I always think it's the quick fix that people go for because it is linked with the hope that that something is not their fault or because of some modern fashion trend or fad. This place
http://www.uclh.org/O...RLHIM/Pages/Home.aspx is one of my biggest irritants at the moment. If you want to save money shut this bloody place down, homeopathic medicine my arse... I'm sorry, I have very strong feelings on the matter.
I think there is a great link between diet and how people feel and it's obvious that if we all had a very good diet and took regular exercise then this would be bennifical for our wellbeing in general. I also have plenty of room for natural remedies in conjunction with modern medicine approaches. But I think so many places play in to the insecurities and the quick fix dream that we all wish we had at times but to me it's almost the same as those awful religious shows (for want of a better word) who tell people they are communicating with dead relatives. It's the same sort of pyschology behind it I think if that makes any sense.
That said, there are also people who only want to go down the medical route. One of the consultants I work for specialises in unexplained symptoms in adolescents/chronic fatigue syndrome and we have a programme that gets very good results and has an MDT approach. But we have quite a lot of parents who despite all the tests in the world will always want the medical diagnosis and just push more and more for tests, imaging or some new thing they're read on the internet etc whilst ignoring that very often a child is literally screaming for help of a very different kind...My consultant is amazing at dealing with it all thankfully, I just get very irritated (am just about professional enough to hide my irritation ;0) A lot of the parents want to find a medical explanation because I think it would be easier for them to deal with a medical condition rather than some of the issues within their own families that may be contributing to the childs symptoms, whether this is done subconscienously or not I wouldn't like to hazard a guess.