Napiers

I've recently been experiencing pain in my stomach after eating and mystified by what it is I've been to see the doctor about it time and time again. After countless trips I realised that I was always given conflicting advice and never properly listened to. I decided to try something new. I've always been interested in herbal medicine as when I was a child my bruises were treated with arnica and my mum always kept me topped up with echinacea. Napiers seemed the obvious choice as family and friends had been going there for years and it is something of an Edinburgh institution.
I was lucky enough to be seen by Dee Atkinson, who runs Napiers. She listened to me carefully and asked me a lot of questions about my lifestyle, diet and past history. She appreciated that I had been under a lot of stress lately and took this into account (unlike the doctors I'd seen!) After an hour long session of mapping out my lifestyle Dee fellt that all the stress I was under was producing excess acid in my stomach which was what was causing the pain. She gave me a prescription for two types of herbal medicine which she and I hoped would work. At Napiers they mix different herbal medicines to match your symptoms so you're prescription is entirely unique to you. Dee was very helpful and explained everything she had put into my prescriptive medicine and it ranged from marshmallow to aloe vera. She also explained why these ingrediants would work. I was prescribed liquid medicine to take daily, diluted with water and a capsule to be taken twice daily which contained the same friendly bacteria that is found in pro-biotic drinks.
The session, however, did amount to a huge bill which I was reluctant to pay considering I had no clue whether this medicine would work. Luckily it did! My pain reduced dramatically whilst I was taking the medicine and has since gone away as I am under less stress (something Dee predicted). I am, however, grateful that I don't have to take the medicine anymore as I could not afford to keep paying the amount of money charged (around 40 pounds) each month that they were asking.
Ulitmately I found the experience very helpful and I really appreciated being listened to and sympathised with about my symptoms, that in itself helped my stress levels lower. It was also lovely how everything was well explained as venturing into alternative medicines can sometimes seem tricky.