Is there anybody else here who thinks Dr Frank needs to get over his fear of Alternative Medicine/ Therapies?

If he objects so much to them why does he continue to answer questions in this section by trying to put off those who are genuinely seeking help or guidance. There are some things conventional medicine can't help with and that is why we are here?! Personally I think Dr Frank needs EFT or Hypnotherapy to help with his irrational thoughts and fears of Alternative therapies. What you think guys?

It amuses me how Dr Frank refers to Alternative medicine/ therapies as 'voodoo mumbo jumbo'. For those who don't know alot about it, I would just like to clarify that we do not stand over our patients chanting or performing bizarre rituals on them in any way. We are merely treating them in respect of their lifestyle, physical, emotional and psychological well being.. And like GP's, we too must have a high degree of knowlege on conventional/ homeopathic medicines and anatomy and physiology.

dr frank says he is a gp for more years than he cares to remember..this means he obviously cant conform to any change to the medical profession..he is afraid that maybe someday people will go to alternative and complementary therapists before they go down the conventional medicine route..and i agree that he keeps putting these therapies down every chance he gets and its getting quite boring at this stage..i am a nurse and complementary therapist so i have seen both sides of it..and both are welcome in my opinion..you cant knock something untill u have tried it..

Thanks to all who answered. There were so many fantastic answers that I couldn't possibly have chosen a best one! Report It

personally id like to see some crudentials from this so called 'Doctor'.

I have never had any luck with GPs, always fobbing me off with no real advice, I end up walking away feeling worse. However I found a GP who practiced homeopathy too and his advice was so helpful and the homeopathy actually worked for my chronic daily headaches, a real achievement. Anything alternative is worth a go, it doesn't hurt, doesn't cost very much and it does sometimes work... for some people.

It's an unfair coin.
Alternative Medicine gets a bad wrap every know and then. If someone doesn't fallow what they are suppost to be doing they end up in trouble, and we all pay.(eg. kava kava)
If the medical field makes a mistake, it's "sorry charlie, but here we go again"
You can only treat a person in whole and not just one aliment. You hope that person is telling you truth when they have a problem.
Unlike surgery, which has it's place.Once you cut, you scare. Alternative medicine can help though looking for another answer to the problems at hand. Where do you think modern medicine got all it's chemicals and or treatments from?
I read a lot on health, and was educated in the sciences, and have been in and out of the doctors offices more then I can even remember.
Thanks for letting me vent.

You are right on! Keep up the good work!

Best wishes.

It is not a fear. Its just that I base medical practice on science,knowledge,logic and experience, not voodoo or blind uncorroborated clap trap.

You believe what you want,but that type of witchcraft got people burnt in the middle ages, now it puts chaps like you at real risk of harm, either because of what you do or, more frequently because of what you don't.

What a great question!! Thanks for asking and I agree with you. If Dr Frank wants so show us his knowledge of the British National Formulary - which is what he is trained in, and maybe pass on some genuine knowledge, then all well & good but his blatant ignorance of complementary therapies make me want to reach for a homoeopathic anti-emetic! (Rather this than Stemetil Dr Frank!!). As I've said in the past, I'm don't claim to be an expert but I have vast experience of both sides of the fence - over 20 years as a senior nurse & over 10 years as a Homoeopath. I'm not some dim-witted idiot who is conning the public. What he continually FAILS to grasp, understand, LISTEN TO, is that therapies such as homoeopathy do not stand up to medical trials because the methodology does not lend itself to such therapies. Homoeopathy is INDIVIDUAL so you can give any remedy you like to 100 people and I will guarantee you a nil response! So they ignorantly carry on trying to get apply the same methodology time & time again in order to prove a point. My homoeopathic patients are extremely happy with the care and results they get from consulting a homoeopath. Virtually all become patients because they have not had good experiences with conventional medicine or are labelled incurable. Of course, when they recover following homoeopathic treatment, it's never the therapy that's caused it, is it Dr Frank?
I've met some blinkered individuals in my time. When I was leaving nursing to make a full time career out of complementary therapy, the senior Consultants I worked with were ALL behind me ALL the way as they'd seen the failings of their profession. The more junior Doctors were a bit like Dr Frank as they all had just a medical model & science in their heads. Over the last 10 years, I've had the pleasure in treating a number of both the Consultants and the junior Doctors who blasphemed! All have been most impressed and converted - so perhaps this is the issue. How could ANYONE with such a blinkered view approach something they believe is akin to voodoo? As I said before, I do hope he doesn't find himself in the incurable boat as he's sure to go down with it!! He'll be damned rather than try something that just might save his life!!
Personally, I can't imagine Dr Frank trying anything non conventional, especially something like EFT - which is WONDERFUL for people who WANT to get well. Call any of these placebo if you want (which I don't subscribe to in any way) but I fully believe that if the patient is better in any way, then that is the most important thing.
Just a final note Dr Frank - there is absolutely NOTHING in the BNF that doesn't have a potential negative side effect!! If complementary therapies are carried out by preofessional practitioners, then the patient is completely safe. Thankfully for me, the days of watching patients bleed to death on the operating table because of taking conventional drugs are over. I nearly died because of a GPs incompetence and am thankful that I am knowledgeable enough in the powers of complementary therapies.

True, there are shysters and quacks in the alternative medicine fields--but there are shysters, quacks and poorly trained professional doctors in clinics and private practice all over the world. How often have we read of MDs being struck off for malpractice, faking credentials, etc.
Many Galenic ("normal" medicine) practitioners seem to forget that our modern, synthetically-produced medications have their roots in natural products, and that pharmaceuticals companies still pay boocoos to send people to the rainforests to find new plants we are unaware of, and to researchers to find out how to apply them.
It's a big world and some people find it intimidating to discover they don't know everything there is to know about their chosen field. And as far as DrFrank goes, it's a screen name. We don't know who he really is--only what he told Yahoo when he set up his YA account. DrFrank could be an elderly woman from Peru with trophies for gymkhana who makes her living knitting saddlepads for llamas--and we'd be none the wiser.
I could call myself "Dr" anna on here, but that wouldn't make me a trained medical professional!
"He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child--teach him. He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool--avoid him."

We are all entitled to our personal opinions and when we put a question up on Y/A we must expect to receive opinions of all varieties, including ones that don't match our own. If you look on my questions you'll see that Dr Frank answered a question similar to this giving his reasons for his views. I am open minded about alternative treatment and will always try it first before seeing a Doctor, but let's face it Doctors are essential and save many lives. How many of us would be writing these questions and answers if it wasn't for the likes of Dr Frank and many more like him. Let's respect the views of all Doctors both conventional and alternative.

I agree, he's a real pain in the ****. There are only so many times one can visit a GP and only so many different meds we can take. For myself, I can benefit from natural supplements and alternative treatments as well as GP methods. The only exact science is mathematics, so we just have to keep learning through trial and error when it comes to medicine and health. Cheers!

Dr Frank is a charlatan, just like all GP's. They never give you a straight answer. If they cant cure it, it doesn't exist. If they dont like it, it doesn't make them money. There is no real non-biased scientific evidence to support conventional medicine over complimentary medicine. The answer Dr Frank is in the name. Here is a clue; complimentary! Have they not been using Hypnotherepy in Psychiatric Units (sorry - 'controlled environments') for many years. As one famous alcoholic said "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy". Case closed.

Dr Frank whoever he may be needs a proper doctor and proper medical advice not some stupid hypnotherapy or alternative medicines. These have not been discussed by their peers while proper medical journals always discusses any new treatments.

Hope people will forget about black magic and African witchcraft and come to the 21st century where everything is discussed openly on the Internet.

Pardon me for being sceptical but does anyone have evidence of the said doctor's medical qualifications.

Perhaps it's just someone who enjoys being a bit of a stirrer, like the anti microwave and anti vegetarian brigades.

I'm glad there are doctors, young and old, who don't have hangups with some, if not all, complementary or alternative therapies.

Personally I would rather be treated as a whole human being than a statistic.

Not all GPs have a hang up about complementary therapies. Some use / advise things like Accupucture and Hypnotherapy.

If you look at the possible side effects listed on some drugs they are far worse than the illness.

i agree with doctor frank sorry.

In your question you ask "why does he continue to answer questions in this section" and go on to question Dr Frank's thoughts etc.
....Personally I find it more interesting to ask why are you afraid of rational debate and criticism? You don't have something to hide do you?

Quite correct Dr. Frank, I too base herbal medical practice on science, knowledge, logic and experience, not voodoo or blind uncorroborated clap trap.
If what I do as a herbalist is such "dangerous voodoo" why is it that I pay the lowest insurance premiums of any practitioner, both orthodox and complementary that has direct patient access?
Tell you what - give me the difference between my Medical Malpractice insurance premium and yours and I'll give half to charity and use the other half to go to Australia for 6 months.

I don't want to get into an argument for the sake of it, but I can tell you, believers and sceptics, that I lived with chronic depression for over ten years. I saw a variety of doctors and the general prognosis was that my depression was drug resistent and that I would probably take efexor for the rest of my life just to help me deal with the symptoms.
Yes they helped and I would never discourage anyone who needs that help initially from seeing a doctor and taking prescribed meds.
However, I also knew that while the symptoms were being helped the cause was not even beig looked at. It was as though, medicine had found a drug that 'sort of' helped and that was as much as science could do. I was coping but I wasn't happy, I knew that.
Last year a friend introduced me to a Bach Flower therapist. I knew what the flower remedies were I had just never got further than reading about them.
I had several consultations with the therapist and tried an array of different remedies. I began to feel confident enough to reduce the efexor, (slowly)
I am now down to 37.5 efexor every other day, and the only reason I keep that small amount going is because I find the brain zaps from complete withdrawal very difficult to cope with.
However for the most part, my alleged drug resistant depression has now gone. I am drug free for the first time in over ten years and whilst I know I have a way to go yet, I am in control of my feelings and thoughts, not the efexor.
Conventional and alternative medicine can work hand in hand, both are useful and have benefits. However it is the conventional side of it that seems to have the most difficulties accepting another way. Science has to have anything proven by calculation, if they cannot see a scientific theroy behind something then they dismiss it. I would say that is more dangerous than allowing a person the freedom to look at alternatives and use the benefits of nature without resorting to childish name calling and 'mumbo jumbo' type comments.

If there is evidence, that can be replicated, that shows a particular therapy is effective then I'm not against it. Unfortunately, some alternative therapies have no evidence to prove their effectiveness. These 'therapies' are the bogus ones that are just ripping people off.
Show me the evidence, post the links and I will have an open mind.

I think Doctor Frank is stuck in a place where the sun dont shine.

'Dr' Frank seriously needs to stop his 'cut and paste' answers as well.

He has about 3 stock answers that he just cuts and pastes into 'health' questions irrespective of what the questionner actually asks.

Not only is he massively direspectful to people bravely asking a medical question, but he's directly insulting as well. The phrase 'You really are hopeful, gullible and misled' comes out way too often.

The guy is not a GP, as he claims to be, as he's sitting on Yahoo! Answers far too often...

I wish he'd get struck off here.

Dr Frank admits himself that he was a GP 'for more years than he can remember'.
This leads me to make a few assumptions (probably totally unfair and wrong of me!):
- He is no longer a GP otherwise he wouldn't have time to answer so many questions
- He did his medical training many many years ago when alternative medicine wasn't established
- Since the then only professional development he has received is reps from medical companies who go into surgeries trying to persuade doctors to dish out their medicines
- Even that stopped a few years ago

So he's an old dinonsaur with a lot of set views on alternative medicine which are probably based on one study he did at medical school in 1925. We should forgive his ignorance.

I believe that Herbal Medicine works, as well as other Alternative medicine/therapies

I feel sorry for Dr Frank, he is only trying to help and doesn't deserve to be judged/taunted by people.

Just think, when he is ill with something and is shoving conventional medicines down himself, we can be satisfied to know that if we were to be struck by the same misfortune of illness, that we are open-minded enough to try Alternative Medicine/therapies and may actually be cured/helped by them, whereas his scepticism may be his downfall.

I think you are being unfair. He is a doctor. His answers are fair and reasoned. He knows his stuff. There is NO clinical evidence that any of these alternative treatments work. Hell, even some conventional treatments have limited efficacy. Dr Frank would be failing all of us if he supported this type of mumbo jumbo.

He's a professional who knows what he's talking about - respect it.