Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/clinical-practice/alternative-medicine/?index=10
Acupuncture is one of the most popular alternative therapies. It can be described most simply as the insertion of needles into the skin at specific points in order to treat disease or promote good health. Used in many NHS practices, particularly pain clinics, acupuncture is acquiring increasing respectability. A UK regulatory...
This patient has a clear agenda - he does not want to use steroid cream. You should first decide to explore his ideas and concerns further; many patients have quite unfounded fears about side effects from different treatments. It would also be reasonable to go through the evidence that suggests...
Amongst the 150 or more alternative therapies available today, aromatherapy is high on the popularity list. There are over 6,000 aromatherapists in UK with varying amounts of training and experience.[1] Recently the Daily Telegraph reported that women were spending £670 million a year on various spiritual therapies; massage techniques such...
George Smith examines a popular touch therapy Reflexology, one of many touch therapies, is enjoying increasing popularity in a 'consumer led boom' in alternative medicine.[1] It is used by ten percent of alternative therapy consumers. Some family practices and hospitals provide it and many health care professionals incorporate it into...
George Smith continues his series with a look at this widely used alternative medicine Homeopathy is one of the most popular and controversial of the plethora of alternative therapies available within and without the NHS. The word homeopathy is derived from two Greek words, homoios meaning 'like' and patheia...
George Smith introduces a series on a growing phenomenon Alternative medicine began to flourish at the end of the 1970s. Before then, therapies such as homeopathy, acupuncture, osteopathy and herbal medicine had dedicated adherents but were considered distinctly suspect and unconventional. In 1914 the General Medical Council issued a...
Amongst the alternative therapies available today, homeopathy is one of the most controversial. It has sometimes been described as 'the therapy that can't work but does work'. Investigation, however, suggests that it is far easier to appreciate the first part of this statement than to substantiate the second. Homeopathy derives from...
It is now estimated that between 20- 30% of the population in the UK resort to various types of complementary and alternative medical therapies (generally referred to as CAM) at some time, and reflexology is high on the list in terms of popularity. It is now increasingly being offered in...
Most Nucleus readers will have come across acupuncture. Perhaps a consultant anaesthetist was using it occasionally in a pain clinic you sat in on, and there did not appear to be any obvious 'spiritual' activity going on. Perhaps you've seen the charts of meridians in a local 'health' shop, alongside...
Alternative medicine is rising rapidly up the heathcare agenda. One in four people in the UK use at least one form of alternative medicine and three out of four people are in favour of alternative therapies being available on the NHS. One study cited by a recent BMA report suggested...
