# Met my Primary Care Provider for the 1st time; she recommends homeopathy. Should I trust her? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 10, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161 "2015-11-10T02:54:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/81 "2015-11-13T18:52:46Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > What about if they advertise that they’re “wholistic”? > > Seriously, I see that word used a lot. > > I hates it. > > [sub]I’m not that fond of “holistic” either, frankly[/sub] I’m gonna speculate that “wholistic” is gaining traction because their intended [del]patient population[/del] con victims aren’t educated enough to know what “holistic” means. Sorta like the authorities had to paint “flammable” on gasoline tanks because people thought “inflammable” meant “good to put out fires with”. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/82 "2015-11-13T20:45:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Apparently all those specialists who go to a great deal of trouble to collect accurate patient histories and document past/present illnesses, medications and allergies are not “treating the whole person”. And maybe the orthopedist you go to for intractable knee pain is paying too much attention to your problem and not addressing your overall mind-body connections. Hard to say. :dubious: Now that you mention it, my cardiologist doesn’t spend any time looking at my bunion. Shucks. My in-laws had some issues with drug interaction, but that was because they had lots wrong with them and went to lots of different doctors. I go to a big center which does pretty much everything, and we do over my drug regimen with alarming frequency. And they’ve never mentioned holistic once - data, yes. I think I’m going to do a column on holistic microprocessor design and test. Yes, it will be a humor column. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/83 "2015-11-13T22:45:48Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > What about if they advertise that they’re “wholistic”? > > Seriously, I see that word used a lot. > > I hates it. > > [sub]I’m not that fond of “holistic” either, frankly[/sub] I haven’t seen it, but I would avoid that. Holistic, too. Holistic medicine often means “avoiding standard medical practice”, and I don’t intend to go on a juice diet if I develop cancer. But my MIL had some downright bad treatment from an ear specialist who forget there was a person attached to that ear. And the whole “stay out of the sun” push is from dermatologists who forget that vitamin D is valuable for other systems, and nor always adequately supplied in diet. And I’ve seen heart advice that was heart-focused, etc. I’m pretty happy with my doctor, who is mostly an epidemiologist, and secondarily a pcp. Partly, because i think he is concerned with all the body parts. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/84 "2015-11-13T22:48:48Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Then she talked a bit about the value of placebos – and that’s NOT bunk. I think the value of placebos is in helping to statistically separate products that actually work from products that don’t, due to various biases that humans have. If you’re saying that they actually can help you feel better, and not just more likely to report feeling better due to cognitive biases, I don’t buy that. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/85 "2015-11-13T22:49:10Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Now that you mention it, my cardiologist doesn’t spend any time looking at my bunion. Shucks. … Well, he should! If your foot’s hurting, you can’t get the exercise you need to keep your heart healthy, right? Actually that’s not entirely a joke - if he says “moderate exercise” and you can’t because of some non-cardiac issue, he needs to at least _know_ about it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/86 "2015-11-13T23:35:47Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > I think the value of placebos is in helping to statistically separate products that actually work from products that don’t, due to various biases that humans have. If you’re saying that they actually can help you feel better, and not just more likely to report feeling better due to cognitive biases, I don’t buy that. i do. > **[Placebo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo)** > > A placebo (/pləˈsiːboʊ/ plə-SEE-boh) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. > Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials to test the efficacy of medical treatments. In a placebo-controlled clinical trial any change in the control group is known as the placebo response, and the difference between this and the result of no treatment is the placebo effect. ... > [@](#): > > Brain imaging techniques done by Emeran Mayer, Johanna Jarco and Matt Lieberman showed that placebo can have real, measurable effects on physiological changes in the brain.[10] Some objective physiological changes have been reported, from changes in heart rate and blood pressure to chemical activity in the brain, in cases involving pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and some symptoms of Parkinson’s, but in other cases, like asthma, the effect is purely subjective, when the patient reports improvement despite no objective change in the underlying condition.[11] We were talking about pain and inflammation, two symptoms that can be improved by placebos. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/87 "2015-11-14T00:33:12Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I think I’m going to do a column on holistic microprocessor design and test. Yes, it will be a humor column. Isn’t that what Quantum Computing is? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161/88 "2015-11-17T07:00:31Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > i do. > > [Placebo - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo) > > We were talking about pain and inflammation, two symptoms that can be improved by placebos. I can believe that they may make some symptoms better - anything that is affected by stress/anxiety, for example. If you think you’ve been given something to help you relax, you might just relax. If you think you’ve been given something to help with the pain, you might relax and become less sensitized to the pain. If your asthma is flaring a bit, a placebo might reduce the anxiety and awareness of the breathing struggle. The linked article did not (that I could see) mention what someone else said upthread about how a placebo can help some things even if you know it’s a fake. I can’t imagine how that would possibly work. These days it would be hard for a doctor to get away with prescribing a placebo anyway - with so much information readily available, the first thing I’m gonna do is look up that nifty tincture of dihydrogen monoxide the doc just prescribed. Something not mentioned but somewhat related: having a real medication, and not taking it, can help. I’m specifically thinking of pain medication and sleeping medication. If I’m having a bad night of sleep, where the anxiety over insomnia can make the insomnia worse, knowing that I’ve got a small stash of Sonata, that I can take if I really need it, can sometimes be enough for me. My husband had a root canal. The endodontist prescribed a few tablets of Vicodin or some such. My husband never took it - but just knowing it was there if needed let him deal with the pain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/met-my-primary-care-provider-for-the-1st-time-she-recommends-homeopathy-should-i-trust-her/737161.md?page=4)