Echinacea's efficacy for colds debunked / 'No evidence that it actually does anything'

Echinacea's efficacy for colds debunked / 'No evidence that it actually does anything'

This is a subject I feel very strongly about, and I don't have a myrid of refrences or numbers to back me up, however that is the beauty of the interent, I can still say what I want.

I am not sure if I can describe my loathing for people who sell unproven things to the public as 'remedies' and make a huge living off of poeple who want so badly to believe that something, anything can work. It is akin to what my grandparents would refer to as 'snake oil salsemen' and I think it is a despiciable now as it was then.

Things don't have to be approved by the FDA to be useful. However things do have to have gone thorugh a process called the 'scientific method' (say it with me now boys and girls) before claims should be able to be made about their effectiveness and capabilities. Unless something has been studied, multiple times, in blind studies by unbiased professionals then it doesn't have the 'authority' to say it does buckas. People are paying untold numbers of dollars for herbal natural supplements that supposedly do all these things but there is no proof!

I am the first person to embrase 'alternative medicine', I truely believe in the healing power of accupuncture and massague. I think the natural world holds secrets that we can not even imagine at this time. However it also holds dangers and if these dangers are not recognised I think Mother Nature will bite us in the ass.

I don't trust these companies that aren't regulated to have sanitary conditions in their manufacturing process. Why would they, they don't have to answer to anyone! As long as not too many people die they can sell you pretty much anything as long as they put their disclaimer. Then it's up to the word of mouth and roumer for people to believe that something works, and once it's 'common knowledge' no amount of disclaimer lables will stop those people who want to believe.

I think it's worse when these things do nothing harmful, then you have the plecabo effect. I believe the body can do miraculs things if the mind truely believes that it can be done. There are documented cases everywhere of the plecabo effect working and being useful. However I also feel that charging people money for a placebo effect is morally wrong.

The FDA slows down drug approvals, it is a bunch of buracruacy, the medication companies own it, they still make mistakes yadda yadda we've all heard the critizims. Drugs get approved for one thing, are found useful in another but the long term effects haven't been studied in that kind of population.

Fen Phen is my favorite example of this kind of thing. Someone decided this combination of drugs was a miracle weight loss drug. I never took it but I knew people who did. Americans are obsessed with their weight, yet we love to eat, so a pill we can take that will take responsibility away from us for being lard asses! Wonderful! Sign me up!!

I remember people talking about going down to Mexico to buy this stuff as their doctors wouldn't let them stay on it for more than a few months at a time. Drugs avilable without a pescription is a whole other topic, but did any of these women stop to think that maybe there was a reason their doctors wouldn't let them stay on this drug for the long term?

Then we find out it causes heart problems. This combination of drugs was never intended as a weight loss regimine and no one had ever studied the long term effects in overweight people. I remember people offering to sign waivers so they could stay on the pills. It's called watching what you eat people, it's called excersize. I know some people have trouble loosing weight with 'normal' approaches but to fool yourself into thinking you can just take a pill and eat whatever is NOT HEALTHY. If you want to loose weight so badly, go low carb, go vegetairan (but be healthy about it) cut out fat, cut down calories, any of these things will help and along with walking three times a week I would hazard to guess that more than 95% of the population will loose weight.

The only rational I can personally come up with to explain why these snake oil salsepeople do so well is the lack of an average US adult to accept responsibility for their situations. We as a society seem to be always looking for the quick fix, the easy out, something that will make it so it's not our fault.

I won't take something OTC that hasn't been trhough rigerous testing, made by a company that has oversite in that what they say is in the pill really is in the pill, and the amounts are correct. I want purity and peace of mind that at least someone made sure this company put in their pills what they say they did and some independent researcher (or five) noticed at least a trend for this substance to do what it claims to do!

Becasue of this I will suffer through my viral colds, take my sufficently researched FDA approved decongestent and bring a box of tissues to work. It makes me sad that these people will prey on those who want to believe, who are willing to take anything from anyone if it will make them 'feel better'.