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Natural vs. Conventional Medicines and Treatments

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anthony

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Here I am writing this thread, in the hope that sufferers of PTSD can evaluate for themselves the beneficial differences between the use of conventional medicines and prescription drugs vs. natural medicines, therapies and remedies. I guess I am starting to get a little frustrated at people who suffer more exagerated symptoms from traditional medicines, but then their doctors just prescribe some more in an attempt to counter act side effects, instead of changing medications, experimenting with different avenues, all in the best interest of the patient, and not themselves. This frustration of mine is stemmed from half witted doctors no longer careing about the essence of why they became a doctor, instead careing about their own wallet, financing their new car, boat or house, and the patient is just a pay cheque to them.

Lets face it, how many people go to a doctor, are seen within five to ten minutes, diagnosed, given a prescription medication, then thrown out so the doctor can get the next patient in? Most here I think. Find an exceptional doctor as I discuss below, and it could take you from 15 minutes to an hour with that doctor, for them to fully evaluate you, ask you a full range of questions, not just half the picture, and look for the cause of your issue, not just write you a script to treat the symptoms you present them.

How many times has a doctor told you after writing you a script, if it doesn't work within a few days, come back and see me? How many times has their prescription medications failed you, and you have gone back and seen them? (Another $70 for them just having you turn up) They then write you another prescription, or increase your current one, kick you back out the door so they can get the next $70 patient in to do the same with. Doctors who are looking at putting 8 - 12 patients through within an hour, are thinking about nothing more than having to make their hourly rate of $560 - $840 an hour earnings. Do you really think they still have your best interest at heart? If we, the patients, continued to take this abuse, then they, the doctors, will continue to abuse it. Find yourself a better, more thorough doctor, and others will tend to change their ways as business falls off. They may even remember why they became a doctor, which wasn't to fund extravagent lifestyles, but help people. Go looking at doctors more in tune with their patients, and you won't see them driving $250,000 cars to work, you won't see them living in over the top houses, because they have more care and concern for you the patient, which is the most important thing to look for in your doctor choice.

We all know about the often harsh side effects from conventional medicines, and when pro-conventional doctors begin treating the side effects of one medicine, with adding another medicine to the equation, in the hope (guess) that you may get some relief. Whilst both types of medicines have their ups and downs, natural medicines, therapies and remedies often don't come with harsh side effects, ie. treatment of depression doesn't come with a side effect of increased depression and suicidal thoughts, as most traditional anti-depressants do.

Conventional medicine more often than not treats the symptom, not the actual cause. Natural medicine more often than not treats the cause, not the symptom. See the vast difference between the two?

My recommendation from experience, is to find physicians who are equally sided, in that they use natural medicines and recommended treatments to treat a majority of illnesses, though they are not anti conventional medicine, and if a natural alternative does not work or exist, then they will use conventional medicines, possibly in conjunction with natural alternatives, to treat the symptom and the cause at the same time.

Do they exist? Well, yes, doctors who sit on the fence, and not on one side or the other, do exist, you merely have to look for them. We have an exceptional medical center we use where all doctors are both traditional and alternative medicine qualified. They look at each case on its merits and decide whether a natural medicine will help, or whether you need a traditional medicine, such as anti-biotics instead. Our doctors ring us for follow-up if one of us is extremely sick, not just tell us to come back to the office. Finding doctors that do care is not a tough task, it just may take you a little looking to find them within your area.

Let me make an example here shall I, of say prozac, one of the worlds biggest selling, most prescribed drug for depression. Lets have a look at the some of the side effects associated with taking prozac with PTSD, and lets see what increased damage it is going to do to us, with the sympoms PTSD already gives us, which the Prozac is supposed to be treating, not making worse.

Chest pain, suicide attempt, hypertension, palpitation, weight gain, bone pain, confusion, emotional lability, sleep disorder, depression, depersonalization, hostility, paranoid reaction and hyperventilation.

Gee, look at that... most of the frequent and common side effects of Prozac, are exactly what we already have with PTSD, and most certainly don't need made worse by taking a drug that is supposed to make us feel better. If you speak with a naturopath, you will find alternative medicines and treatments, none of which present any of those side effects that are going to make our PTSD worse, instead of better. Drugs such as Prozac, and most of the SSRI's only make our PTSD worse than what it already is, let alone many of them are addictive, and we then need to endure withdrawals to get our bodies off them, which is painful within itself. Most think that the reactions they have when weaning themselves off medication is so bad, they begin taking it again, where in fact it is merely our bodies responding during withdrawal, and presenting withdrawal symptoms to us. Go another month or two past totally taking yourself off meds, and you suddenly begin to feel as though your PTSD is no longer as bad as it was when medicated.

Now have a look at some of the more natural alternatives available. Regardless what you may think (cause I used to think the same until I had things done to me and they worked compared to conventional medicine doing nothing) if you don't try, you will never really know. You could be suffering endless crap with medications, compared to finding out that another natural alternative did the same thing for you, if not better, without making you feel worse. Trust me, give natural alternatives a shot please... I will stick my head on the chopping block for natural medicines, no problems at all.
  • Acupressure
  • Acupuncture
  • Alexander Technique
  • Allergy Testing / Treatments
  • Animal Therapy
  • Aromatherapy
  • Ayurveda
  • Beauty Therapy (Holistic)
  • Body Harmony
  • Bowen Therapy
  • Brain Gym
  • Breathwork
  • Buteyko Breathing Technique
  • Chiropractic
  • Colonic Irrigation
  • Colour Therapy
  • Core Energetics
  • Counselling
  • Craniosacral Therapy
  • Crystal Therapy
  • Day Spas
  • Ear Candling
  • EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)
  • Energy Healing
  • Exercise Physiology
  • Feldenkrais
  • Feng Shui
  • Flower Essences
  • Hellerwork
  • Herbal Medicine
  • Holistic Doctor
  • Homoeopathy
  • Hypnotherapy
  • Iridology
  • Kinesiology
  • Life Coaching
  • Lymphatic Drainage
  • Magnetic Field Therapy
  • Massage (Chinese)
  • Massage (Connective Tissue)
  • Massage (Corporate / Workplace)
  • Massage (Deep Tissue)
  • Massage (Hawaiian)
  • Massage (Infant)
  • Massage (Pregnancy)
  • Massage (Remedial)
  • Massage (Sports)
  • Massage (Stone Therapy)
  • Massage (Swedish / Relaxation)
  • Massage (Thai)
  • Meditation
  • Myofascial Release Therapy
  • Myopractic
  • Myotherapy
  • Natural Fertility Management
  • Naturopathy
  • Neuro Linguistic Programming
  • Nutrition
  • Osteopathy
  • Personal Training
  • Physiotherapy
  • Pilates
  • Polarity Therapy
  • Pranic Healing
  • Psychotherapy
  • Reconnective Healing
  • Reflexology
  • Remedial Therapies
  • Sound Therapy
  • Spiritual Healing
  • Sports Injury Therapy
  • Tai Chi
  • Thought Field Therapy
  • Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
  • Trigger Point
  • Yoga
Let me just say, that females are the ones more often to use natural alternatives, and females are often the ones that feel great within themselves each day. Us males do need to put our pride behind us a little, and give alternatives a shot, because you never never know, if you never never go.
 
Wow.

I stumbled upon this thread when I did a search for "EFT", and let's just say I'm giving it a well deserved "bump".

I wish I had read this when I was first diagnosed with PTSD. Maybe it would have saved me time and frustration!

I did what most of us do when we are first diagnosed. I found a psychiatrist who treated trauma patients, I found (multiple!) therapists who specialized in trauma. I ended up on medications that did me more harm than good, and in therapy that never really helped improve my symptoms. I was merely given "coping" skills, nothing that really helped me "heal". I *thought* I was on the right path, because I was following a treatment path set forward by so many "experts" in the field of CPTSD. Uhm, but what do these so called "experts" know? VERY few of them know what we experience on a daily basis. It wasn't until I stumbled upon an "alternative" therapy (by accident), did I find something that really helps me.

All you have to do is follow the money trail... What dominates the world of mental health? MEDICATION! Do you really think that ANY psychiatrist would advocate coming off of meds and partaking in any one of these "alternative" therapies? NO, because they make money by keeping their patients on drugs, even if its not what's best for the patient. Ugh, sorry, but I'm just a little bit bitter after swallowing psychiatric drugs for decades, being told that I had some sort of theorized "chemical imbalance" and that medication was the best thing for me. (Yes, I was put on psychiatric drugs as a child.)

I just hope somebody else is able to read Anthony's post and it inspires them to seek out an "alternative" type of therapy.
 
Whilst I admire your bump whilst looking for EFT... being the bearer of bad news, EFT is a placebo treatment, just so you're aware... it has absolutely zero medical or scientific backing and got an official categorisation as placebo based... being, its all in your brain, as it functionally has zero affect upon your body. Acupuncture is medically and scientifically proven, as is the body has an electrical energy, which acupuncture does access with pinpoint accuracy... but EFT... tapping on acupuncture points, testing has shown zero affect other than placebo affect.
 
I've had the rollercoaster of trying multiple medications. I have to say, although the side effects suck majorly, they do help stabilize my mood and coupled with therapy it must help improve my quality of life.

Although I will never say no to a massage, medication combined with therapy is still a good defense. I would hate to go off the meds and end up dealing with flashbacks again.

There must be something to medication or we wouldn't be recommended it by qualified physicians...so its good to try everything you can, but trusting our qualified therapists to do the right thing by us is how we 'hopefully' recover...
 
If EFT is in fact a placebo effect, then with the positive lasting results it seems to have had with a lot of people, seems to make it a really good one. On one EFT website it states the following:

"EFT has been researched in more than 7 countries, by more than 50 investigators, whose results have been published in more than 15 different peer-reviewed journals, including top-tier journals such as Journal of Clinical Psychology and the APA journals Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training and Review of General Psychology. EFT research includes investigators affiliated with many different institutions. In the US, these range from Harvard Medical School, to the University of California at Berkeley, to City University of New York, to Walter Reed Army Medical Center (USUHS), to Texas A&M University. Institutions in other countries whose faculty have contributed to EFT research include Lund University (Sweden), Ankara University (Turkey), Santo Tomas University (Philippines), Lister Hospital (England), Cesar Vallejo University (Peru), and Griffith University (Australia). The wide variety of institutions, peer-reviewed journals, investigators, and settings that have, in independent research, found EFT to be effective."

That seems like a lot of research for something that is just considered a placebo effect, but placebo effects are used a lot in studies..


Supposedly EFT has been known to work often on skeptics, and I can vouch for EFT working on newbies who try it. I have a hard time believing a placebo effect could work on someone who has doubts or is skeptical of it, but who knows.

The placebo effect is interesting though, I read in an article in Wired magazine that the placebo effect was getting stronger among the prescription drug trials.

Researchers at the Houston VA Medical Center and at Baylor College of Medicine did a study recently with 180 patients with knee pain, and discovered that knee surgery proved no better than people who got the placebo knee surgery. Isn't that amazing?
I wonder why it seems some people look down at the placebo effect, while obviously it proves it's possible for us to have the ability to make ourselves feel better and even heal without the use of medical intervention? Some people call it "just a placebo", and smile down at it, while they readily put themselves through taking chemicals with loads of side effects, hoping that they help them feel better.

What is truly being activated in someone who takes a pill, which doesn't contain a chemical component, and are able to still feel better and have it work? I think when people connect with the possible outcome of having positive results, many have the ability to heal themselves without medication, chemicals, and surgery.
smile.png
 
There must be something to medication or we wouldn't be recommended it by qualified physicians...so its good to try everything you can, but trusting our qualified therapists to do the right thing by us is how we 'hopefully' recover...

I believed this for so long and it got me nowhere. If meds help you, all the more power to you. But do realize this...Meds are not a cure, they just mask the symptoms. I know not everyone is like me, but personally, I opt for healing over masking of symptoms any day.
 
I don't want to start a debate about skepticism here, but I seriously recommend you look up therapies at quackwatch(com) or sciencebasedmedicine(org) before investing any hopes or money in them.
 
I wouldn't use either of those actually... as they seem to both be quite incorrect and bias at points towards specifics. Lets take acupuncture as an example, the information is dated on the quackwatch site, as it is scientifically proven now that the body does have an electrical energy running within it and those pathways can be tapped into through specific pressure points. That site is living in the dark days with theories of unknown skepticism about it along with 1995 studies that could not show proof. Science has evolved a little since some of those studies... I would suggest you read up more current studies which will disprove much of that information stated on just that one page.

The second site seems very opinionated as well...

Sorry, but those recommendations seem just another's opinion to confuse oneself in research. I would be more focused at pointing people towards obtaining a vast variety of research data across a spectrum of sites, both sides of the fence, and then make a commonsense judgement based on all that information vs. a couple of website with biased opinions and outdated research data.

Google Scholar is the best tool to find the latest data yourself, skipping all opinions and getting the current science from the research itself, without second or third hand opinions tossed in.

I can tell you now, a good majority of naturopathic medicine is placebo based... but placebo does work in some instances as effectively as the treatment options themself... just read the wiki page on cognitive behavioral therapy I wrote not long ago, and its attached research data.... very eye opening... let alone the placebo wiki page I wrote... also has both sides of the fence attached as research references.
 
Well I have been a victim of the bad doctor scenario many, many, times now. IC Fluexatine was awful! Buspar did me no good. Seraquel didn't help and maybe made things worse? Than again I was misdiagnosed, so who knows.

The only things that have really helped so far are meditation, talking about things with people, and walking in parks. When things get very heavy I'll take a (or many) lorazepam and try to sleep, usually the next day is better. Can't rely on addictive medications though!
 
@anthony: What criteria does a study have to fulfill to be counted as a good scientific study?
There are lots of good studies, however; the interpretation often taken from those studies is what differs, ie. people skip the inclusion, exclusion and data specifics, opting for the conclusion, yet if you read all the data, you can form a more accurate view on the overall scope of the study.

For example, a study for CBT efficacy, they put 20 people in the study that meet the criterion for PTSD, they put 20 on a waitlist control group, the exclude anyone from the study with specific symptom severity over x. They conclude a 100% success rate, that after 12 weeks all no longer meet the criterion for PTSD, the control group also define that after 12 weeks of waiting, 60% no longer meet the criterion for PTSD.

The concluding result will often reflect, CBT is 100% efficient for PTSD, when in-fact the severity of PTSD allowed within the study in the first place is not reflective of a true PTSD cross-section, but instead you read the participants were all college students who had endured a trauma in their life, and their assessments for criterion were based on worst case symptoms, whether felt presently or not.

There are enormous amounts of good studies... quality studies... the interpretation is where it often leads sour.

Most studies are tainted before they begin though, because the moment you have defined criterion with exclusion criterion, you also taint your results outcome from being true vs. statistically marginalized for testing purposes.

Though there are plenty of studies outlining this exact issue already... and slowly more studies are beginning to remove their exclusionary requirements and testing true cross-sections of a problem, which is nice.

I usually like to read through meta analyses myself, as they tend to show a truer cross section of a topic area rather than rely on one or two studies, however; even those you have to be cautiously optimistic with and still read through specific exclusionary criterion and such, as you can find a meta analysis that will cross section near identical studies mentioned above, so they only recount an incorrect conclusion of something vs. a real cross section of diversity. Date periods are also a good one to not in meta analyse I have found, as some tend to only include a decade old material, not current content up until when they performed their cross section.

Yes... I do have skepticism when approaching studies, and I am very picky with them, but no... they are not bad either... one must simply use the material correctly vs. only using the outcome results by themselves.
 
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