy side effects of sleeping tablets. Also good for stress.

I had a dog who had a dislocated vertebra in his tail. The vet could only give him Valium (a skeletal relaxant) and say, "rest the tail" - which was hard because he was a happy dog. We had to be nasty to him until his tail was better, to stop him wagging. I took him to a doggie chiropractor and he un-dislocated the disc, and prescribed magnesium, and wow! A waggy dog again.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Herbal remedies are sometimes worthwhile, although they can be dangerous, like any other treatment (and yeah, they're much less tested). I've used echinacea to ward off colds, with considerable success. Ginger pills can work against nausea, without making you sleepy.

Homeopathic remedies are different. They can only work as placeboes, but are completely safe, because there's nothing in them.

The basic principle of homeopathy is, look at the symptoms. Find a chemical that produces similar symptoms. Dilute the chemical with water until there are literally no molecules of the original substance left in the mixture, then give this to the sick person.

In theory, the water "remembers" the chemical that's not there any more, and the sick person's system responds to the chemical that would have caused the symptoms, if they took any of it, and fights off the disorder. (There's some argument about diluting the chemical making it stronger, which makes me worry about how they rinse out their containers. Do they pour all that incredibly powerful medicine down the drain? What harm is this doing to our ecosystem?)

It's absolute bunk, unadulterated hogwash.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Echinacea for colds: If I feel I'm coming down with something, I take some drops of echinacea (and maybe two aspirin - covering my bets with traditional medicine). About half the time, it seems to avert the cold or whatever. However, at the same time, the echinacea makes me speed and gives me an upset stomach, so I have to weigh whether it's worth it.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

JoyJ, that's interesting. My understanding of homeopathic remedies was ... (and I'm quoting directly from my Boots guide to complementary medicine here)

It works on the theory that the body's natural defences can be stimulated by administering minute doses of a substance which in large doses my cause symptoms of an illness.

So, although it is diluted, there is apparently some of the original substance there.

I'm one of the world's biggest sceptics, but I tried silicea because nothing else had helped at all for my grotty skin, and I'm at the point where I'll try anything short of a fake beard. And my skin cleared up significantly within a week. It might be a coincidence, but I'll happily continuing to pop silicea if the coincidence continues as well!

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I try to stick to homeopathic remedies and large amounts of water. I had a pretty bad bout of sinusitis about 4 years ago and I ran the gamut of antibiotics. I was down to the last antibiotic they had (Vankomyacin--sp?) and then I was hospitalized. (tiny violin play here)

Now, I usually will refuse to go to a doctor unless symptoms (we're talking colds and little viruses here) last for longer than a week. There's just no point in getting that script for antibiotics when it's something that will resolve itself on its own. After two years of staunchly refusing antibiotics, I can take a simple script of Amoxicyllin again and it will work.

I've taken the Echinacea for colds and never really noticed a huge difference. Now, I take the Cold-eeze drops (Zinc lozenges) and I HAVE noticed a huge difference in the length/severity of my cold when I start taking those at the first sniffle. I take a Centrum every day and I used to take 500 mg. of Vitamin C (I'm a smoker, depletes faster in smokers as I understand it) everyday before I read that Vit C supplements can result in atherosclerosis. Or is it arteriosclerosis? Your arteries get hard early, whichever it is. So now I'm mixed on taking the Vitamin C supplements.

My friend used to have severe migraines--she's been seeing an acupuncturist for two months now and the migraines have virtually vanished, only about one a week now. This is also in combination with a modified diet and exercise routine designed by her acupuncturist. So, yep, I sure would go see an alternative therapist. It's better than being handed a prescription when it's unnecessary.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

No question some of this stuff works, but more studies need to be done - both to separate out the useful stuff from the placebo- effect stuff, and to determine side effects and people who shouldn't take it and drug interactions and all that stuff.

In the meantime I won't touch any of it. I have some fairly kick- ass allergies and consequently take a strong, prescription allergy medicine, and who knows how it might interact with, say, St. John's wort. Also, I might actually be allergic to some of remedies, since I have some severe pollen allergies.

I'd like to make the point that herbal rememdies are drugs. Just because it's natural does not mean it's safe.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

A lot of common drugs that have been tested "scientifically," have side-effects that at one point weren't taken seriously.. like antibiotics, esp. regarding their effects on general bacterial ecology, let alone internal bacterial ecology. I'm referring here to the fact that due to so much use of antibiotics since they were first developed, more and more antibiotic-resistant bacteria are developing, and more and more people also are developing allergies.. And some folk really fuck up their digestion/intestinal flora.

Others were only tested on particular people, and then recommended to the general population. Some heart disease medications (if I remember correctly), for example, have different effects on women and men, but were initially only tested on women. Other drugs and/or procedures have developed in a way which doesn't necessarily benefit the patient (i.e. the woman-on-her-back method of childbirth).

there's a lot to be taken from on both sides. The useful side of a lot of 'altertnative' medicine is its often more holistic focus. attention to stress, diet, lifestyle, etc. that said I've never tried homeopathy itself, only herbal remedies of various kinds. I have avoided the mood-altering ones (like St, John;s Wort), however. I agree just because it's herbal doesn't mean it's powerful. However, the non-powerful ones don't always work in a crisis. My migraines, unfortuntely or not, respond well to tylenol-plus-aspirin-and- caffeine, and my menstrual cramps to ibuprofen. However, if I remember to take herbal supplements or drink the teas BEFORE the pain begins, or earlier in my cycle, I don't seem to get the pain. In some cases it's also a question of side effects. Raspberry tea has no effect on my stomach lining and doesn't make me jittery --unlike aspirin and caffeine.

but with either kind of medicine it pays to do your homework. I don't trust the 'scientific medical establishment' to automatically be suited to me anymore than random new-agey quotes about synchronicity or something..

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000