Zicam is NOT Homeopathy
The above link is one of the greatest things I've seen in a long while. I'm posting it because I think that people who read this blog regularly envision that I just have a thing against religion but in reality I have a think against any sort of hocus-pocus hand waving, religion is just the most common example. Here we have homeopathy in relation to the intranasal spay, Zicam. Zicam is a suspension of Zinc gluconate which has been the focus of lawsuits because people are losing their sense of smell after using it. The beauty of the above link is that while homeopathy is a steaming pile of disingenuous shit, i can't help but agree with the majority of what these people are saying here. They are totally honest and I believe that any thinking person could read that and come to the same conclusion.
Of course they are trying to distance themselves from Zicam (which claims to be a homeopathic cure). Of course, a homeopathic cure could NEVER cause such an effect. Why you ask? Because homeopathy, while pretty stupid, is perfectly safe. How do I know this? Because homeopathy is WATER. Its based on some pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo that claims the "law of similars." The homeopaths explain it better than me though,
"To choose the proper remedy for a given patient, one must thoroughly understand his condition, and then choose the remedy that best matches it homeopathically. Imagine the way your eyes and nose feel when you chop onions. If you can imagine having a case of hay fever that feels just like that, a tiny dose of a remedy made from raw onion will help that hay fever."
Wow, that is total crap. Of course hay fever (an over active histamine induced allergic reaction) is in no way similar to the teary eyes you get from cutting an onion (caused by gaseous sulfinic acids that irritate your eyes). If you yourself are a homeopath devotee let me put it a little simpler, "ONIONS DON'T CAUSE HAY FEVER."
But it gets better, you see the principle behind homeopathy is that dilute solutions of toxins can cure the ailments they would cause if they were more concentrated. Again, they state,
"Yes, some homeopathic remedies are made from substances that are poisonous in large doses. But as homeopathic remedies, they are administered in such minute quantities that they are completely non-toxic. We occasionally get phone calls from panic-stricken parents whose children have just eaten a whole bottle of a remedy. They taste good! These "overdoses" are NEVER harmful. There just isn't enough of the substance to cause chemical toxicity"
See here's the deal, most homeopathic remedies are so dilute that you would be surprised to find even a single molecule of any active component left in it. So the problem with Zicam is that it actually has too much of an active compound to be homepathic. They would prefer it have NO active compound, at least it would be non-toxic. Little side note, my PhD advisor likes to use Zicam and was pissed when they took it off the market...I'm not sure whats more disappointing, she was using a claimed homeopathic cure or something that has been known to potentially eliminate your sense of smell since the late 1930s. This is what I deal with.
The last part was the little author bio, where the two people claim to be naturopathic doctors. One of my favorite sayings in regards to the PhD is that, "you're a doctor, but not the kind that helps people." I would take that any day over the appropriate ND conversion that would be, "you're a doctor that fools people." Of course, they've been to "accredited" naturopathic medical schools. I had to find out where the closes one is and its close, The University of Bridgeport. Apparently it really is accredited and issues degrees of this sort. Not only that, but REAL doctors can be accredited as naturopathic medical professionals. HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE. Your tax dollars are going towards accreditation programs for people who think that dilute solutions of onion-water can cure hay fever. This is CRAZY. Thankfully, Massachusetts is NOT on the list of places that currently offers such licensure to naturopathic "doctors." I can't imagine how you can go through 4 years of medical school learning the complex inner workings of the body and come out still believing that a drink of water is going to effectively cure any serious disease. Thats like going through 4 years of English literature training and declaring your favorite book to be, "Red Fish, Blue Fish." Yikes! Patrick OUT!!!
