|
Salons provide quick fix to bypass GPs' queues
Sarah Ryle, consumer affairs correspondent Observer Sunday July 9, 2000
Overworked doctors and wider awareness of self-medication are fuelling a boom in new-style salons that are doing the job of traditional GP surgeries. Ailments from acne and asthma to arthritis are being treated by therapists at leisure centres.
Sales of semi-medical treatments and products - known as cosmeceuticals - have rocketed in the past two years. Demand for private health insurance covering alternative therapies has risen by two-thirds since 1998.
'Increasingly sophisticated consumers are demanding beauty solutions which deliver effective results, faster,' said market research company Datamonitor. 'The emergence of the cosmeceutical phenomenon has placed beauty therapists in a unique position between the high street and medical practitioner.'
Bupa, the private health care company, now includes complementary treatments in half its insurance packages. 'There has been an increase of 66 per cent in the last two years in the number of people actually using their insurance to buy osteopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatments,' said a spokesman.
The British Medical Association said demand for alternative and complementary treatments is soaring. 'There is plenty of evidence of growing demand, but there is no evidence yet that there is any reduction in demand at GPs' surgeries,' said spokeswoman Linda Millington. 'We believe this is an "as well" rather than "either/or" trend... In many cases, people are buying time from somebody who will listen to them sympathetically for half an hour or more and take them seriously, which can bring physical benefits regardless of the efficacy of the treatment itself.'
Some GP surgeries offer 'alternative' treatments to patients, such as chiropractitioners, and the growing tendency to prescribe a course of exercise at the gym for people with stress or fitness-related ailments has further blurred the boundaries. Analysts at Datamonitor say an increasing number of salons are renaming themselves spas to reflect their new function.
Esporta, the fitness chain which has clubs from Glasgow and Sheffield to Tunbridge Wells and Bristol, said health treatments have never been so popular. Its Wimbledon branch is piloting women's health clinics specialising in advice and treatment for osteoporosis and menopausal symptoms.
'Most of the clubs now run classes on nutrition as well as offering physiotherapy and alternative therapies like reflexology,' said senior beauty therapist Katy Hilditch. 'We find that people are seeing the clubs as alternatives to GPs because they can get a range of treatments in one place from people who have the time to talk to them.'
According to David Lloyd Leisure, massage, aroma-therapy and reflexology treatments 'have gone through the roof' as consumers seek alternative therapies for stress. The group, which has 190,000 members, says visits to its nutritionists have doubled in the last three years. Salons also use thalassotherapy, a mineral, marine algae-based treatment for acne.
Group health and beauty manager Jill Haines said: 'Beauty therapy is about much more than aesthetics now. We are moving away from painting toenails and doing make-up towards relaxation and therapeutic treatments.'
Boots is spending £14 million developing its first two fitness centres. Called Boots Body 360, they will open in London and Northwich, Cheshire, in January and will include a health and beauty spa as well as gyms, pools and yoga classes. Nutritionists and experts in quitting smoking and alleviating stress will also be on hand.
HYPERLINK "mailto:sarah.ryle@observer.co.uk"sarah.ryle@observer.co.uk
The Queen doesn't give interviews. So Carolyne Ellis spoke to some of the chosen few to find out what she's like
Claire Brown, reflexologist
It was November 1997. I was running touchy-feely type courses in Oxfordshire: hand massage, reflexology. All the TV crew came in and put the lights on, and I remember saying: "No, you mustn't do this. She's coming to me to relax. It's not a show. She's coming to see how I normally operate." I remember her gliding in and going: "Oh, isn't it lovely, a beautiful atmosphere here." I said: "Excuse me ma'am, would you like me to show you what a little hand massage is?" She answered to the effect of: "Yes please, I'd love to." I made her an oil up of frankincense, rose and mandarin; rose because she was the Queen, the symbol of England; frankincense because it's a lovely, calming one; and mandarin because it's a lovely, uplifting one. I remember her saying: "How soothing, how relaxing. I'm having a lovely time." Halfway through working on her hands, I suddenly thought: "Oh my golly, this is the Queen!"
Alternative medicine protection call
Regulations are needed to protect the public from incompetent practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine, a House of Lords committee said today. Acupuncture and herbal medicine should be legally regulated by Acts of Parliament, the Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology recommended. Other therapies such as the aromatherapy, hypnotherapy and reflexology should be subject to voluntary self-regulation, the committee's report said. That left a large third group of treatments condemned by the report for having "sparse evidence" to prove that they worked. They included crystal therapy, iridology, dowsing and traditional Chinese medicine. The report also called for more government-funded research of complimentary and alternative medicines and better information to guide the public. Doctors said that the recommendations broadly reflected what they had been asking for.
Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, patron of the Natural Medicines Society, and Lord Colwyn, the society's president. Others included Lord Perry, Lord Rea and Lord Soulsby. They were advised by Professor Stephen Holgate and Simon Mills.
that alternative remedies work set back the alternative health "cause"
|
