[...] Colds Win! Zicam Pulled from Shelves [...]

Oh, and there is another issue you do not mention. These 130 cases came directly from consumers to the FDA. None of them came from the company. However, the company has over 800 complaints that they never turned over to the FDA. To be fair, I don’t understand if this is a regulatory violation for homeopathic medicine. (It certainly is for standard medication!) However, ethically they should be responsible for these complaints.

Really, homeopathic medicines are a modern version of snake oil. If people want to try these things out on themselves, I can’t stop them. However, people should never, ever give homeopathic (or even herbal) remedies to children. Think about it – would you give a drug that had no testing behind it to a child?

“But its all natural” is what I hear when I express a little concern over a “natural” remedy that I haven’t researched well.
Guess what – so are lead and arsenic.

Jess, at least they have been tested. Yes, it is true that it is unethical to conduct a clinical trial on children. But homeopathic and herbal remedies have no barrier to entry into the US market. At least some kind of trial and review has to be conducted with OTC drugs, and once they are on the market they are followed in a very stringent manner.

I used to work on clinical trials, and most people have no idea how much goes into one, and what needs to be proved before a drug or device is released to the market. Compare that to absolutely no regulation. (At least homeopathic remedies are supposed to be followed once on the market. Herbal supplements have to such requirement.)

GP – although dietary supplements (such as herbal remedies) are technically regulated by the FDA, the regulation consists of almost nothing. There is no requirement to prove safety or efficacy. There is a very high burden of proof on the FDA to show that a product is harmful before they can take action. There is no burden of proof on the supplement maker to prove safety or efficacy.

Homeopathic products are somewhat different. They also do not need to prove safety or efficacy – they only need to be added to a list in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia, which is done by a non-government body. There is no testing necessary to be added to this list. However, as it is regulated as a homeopathic drug, after the product is on the market the FDA can decide if the product poses a safety risk and can demand evidence.

Traditionally, homeopathic remedies were diluted to such an extent that it was practically a placebo. With Zicam, there are biological levels of zinc, but it was still allowed to be included as a homeopathic remedy.

I don’t have a problem with vitamins as long as they just say “Vitamin C”, or whatever. The issue is when a supplement is allowed to say something like “colds will not last as long” without having to provide any evidence to prove the statement is correct.

That sucks. No wonder I couldn’t find it. This product always worked for me. There was only one time that I used it when I started feeling like I was getting a cold, and it stopped my cold symptoms but it made my nose bleed. I still had some left over and I have been using it for the past 48 hours like the box says so I can lessen the severity of this cold I have now, and it has worked wonderfully. I would be bed ridden right now if not for this stuff. I tried the rapid release capsules before the gel swabs and they were awful. The nose swabs were the best ones to stop a cold because that is the source from where they start. Not the throat which is why these throat lozenges are going to flop. If you don’t already have a throat infection, then your sore throat is because of the drainage down your throat from the nose. If you feel like you are catching a cold, you fight it off from the first place to show these symptoms. From the nose! Not the throat! And btw, my nose has not bled since and I still smell the roses just fine.