As a specialist in naturopathic and alternative medicine, I
have catered to many clients who swear by Rescue Remedy and the other Bach
flower remedies. My clients have sworn vehemently that Rescue Remedy has
improved everything from their sex lives, to their sleep cycles, to their pets'
behavioral problems.
I am
always disappointed to tell them that any effect they see from Rescue Remedy is
nothing more than a placebo effect. While the religiously passionate followers
of Bach flower remedies will still unwaveringly stand by the product line,
careful consumers may want to evaluate their other options before wasting their
money on a homeopathic placebo like Rescue Remedy.
How Rescue Remedy Works (or Doesn't Work)
Edward
Bach, a quack homeopathic physician, believed that he had a psychic connection
to plants, and that different trees and flowers told him that they were capable
of healing the body of every imaginable disease. He believed that all human
diseases were caused not by infection or cell mutation, but by imbalances in
the soul's energy. By Bach's theories, the plants he gathered were each capable
of restoring the body's energy in their own way.
Each of
the flowers used in Rescue Remedy and other Bach Flower Remedies are suspended
in water, then left in the sunlight. As with other forms of homeopathy, the
flower-water is then diluted to extreme, so that no molecules of the original
substance are actually found in the blend. The resulting "flower
remedies"--actually just water-- are then diluted with peach brandy,
mixed, and sold as Rescue Remedy.
Rescue
Remedy was not developed using the scientific method or any other credible
evaluation of its efficacy. Considering that it does not contain a single
molecule of a medicinally active substance, it is abundantly clear that, even
without studies or review, Rescue Remedy's effectiveness is limited to that of
a placebo.
What Rescue Remedy Studies Say
Several
sources, including the companies that manufacture Rescue Remedy and other Bach
Flower remedies, have attempted for decades to create a double-blind,
placebo-controlled study confirming that Rescue Remedy works. Disappointingly
for consumers and sellers of the so-called flower essences, not a single
peer-reviewed study has confirmed its efficacy.
One
recent review of the multiple clinical trials concluded bluntly:
"The
hypothesis that flower remedies are associated with effects beyond a placebo
response is not supported by data from rigorous clinical trials."
While
most of the studies constructed to confirm the effectiveness of Bach's flower
remedies suffered from low control group sizes and underfunding, their findings
were still disappointingly consistent: Bach remedies, including Rescue Remedy,
are only as effective as a placebo in reducing stress, anxiety, physical
illness, and psychological problems.
So why do
Rescue Remedy buyers keep going back to it? The placebo effect is a powerful
force in both conventional and alternative medicine. The introspective ritual
of saying to oneself, "I am upset, so I'll take my Rescue Remedy" is
a soothing and calming act, but it is the action-- not the product-- that creates
the illusion of calm.
Other Natural Alternatives to Rescue Remedy
No
consumer should make the mistake of assuming that all natural medicine is
quackery or pseudoscience, based on the fact that a few companies have profited
from the sale of ineffective alternative medicines. Rescue Remedy's ability to
calm may be limited or nonexistant, but there are other options for stress
relief that have been backed by rigorous scientific studies. Kanna , a powerful natural antidepressant, is my alternative
medicine of choice for coping with anxiety and depression. Chamomile is also a
highly effective and clinically backed herb for defeating anxiety attacks and
enabling a person to cope with stress, and it is even generally safe for children.
Perhaps
the most upsetting of Rescue Remedy's utter lack of effectiveness is the fact
that the homeopathy scam is very widespread.
Disappointingly, homeopathy's ineffectiveness is not limited to flower
remedies. Rather, it is part of an elaborate pseudoscience hoax that had swept the
world by storm. Informed consumers should not only avoid Rescue Remedy, but
also homeopathic medicine in general.
This is ridiculous if homeopathy is fraud and only has a placebo effect then how it cures animals and children. Give me answer and I will admit that you are right.
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous if homeopathy is fraud and only has a placebo effect then how it cures animals and children. Give me answer and I will admit that you are right.
ReplyDeleteIt is called vibrational medicine, and is the medicine of the future. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it doesn't work, it means you don't understand how it works, and never will with your limited knowledge and resources. Everything that is what we call life, is a vibration, rather than a solid, and responds to other vibrations in it's vicinity, as well as from from other planets, the moon and sun for example. Without going into spiritual physics, just knowing that one thing, and considering it is reality, makes homeopathy a very real thing. Scientists would do well to allow themselves to expand and grow as individuals, and reconsider that their methods of trial and error are very limited, and often invalid, because they don't apply to how life really works. It's something you can't argue from your current perspective, because it is 3rd dimensional by nature, and homeopathy is involved with 4th and 5th dimensional phenomena.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's quite fair. There are plenty of things that we don't understand precisely how they work--but can predict an outcome, run an experiment, and achieve that outcome. The validity of any scientific thread of knowledge is predicated on whether or not you can make predictions based on it. When, in scientific studies, the prediction is made that because of 'vibrations' homeopathic remedies will have a markedly stronger effect than a placebo, and that prediction turns out to be false, that's proof that the prediction was wrong because the assumption itself--that the homeopathic remedy would have a measurable effect--was an incorrect one. If vibrational medicine, reiki, homeopathy, and that whole lot operated on reliable principles then you should be able to make and prove out those predictions. So far no one ever has. Not once in rigorous testing with objective scrutiny. I have worked with dozens of medical professionals and a handful of microbiologists who would all be thrilled to discover proof of some principle like this that offered an explanation for all sorts of odd things we don't yet fully understand--but wanting it to be true isn't enough to be able to make predictions based on it. Furthermore, the common argument that "well you didn't believe in it so the vibrations were disrupted" which I can already hear percolating in your brain is only proof that these types of remedies then absolutely should not be for sale and profit because the people selling them are making a claim that they cannot guarantee for those that need and want the effects of these remedies.
DeleteAdditionally, the study of vibration on an atomic level is something that has been studied, and has not proven out the claims you're making about homeopathy. We can and do use vibration all the time in all sorts of technologies; it's not some unplumbed mystery of reality, it's a field of physics and engineering that we already apply in myriad ways. You don't get to co-opt it and claim it does things that it doesn't until you go and do real research and prove it.
A clear and reliable way to find out - does it really work - is the double blind study. If you want to know the truth, then do the double blind study. Just have a large sampling of people, but half get the real stuff, and half get the placebo. Then they report their findings. Important is that the person or people carrying out the study also do not know which is the medicine, and which is the placebo. It's brilliant! w=Well guess what? They did that, on this and many homeopathic remedies, and the results are: No they do not work.
DeleteIt works for me. I don't care whether it is placebo or not. It works and doesn't have nasty side effects.
DeleteHa haa.. You may be one who told earth is flat, do you think all are fools who are using bach or homeo?
ReplyDeletethis is something is not proved by science world but you will soon discover until you don't try to passify truth which you are not aware.
without belief you can't learn something, so please take take some bach flower remedies and test yourself. buy original bach flower remedies for testing it, you can take Gorse and Holly bach flowers for a month. You need to take as prescribed by DR. Bach, and moreover you are not much aware of age old so please learn about him from bach centre website.
its just a water for you so you read dr bach books and do as prescribed to get the wonders of healing with the bach flower energies
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ReplyDeleteWhat works is the BRANDY in it. 'Old Wives' remedy is to have a shot of brandy (just a shot) for what ever ails you. Also, getting out in nature and learning to ID plants and trees is of great help.
ReplyDelete