It's unproven!

If you follow my blogs you may remember in the last one that I was referring to treatment on the NHS and touched on the fact that some health authorities class the therapeutic work that I do as too alternative or unproven to be provided by NHS funding. As I was writing it I could feel the discussion brewing inside of me. So here are my thoughts and views.

 I came across complementary medicine when the NHS couldn’t help me. I had an awful, itchy rash that wouldn’t go away and the NHS had got to the stage that they could only suggest calamine lotion to apply. While during the daytime this was manageable I was finding myself scratching in my sleep. I even wore socks on the hands in an attempt to stop scratching and lessen the impact, but they never stayed on long! The GP said to me that they couldn’t help, but (sort of under the table) suggested contacting a local complementary health clinic. This was where my journey started.

 I have seen many different practitioners and tried various different therapies over the years. Some that have worked for me immediately, some that didn’t work and some that after some time or effort yielded results.

 None of these therapists made claims about results, but my desire to seek a solution drove me to give it a try and soon I realised that there is more to our health than surgery and tablets. Also over that time I had also been under the care of the NHS (thankfully for minor issues), some of these treatments worked and some did not. Including one that made me rather ill as a result of the side effects of the tablets prescribed.

What is startling at this point is that pharmaceutical companies can make claims about their treatment based on statics from trials that they fund but complementary health professionals cannot and are ‘gagged’ from using their evidence of success by the advertising standards agency. You only have to have a poke around on the internet to find arguments on both sides that the other is fake, unproven and just plain thieves. What is the truth? I don’t know and we probably won’t know in my lifetime. What I do know is that it complementary medicine has helped me.

 Could it all be in my mind? A placebo? Yes of course it could and so could the pill that you get from the doctor. If it works, does it matter if it’s your mind that created the change for you? Personally I don’t think so.

 We know that our mind is very powerful. There was a BBC programme not that long ago where a GP worked with patients to reduce or remove the pain killers and anti-depressants that the patients were on via methods like mindfulness and another that gave clearly labelled placebo tablets. In the main this worked. We also know that you can think yourself into physical conditions (and vice versa). Have you ever convinced yourself that you have a cold just from the first sneeze? I have also experienced health issues that don’t heal in a reasonable time. This has often been because I had an emotional issue that I was not addressing – clear up that emotional issue and the healing takes places. We can also change something about our body to change the way we are feeling.

 There are many studies (and even some doctors) that recommend hypnosis for conditions like IBS rather than drugs. While funding is limited and pharmaceutical companies are in a position to fund research and trials, the current ‘drugs/surgery first’ attitude is likely to persist. This is not helped by the removal of funding of a voluntary regulation group (CNHC) who were pushing for complementary therapists to follow standard guidelines (a bit like the NICE guidelines, nice.org.uk) which set out a code of practice and ethics. It gave clients a reassurance that they were being seen by a reputable therapist. While the organisation still exists there is little work being done in this area to increase links with or promote other avenues of treatment with the NHS. Many practitioners, myself included, don’t want it to be a ‘them or us’ culture. We want to work alongside GP’s, Physio’s, Oncologists, etc. Let’s tackle our health challenges from all sides.

 If you want to explore how your mind can help you heal then…