Homeopathic/natural remedies/organic

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I was curious how other people felt about alternative medicines such as homeopathy. My boyfriend and I constantly argue about this because he believes these things are a hoax but I disagree. Since I was in my mother’s belly, I have been raised on homeopathic and other natural medicines. I am not talking about these scams you see on tv or whatever you can find at the drugstore, I mean actually going to see a doctor trained in homeopathy or Eastern medicine and getting good quality medicine.

I am not against conventional medicine when it is necessary but I think doctors are too quick to write a prescription. Also, many prescription medications can do more harm than good if you look at the list of possible side effects. If there is a natural way to heal something rather than using drugs, I think it is worth it.

My mom recently started seeing a woman who got a degree at University of Florida in Eastern medicine. When I told my boyfriend about it, he thought it was such a joke. I was a little skeptical but she has helped my mother so much. Instead of having to take sleeping pills and anxiety medication, my mom has been able to take herbs and feel a million times better. She also has more energy and it has calmed down her menopausal symptoms so much.

Another thing we argue about is organic food. I’m not really sure how I feel about it but sometimes I think it is worth it to spend the extra money. For instance, when buying chicken or eggs, I think it is more beneficial to a person’s health to buy products that haven’t been filled with growth hormones. He thinks it’s all fake and just a scam to make money.

I wish I could open his eyes and see that in order for him to dismiss something so quickly like homeopathy or free range chicken, he needs to actually do research from reputable sources and talk to people trained in these fields, not just any person who claims to know.

Sorry for the long post it has just been bothering me because I love my boyfriend so much and these petty arguments really get to me. 🤷
 
I’m with you on the herbal remedies. I take several of them a day to lower my blood pressure, and I think they work wonders. Kava tea is my new favorite, and there is nothing better to soothe the spirits then a lovely glass of Kava tea.

Homeopathy is another story all together. Look carefully into it-both sides, not just the health food store owners and employees. Many people with reputable scientific backgrounds think that homeopathy is abusrd-just diluted water. I tend to agree with them.

Organic food is, in my opinion, a total scam. I see people in grocery stores literally fondiling them like relics. They think organic food can increase your sex drive, make you smarter, better looking, healthier, all that rubbish. It’s the same thing as regular food, but it’s grown in animal…you know what.

Having said all that, if it makes you feel better, knock yourself out. :rolleyes:
 
The thing about organic food is that it’s not only about being healthier for the person who eats it but for the people who grow it and live near it and the land on which it is produced. Antibiotics fed to cattle wind up in the water supply, arsenic and other poisons in pesticides blow in the wind and run off in the rain. There is plenty of documentation of health issues among farmers and farm workers.

As with anything, some people will go overboard and make a “religion” of their food choices. I’m not suggesting that - but I do think we have an obligation to be good stewards of the earth.

On the other subject, I have benefitted from both conventional and traditional medicine and don’t think we should be afraid to combine them and seek out the best (least-harmful) options for treatment. It was my conventional-medicine cancer surgeon who told me to take ginger for nausea when I was in chemo. My mother’s doc practices integrative medicine, meaning he uses the whole palate of options - it’s very wise, I think.

Homeopathy certainly seems like it could be ripe for fraud, but I know that years ago when my daughter had terrible migraines the homeopathic remedy worked when nothing else did - and if it was a panacea, why wouldn’t any pill have had the same effect? I think we are guilty of pride when we think that our human intellects have plumbed the depths of the natural world and there is nothing we don’t know and understand!
 
I understand and am not vehemently against natural medicines… I know things like aspirin, penicillin, quinine and many other common medicines that are “man-made reproduced” now. I also know there are many undiscovered ones out there that modern medicine might find and utilize. I know there used to be natural remedies to illnesses in the past, and modern medicine has to a slight degree purified and made more available while at the same time not promoted others.

I know modern medicine is lacking too. My grandma almost had to have both her feet amputated in her old age with diabetes, but my mom was persistent and used natural massage and foot bathes and prayed with her to Jesus for her healing. My grandma was an atheist and has no spiritual belief at all. Her legs were healed amazingly the night before scheduled surgery to removed the blue and necrotic feet. Her feet healed and she walks again. I can only see the power of Christ prevailing here, and amazingly at that. A doctor was still needed though, to check her vital signs and keep her on certain medicines for her diabetes before and after.

I am against the consumption of animals and foods with gross use of hormones, as I know they affect people’s own hormones and lead to cancers, growth/brain problems, etc. in some cases.

This isn’t to say I’m prideful and think everything that Western world has discovered is the TRUTH only and no other truth exists anywhere else.

With that said, if something is natural and not of an occult or dark energy force or similarly related, then I would be willing to believe people on it and its effectiveness and would use it myself too. I think acupuncture in certain practice is very helpful in pain management, so is certain relax/massage therapy, but I’m also very aware its a blurry line to cross from the legitimate realm to the hoax realm.
 
Hello,

Homeopathic medicine really works, it’s not because you don’t understand how it works that you have to say that it doesn’t. Many doctors around the world use it and personnaly it helped me a lot.

Organic food is much more healthier since it doesn’t grow in a stressful environment where the food loses of its nutrients, since the plants use their anti-oxydants to defend itselves against free radicals made by the chemicals products they put. If the nutrients are not in the soil, it won’t be in the plants as well. If the subject is contraversial, it is certainly because of the money most of the business make with non-organic products.

What I like the most in natural medicine, it is that they go at the root of the cause, instead of trying to remove only the symptoms. That is what true medicine is about, to remove the root of the problem or the cause. It doesn’t mean that drugs are not necessary sometimes.
 
You have to be really careful about these things. I personally went to Chinese medicine practitioner who treated several people in my family for some minor medical issues. I get dry itchy skin sometimes, so he gave me this cream to use. We later found out that creme contained steroids like what you’d get prescribed by a regular doctor.

The problem with this, as I later read, is that in this particular case the doses of the steroid are unmeasured and unregulated. It is like that with a lot of homeopathic remedies, it is very hard to know how much of the ingredient is in the stuff you are taking, and for most of these things studies have not been done to determine their effectiveness or safety.

I haven’t studied the issue too much, but lately I have been hearing scientists and medical professionals saying from time to time that whenever these things are studied they are shown to give the same benefit as placebo

If you’re really interested, look into the research about these products. Personal accounts of “it helped me” is not very good evidence because of the placebo effect.
 
I am not competent to offer an opinion because I have no training in science or medicine, and I suggest all of the answers you get here will be subjective based on personal experience, not informed by scientific expertise. I doubt very much if an answer that convinces either of you will be forthcoming here. The deeper issue is why have you allowed this to be a bone of contention between you. Is it a matter where one person is alleging intellectual superiority over the other? Is it a control issue where one person is trying to dictate the way the other chooses their medical care? Is it simply a case of honest disagreement with two people free to present opposing views and are free to discuss any topic without fear of ridicule? My reading, and this is only subjective, throw it away if it does not apply to you, is that if you have hopes for the future of your relationship you work on communication and respect issues. It may be just the way you told your story that leads to my impression, not the actual situation.

There is nothing in Catholic teaching either way, except to reject any practice that masquerades as medical treatment but is actually a form of false worship of false gods (reiki etc.). In the last analysis people will choose the treatment and care that gives them benefit, and those choices in general should be private, not open for general discussion. If it becomes a matter where you have to decide for another person, such as caring for an elderly relative who seems to be making bad choices, that is another matter, and you would in prudence seek the best profession, informed, competent advice you can find and afford.
 
You should always look for a doctor in naturopathic medicine. www.naturopathic.org

The important is to treat the cause of the problem, or its root. That’s what will do a doctor in naturopathic medicine. The drugs will only try to remove the symptoms.
 
You’ve brought up a number of different things that have different merits - I have to say that you’ll have a tough time selling anyone on homeopathic remedies since they are actually just water. (That’s not an opinion - it’s literally true). I think it can “work” as a placebo… but at the very least it isn’t harmful except to your wallet or if you use it to the exclusion of real medicine (whether herbal or “western” or what have you).

Like your boyfriend, I tend to be a skeptic… but your question strikes me as more of a relationship issue than a medical one. Maybe he thinks it’s gentle teasing - or maybe he just likes a nice knock-down argument… but clearly he’s hurting your feelings and you should let him know that the way he approaches the subject is upsetting to you, and that you don’t laugh it off or enjoy the challenge to debate. It’s not important that you agree as to whether organic food is worth the money - but it is important that you let him know when his words are unkind so that he can change his behavior.
 
It is science, it’s not about believing, but it works. You that don’t know anything about it, you should not tell something, since you don’t know at all. You should have some respect for those Doctors that help thousands of people with it, instead of thinking what you think as the truth when you don’t know at all.
 
Frank, are you talking about homeopathy? Because substances (of dubious merit - based on an “opposites” idea) are titrated in water until no molecule of the substance remains (so the result is… water). This is acknowledged by practitioners of homeopathy, who claim that water has a “memory” of substances that have come in contact with it. That sounds like magical thinking to me - to them it’s valid - but everyone agrees that if you test the remedies by conventional means all you find - is water.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
 
My cousin is a naturalpathic/homeopathic doctor in that she doesn’t just prescribe an antacid pill for heart burn, she’ll try to figure out why you have heartburn and then work with you so that you don’t get heartburn again. I, personally, like this approach to medicine. If you’re just masking the symptoms they never really go away. Why not find the problem and then come up with a way to make the problem no longer occur. Seems much more logical to me, but then again, if it costs less that may be why doctors tend to prescribe the more expensive pill.
 
And how exactly is giving somebody water and pretending that it’s medicine going to address the root cause of the patient’s symptoms?

I have one friend who swears that homeopathic medicine works, but her condition keeps getting worse and worse. A medication would cure everything, but she refuses to see a doctor and instead keeps visiting the same homeopathic practitioner, who prescribes different remedies and charges a hefty fee…
takers said:
My cousin is a naturalpathic/homeopathic doctor in that she doesn’t just prescribe an antacid pill for heart burn, she’ll try to figure out why you have heartburn and then work with you so that you don’t get heartburn again. I, personally, like this approach to medicine. If you’re just masking the symptoms they never really go away. Why not find the problem and then come up with a way to make the problem no longer occur. Seems much more logical to me, but then again, if it costs less that may be why doctors tend to prescribe the more expensive pill.
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organdy said:
Like your boyfriend, I tend to be a skeptic… but your question strikes me as more of a relationship issue than a medical one. Maybe he thinks it’s gentle teasing - or maybe he just likes a nice knock-down argument… but clearly he’s hurting your feelings and you should let him know that the way he approaches the subject is upsetting to you, and that you don’t laugh it off or enjoy the challenge to debate. It’s not important that you agree as to whether organic food is worth the money - but it is important that you let him know when his words are unkind so that he can change his behavior.
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After reading that, I realized that it is partly this argument but also a relationship issue. I always feel like my boyfriend acts as though he knows more than me and I’m some little girl he needs to guide and help. He used to use the excuse that I was so much younger than he was but I’m only a year younger!!!

It’s really hard to have an argument with him sometimes because after a while I just give up and get so frustrated and walk away. 😦 So I guess this is more of a communication problem and I’m not sure how we can fix it. I always feel like I have to prove my point to him and defend my opinions and that he is the authority. I also try to tell him sometimes that there are gray areas in things but he’s always saying there is one right way and one truth. It’s so hard to talk to him when he gets like that.

Does anyone have good communication tips? Sometimes I think we should have a mediator or a counselor to hear both sides because we usually can’t agree. 🤷
 
Frank85 said:
Hello,

What I like the most in natural medicine, it is that they go at the root of the cause, instead of trying to remove only the symptoms. That is what true medicine is about, to remove the root of the problem or the cause. It doesn’t mean that drugs are not necessary sometimes.
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That’s one thing I really like too. Whenever I go to a regular doctor, they just want to give me a prescription and just be on their way but when I see a natural doctor, they sit with me and it doesn’t matter how long it takes. They want to know why what’s happening is happening not just give me a pill so the symptoms stop.

I wish I could make him see that this stuff can work and it is not all fake. I think he thinks it goes against Catholicism because he thinks it is “new agey”.
 
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