Meditation, chakra, crystals, alternative medicine, therapies, accupuncture, do you ?

[Count Steer]

I'm pretty sure that the active ingredients of 'marigold' have been clinically tested, probably not in a blinded trial because there's not really any point. As you say, there is some historical evidence that it works, for some, in some cases, but the efficacy is secondary to the safety. If it works for you, that's great, but you'd be mighty cross if it melted your skin off.

I'd be cross, true. I'd also be cross if, after years of having skin issues on my hands, I found that I had lanolin dermatitis exacerbated by the 'safe' lanolin and parabens in the prescribed treatments and they were making things worse. (I haven't, but I do wonder about cases like TPs dad, where 'nothing worked' until....).

I guess there's safe and 'read the contra-indications sheet' safe.

I have dry skin issues too...I find that the fancier a product is, the worse it is for me! The best thing is plan old hospital grade Cetraben, which I reckon you could also use to do the pins on sliding brake callipers. The "extras" in other products are detrimental for me.

I recommended MooGoo skin balm to someone who's daughter suffers from 'orrible psoriasis and gets prescribed steroid creams all the time It wasn't better than the steroid stuff but it was as good and doesn't have parabens, phenoxyethanol (or steroids) etc etc in. It's basically food grade almond, olive, aloe, chamomile, sage and hops oils and extracts emulsified.

(I used to need it if I swam in chlorinated pools too often but I found a low chlorine one ).

[Mr Moofo]

I'm a bit surprised that people think all herbal/home/folk remedies (like the marigold ointment) are all bolleaux and only double blind tested pharmaceuticals work. People had to use things that were available and some things got repeated use because they worked. Decent remedies for sleep, indigestion, skin problems, constipation etc etc were probably all available. (I suspect the problem with some of the over the counter versions is they're about 0.1% strength of some of the things they'd brew up...like valerian. Some of the herbal teas on supermarket shelves make me smile, there's hardly enough in some of them to flavour the water never mind do what they purport to do ).

I bet the cynics never rubbed a dock leaf on a nettle sting either.

Many, many pharmaceuticals have come from plants - opium and salicylic acid being two good examples. The old owners of a company I worked for were the isolated of Tamoxifen ( anti breast cancer drug) which comes from Yew Trees.
There is a big difference between herbal medicine - which has merit, homeopathy - which is witch craft and hippy bollocks, and Chinese Medicine - which is just killing all the little animals so Chinese men can get erections. The trouble with the latter is that even really well educated Chinese still believe that slaughtering pangolins is in the best interest of the Chinese .

[JamJar]

load of bollox ?

^^^^ That, except maybe for meditation.

Have you tried any ?

If not, what's stopping you ? The Chinese have been living quite long lives for a while now, could it not be related to their various medicines ? treatments ?

Average life expectancy in China is 77 years, here it is 80 years so they don't actually live longer.

[ace llani]

I'd like to try acupuncture, but I personally think the rest of it is probably bollocks.

I tried acupuncture at my old osteopaths, alongside the manipulation - reluctantly.

Didn't help my back much, but he also did it on my shoulder, and it worked very well - one sitting.

What surprised me was, some needles you don't feel go in, just the gentle tapping to put them in. Others, you feel a sort of ache, not like a needle at all. He said if you don't feel it, it's not in the right spot.

Worth a try IMO - doesn't cost much and no harm done.

[Hoonercat]

Our oldest dog used to have acupuncture for his stiff back and initially I thought it was snake oil but it really did seem to ease his movement and seem happier (he's now on some strong drugs as his age/condition has worsened).

Same here, and like you, I hadn't expected it to work but it made a big difference to her mobility. The only negative is that it was something of a sticking plaster and masked the deterioration until it got to the point where the treatment was no longer effective.

[Flux]

Most people are very surprised to find I'm into crystals, started as a way to control anger issues (I frequently had to force myself to not stamp on whoever s head was currently annoying me, most often at work (I've changed jobs now which helped immensely) ). I carried black tourmaline with me and would concentrate on that when getting angry, it definitely helped but I think more as a distraction rather than the inherent power of the stone, but either way the result was positive. I think a lot of benefit comes from positive thinking (ain't gonna beat cancer mind) and maybe that's why some believe crystals have power?
Also I love anything ancient/megalithic etc so pretty stones are cool with me.

[Noggin]

Most people are very surprised to find I'm into crystals, started as a way to control anger issues (I frequently had to force myself to not stamp on whoever s head was currently annoying me, most often at work (I've changed jobs now which helped immensely) ). I carried black tourmaline with me and would concentrate on that when getting angry, it definitely helped but I think more as a distraction rather than the inherent power of the stone, but either way the result was positive. I think a lot of benefit comes from positive thinking (ain't gonna beat cancer mind) and maybe that's why some believe crystals have power?
Also I love anything ancient/megalithic etc so pretty stones are cool with me.

That's kind of how I think of them. I wear a couple at the moment because they are 'supposed' to help. But the main reason is because one was given to me by my nephew and the other is pretty!

I do definitely think that the positive thinking from the idea is more use though



I have quite a few on a 'shelf' at home (it gets sunshine most mornings and sometimes moonlight on nights that the moon is low enough!!) and each was picked because I liked them, their supposed 'healing' qualities are an aside!

[Count Steer]

Putting the 'alternative' aspects to one side, from a materials science perspective, crystals (especially single crystals) are well cool*.

I don't suppose kids get into crystal growing any more (probably not allowed in the same room as anything more chemical than table salt Copper sulphate is

* Well, OK, not everyone finds face centered cubic and body centred cubic structures and x-ray crystallography cool.