Daily Mail 16/06/97

People think you're a hippy freak if you take natural remedies

Interview by Nick Morgan

Award-winning pop star Bjork, 31, has put her homeland of Iceland on the music map. But her career was almost shattered when she caught a debilitating throat in fection. Here, Bjork - who lives in Maida Vale, West London, with her 11-year-old son Sindri - tells Nick Morgan how alternative remedies saved her voice.

Just at the time when I should have been building on my success, it looked as though my singing career was coming to an end.

Straight after recording my last album, Post, I set out on a world tour. By December 1995 - seven months into it - I realised I hadn't taken a proper break for three years. The knock-on effect was that I had begun to suffer the most terrible stress and physical exhaustion. I felt so drained and eventually my voice became hoarse and started to fail.

It came as quite a shock because I have always been active and full of energy. When I was in my late teens in Iceland, I held down three jobs - working in a fish factory, a Coca-Cola bottling plant and a record shop - all at the same time.

Even on holiday I couldn't sit still. I was fidgety, always having to do something. And in my spare time, I'd go out into the country-side - where no one could hear me - and sing at the top of my voice.

So it was horrendous suddenly to have so little energy and a throat so hoarse I could hardly talk, let alone sing.

After all the worry about what was happening to me, it was finally my acupuncturist who diagnosed me correctly. According to him, it was because my kidney energy had been used up.

That was terrible news because, according to Chinese medicine, the kidney is like the body's main battery - if it's run down, then you will be, too.

It was a frightening experience, but the acupuncture proved to be my saviour. I had a course of treatment that focused on the kidney meridian and that was supplemented by other Chinese medicines that were specially concocted for me. Thankfully, I managed to get over it quite quickly.

Since that experience, I've started to make an extra effort to take care of my body. I see my Chinese medicine doctor, Stephan Chmelik, at least once a week, and if I'm really busy or feeling run down, I go every day.

I feel good immediately afterwards, as if my batteries have been recharged, especially if I've had acupuncture. I find it amusing that Chinese medicine is called 'alternative' in the West. After all, it's been around for thousands of years, and in devoloped countries we're only just beginning to understand its uses and power. It's Western medicine which is the more recent treatment - that's the alternative.

I come from a culture in which living with nature is important. From a very early age in Iceland you're taught that taking special herbs and natural drinks is far more beneficial for your body than normal, doctored food and drinks. Taking advantage of nature is a common-sense approach to life. But in Britain, using natural cures and some off-the-wall remedies seems to make you some sort of hippy freak.

My mother is a homeopathic doctor, so I was brought up with what you call alternative medicine as a normal part of day-to-day life. It was never alternative to me, just natural. When I was a child, Mum refused to let doctors give me antibiotics because she said that, even though they might prevent disease in the short term, they help to break down your body's natural immune system in the long run.

It's so important to build up strength in the body, and chemicals aren't the best way to do that. If you want to increase your energy so that it lasts for life, you have to use alternative medicine.

I learned those lessons and have tried to bring my child up in the same way. My son has never had antibiotics or vaccinations, only homeopathic remedies, especially at this time of year for hay feaver.

I'm not saying all alternative medicine works - I'm not sure about some of the stranger practices. But if I try something and I feel good, then I'll stick with it.

But of all the treatments I've tried, acupuncture is my favourite. It works by directing the flow of electromagnetic energy in your body so there's no block.

The main reason I do it is for my lungs, so to strengthen them I have needles inserted on the area of skin between my skin and forefinger. Just as a vein can go from your toe to hip, so a nerve can go from one area of the body to a completely different part. And what stimulates that nerve isn't blood but electricity.

The most important factor in everything i do is that Chinese medicine is preventive - you treat a disease that hasn't happened yet. Western medicine is the opposite - you wait until you're ill and then you're treated.

Chinese medicine doctors look to the future for weaknesses and excesses that could cause problems if they are not dealt with - balancing out the yin and the yang, which is something that acupuncture and many other alternative remedies do.

Obviously, in the future, because I sing so much, my throat will get strained again, and that's why it's important to continue my acupuncture and medicinal concoctions.

The other problem I get is in planes. The air conditioning on flights is so bad because it's all just recycled stale air and that can give you a cold - which is the last thing I need before a concert. So because I travel so much, I have loads of acupuncturists in different countries and they all have different treatments. The trouble is that I have so many things I need to do - interviews, travelling, recording - that no matter how much good they do, I always feel I need at least two extra bodies.

Perhaps then all three of us could have acupuncture at the same time - that would be great.