Alternative Medicine

[PaulRosedene]

Has anyone had their asthma successfully treated or improved by any kind of practitioner of Alternative Medicine ? If so, what kind of practitioner were they, for example homeopathy.

[johnsmith]

Alexander Technique was used for breathing problems in the 1930's. FM Alexander was known as the breathing doctor and their were articles about him in medical journals of the 1930's.

Certain types of Asthma will be helped by Alexander Technique some types probably won't. However, the technique in these cases will help improve some of the Asthmatic side effects. McTimony Chiropractic can help reduce some of the muscle micro cramps that come with certain types of asthma. It comes down to do the investigation to see if it is helpful or not.

[PaulRosedene in reply to johnsmith]

Thank you. I will take a look at the Alexander Technique.

[Hidden]

No alternative medicine will improve the lung function of an asthmatic.

johnsmith rightly quotes the Alexander Technique which has be shown to assist in making some asthmatics more relaxed and able to cope but does not improve lung function.

Immunotherapy (which maybe you could class as alternative) will help for allergy based asthma but is very difficult to get in the UK.

Homeopathy has been shown not to be affective in treating any disease, and has had a lot of test and studies, there is no grey area for homeopathy it doesnt work there are many scientific papers online for it. .

[johnsmith in reply to Hidden]

2005 was the year that investigations started on bogus and faulty conventional medical reports and trials. Nature, Scientific American, American Scientist, New Scientist and Science are reporting and have reported on some very serious issues on the accuracy and repeatability of some conventional medical research.

You say: "No alternative medicine will improve the lung function of an asthmatic." This is true for some types of Asthma conditions. There are cases where the lung function is improved. So the statement you made is accurate for some cases but not accurate for all cases. Medical Science methods totally ignore in many many cases the affect of muscles on making lung function worse or lung function better. Poor muscle usage can damage lungs while restoration of correct muscle usage can reduce inflammation over a period of time. The improvement of muscle usage generally tends to be the province of alternative medicine and tends to be ignored in conventional medicine.

What ever the thoughts on this issue each person needs to do their own research into it. A set of symptoms given the name asthma can have a variety of different causes for the diagnosis of asthma.

[Hidden in reply to johnsmith]

Send me some trial data where lung function has been improved by alternative medicine.

There is none which is why my statement is correct at the moment.

Saying my statement is not true and supplying no evidence is nonsense.

[johnsmith in reply to Hidden]

This depends on what journals you read. How lung function is defined. And what actually is the cause for the adverse symptoms in the diagnosis labelled asthma.

Conventional medicine is very limited and ignores many things that an alternative practitioner can pick up and improve upon.

For example if a person breathes by raising their shoulders (excuse my lack of proper medical terminology) then they have reduced lung function. When the rib muscles are coordinated with breathing from the diaphragm with the lungs and rib cage allowed to hinge then their is a vast improvement in lung function. This improvement will show up on lung volume tests.

[Hidden in reply to johnsmith]

Again that is just you saying there is an improvement in lung volume tests this is simply what you think.

What you think and fact are not always the same thing.

Send me the clinical trials for asthmatics that have show this to be true.

There are none but please go and look for them.

[johnsmith in reply to Hidden]

Lung function is not the same as lung Volume. The body is an engineering system with various feedback mechanisms. Lung volume is a static number. Lung function is something dynamic and its improvement or decrement is dependant on many factors by various feedback mechanisms.

What you are asking for is not possible. There was a small trial on Alexander Technique versus physiotherapy. The numbers were small. The results indicated that it was worth repeating with a larger cohort of people. The repeat has been unable to be done because the money needed to do a larger trial was not available.

There is plenty of money for standard medical trials because success means drugs can be sold for profit or some item can be made for profit. When doing trials in complementary medicine the results is very dependant on the skill of the practitioner. This is a variable which is difficult to deal with unlike a standard medical dose or a standard medical item. Because you are dealing with individual practitioners who are not standard and are trained to work with various subtle issues it is very difficult to set up what you may regard as a clinical trial.

I suggest that you network with people and try an ALexander Teacher. Tryout a McTimony Chiropractor. Investigate if they make a difference to the quality of your life. There are things for which there are no words.

To finish off. Facts can be a very variable quantity. This is why there is a mathematical discipline called Statistics. Statistics can be a very complex subject. Clinical trials have become problematic in some areas because of repeatability issues.

[Hidden in reply to johnsmith]

I agree with all lots of what you say but still there is zero evidence that the AT improves lung function.

Im sure youre aware for the vast majority of asthmatics lung volume is not the issue but airway closure.

[johnsmith in reply to Hidden]

Ii have seen and witnessed the unpublished evidence. This probably because I am involved in this area.

[Hidden in reply to johnsmith]

There is unpublished "evidence" all over the internet.

You should know if you are involved then your views will be tainted and biased.

[johnsmith in reply to Hidden]

How big is the taint and how big is the bias? You must do your own investigating. You must try out possible things. You want written evidence on things that depend on the sensitivity and skill of the practitioner.

There is no language to describe some of the things that some practitioners of Complementary medicine can do. There is no language to describe things that fall outside your experience.

I do not know your science background. I do not know your mathematical background. I do not know your medical training background. I do not know if you have tried any complementary therapies.

[Hidden in reply to johnsmith]

Without a doubt we are all biased by our life experiences, it is important to recognise this and try to compensate.

This is something I try to do but I know im not that successful

[PaulRosedene in reply to Hidden]

I have enjoyed your exchange of views with johnsmith. I have become interested in alternative medicine because I am a long term sufferer with asthma and eczema. My eczema has improved greatly through control of diet and dropping ointments to which I found I was allergic following patch testing. Sadly there has not been a similar improvement in my asthma.

I have found many benefits from alternative medicine, but a significant improvement in asthma is not one of them.

People are drawn to alternative medicine when they are suffering with conditions which regular medicine cannot satisfactorily resolve.

I assume it is fair to say that medical trials are a specialist field. It is certainly a field in which I have no immediate insight. It would not surprise me if the field was dominated by medics and the drugs companies. It would not surprise me if neither was very open to alternative medicine.

Have medical trials had any positive findings in relation to alternative medicine ?

[Hidden in reply to PaulRosedene]

Im not aware of any trials that have shown alternative medicine to be more affective than placebo and I think if there were it would be big news.

There are lots of clinical studies on alternative medicine, like acupuncture, and they certainly have positive results just not more effective than placebo.

Where alternative medicines do well are were there is a strong placebo effect like stress related illnesses.

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

As a practitioner of a complimentary medicine (osteopathy), I know there are studies out there however they are usually inconclusive and/or small sample. There is currently a big push in osteopathy circles for more evidence/trials so hopefully more research will come out soon!

As johnsmith said, a lot of treatment effectiveness is very much between patient and practitioner, as like with drugs what works for one does not work for another, so it’s really hard to replicate (a bit like with counselling/mental health therapies). The only thing ‘proven’ in osteopathy is that we help low back pain - NICE recommend us! Other than that most of our stuff is anecdotal - for example helping people with OA etc as we are a musculoskeletal therapy.

One thing we cannot adverts is it being good for asthma... from experience it may help with the aches and pains associated with it (upper back/ribs/neck/headaches) and may ‘slow down’ the reoccurrence of an attack as it reduces the musculoskeletal factor however it does not stop/cure/prevent asthma (or any other visceral disease with a non-mechanical cause). As I said some people benefit mildly from it however imo they’d probably benefit just as much from a really good massage in the right areas!

It’s worth a try if your asthma is making you sore, more for QoL purposes than anything else.

Hope that explains my view/opinion of it anyway 😅

[Hidden]

I would never risk it. My asthma is very severe, and I want proven interventions.