IT is perhaps a sign of the times that people are no longer turning to alternative health practitioners as a last resort but as a first line of defence.
It is perhaps even more significant that, while reputable alternative practitioners have always been aware of their limitations and have been quick to refer patients to the orthodox side of the track, over the past decade more conventional doctors have given patients the choice of complementary therapies.
Not free on the NHS, of course, but above board, accepted, even recommended by previously science-bound and sceptical practitioners.
Tomorrow, a four-day series begins in The Herald which looks at the role of alternative medicine in a health arena which seems increasingly unable to meet patients' needs. In researching the issues, it was the fact that alternative medicine has been able to come out of the closet which I found most encouraging.
Fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed as having myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and was recommended to try complementary medicine by what I now realise were doctors ahead of their time. I was depressed, unable to concentrate, had short-term memory lapses, vision distortion, aching limbs, and swollen glands. A supportive editor allowed me to go into the office late and leave early.
Doctors at the Ruchill Hospital clinic had seen some improvement in the condition of patients who used evening primrose oil, which was why they were referring people to alternative practitioners. I went to a medical herbalist, whose holistic approach to the condition gave me back my life.
A decade and a half down the line and orthodox medicine still has no answers for ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as it came to be called. Nor is it very good with asthma, eczema, mild depression, back pain, women's health or auto-immune diseases: often drugs with unacceptable side effects are the only remedies on the GP's menu.
He doesn't have time to investigate why patients have some health problems and we all know how long it can take to get further investigation by a specialist. Little wonder then that so many people now look for alternative help. Having to pay a fee to see a private practitioner, however, means too many people resort to DIY methods with no guarantee of success.
The new millennium version of cure-all snake oil is still out there promising cut-price health and it is time for it to be poured down the drain and replaced by alternative medicines which have undergone the kind of research which assures their safety and efficacy.
There must also be registration and regulation of alternative practitioners, and this is already happening. Qualifications must be standardised and the public has to know what it is getting for its #25 consultation fee. Osteopaths and chiropractors have put their houses in order. Acupuncturists are well on the way to following suit and homeopaths and herbalists are working towards a similar goal.
These measures are necessary for our safety but are also the only way to convince the sceptical majority in the NHS that alternative medicine has its place.
There may well be hundreds of doctors doing post-graduate courses in alternative therapies but, as Dr David Reilly, director of the NHS homeopathic hospital (a serendipitous anachronism if ever there was one) in Glasgow, says: ''The fact that 20% of doctors now know the basics of homeopathy means that 80% don't.''
Not that most champions, professional and lay, of alternative medicine want an NHS buy-out of these therapies. Nothing worse could happen to them: the whole person approach is a vital element of alternative practice (some orthodox sceptics say it is the only element which actually works) and the 10-minute consultation, 18-month waiting list, and restrictive management structures would destroy their essence.
It is time, however, for grudging acceptance to turn into real partnership; for complementary medicine to be just that.
Established alternative therapies are neither practiced nor sought by a fringe element identifiable only by its beads and open sandals. Its medicines are neither placebos nor downright sugarolly water fakes. Only last week, research confirmed that St John's Wort (hypericum) was a safe and efficacious alternative to anti-depressant drugs and double blind tests in Glasgow on homeopathic medicine for asthma showed it to be effective.
Those tests have been made in part because of the clamour from a public sick of drugs with unacceptable side effects and sticking plasters which hide the root cause of their problem. Doctors can no longer use a lack of scientific proof as an excuse to ignore alternative medicine.
The Government must facilitate research, however persistently the pharmaceutical industry seeks to protect its lucrative territory.
There will always be those who offer to irrigate a colon or pass healing rays through a pyramid. If, however, UK doctors could prescribe a course of treatments from a homeopath as European doctors can prescribe a week taking therapeutic spa waters, desperate souls searching for an answer to their health problems could to turn to their GP instead of being vulnerable to unscrupulous quackery.
