This is why homeopathy will continue to be allowed. Placebo _is_
an effective solution for many medical problems. Doctor's advice
is littered with it. "Take two aspirin and call me in the
morning" cliche.
Believers can point to "prayer works" because:
a) nature does what nature does anyway
b) placebo (belief in the cure) improves healing
and the pharmaceutical industries ran shy of patentable
solutions to common ailments years ago.
They just keep reformulating through technicalities to get
issued more 7 year patents to continue profitability which is
getting harder and harder.
When I was there, Claritin was going off patent and they were
about to release Clarinex, which was created by flipping the
chirality of the molecule around and thankfully it was still
effective. [it isn't always].
Yet what do any of those newer antihistimines have over
Benedryl?
Not getting as sleepy?
In short, not much. They came up with the most effective
solution long ago.
If you look at the Emergency kits that the World Health
Organization (itself with SOME questionable decisions but
generally they really do their best) - you can find pretty much
everything you could possibly need to handle basic medicinal
life-saving measures.
All simple stuff. I don't remember them all. Lorazapam I think
is one (anti-psychotic/anti-anxiety), Benedryl (Epi-pens and
pills), Adrenyline shots....
All simple stuff. Most pharmaceutally solved problems AREN'T
really problems at all in the grand scheme, just shit you gotta
deal with. The statistical difference between a snake-oil
homeopathic remedy and an FDA approved prescription to ease your
chest cough is sometimes not very much at all.
