Many complementary therapies (acupuncture and osteopathy to name only two) are increasingly recognized as having significant benefits and can, in certain circumstances and limited geographic areas, be made available through the NHS. Many GPs are now more willing to accept and recommend alternatives. However, at present in many cases you will have to pay for your own treatment. The appropriate registration bodies can provide details of registered practitioners in your local area and provide guidance on how much you might expect to pay. You may find
the addresses of these registration bodies through the British Complementary Medicine Association or the Institute of Complementary Medicine.
Tag: Complementary therapies
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Costs involved
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Safety of complementary therapies
Few complementary therapies have been fully scientifically evaluated, especially in relation to MS. Almost any therapy, scientifically evaluated or not, that has the power to produce very good and positive results, has the potential to do harm. Although complementary therapies are considered as ‘natural’ and, almost by association, to be intrinsically safe, this is not always the case. For example, some herbal medicines have to be very carefully targeted to symptoms and very sensitively administered, otherwise they may be harmful. So it is important both to ask about side effects, i.e. those other than the wanted effects, of
complementary therapies, and to be alert in case they occur. Note that practitioners may expect initial ‘reactions’ or ‘aggravations’ or symptoms as part of the effective working of the therapy. A competent therapist should both warn you about these and what to do, if and when they occur. -
Complementary therapies and Multiple Sclerosis
When there is no current scientifically accepted cure for a disease, people understandably want to try other means of management. Many people over the last 30 or 40 years have claimed that they have the answer to MS, but the difficult problem for all such potential therapies is to find out whether there really is a connection between the treatment and a remission.
A distinguishing characteristic of complementary therapies is their focus on the ‘whole person’, using the body’s own healing powers. Many of these therapies are only now being scientifically studied. Some complementary therapies fall outside what is considered conventional scientific medicine, but may be used alongside it, such as acupuncture. Other therapies are generally considered much more unorthodox by the medical profession (described as ‘alternative’), e.g. naturopathy, herbalism or crystal healing. However, complementary and alternative treatments are often considered as a group under the heading of CAM (complementary and alternative medicines).
Research suggests that up to 60% of people with Multiple Sclerosis are using some form of CAM – people with MS visit CAM practitioners nearly 50% more often than others without MS. Whilst some people use CAM alone, by far the majority use both CAM and conventional medicine together.