Video: Complementary medicines or mainstream medicines — how I decide Complementary medicines or mainstream medicines — how I decide

Video transcript

I tend to try alternative medicine for myself first, because when it’s for the kids it’s hard for them to gauge whether it’s working or not. With myself I know instantly, or fairly quickly, if it’s working for me, so that’s what I tend to do.

I haven’t had a lot of experience with a lot of different medicines, other than the ones you can buy over the counter. But, for example, having done a lot of travelling, if I come back with a nasty bug I know there’s no point — I just go straight for the, you know, cold, hard, medication, antibiotics or whatever, that’s going to get rid of that. And I know there are side effects with that, but I weigh that up against what I’m suffering and the importance of getting rid of that. So that’s an easy decision for me to make.

If I go with something like perhaps a digestive issue, and the doctors need to perform a lot of tests and they need to do all sorts of things. And often you sort of feel like you’re going on this long road and not really getting anywhere — and I have gone down that road — then I might find out what the doctor thinks, and then I’ll go and try some sort of alternative therapy.