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I often wondered why German pharmacies continue to stock homeopathic remedies. Maybe phenylephrine was our equivalent? As someone who suffered chronic congesti

I often wondered why German pharmacies continue to stock homeopathic remedies. Maybe phenylephrine was our equivalent? As someone who suffered chronic congestion, and had experienced the effectiveness of pseudoephederine, it was immediately obvious that phenylephrine did nothing. It's just surprising that this "open secret" has taken 20+ years to be publicly confronted.

bitwize 3y ago
Zinc gluconate is often promoted as "homeopathic", but the formulations sold e.g. as Zicam do contain the active ingredient in significant amounts and, apparently, are effective at shortening or mitigating colds if taken early enough.
- tobinfricke 3y ago
  Zinc is literally the only pharmaceutical intervention that has been shown to possibly have efficacy in reducing the length of the common cold. But it's not homeopathic -- the defining property of "homeopathic" remedies is that they have been progressively diluted until they consist of only pure water.
RCitronsBroker 3y ago
fellow german and medical student here. the reason is twofold. The first part is pretty obvious, it’s a great way to make money for pharmacists and physicians, it’s pretty much unregulated, has huge margins and is often paid by the patient instead of the gesetzliche Krankenkassen. The second part, why they are getting away with it, is that naturalistic and pseudoscientific healing BS has a long, long history in Germany. Schulmedizin, at least somewhat, had the image of being perverted by Jewish influences. "Völkische Medizin" the OG Heilpraktiker in some sense, started most of the Quack stuff you see today. The same circles are also still infested with nationalist and anti-jewish sentiments á la "the globalists" to this very day. It’s a crazy, crazy world if you take a closer look.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- tobinfricke 3y ago
  Yikes! I did not know this.

bitwize 3y ago

Zinc gluconate is often promoted as "homeopathic", but the formulations sold e.g. as Zicam do contain the active ingredient in significant amounts and, apparently, are effective at shortening or mitigating colds if taken early enough.

tobinfricke 3y ago
Zinc is literally the only pharmaceutical intervention that has been shown to possibly have efficacy in reducing the length of the common cold. But it's not homeopathic -- the defining property of "homeopathic" remedies is that they have been progressively diluted until they consist of only pure water.

RCitronsBroker 3y ago

fellow german and medical student here. the reason is twofold. The first part is pretty obvious, it’s a great way to make money for pharmacists and physicians, it’s pretty much unregulated, has huge margins and is often paid by the patient instead of the gesetzliche Krankenkassen. The second part, why they are getting away with it, is that naturalistic and pseudoscientific healing BS has a long, long history in Germany. Schulmedizin, at least somewhat, had the image of being perverted by Jewish influences. "Völkische Medizin" the OG Heilpraktiker in some sense, started most of the Quack stuff you see today. The same circles are also still infested with nationalist and anti-jewish sentiments á la "the globalists" to this very day. It’s a crazy, crazy world if you take a closer look.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tobinfricke 3y ago
Yikes! I did not know this.