I don’t normally join in the shrieks of “quacktitioner” that some of the other health blogs are so fond of, but today I’m going to make an exception. I was reading through this article on Comment is Free by Madeleine Bunting writing in defence of complimentary therapies. The article itself is (in my opinion) a bit poor, and doesn’t really have much of an argument in favour of complimentary therapies except, “Well yes, most of them are just placebos, but it’s still a safe way to give someone the benefit of placebo effect, right?” (Well yes, Madeleine, but the point of medicine is that it’s supposed to be better than placebo.)
But it was this comment on the discussion thread afterward that attracted my attention.
As a Qualified Holistic Nurse with a Masters in Holistic Nursing and many qualifications in complementary therapies and doing research in the area, I get perturbed by the ‘scientists’ and their forever bashing of therapies.I understand that there are many charlatans out there but I also know there are therapists who are qualified and ethical. I educate Patients about what to look for. I also -realise that the essence of these therapies is creating an atmosphere of trust , healing and the ‘relaxation response’ This relaxation response which has been documented & researched from ’60′s by Harvard MD Benson is what plays into the dynamics. It allows for the patient to iniatate their own inner healing which is what it is all about. Pills, surgery,chemo,etc – the medical model are all important but so indeed is the Patient’s own inner healing potential. When will they ever see this!!!
Just what on earth is a “Qualified Holistic Nurse”?
I Googled holistic nurse & came up with a few ‘interesting’ hits.Figured maybe that she got her ‘qualification’ from somewhere like http://www.canyoncollege.edu.Or check out the The American Holistic Nurses Association !! Still to me it does seem a bit of a weird thing to call yourself.
I do know that having worked for a well known healthfood chain selling questionable ‘remedies’ at exorbitant prices some years back, that a lot of the products are rubbish.Yep I even tried some of them.The most questionable was Royal Jelly – supposed to cure all manner of ills but has never been scientifically proven to do anything beneficial.Don’t even get me on to the subject of homeopathy & Bach Flower Remedies…. I could ramble on quite a bit & that’s not good a good thing considering the tightrope I am walking with my current mental state.
Do not get me started on homeopathy. I had a chiropodist once who insisted on “treating” my veruccas with homeopathic remedies. They did absolutely bloody nothing.
I guess the placebo effect doesn’t work on veruccas.
Veruccas ??? Should’ve gone to a chemist & bought some nice bazuka gel.Crikey you are a nurse aren’t you ? Then again Psychiatric Nurses are a different kettle of fish to the ‘proper’ ones ! (just joking Z !!! )
I initially used the bazuka, but it wasn’t working very well, so I went to the chiropodist. So in all fairness the allopathic remedies weren’t really working either, though none of them were as utterly useless as the homeopathic oils she daubed on my foot.
This is quite a good book on the Placebo effect.
http://www.dylan.org.uk/placebo.html
A holistic nurse would appear to be one who hasn’t got a firm grasp on the essentials of the English language.
iniatate?
Just checking my dictionary now…
Holistic (adjective) – load of ghastly, New Age, crystal-munching bollocks
Holistic nurse = sugar pill dispensing, foot rubbing, chakra fiddling urine bibbing tit.