Because none of this was taught when I was a student, I attended an 8 hr review of alternative
veterinary medicine.

Taught by a Dr. Robinson ( D.O., D.C., DVM). It was very positive on laser therapy ( some positive healing was accomplished with even a cat toy laser pointer) and on acupuncture. Also very interesting stuff on massage and on some botanical medicine. Very negative on what was called "true homeopathy", which was described as using dilute amts. of animal, or vegetable matter in "tinctures" to awaken the bodies own natural healing properties, with an idea of "like" curing "like", as in onion tincture (makes your eyes water) used for eye infections.

I am curious if folks on this board have experience with homeopathy. Apparently it's huge.

acupuncture can be very beneficial with a skilled practioner.

laser? not sure how you mean, eye surgery??

only experience homeopathy is that it has failed every double blind test conducted by real qualified scientists and is indistinguishable to a placebo or random chance.

the complete lack of demonstrating a mechanism or an effect has not stopped it getting on the public health subsidies in the UK I believe.

nothing but marketing and preying on people's fears and hopes, disgusting.

you know what they call alternative medicine that is proven to work - medicine.

Dr. Betty is referring to cold laser treatment...not the same as a laser (cutting) surgery treatment.

I have used homeopathic 'cures' thru the years with both my horse & dogs with good results.

Just recently found a holistic vet in my area that does cold laser treatment & looking into it for my female.

Also use acupuncture & Chiro. with both my horse & dogs. I will also add that I, personally, would not let anyone other then a licensed VET perform any of the above stated treatment to my animals. Not just a 'practitioner' of the above.

The laser studies were fascinating to me. It seems that the light works on mitochondria in cells almost the way sunlight works on chlorophyll in a plant. The therapy is more like that than it is like heat therapy. So it really does release "energy", intracellular ATP, not some mystical "chi".

The acupuncture too was really interesting. Many of the "points" are spots on the body which relate to straightorward neuroanatomy. So there is modulation of nerve firing via manipulation of these points.

Some of the human points I found interesting were GV26, which is where you'd put smelling salts if someone fainted--that is the "point" for waking, or arousing a human. A point at the back of your head, basically where your neck ends and skull begins, is a calming point, and where you put your hand when you have a tension headache.

There was lots of talk about herbs, and warnings about Chineese supplements containing unlabelled real drugs ( one for allergy was dusted with the active agent in claritin). Another herb for sleeping had phenobarbitol, which would certainly put you to sleep.

The vet I use has a holistic practice. She's very pro-raw, and does minimal vaccination (we do titer testing annually.)

When she does give a vaccination, she also gives the dog a dose of thuja. That's about as far down the homeopathy road as I've gone, although she offers much more to clients that want that approach. She recently started offering the cold laser therapy to patients (and says for the right thing it is very effective.) I haven't needed it for any of mine, but I'd be open to it.

I've had acupuncture on myself--maybe 6 times or so. I can't say it helped the shoulder pain that I went in for, but I found it very relaxing and that it even produced a short-term euphoria.

I think there's a lot that non-western medicine can offer, especially for modulating pain. Cupping and gua sha (a kind of trigger point massage) have helped my shoulder and arm pain much more than anything my internist (or any specialist MD) was able to offer.

I'm open to learning new things, techniques --- and old things that work.

Got to have a functional "quackometer" operating, however. Some things discussed were iridology -- where spots on your iris relate to problem spots on your body. And maps of the tongue-- and "pulse diagnosis", where a person claimed that problems in a horse could be diagnosed if the owner would lean against the horse, and have their pulse examined.

Some stuff is just nonsense. But folks pay for this, and it can delay real diagnosis and treatment.

I personally have a sharp line between holistic (including alternative) medicine and "true homeopathy."

Unfortunately, the term homeopathy is often used to mean holistic. Homeopathy may fall under holistic (although not for me), but not vice versa. True homeopathy, as Dr. Betty describes it, is a very specific modality. It involves the treatment of ailments by tiny amounts of natural substances that in a well person would produce symptoms of the ailment being treated.

By "tiny," I mean sometimes even including substances so extremely diluted that the original "active" ingredient is no longer measurable in the dose. The water of the dose supposedly retains a kind of memory of those molecules.

True homeopathy is not herbal medicine. It is not 99% of holistic modalities. It's not an umbrella term at all, but extremely specific. I think it's a shame that its name has come to define all sorts of alternative modalities in common parlance.

This is just my opinion. And I certainly could be way wrong.



Here is a pretty even-handed description from a surprising source:
http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/homeopathy-topic-overview

But OTOH, the Lancet (in 2004, I think) published an extremely detailed and in-depth examination/analysis of true homeopathy and concluded that its only beneficial effects were placebo effects. (Of course, the placebo effect can be pretty powerful.)



My vet is not exactly holistic, but she is at least open to my dogs' diet and she practices minimal vax.

My personal physician is Ivy League trained and also a graduate of Dr. Andrew Weil's School of Integrative Medicine. I feel that I have the best of both worlds. I wish I had close access to a vet along her lines.


PS
I too have had good results from hands-on treatment for pain.

this mini animated musical thingy expresses my feelings and attitudes toward the field of alternative medicine;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U

Do you know what white willow bark is?

The bark of white willow contains salicin, which is a chemical related to and with similar action(s) as acetylsalicylic acid. Both have powerful anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving compounds.

Acetylsalicylic acid, of course, is aspirin.


In other words, there's a lot to learn before covering the huge field of alternative medicine (which of course includes herbs, including belladonna (think atropine), opium poppies (think morphine), and salicin (think aspirin) .... along with dozens of other herbs that are either used in western meds or chemically copied by western meds) with any kind of blanket label.

Alternative medicine is "alternative" only to other modalities. To billions of people, western medicine is alternative medicine.

I have an extremely low opinion of true homeopathy. That's JMO.

But "alternative medicine" or "holistic medicine" are gigantic fields covering dozens of modalities, many of which are routinely used these days by western medicine practitioners as adjuncts or alternatives.

JMO!

sure and eating a balanced diet, less stress, getting regular sleep and have some productive outlets in yr life is also as much alternative medicine as anything, doctors prescribe it all the time + a sugar pill for the many patients who demand a doctor diagnose them with something and prescribe them with something.


synthetic organic chemistry is difficult and not even a millionth of a second old in the human species scale of things.

western medicine always has and always will use various barks, seeds, herbs etc that from observation over thousands of years show a benefit, indigenous cultures would not have survived without them, even tho they did not understand why they worked.

people used to follow some brands of alternative medicine and they did not get germ theory and disease transmission and countless humans died because of mumbo jumbo alternative medicine, you can all thank science for asking why and applying reason.

difference is they look at those things on a molecular level and try and understand the mechanism of why it works, what is the active ingredient subject it to clinical trials double blind tests and look for side effects. then purify and synthesis it, not the mystery some seem to want.

when real medicine gets prescribed, the prescriber is legally liable and accountable.

that's the difference between alternative medicine that works and mainstream medicine backed by science. anyone at all can set up a shop and claim to provide some benefit to whatever ailment, most of it is benign and has no effect at all greater than a placebo. too much of it is downright dangerous.

the barrier reef is currently being surveyed for thousands of exotic molecules for medicinal effects, could be next cure for who knows what, many of the molecules are complex and have a range of biological effects.

so many charlatans hiding unaccountable under the banner of alternative medicine that prevent so many from getting the best help we know of is just wrong.