Disclaimer: Any views or advice in this weblog should not be taken as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, especially if you know you have a specific health complaint. Prescribed medication should not be stopped or varied without conventional medical advice. Please remember that homeopathic remedies and other health measures should be individually-selected to match the whole person, not just the unwelcome symptom. Seek professional advice rather than self-prescribing if your complaint is chronic, severe or long-standing, or if you are pregnant, elderly or on orthodox medications

On Saturday, I spent the morning in Lloyds Pharmacy on Church Road, in Hove. I wasn’t skulking about being an industrial spy – I was there quite legitimately, as part of Homeopathy Awareness Week (14-21 June), giving natural healthcare advice to the pharmacy’s customers.

I haven’t been into a pharmacy for years and years, because we almost never take pharmaceutical drugs at home (touch wood). In fact, I think I’ve only taken one paracetamol pill and one ibuprofen pill in the last decade or so, and Paul reckons that his intake of pharmaceutical drugs over the last five years or so has been limited to one or two doses of painkiller tablets in total over that time. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve said here before that I’m not a fundamentalist, and I recognise that there is a place for pharmaceutical drugs – but due to their unwanted effects, and the way in which they can interfere with my body’s natural balance, I avoid them if I possibly can, preferring to rely on homeopathic remedies, nutritional supplements, and herbal tinctures, as my day-to-day medicines.

So it was a pleasant surprise to see how Lloyds Pharmacy, at least, is championing preventative health issues like healthy eating, and blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring. Finding a juicer on offer for under 20 quid, and a high-tech scales and fat monitor for £15 was impressive, too!

Most of the customers I introduced myself to seemed surprised and pleased to find a homeopath in-store, offering advice about natural remedies, and several took up my offer of a free mini-consultation in the store’s private discussion and examination room area. On arrival at the store, I’d familiarised myself with the small range of natural products on offer, and with the bigger range of basic vitamin and mineral supplements stocked, which meant I was soon able to direct customers in the right direction for their cold water fish oils, vitamin C, and homeopathic burns cream, for example.

The arrangement worked because I saw my role in the pharmacy context as complementary, not as alternative, which meant that even if customers were happy to ask me rather than the pharmacist, I sent them to speak with her, to get the conventional viewpoint. When asked, most people seem to say they’d like access to truly integrated healthcare, and I think we achieved that, in a very modest way, in one little part of Hove on Saturday morning!

For more information about homeopathy and natural approaches to healthcare, visit www.phoenixhomeopathy.com, and for natural healthcare products that pharmacies don’t stock, visit www.holistic2go.com.