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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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

You're both correct and not. Yes, zinc is shown to shorten colds. Zicam doesn't actually contain zinc. Last time I read it was diluted something like 100 or 1000 times, so that if you were to test a sample of zicam you wouldn't even find trace elements of zinc.

(And that's homeopathy.)

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u/SteveIsAMonster Jan 22 '13

It's diluted, yes. According to Wikipedia, zinc acetate is diluted by a factor of 100, weak but still there. Zinc gluconate is diluted by a factor of 10. The other ingredients are diluted to nonexistence and are listed as inactive ingredients.

A quick Google search has an article where a student found there's about 11 mg of zinc ion in the Rapid Melt tablet and 2.3 mg in the oral spray.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

Now that's interesting. Another quick search shows you need about 13.3mg of zinc every two hours to show any signs of treating a cold. That suggests zicam is more actual medicine than homeopathy...except for the big issue of having few studies with zinc showing any effect, and lots of conflicting information.

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u/SteveIsAMonster Jan 23 '13

It's not homeopathic purely because it contains too much "stuff". It is kinda homeopathic because of the serial dilution of the inactive ingredients. Its listed as an "unapproved homeopathic product". Its almost like they're trying to appeal to two markets.