Zicam Is Homeopathic?
I have seen Zicam being promoted pretty heavily this cold & flu season, and I happened to mention it to my lab partner, since she's suffering through a cold herself right now. She told me that she had a friend who had used it and lost his sense of smell! I thought to myself, this can't be right. If this stuff really did that, it would be recalled.
So, I did some digging (I love Google). It turns out that Zicam is homeopathic. I never knew this. I thought it was a drug marketed by a major drug company, not some snake oil cooked up to fools the rubes. But here's a link telling you all about it: Zicam Bad.
In short, Zicam uses zinc gluconate, and intranasal zinc can cause anosmia, or the TOTAL LOSS OF SMELL!
Yup, my lab partner was right. Using Zicam can cause you to completely lose your sense of smell. And how, you may ask, does the manufacturer get away with this? Simple. Because of idiotic lawmakers who believe in all that woo-woo homeopathic crap, the FDA does not have to test Zicam and its ilk for safety or efficacy, so individuals affected have to sue the company directly, with no federal support.
So much for the FDA protecting us from harmful drugs.
So, I did some digging (I love Google). It turns out that Zicam is homeopathic. I never knew this. I thought it was a drug marketed by a major drug company, not some snake oil cooked up to fools the rubes. But here's a link telling you all about it: Zicam Bad.
In short, Zicam uses zinc gluconate, and intranasal zinc can cause anosmia, or the TOTAL LOSS OF SMELL!
Yup, my lab partner was right. Using Zicam can cause you to completely lose your sense of smell. And how, you may ask, does the manufacturer get away with this? Simple. Because of idiotic lawmakers who believe in all that woo-woo homeopathic crap, the FDA does not have to test Zicam and its ilk for safety or efficacy, so individuals affected have to sue the company directly, with no federal support.
So much for the FDA protecting us from harmful drugs.
posted by Coralius at 11/30/2005
2 Comments:
Zicam is not a homeopathic! Take a look at the ingredient panel. The zinc that is included could be referred to as homeopathic, but the rest of the ingredients makes the claim that this product is homeopathic a real stretch, if not a down right lie.
Zicam markets itself as homeopathic. I realize that that is a stretch at times, but some of its products do attach the weasly homeopathic disclaimer to their labels. And just as proof that Zicam markets itself as homeopathic, I took ten seconds and googled this link up:
http://www.drugstore.com/qxp44322_333181_sespider/zicam_cold_remedy/homeopathic_nasal_gel_pump.htm
I'm sure there it wouldn't be hard to find dozens more.
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