Seriously. There’s only two modes of homeopathy in this world, and both of them are patently ridiculous. In the first, you’re looking at your symptoms, finding a chemical that also produces those symptoms, then diluting that chemical in pure water to the point where there’s likely not even a single atom of the original chemical in your dilution. In the second, you’re taking natural herbs or minerals and bypassing the whole “testing” and “science” thing, and applying them liberally to situations where they may or may not just end up hurting you, thinking it’s perfectly okay just because the stuff is “natural”. How many people that you know who take megadoses of St. John’s Wart or Echinecea were actually prescribed their use by a doctor? And how much of a death cap mushroom would you personally prescribe for a case of diarrhea? Or, let’s say, as per a comic I once heard, an angry bear. “He’s all-natural!”
Frankly, I’ll stick with science, where you take the natural herbs and such, find out what they’re good for, do clinical trials to make sure there are no unintended side-effects, then see if you can extract the good chemicals and keep them from the bad ones. Like how we figured out that the bark of the willow tree had salicin, something very nearly like aspirin, in it, then modified it slightly to eliminate some of the side effects that willow bark had.
Because homeopathy has gained so much public sympathy over the years, thanks to idiots pushing it as safer and better than actual scientifically derived medical knowledge, the laws for homeopathic preparations in the States is decidedly not where it should be. As a result, drugs like Zicam nasal gel get onto the store shelves with little vetting, marketed as a way to alleviate cold symptoms, and due to their heavy zinc content, could very likely be causing permanent anosmia — permanent loss of smell. Per Steve Novella at the above link:
Correlation does not prove causation, but there is reason to think that the anosmia in some of these cases may have been caused by the zinc in these Zicam products. As the FDA reports, viral upper airway infections can also cause anosmia, but the anosmia that results from zinc is associated with burning and is much more rapid in onset. Apparently some of these cases had features suggestive of zinc-caused anosmia.
Further, it has already been described in the literature that decreased smell (hyposmia) or loss of smell (anosmia) can result from the intranasal use of zinc.
All because it’s homeopathic, and therefore not necessary to regulate as stringently.
Orac as usual does this topic more justice than I could ever manage.
Fuck you, homeopathic practitioners, for trying to bypass proper science.
