Should the FDA crack down on homeopathic “remedies”? [View all]

[HuckleB]

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/should-the-fda-crack-down-on-homeopathic-remedies/

"In the category of potentially dangerous complementary or alternative medicine, I can think of few products worse than ones claimed to relieve asthma, yet don’t actually contain any medicine. Yet these products exist and are widely sold. Just over a year ago I described what might be the most irresponsible homeopathic treatment ever: A homeopathic asthma spray. If there was ever a complementary or alternative product that could cause serious harm, this is it:

Among the different treatments and remedies that are considered “alternative” medicine, homeopathy is the most implausible of all. Homeopathy is an elaborate placebo system, where the “remedies” lack any actual medicine. Based on the idea that “like cures like” (which is sympathetic magic, not science), proponents of homeopathy believe that any substance can be an effective remedy if it’s diluted enough: cancer, boar testicles, crude oil, oxygen, and skim milk are all homeopathic “remedies”. (I think Berlin Wall may be my favorite, though vacuum cleaner dust is a runner-up). The dilution in the case of homeopathy is so significant that there’s mathematically no possibility of even a trace of the original ingredient in the typical remedy – they are chemically indistinguishable from a placebo. To homeopaths, this is a good thing, as dilution is claimed to make the medicine-free “remedy” more potent, not less. As would be expected with inert products, rigorous clinical trials confirm what basic science (and math) predicts: homeopathy’s effects are placebo effects.

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Do the current FDA standards provide adequate consumer protection, given the marketing of homeopathy for the treatment of very real conditions, like asthma? These products may be labelled “not a rescue inhaler”, but it’s fair to ask why they are sold at all, when they offer no plausible benefit. Last week the FDA issued a warning about homeopathic asthma inhalers:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to rely on asthma products labeled as homeopathic that are sold over-the-counter (OTC). These products have not been evaluated by the FDA for safety and effectiveness.

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Selling worthless crap is one thing, but convincing people to use it for actual conditions is another.