4thought.tv

You are being a bit disingenuous, of course there is scientific proofs for alternative medicine and therapies, what you are not telling people is the mathematical statistical and probability studies and exercises that are applied to all medicines and therapies prior to use within the NHS. All medicines in some sense start as alternatives and only become ‘mainstream’ when they pass the clinical, safety and the statistical effectiveness tests first.

Excellent film, far outweighing the other doctor's approach. Thank you for redressing the balance.

At last a doctor who does understand what alternative medicine/therapy is all about! Good on him...I agree totaly with his views and I think that all doctors might benefit from learning more about alternative therapy for all sorts of illness etc...its time that they just stopped pumping people with medication that can have adverse effects...costs too much money and is unfairly distributed! Everyone has the right to be healthy and everyone that right to chose which is the best way for them...there are so called alternative therapies out there, that in all honesty appear to be stupid, but if it works for that patient and helps then to cope better with what ever they are dealing with surely it would save the NHS money not waste it!

Thank you Professor Peters! Hallaluja! He understands that yes alternative medicines can work, we don't know how or why maybe, but they do. As he said the scientists don't like the alternative medicines because it can't be 'measured'. So what, isn't it enough that people are saying they feel better after using alternative medicines. Perhaps these doctors and scientists who are against it are afraid they will be out of a job!

I would like to add my voice to those below who applaud the sensible approach taken by Proffessor Peters who is able to provide a rational approach and viewpoint to this argument. There are people within the medical and allied professions who can see the need to work for integration of conventional and CAM therapies, as an allied health professional and a Reiki Master Teacher I have encountered both sceptics and believers including those who are also doctors, the most important thing to remember is that irrespective of out own personal thoughts we all, whether as CAM practitioners or within healthcare have a duty of care towards our patients/clients and therefore their best interests should be addressed and this includes accepting opposing views and beliefs irrespective how this is expressed

Prof Peters has an open mind to the wonders of the human body which the Bio-medical model pndits simply cannot comprehend. Thank you Professor.

Wholeheartedly agree with Prof Peter's beliefs

Millions of people swear by traditional Chinese medicine, and it is becoming more and more popular in the UK particularly in the area of acupuncture, where a great deal of research is being carried out. But traditional Chinese medicine also includes things such as; Rhino horn; Overall there isn’t much evidence to support the plethora of claims about the healing properties of the horns. In 1990, researchers at Chinese University in Hong Kong found that large doses of rhino horn extract could slightly lower fever in rats (as could extracts from Saiga antelope and water buffalo horn), but the concentration of horn given by a traditional Chinese medicine specialist are many many times lower than used in those experiments. In short, you’d do just as well chewing on your fingernails. The gall bladder of bears; The Asiatic black bear, the one most commonly used on bear farms, is listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. Tiger bones; Animal parks in China are turning tiger bones in an alcoholic "health tonic" and defying international laws aimed at protecting one of the world's most endangered species.
Do we just accept that Chinese medicine works and not bother about the consequences or cruelty? No one is attacking traditional or alternative medicines and therapies only the unproven claims and arrogant assumptions that if something does no harm it must be good for you. Some of the comments here suggest that we throw open the doors of the NHS to all alternative medicines and therapies but you should realise this will also include the con artist and snake oil sales men (and women). Of course there is nothing stopping people from taking traditional medicine such as arsenic or mercury or other highly dangerous poisonous substances if they really want or being charged exorbitant consultation fees just to drink plain water.

Sile Lanes latest video highlights the need for more research into alternative therapy, and the regulation of "alternative practitioners" I am no fan of alternative medicine, but believe that if you think it works sometimes it will, but advising people that non-tested/ regulated medicines will stop you getting malaria is negligible

'Clear clinical evidence' - is this clinical evidence of HOW a patient is cured, or WHETHER a patient is cured? Surely the percentage of users who are benefited by a therapy / remedy is a pretty useful guage of it's effectiveness?

The most important point is that illnesses should be caught in the early stages. This is where alternative treatments such as homeopathy, whole body herbalism and whole body acupuncture are of very great benefit and can truly cure the illness. When a disease has become well established in the body, with strong pathological changes, it is much more difficult to cure, although alternative treatments can still have wonderful benefits in keeping the illness under control without suppressing it. Incidentally, there is an excellent alternative method of diagnosing illness at an early stage called iridology - conventional medical tests simply aren't refined enough to diagnose illnesses in their early stages. What the conventional medical establishment don't seem to have grasped is that illness actually begins on an energetic level and then goes to the physical level - that is why any illness can only ever truly be cured at the energetic level with an energetic therapy, e.g. homeopathy, whole body herbalism or whole body acupuncture. Science has actually proved that everything in the universe is composed of vibrating energy. Homeopathy works by using remedies which have been diluted and succussed to a mathematical degree - none of the original substance is left, but what is there is a level of energy which uses water as its vehicle - the body is about 90% water. Why don't doctors tell the real truth about conventional drugs? Conventional medicine can do marvellous things with surgery, stem cells etc. but when it come to treating basic illnesses they never actually cure anything - with conventional drugs they merely suppress the illness in the body so that eventually it goes to a deeper level and becomes something worse; these levels of suppression are inherited by future generations - this is what so-called "genetic" illnesses really are - they have been caused by the use of conventional medicine over generations. In my opinion, the convential medical world, just like the scientific world in general, simply can't see the wood for the trees!

Totally agree with the Professor's views. Science does not have all the answers and there are many therapies that work, despite our lack of understanding how.

I deffinately think that we can self-heal. 100%.

I am in total agreement with Prof David Peters that the human body wether ailing or not should be treated as a whole body mind and soul. The power of the mind over physical symptoms has been proved many times and I firmly believe (being an individual who suffers chronic pain which the doctors dont seem to be able to diffuse) that this is so.

I agree with all that has been said. I am a reiki master, a simple person who believes and gives thanks. The reiki has helped many people around me .
Results are important and that is what I ask for. My healing works very well with the medicines and treatments prescribed.
I would never go against a doctors prescription and advice. My work only compliments what they do.
One cannot be against a method unless they have tried it.

I totally agree that alternative medicine is extremely beneficial to many people. My worry is the lack of rigour in training in some areas of alternatives - if this can be addressed by proper accreditation as it is beginning to be then I can see a great future for it under the NHS.
Incidentally I wish the programme makers would not use the very distracting filming techniques of focussing on half a face or an ear - what is that all about???

More people make a living from cancer drugs than being cured by them.
It is generally believed that herbal medicines cannot be patented. Therefore, there is little financial gain for pharmaceutical companies to explore them.

Very well said professer peters. I have been using CAM for over 30 years and have undeniably experienced the benefits; it is hard to trial many CAM therapies ion the same way as they do pharma drugs because they have such different approaches. Conventional medicine is like a mechanic fixing a car; there are set tools and a fixed approach and an expected outcome. CAM treats people more like a gardener treats his plants; he waters and nurtures them and tries to get them to grow well on their own; if things go wrong there are a number of things he may do to bring the plant back to health; we are more similar to plants than cars, in my opinion.

The scientists and sceptics that cannot see beyond clinical trials to prove everything are merely blinkered and small minded. Of course there are other approaches to health and well being beyond pills. The proof is in the millions of testements of people who have benefited; are they all lying or wrong? or do they know their bodies and what has helped them? that is all that matters.

The only problem is, it is only the wealthy that can access therapies that help, as they are too exepensive for alot of people. This is why the NHS certaily should include some of CAM therapies in the NHS (no, i do not agree all should be included) but acupuncture, osteopathy, homeopathy should most certainly be as there are far too many people who use them and benefit, not to mentkion research (evenj if it is not the research accepted by alan henness and his peers!)

Yes natural is the way to go you have things like cannabis oil which can cure all kind of illness's but are blocked from use by governments because the big pharma companies make to much money from peoples illness and suffering it is time to realise that this planet has all the cures we need and stop taking the sometimes toxic crap that the establishment deems 'safe' for our use.

can't view the film but heartily agree that alternative medicine must be made available on the NHS because hundreds of thousands agree that it works, and I am one. But it stands no chance of getting through to GP surgeries, over the years i have almost been asked to leave surgeries because i told them that I didn't need their flu jabs, or their pills, because I was helping myself with acupuncture and alternative medicine, which is the reason why I didn't need their services so much. Far from being pleased, they said I should continue to pay for what I believed in. Bunch of cynical blokes in white coats, and now rich and eager to promote pills they profit from.

The placebo effect may be real and beneficial, but why should the health service pay for therapies that offer no significantly greater benefit than a sugar-pill? It appears that many Germans doctors recognise this.

www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/06/half-german-doctors-prescribe-placebos

Offer patients a placebo 'therapy' by all means, but don't use our taxes to line the pockets of manufacturers of medicines not supported by evidence from robust, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trials.

Placebo medicine has shown promising results in some cases under fair, scientific conditions, and I believe that it is a tool worth using. The problem with having it available on the NHS, however, is that it would be very difficult to not 'cross a line'. Placebo has shown effectiveness for treatment of things such as depression, which is in itself a mentally-rooted condition. Using it in curing cancer, though, and other damaging illnesses is quite different. Reducing pain through the placebo of alternative medicine such as homeopathy does not cure the illness. You may say that so long as the alternative medicine is used alongside proven medical administrations, then this is fine, and with this I agree. To a point. But the patient will likely come away misinformed about what the homeopathy actually achieved, and may seek it's powers of healing exclusively if they become ill in the future, endangering themselves. Even if this didn't necessarily happen on a personal basis, the general acknowledgement of alternative medicine by the NHS, and by extension the scientific community, would boost the exploitative industry of alternative medicine, not properly administered alongside thoroughly tested medicines or procedures.

Alternative medicine can never persuade the subconscious body to rid itself of cancer. Unfortunately, that is wishful thinking. At best, it aids pain relief and can improve state of mind. In my opinion, the introduction of alternative medicine to the NHS would be a step backwards for science and society. It would be a dangerous move.

I am a qualified (retired due to mental ill health) general and learning disability nurse and aromatherapist. I agree that alternative medicines should be made available via the NHS and used alongside conventional medicine (Prof David Peters). However I agree with Sile Lane from Sense about Science that only those alternative medicines that have been rigorously tested should be made available. However like Prof David Peters stated in his short film, the theraputic benefits are difficult to measure. Therefore I feel that research should take into consideration client/patients thoughts and feelings, as most therapists are aware of the importance of the need to balance the mind and the body and if you believe a persons soul.
Many clients/patients who would benefit from alternative medicines are unable to pay for it due to the massive range of prices that can be quoted/charged.
I am a member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists (FHT), and as a professional see the need to have regulation, a professional body and the need to continually update one's practice. It should be mandatory for alternative practioners to be affiliated to a body such as the FHT and the fairly new Complementary Natural Healthcare Council(CNCH).

Most intelligent debate so far!