Heilpraktiker - traditional healers

What is with Heilpraktiker (sp?) here? How are they allowed to even do business?
Aren't there laws preventing them from practicing their bullshit mediaeval healing
remedies.
As some of you have read in my previous thread, my pregnant girlfriend and I
have been having some problems. Today she met with one of these Heilpraktiker, who told her the stress was making the baby unhappy and that she has to go down to Bodensee and pray!!! Pray!!!??
WTF!!!???
Never mind that her real doctor says the baby is doing fine...
Fair enough, I'm sure that the stress isn't good for a developing baby but I'm trying to give
her some real f*cking support and remove the stress but she created this situation and then listens to these crackpots. They should be locked up in a mental institution, not allowed to dole out medicine and advice.
And its not the first time either. Once our son had a waking nightmare (night terrors), something quite normal for young kids up to the age of 6 and after talking to her Heilpraktiker, she suggested that it was spirits that were being attracted to his energy...
At this point I would happily tie them to a stake and burn them as witches.
/end of rant.

I hope you didn't have to pay for this 'service'. You could have gone to the Jehovah's Witnesses and they would have given you the same advice for free. Although if you had gone to the 7th Day Adventists this might have happened:

Carlos Roa's prophesies

South America has always produced eccentric goalkeepers, but none was more bizarre than Seventh-day Adventist, Carlos Roa. At the peak of his career after guiding Mallorca to the Cup Winners' Cup Final and defending two of England's penalties for Argentina in the 1998 World Cup Second Round, 'The Lettuce' (a nickname attained due to his strict vegetarianism) called it a day on his professional career. He retracted to a remote Argentinean ranch, citing the end of the world on Millennium night as his 'personal reason'.

Is she actually listening to the advice? Going off to the Bodensee to pray?

My kid had night terrors when he was about 3 ish. It was horrible. Then he had proper nightmares of monsters stabbing him.

Turned out he is extremely allergic to dust mites and would incorperate the itching and stuff into his dreams / sleep. Not one single nightmare since that was diagnosed over 2 years ago.

Quacks are only good as complementary treatment to a thorough medical examination, IMHO.

@MB, not sure yet. She just told me today on the phone and sounded like she wanted to go.

It's really scary what some people tell others. A friend of mine is into herbal medicine for instance, has her own little herbgarden. A very conservative "friend" of hers calls her a witch due to this. My friend got a baby boy. The boy died two months after birth, born with a faulty heart. This conservative, deeply religious calvinist friend of hers told her that "God had punished her due to her evil and wicked ways". So you see, there's a lot of very dangerous nutters hopping about. My friend had to get therapy after that, she became so depressed.. It's not just Heilpraktiker. But yeah, I've met a couple already and it's unbelievable that people fall for that b*llshit. They can be dangerous. You watch over your woman, she anyway seems a bit easily influenced at the moment due to her hormones.

sorry...but did someone actually force you/her to go and consult this person? If not...what's the problem? Shouldn't you be ranting at your girlfriend instead for choosing the person?

@btr, I didn't force her to go and I wouldn't go to one myself. I have told her what I think of these people but I'm not going home now to fight with her again over it. The situation is just too delicate. I just needed to let off some steam, as you might say.

A Heilpraktiker has to pass a regular exam, which I've heard is quite demanding. They are allowed to do nearly everything (even surgery), but only within the realms of what they master, so they are liable.

I agree, there are a lot of quacks out there (maybe my grandmother would still be alive if it wasn't for some Heilpraktiker to tell her that she could heal her cancer by concentrating on her positive energy) and I do have a lot of negative energy that is regularly used for rants about them.

However, there are also Heilpraktiker out there that fill a huge gap, treating little but annoying maladies with homoepathic and herbal remedies and serving a clientele that needs someone that takes their problems seriously. A good Heilpraktiker knows when you'd rather see a regular doc and tell you to see one if the illness was serious.
Heilpraktiker like this do exist (my mother-in-law for example) but it seems they're rather the exeption.

Anyway, telling someone that the stress they're having is not good for the unborn baby is just stupid, as it will make the mother feel stressed about being stressed.
But anyway, going to a lake to pray seems to be a nice and relaxed way to spend a weekend, I'd say. Should give you some good karma. Me, I'd rather eat icecream and read a book, but hey, no good karma for me anyway.

Hey some of them are full of shit but most of them are probably fine. I generally prefer their ways to modern "medical professionals". At least heil praktikers know the difference between a health issue, and a beauty issue, and an emotional or spiritual issue. Normal moden doctors tend to treat everything as if they were a salesman for the drug companies, which I guess they are.

In this case, its about stress, she suggested going to a quiet place and praying, whats wrong with that? Would you prefer she was prescribed a pill?

No, but being told the baby is unhappy!!! What kind of sh*t is that? And what will praying do? Nothing, that's what. If they had said try and relax, then fine thats good advice to most people. But telling her that she has to go to Bodensee to pray soon is a crock of Sh*t.

agreed.

I agree with @Kza... "Ordinary" doctors are not necessarily any better... many just hand out drugs unnecessarily, and some prescribe drugs that are not necessarily in the best interest of the patient but more in their interest for research and back-handers from drugs companies.

There are good and bad in any profession and you should not take this person as an example of all Heilpraktiker... I have been to one particular Heilpraktiker in Munich and was not impressed, and could not believe that this guy was qualified to give such advice... He told me to draw a plan of my flat on paper, then proceeded to draw in red pen where there was negative electrical energy in my flat and where I should not have my bed...?!?!?

I think we could all learn a lot from being more open-minded about alternative therapies, many of which have been around for hundreds or thousands of years before doctors started focusing more on drugs...

Being myself not religious, the idea of praying at the Bodensee seems a bit strange... but meditation by the Bodensee could definitely help... Why does this quack suggest the Bodensee?? You can pray or meditate anywhere... :}

Maybe someone else can post other suggestions of how she can relax... maybe it would take her mind off the "praying at the Bodensee" if she has a better alternative...?

I find your tone offensive and personally insulting.
Heilpraktiker are health practitioners who have qualified under state supervision. The methods are based on herbal remedies, which have helped millions (including myself and friends of mine) over the centuries and can be understood as preventative.
But I do not think you are interested.

...and if I worked at a tabloid the headline would have read "Lettuce Pray"

Just posting to back up DD about allergies causing night terrors in children. I tell everyone whose children are having 'devil visitations' that they need a thorough allergy work-up.

Went through this for over a year with one son -- allergy tests revealed a number of food sensitivities. Took him off all those foods, the night terrors vanished and so did a number of other problems.

M.

"unhappy" may be an odd choice of words, but do you really think that stress doesn't effect the baby?


of course this is true for some, but for others (esp. those truly believing in their heilpraktiker's advice), it may be a good way to relax/meditate. & what's the harm in that?

now, if this guy tells her next that the baby is possessed & the only cure involves eye of newt & an amputation of a toe- go ape shit.

Just saw this article on the BBC about homeopathy and how it doesn't really work.

I know a very good HP who teaches meditation, etc, and she sure as hell doesn't give that kind of BS out.

Here in Munich too. Really sensible and practical.

Petra

Seemingly there is a $1 million dollar prize still available if anyone can prove that homeopathy actually works. So far it hasn't been won...

One advantage of homeopathy is that it doesn't break the Hippocratic oath, i.e., 'first, do no harm' which can't be said of a lot of those high tech pharmaceuticals out there. Also, homeopathy HAS worked for me and I don't need no self-promoting magician - Randi - to approve of it first. Anyway, most people misunderstand the concept of proof in science, for one thing, the action of homeopathy is probably so subtle and different for different people that it would be impossible to 'prove' its efficacy in a large scale study. For another, there is no such thingas 'proof' in science, only mathematics.
I once saw the BBC show, it in no way proved homeopathy didn't work, though it did seem to show that the supposed reason why it worked was not shown to be convincing in the lab. But even Randi looked worried at the end when thesy were looking at the results, which could have been interpreted differently. But not for $1,000,000!!

As for meditating by the Bodensee, why the hysterical overreaction? First, there's no possible harm in following the advice, second, to cut your travel time, you could try the Starnberger See, and finally, one is of course free to disregard advice!
I find much of what the Heilpraktikers advertise unfamiliar and strange sounding, but to call for burning at the stake truly IS medieval. You should have a far higher level of scepticism of doctors who are glorified pharma salesmen (homeopathy is also cheaper!).

Again, as I posted on another thread about Homeopathics, I do use, and believe! I do my best to combine both homeopathic and traditional medicine where needed. I also understand the limitations of Homeopathics. The difference I find is, that a homeopath treats the whole person, whereas a traditional doctor treats whatever is ailing you. Now, I know a homeopath cannot heal a bone break any different, but I have taken Arnica for bruising and swelling associated with some sprains. I tend to be skeptic of some of the traditional treatments here due to some of the weird stuff I have seen in my clinic. I believe homeopaths are trying to get us to listen to our bodies more, and treat ourselves better, and my homeopath always take about 1 hour time for me, do you get that from a traditional doctor?

Simply put, people need to educate themselves and believe in whatever route they take. A recent study into the placebo effect demonstrated that they worked simply because the patient believed it would. The mind is a powerful tool, use it.

You'll be asking for a law against palm reading next !

I agree with a previous poster, you should be talking to your gf.

If your accountant told you to go up the Zugspitze and pray, you'd just get a new accountant because you would know he was mad...same applies here.

@ eurovol- the placebo effect works also in traditional medicine- we use it all the time at the clinic, because as you say ultimately, the mind has a powerful effect. (nice to see we agree on somethings! )

I am a third generation taoist esoteric healer and i am doing Qigong/Reiki healing besides Asian bodyworks too. Not all alternative healer are that irresponsible and i could understand your anger as i have come across such healers.

Through the years, i have heard funny (nonsense) stories about my german sister in law when she visitis her heilpratiker. Infact everytime she would come to me telling about her problems which i believe her heilpratiker had exaggerated.

I would advise that those people who would visit a heilpratiker should be open minded and at least have some "common sense". Most of the time, we are too dependent on others rather than listening to our body.

Yahoo: Prince Charles Touts Traditional Cures

I couldn't agree with Charles more.