Ask HN: What is your personal experience with alternative medicine?

If you go to a hospital in China, you'll see it's based on Western medicine. But you will see a department for traditional Chinese medicine, or at least aspects of it that have been verified through research.

Researchers take TCM and study it scientifically, which is how the cure for Malaria was found when Chinese scientists looked through 1600 year old literature. But it's unlikely much of that kind of medicine will reach the US based on how it's packaged and who makes the money.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/chinese-herbal-therapy-...

Here's a personal note on this and how strong the mind is in relieving pain without medicine.

I have a condition that is known to cause chronic pain. For years, over 25, anyone that asked me if I had pain I would always say no. I wasn't lying. I truly thought that I had no pain. I felt very lucky.

One day I had to start taking pain relievers for a case of intense back pain. It was so bad I had to stay in bed. After I stopped taking the back pain pills I started to notice a pain that would not go away. I found out it was due to my chronic condition. It was then that I realized that I had always had the pain. For some reason, I had blocked it in my mind and never really accepted it as pain. Now I have the pain, it's similar to unseeing something you never wanted to see. Once you know about it you can't block it. I take regular pain medicine to help me now.

For so many years the thought of not having chronic pain made it so in my mind. It's truly amazing what the mind can do if you belive.

I used the method of Dr. John Sarno to rid myself of chronic wrist pain/RSI.

I say "rid" instead of "cure" because Sarno's method claims that such pain is entirely psychogenic, and is thus addressed by psychological means rather than pills, surgery, or other physical interventions. The theory is that the pain is generated by the subconscious as a way of distracting the conscious mind from unpleasant thoughts/emotions. By recognizing this process and forcing yourself to deal with the unpleasantness, the subconscious gives up this "strategy" and the pain disappears.

The really interesting thing about this theory is that it predicts "the symptom imperative," which in practice means that soon after you begin challenging your primary symptom, your subconscious may shift to a new symptom. New symptoms understandably cause the conscious mind to become afraid, and thus distracted again.

That part is what really sold me on the theory. I was skeptical at first, but sure enough, as soon as I began attacking my wrist pain, I began having headaches and other inexplicable symptoms, each of which resolved quickly. The nice thing is that the method is more effective the more you believe in its efficacy, and so a virtuous cycle can develop.

My wrist pain was never severe, but it was bad enough to scare me away from typing with my right hand for the better part of a year. I also had a lot of numbness and tingling, and occasional acute pain in my middle (scrolling) finger joint. I attributed these symptoms to overuse, and in addition to not typing with that hand, I used wrist braces, elbow braces, ice packs, a new keyboard, etc. These tended to help for a few minutes to days before the symptoms returned.

Once I had been typing exclusively with my left hand for a while, I began experiencing symptoms in that hand as well. The prospect of not typing at all was very scary (which is exactly what my subconscious wanted). I finally went to a specialist, who performed a nerve conduction study and told me there was nothing physically wrong with me. If I had not know about Sarno's theory, this information would have been rather distressing. Instead, it came as a relief. I could now pursue Sarno's method without reservations. And within a week, my pain was 90% gone. After pushing through the symptom shifting, my pain was 99% gone within a month. Nowadays I have no wrist pain at all, and I can type as long as I want without regard for ergonomics. I consider myself very lucky and have since become something of a PPD/TMS maximalist. If you have chronic pain or another chronic condition, I urge you to read one of Sarno's books and evaluate the theory for yourself. Scientifically, I think it has more of a leg stand on than homeopathy, crystal healing, etc., but at the end of the day, all I can say is that it worked for me, and I hope it works for you too.

I'm having trouble deciding if your experiences were good or bad from this comment. Have the 17 years you've spent on this been helpful or a waste of time?

Each form of medicine has its advantages and disadvantages one should not be dismissive of other forms treatments just based on popular opinions also One should not put all their faith on alternative forms of medicine too and be aware of when there are proven treatments or hype created by dubious practitioners or marketed online. Sometimes the treatments may not work as each medical problem uses body's own healing powers to support those treatments. I have three recent experiences to share 1. 3 years back my father who was 67 then suffered from severe pain in lower back due to which he could not stand or walk after 10 min.on investigation it was found out the pain was due to one the spinal discs in back was pushing against the nerves and would need to be operated upon this was the opinion of multiple doctors and as per them it was a routine procedure. But we had heard of lot of horror stories with regards of spine surgeries. So my father refused,him being a diabetic and a heart patient he said better be in pain than being in bed for rest of his life. Well he was recommended a acupuncture doctor by friends and he decided to try him out. After 3-5 month his condition improved and now he can go for morning walks every day for 2-3 kms. 2. I met my neighbors who I had seen after an year on enquiry the lady who is 82 years told me she had suffered severe spine related issue with one of her discs leaking fluids and was bedridden. The consulting doctors told her surgery in her case was very risky due her age and other health problems and gave her medication for pain management when her situation did not improve he himself suggested the family to try our Ayurveda based treatment which includes massages and natural medication at one of the good hospitals south india. She was treated as inpatient for three month and later physical therapy at home. Now she is no longer bed ridden and does light household work like cooking and walk slowly. 3. I suffer from chronic kidney stone problem recently I had 6-8 mm stone which I was not able to pass and was suffering sharp pains doctor suggested simple surgery. Instead I followed standard homeopathic medication quite common in India along with natural remedy and I passed the stone 2-3 days later.