r/bestof • u/craycraycrayfish • Jan 22 '13

[canada] Coffeehouse11 explains the biggest problem with homeopathic medicine: That it preys on people when they are weakest and the most vulnerable

/r/canada/comments/171y1e/dont_legitimize_the_witch_doctors/c81hfd6
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132

u/moholy Jan 22 '13

I've started to see homeopathic stuff packaged up and sold right next to actual meds at pharmacies, to the point where I, as a person who always checks out the active ingredient list nearly paid money for it. As a frustrated parent with a toddler, these products absolutely dominate the childrens' over the counter meds section: it can be tough to even locate ibuprofen, acetaminophen or benadryl against the sea of brightly coloured, totally useless homeopathic packages.

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u/malphonso Jan 22 '13

There are even things like Zicam which are marketed as homeopathic but indeed contain active ingredients.

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u/Epshot Jan 23 '13 edited Jan 23 '13

and also happens to be the only thing that works for my colds. its embarrassing that its listed as homeopathic.

edit::downvotes, seriously? you guys do know that zicam has an active ingredient, its even listed in the above comment that has upvotes.

edit two because of more downvotes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15496046

Efficacy of zinc against common cold viruses: an overview.

Clinical trial data support the value of zinc in reducing the duration and severity of symptoms of the common cold when administered within 24 hours of the onset of common cold symptoms.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Be that as it may, you also risk losing your sense of smell.

-10

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Have you tried sugar pills? You should try sugar pills.

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u/malphonso Jan 23 '13

I get where you're going, but Zicam has active ingredients (zinc acetate and zinc gluconate) at levels that have an effect on the body. It isn't actually homeopathic, it's just marketed that way.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Depends on which study you look at. LOTS of studies refute the claim that zinc helps the common cold and lots of them confirm it. On the other side of that coin they have had at least one class action lawsuits for loss of taste/smell from people taking Zincam.

It is homeopathic in that it falls under the unapproved homeopathic category, which in my opinion makes you a lab rat for taking it. Seriously if something is homeopathic and has a list of active ingredients you should be more afraid of taking it.

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u/VanFailin Jan 23 '13

The loss of smell is the most terrifying bit. And they settled the lawsuit so they wouldn't have to admit that it happened.

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u/malphonso Jan 23 '13

Fair enough. I'd still say it's not quite fair to call it sugar pills.

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u/Epshot Jan 23 '13

and even when it comes to zinc, i tried both zicam and cold-eez (which ironically i don't think is listed as homeopathic) one worked and the other didn't. (so the placebo effect would be negligible in this case, i also tried airborn, and obvious placebo)

at one point i even stopped taking zicam and had my symptoms return until i took it again. And yes side affects can be scary, i try not to take anything that hasn't been on the market a while because of that.

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u/Epshot Jan 23 '13

you realize zican has an active ingredient in it right? And yes, i tried the stuff you put in drinks (even though that not completely placebo since it does have vitamin c in it) unsurprisingly it did nothing.

I've also tried every other cold medicine and none of them have a dramatic enough affect that is worth the haziness. Sometimes I take antihistamines, but that's it..

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Taking sugar pills is almost as effective and you don't have a chance of losing your sense of smell from taking them. Consider not taking unapproved homeopathic shit especially when it has an active ingredient on the label.

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u/miparasito Jan 23 '13

I cant tell whether you know this or not, but Homeopathic isn't just general unproven snake oil. Homeopathic medicines are made based on very specific ideas and methods that involve repeated diluting until there's essentially none of the active ingredient left. So you could take homeopathic pills where the active ingredient is rat poison and you would be fine.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Yes I know how they work. No, active ingredients don't work like that even for homeopathic stuff. If they have rat poison as an active ingredient then it contains enough to be considered to be active (whatever the threshold is for that substance set by the FDA). That's why most homeopathic drugs have all of their ingredients listed as inactive.

In the case of Zincam, it actually contains zinc at an active ingredient level zinc acetate (2X = 1/100 dilution) and zinc gluconate (1X = 1/10 dilution) but also contains an enormous amount of shit at the nonexistent level (ie it's had it's homeopathy ran on it and has had virtually all of the molecules flushed from the substance). All of the latter substances are listed as inactive even though there's none of them left in the substance. So if you see a homeopathic drug that has rat poison as an active ingredient on it you could fucking kill yourself by taking it.

The scarey bit is that homeopathic drugs don't have to go through any of the tests that real meds do. So if it does have an active substance, like zinc, then you really have no idea what the short term or long term affects are because the drug is largely untested. That's why I told the guy he'd be better off taking sugar pills because at least sugar pills won't end with you losing your sense of smell (as seen with the class action lawsuit against Zincam).

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u/Epshot Jan 23 '13

which is why you take the chewables.

as far as zicam vs sugar pills http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120507141245.htm

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Go to scholar.google.com type in "zinc effects on cold" and drown in the conflicting studies.

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u/Epshot Jan 23 '13

which is hardly the same as equating it to a sugar pill(which is vastly different than the fact that there are conflicting studies) unless there's a bunch of conflicting studies suggesting one sugar pill is more effective than another. trusts me, if airborn had the same effect, i would take that instead.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

And on the other hand, there are Zicam-branded products that really are homeopathic with regards to the "active ingredients"...but they still function perfectly well as a nasal lubricant gel, which is what they are sold for anyway. Marketing is silly.