Officialdom may be wary of alternative treatments, but there has been a boom in the number of people happy to try complimentary medicines like homeopathy and acupuncture. Britons spend more than £350 million a year on natural remedies.

Almost 50 per cent of the population has tried osteopathy, acupuncture or herbal health remedies and the Government is investing over a million pounds on researching alternative health remedies because of public pressure to have them made available on the NHS.

But do they work, or are some just hot air and could others be potentially dangerous?

After a long investigation, a House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology called for alternative remedies to be properly researched and regulated. Currently, only osteopathy and chiropractics are regulated by law. Evidence presented to the Committee showed that acupuncture and herbal medicine are often as effective as conventional medicines.

Other treatments, such as crystal therapy, traditional Chinese medicine and iridology, were condemned because there is little evidence that they work.

The Committee divided complementary therapies into three groups:

Acceptable theories:

• Acupuncture, chiropractics, herbal medicine, homoeopathy, and osteopathy.
  
  

  Unproven theories:

  The Alexander Technique, aromatherapy, flower remedies, body work therapies including massage, counselling stress therapy, hypnotherapy, meditation, reflexology, shiatsu, healing, nutritional medicine and yoga. These all complement conventional medicine, but are not regulated or researched enough to safeguard the public.
  
  

  Unacceptable theories:

  Ayervedic medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, Eastern medicine, naturopathy, crystal therapy, dowsing, iridology, kinesiology, and radionics. They felt that there was no evidence that they work.

Even one of the country's leading advocates of complementary medicine admits that vulnerable people have been conned by charlatans and has said that cancer patients have been duped by 'criminal and fraudulent' claims that alternative therapies can cure their disease. The lie that there is an alternative cancer cure is misleading people and costing lives, although some alternative treatments can improve a sufferer's quality of life.

Homeopathy (from Greek, meaning 'similar suffering'), involves using minute doses of animal, vegetable and mineral substances which, stimulate the body’s defence mechanism. In some cases this means administering minute doses of poisons in the form of derivatives of plants and berries including arnica and belladonna.

The Queen is an advocate, but many doctors argue passionately that it has no effect at all.

Royal Seal

Prince Charles is a firm believer in complimentary therapies, and has set up the Prince of Wales' Foundation for integrated health (www.fihealth.org.uk/). It is pushing to bring in regulation, increase the spending on research, support education and training and publish information to keep the public informed. You can download quarterly newsletters from the site.

The British Complementary Medicine Association’s (www.bcma.co.uk) Their website covers a wide range of therapies, from Hopi Ear Candles (used by North America Indians - a candle is gently inserted into the outer ear canal and lit, it burns with a very small flame and emits fragrant 'smoke' that circulates inside the ear canal) to Reiki, an ancient form of healing by touch. There is a list of practitioners across the country for each type of therapy.

Our Natural Health sites (www.uknetguide.co.uk/Health_and_Fitness/Natural_Health) also cover a wide range of alternative and complementary therapies including homeopathy, massage and more.

For dietary advice there is The British Dietetic Association (www.bda.uk.com), and The Nutrition Society (www.nutritionsociety.org) and The British Nutrition Foundation (www.nutrition.org.uk)

You can also find more nutrition advice by browsing our top Nutrition sites (www.uknetguide.co.uk/Health_and_Fitness/Health/Nutrition.html).