9 ms·

Homeopathic remedies recalled for containing real medicine

103 points by lukashed 13y ago

MattBearman 13y ago
I was really expecting this to the on The Onion...
- Ygg2 13y ago
  At first I thought it was early April fools.
ama729 13y ago
That's something I don't understand, how can homeopathic remedies even be sold? The manufacturer can't prove the health benefits they claim and the product don't contain the element on the bottle. It's just complete nonsense.
- Ygg2 13y ago
  Actually no, homeopathic contains minute traces of cause of disease... Basically if you are hit by a blue car, they need a homeopathic traces of blue color to 'cure' you.
  - fetbaffe 13y ago
    Exactly. http://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0 http://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0
  - seren 13y ago
    Only in some case, a "nosode", i.e a trace of the disease, is used. But it is not systematic. For example, oscillococcinum [0] which is sold as a flu remedy, is famous for containing some cells from a duck liver. If I remember correctly a single duck is raised every year, and due to the dilution, is enough to produce the millions of dose. I am not sure what makes more sense, the nosode or the duck liver... [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillococcinum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillococcinum
    - codfrantic 13y ago
      A Dutch TV programme ('de Keuringsdienst van Waarden') did a show on oscillococcinum, they went to the factory and actually got a tour. When they started asking about the duck they were quickly taken to lunch (also no Duck). They went to duck farms near the factory but none of them had ever provided the factory with duck liver/heart... Episode (in Dutch / French) http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2011/afleveringen/27-10-2011 http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2011/aflever...
  - blueskin_ 13y ago
    Not really. Most homeopathic placebos are diluted to the point that you'd need to take anywhere from billions of doses up to get even a single molecule of the 'ingredient'. They are literally just water. Not ot mention that in most cases, the 'cause' is based on a speculative or outright fictional 'link'. For example, one of the most well known placebos is Oscillococcinum, which claims duck liver/heart 'causes' flu. It is also diluted to the point that, to quote, "As there are only about 10^80 atoms in the entire observable universe, a dilution of one molecule in the observable universe would be about 40C. Oscillococcinum would thus require 10^320 more universes to simply have one molecule in the final substance."
    - ekianjo 13y ago
      > They are literally just water. Usually they are sold as granules, containing some form of sugar... to capture the magical water :) So technically it's sugar+water that you ingest.
      - agumonkey 13y ago
        I took some homeopathic 'marbles' as a kid. Probably the best placebo ever designed. The only pill I'd never forget to take. While everything else is sour and alien in taste, this instead, is a doctor approved crunchy candy. Icing on the cake, the dispenser http://goo.gl/xsT3IM http://goo.gl/xsT3IM would be vetted by Steve Jobs, cute squary bottle, press the cap to fill it with a dose, open, ingest, close. Genius ?
    - Ygg2 13y ago
      I know, I just wanted to state they need to contain 'traces' of what caused the disease, not what cures it. That's why it's been revoked. Because it might work.
      - blueskin_ 13y ago
        Ducks cause flu?
    - kitwalker12 13y ago
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    > Actually no, homeopathic contains minute traces of cause of disease... Above certain dilutions it goes beyond the Avogadro figure and there should be no molecules/proteins left of the original disease agent.
- lotu 13y ago
  They are sold as a supplement and they fall fine into that catagory.
- jejones3141 13y ago
  As lotu says, they're sold as supplements. Of course, homeopathic "remedies" are uniquely adapted to our litigious society--since they can have no effects, they can have no side effects, and thus you'll never see ads from lawyers looking to sue over side effects of homeopathy.
  - aestra 13y ago
    >since they can have no effects, they can have no side effects Completely and totally incorrect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo In medicine, a nocebo (Latin for "I shall harm") is a harmless substance that creates harmful effects in a patient who takes it. Basically, you think "I'm taking medication, that could cause side effects," that thinking it and of itself can causes side effects!! It's like a reverse placebo. Also see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4 (watch this short video, it give a great rundown on the nocebo effect, including examples) and people are thinking they are getting specific side effects....at least they are searching about them. http://i.imgur.com/lskvrtI.png http://i.imgur.com/lskvrtI.png
  - MicroBerto 13y ago
    Actually, they're not sold as supplements all the time either. They're in some sort of weird gray area that is in between medicine and supplements: "The legal status of homeopathic remedies in the United States is unique. In 1938, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was sponsored by Senator Royal Copeland who also happened to be a homeopathic physician. The senator wrote wording into his bill that recognized all products listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States as drugs and made them subject to regulation by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The legislation passed, and as a result, homeopathic products are legally sold in food stores, pharmacies, and elsewhere as a unique category of drug. Despite such widespread use, the FDA regulates homeopathic preparations much less stringently than conventional drugs. Homeopathic products are not required to prove effectiveness or safety. Some regulations do apply. For example, homeopathic products can only be sold without a prescription if they are specifically for self-limiting conditions such as the common cold. Products marketed for severe conditions such as cancer are prescription-only." Source: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1154-HOMEOPATHY.aspx?activeIngredientId=1154&activeIngredientName=HOMEOPATHY http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-115... That gray area has done a lot of damage to a lot of people.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - Ellipsis753 13y ago
    I'm sure it causes a lot of bad things to happen to people too. >"Marshall says that cases in which trusting vulnerable consumers have believed the claims of homeopaths and "forgone real medicine" in place of "these overpriced sugar pills" are "too numerable to count" and "often with unnecessary and tragic consequences." I knew someone who took homeopathic remedies instead of going to a doctor and she nearly died (saved by actual doctors). She still believes in homeopathic remedies....
    - fetbaffe 13y ago
      One who actually died of this BS was Steve Jobs.
      - serf 13y ago
        If you are to blame homeopathy for the death of Steve Jobs, might I remind you that he was the person who chose to pursue such quackery? Personally if you were to ask me about his death, i'd blame the cancer for killing him, not the 'science' he investigated in an effort to fix the problem.
        fetbaffe 13y ago
        Of course it was the cancer that killed him, however by using homeopathy as a cure it certainly fasten the process by not actually curing him. But I don't hate cancer, it's a natural thing, but I do hate homeopathy because it's 100% man made quackery. If one of my relatives died sooner because they had been let to believe to use this nonsense I definite blame the salesman of scamming my relative of money, trust and a longer life. It is the same as the Christian church in the middle ages selling salvation for money to dying people. Despicable.
        mikeash 13y ago
        Jobs had a relatively benign cancer that has something like a 90% survival rate. Jobs's case was not unusually deadly, and there is every reason to think he would have been cured if he had received proper treatment reasonably soon after being diagnosed. It goes beyond simply wishing he hadn't died, too. He managed to finagle a healthy liver transplant in the process, which might have gone to someone with a better chance of surviving with it longer.
- lnanek2 13y ago
  It's nonsense, but people pay $100 more for differently labeled bottled water too, so I guess this takes advantage of similar non-sensical behaviors.
  - fishy929 13y ago
    Agreed. I wouldn't say either should be illegal though, as suggested by ama729.
- bbanyc 13y ago
  The primary sponsor of the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act was a homeopathic physician. He put an exemption in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_S._Copeland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_S._Copeland
Ihmahr 13y ago
I just keep being amazed that literate people buy this stuff. What also bugs me about this (apart from their stupidity) is that people look at me strangely when I decline 'medicine' on the basis that it is homeopathic. The reaction is similar when someone is refusing to drink alcohol. "Really, why not?"
- seren 13y ago
  I don't believe homeopathy works. However, I have seen studies mentioning that a placebo effect (which has a real measurable impact) can be triggered just by knowing you are taking a remedy, even if you know the remedy is bogus. So somehow, you are tricking yourself that you are going to get better. So in a way, you could get better by taking homeopathy even if it has nothing to do with what is (or rather is not!) in the pills. I don't see much harm in taking homeopathy for a common cold for example, however for anything more serious, you are probably endangering yourself.
  - driverdan 13y ago
    Placebos can change your attitude but cannot cure anything. You may feel better but in reality nothing has changed other than the feeling.
    - seren 13y ago
      But if you can feel better, without having any possible dangerous side-effect, it is actually a powerful effect we should leverage for minor ailments. Most drugs are not trying to cure you anyway, but are only bringing you some relief. I am not trying to defend the efficiency of homeopathy there, but I am saying that triggering the placebo effect is beneficial.
    - brazzy 13y ago
      Ultimately, the goal of any cure is to make you feel better. And there is lots of evidence that psychology can have very powerful effects on your body.
speeder 13y ago
The article ends as a crazy agressive criticism of homeopathy in general, mixing the issues of manufacturing that also happen to normal medicine with real concerns and conflating the two, but what really ticks me off is leaving in the closing paragraph a phrase that use age of a practice as an insult. Saying that something should have been left in some old era implies that people of that era are inferior to us, the fact that all past eras are targeted, make me think there is some sort of superiority thinking tied to being in the current age, like if current humans are inherently better. As someone that has some practices and beliefs that were actually more common in the past, I personally hear that sort of argument a lot, and I think lots people don't realize that when they diss the past, they also diss lots of things important to them ( like, printing press... Created to print the bible no less... ) EDIT: alright, I get it, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, criticising the writing style of someone criticising something you dislike, even if I dislike it too, is reason to get blasted with downvotes.
- JohnTHaller 13y ago
  Unlike some natural remedies which are later proven to be right based thousands of years of use in ancient times, Homeopathy is completely and totally bogus. It's based on absolutely nothing. Not science, not observation, not tradition. It's based entirely on one guy, who, in ~1800, thought that 'like cures like'. So, if you have a fever, why not take something else that causes you to get hot? It's also based on the idea that water has a memory of things it comes in contact with. So, they dilute it thousands and thousands of times until the water or sugar pill has no molecules at all of the thing that is supposed to be treating you. In the end, it's a sugar pill that has a placebo effect on some people. There's no logic, science, or medicine to it at all. Pro tip: If water really did have a memory and diluting things made them stronger, then all water everywhere would cure everything. Including terrorism since Bin Laden was buried at sea.
  - clef 13y ago
    If water had a memory, with all the toxic stuff we dilute in it, we'd all be dead.
  - 13y ago
noja 13y ago
Why do so many homeopathic remedies contain ingredients? I mean they have multiple things listed on the label that are actual things. Doesn't that make them not homeopathic?
- Alex3917 13y ago
  The idea that homeopathic medicine doesn't contain any ingredients is just a lie propagated by HN and other websites. It's just something that people who are too dumb to read actual books like to repeat to make themselves feel smart.
- SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
  > Why do so many homeopathic remedies contain ingredients? To bulk out the pill until it is visible to the naked eye.
  - noja 13y ago
    But these ingredients aren't bulkers. I'll collect some examples next time I see some.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
      But "listed on the label" is not the same as "contained in the pill" when it comes to homoeopathy. Could you also check how much of the active ingredient is actually present in the pill? ;)
      - noja 13y ago
        Well the ingredient listed is black, and the pill (actually it was a liquid) was pitch black.
chrisbennet 13y ago
Whenever I hear about homeopathy I think of this wonder rant ("Storm") by Tim Minchin : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U
- sjwright 13y ago
  "It's a miracle! Take physics and bin it! Water has memory! And whilst its memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is infinite, it somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it."
  - SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
    The water forgets the previous substances that were in it, when a trained homoeopath hits it with magic paddle. Yes, that's really how it's suggested to work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Preparation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Preparation
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    The saddest thing is that in some countries (like France...) Homeopathic medicines are actually reimbursed by social security (and therefore paid for by everyone who pays taxes). We're still waiting for double-blind, vs placebo, clinical trials to show how efficacious they really are.
    - todd8 13y ago
      Years ago, I dated a French woman while she was here (in the USA) for a couple of months. She took homeopathic medicine and said that she knew that it worked because it was provided by the national health service! (One night she saw a full moon and remarked to me that it meant it would rain. When I said that I didn't think so, she was surprised and said "All farmers know the full moon brings the rain.")
    - seszett 13y ago
      The idea is that they are as good as placebos (which are proven to be useful in some cases) so they are actually somewhat useful. While I think that "real" placebos would be better for this than de facto placebos with bullshit pseudoscience attached to them, it's still not completely stupid to reimburse them if they do provide the same level of relief as active medicine through placebo effect. Of course they're not effective at killing bacteria, but there are some domains in which placebos have their place. Edit - to be clear, the reason given for reimbursing them is explicitely that they are good as placebos, they are not claimed by the French social security to be useful as active medicine.
singularityyy 13y ago
Does anyone know why homoeopathic remedies are so common in India? Even my very educated Indian friends seem to use them with a surprising frequency, sometimes over actual medicines.
- yen223 13y ago
  "This medicine is effective because it contains salicylic acid, which suppresses the activity of cyclooxygenase (COX), an enzyme that is responsible for the production of pro-inflammatory mediators." versus "This plant is effective because it's 100% natural!" 7 out of 10 times, people will go for the explanation that's easier to understand.
  - aestra 13y ago
    Salicylic acid is natural! It comes from the bark of the willow tree. It has been known since ancient times, presumably they used to consume willow bark. We then figured out the active ingredient in willow bark. However, asprin is acetylsalicylic acid, which is produced form salicylic acid to remove the side effects of salicylic acid.
    - yen223 13y ago
      I didn't choose that example by accident ;). If I didn't know better, "salicylic acid" sounds like one of those chemicals that scientists keep putting in our food as part of their ongoing efforts to KILL ALL OF US, while "willow bark" sounds oh-so-natural and wholesome and makes me think of green meadows and chirping birds. So despite the fact that we know aspirin is a lot more effective than willow bark, I'd still feel a lot more comfortable eating willow bark. If I didn't know better. Basically, evidence-based medicine faces a big marketing problem, thanks to the "evidence" part.
- pramalin 13y ago
  My be because there are many government homeopathy colleges and hospitals.
- KumarAseem 13y ago
eponeponepon 13y ago
This really ought to be hilarious; but then you realise that they're talking about penicillin. If one batch of one type of snakeoil distributed by one pack of charlatans has turned out to contain an antibiotic, how many others do too? And how many people out there are merrily munching down a couple of homeopathic sugar-pills when their piles flare up and making amazing new antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains? Homeopathy is actively harmful.
- SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
  Unintentionally taking penicillin can be quite bad: some people are allergic to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin_drug_reaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin_drug_reaction
  - eponeponepon 13y ago
    Sure, but that can happen to an individual with any substance - I might take any given medicine that I haven't had before and turn out to be viciously allergic. But if I take a homeopathic 'remedy' that contains an antibiotic previously usable to treat, say, E. coli, and have no noticeable reaction to it, then I just silently create a new strain of E. coli in my gut that happens to now be immune to the antibiotic, just itching to be caught by someone else when I forget to scrub my hands thoroughly... nothing bad happens to the individual, but the species suffers for my gullibility.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
      > Sure, but that can happen to an individual with any substance It's particularly common with penicillin. This is why people who are allergic to penicillin know about it and check their medication so that they don't get some accidentally. This is IMHO probably the reason for this recall: it is an immediate danger to a significant number of people. Sadly increased antibiotic immunity in the environment is not viewed with the same level of concern as a sudden medical crisis that causes next of kin to sue.
- brazzy 13y ago
eponeponepon 13y ago
This really ought to be hilarious; but then you realise that they're talking about penicillin. If one batch of one type of snakeoil distributed by one pack of charlatans has turned out to contain an antibiotic, how many others do too? And how many people out there are merrily munching down a couple of homeopathic sugar-pills when their piles flare up and making amazing new antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains? Homeopathy is actively harmful.
BuildTheRobots 13y ago
To everyone commenting on the insanity of homeopathy and how it has no scientific basis (which I don't believe it does), I'd point out that surely it's just a form of placebo -and placebos have been scientifically proven to work, even when you know about them [1]. [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_mead_the_magic_of_the_placebo http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_mead_the_magic_of_the_placebo
- Nursie 13y ago
  This is true. However for conditions where a placebo is not suitable, homeopathy may well keep people away from real medicine. There have been several high-profile examples of homeopaths keeping folks away from 'allopathic' medicine, eventually killing them. But even in the more passive sense this can be true - the simple existence of snake-oil, even without the homeopath persuading the patient to stay away from mainstream medicine, can delay treatment.
- rmc 13y ago
  Ah, but homoepathic proponants claim it works better than a placebo.
  - BuildTheRobots 12y ago
    Interesting, different placebos have different effects. Injections are seen as 'better' than pills and have more of an effect. If you believe homoeopathy is better than medicine, then yes, I can see it holding more authority than a prescription.
Argorak 13y ago
I am waiting for the moment where those people realize that a lot of food contains salicylates, acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) among them. Just by habit of nature. I lived with a person that had an intolerance (sometimes called "asprine intolerance") and it is basically impossible to keep your diet free from that.[1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylate_intolerance#Treatment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylate_intolerance#Treatmen...
- rmc 13y ago
  Penicillin allergy is different. It's not just "oh I feel a bit unwell for a few days", it's fatal. And penicillin is not a common substance.
  - Argorak 13y ago
    Not questioning that, but it questions the idea of not taking any medications at all. Where do you make the cut?
    - rmc 13y ago
      I don't understand the question. I am allergic to penicillin. I just tell the doctor when they are perscribing antibiotics. I can still take medication. Some substances, due to their large adverse reactions in some, can and are restricted.
userbinator 13y ago
I see this happen once in a while, and I've always believed that this is how they can keep the whole scam running - put some real medicine in them, so that it does have a beneficial effect, and the users will continue to preach about its efficacy. Add just enough to have a real effect, but e.g. not to all batches, so you don't (easily) get caught.
jacquesm 13y ago
I have this vague sense of unease about this...
- dhimes 13y ago
  Here, have some water.
k-mcgrady 13y ago
I just skimmed the article but I didn't see any mention that the company was being punished for this. As someone allergic to penicillin that's quite concerning. I'd never take homeopathic remedies but not only was this a stupid abuse of antibiotics it could hurt people.
- aestra 13y ago
  The article doesn't say directly, but it could have been accidental, just like the discovery of penicillin. >produced during fermentation That's what it says, that seems to imply to me that it was accidental.
cfontes 13y ago
I had an old math professor that used to say: "Lottery is a special tax aimed at people who are really bad in math" I guess Homeopathy is a tax (health and money one) for people who are really bad in Chemistry and Biology.
- Sniperfish 13y ago
  Unfortunately - given the OP article - through misuse of antibiotics the consumer of homeopathic treatments is playing lottery with more than just their health. A lottery where the losers also cause society to lose. "Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was originally sensitive....The misuse of antimicrobial medicines accelerates this natural phenomenon."[1] [1] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/
MicroBerto 13y ago
When building our site/engine, I struggled with what to do with product categories such as Homeopathy. I find that much of it is actively harmful to users, especially when they truly need real medical care. It's the indirect consequences (not seeing a real doctor for your ailments) that are far worse than the potential direct side effects. But at the same time, people are searching for it, so they might as well get it from us / through us. So my solution was to write a negative analysis of the homeopathy category, drop it so that it can only be found if you are actively searching for it, and kind of never speak of it again. Won't spam, but you can see the link to my site in my profile if you care and search for the category. At the end of the day, I do love the supplement/nutrition industry, but this kind of stuff makes my blood boil.
- aestra 13y ago
  >I do love the supplement/nutrition industry Why? It is almost entirely unregulated and unsupervised. They have been known to contain unlisted ingredients, none of the ingredients they say, and dosages that differ wildly from what they are labeled as. I saw a movie where they just put some random shit into a pill (flour and stuff) and started marketing it as a supplement. This was apparently legal. http://www.livescience.com/40357-herbal-products-unlisted-ingredient.html http://www.livescience.com/40357-herbal-products-unlisted-in... > In the study, nearly 60 percent of herbal products tested contained plant substances not listed on the label. In nearly a third of products, the main ingredient was substituted with a different product. More than 20 percent of products contained fillers such as rice, wheat and soybeans, in addition to the main ingredient. >Overall, out of the 12 companies that produce herbal supplements included in the study, just two had products with no substitutions, fillers or contaminants, the researchers said > Such unlisted ingredients may pose health hazards for consumers, the researchers said. For example, one produced was labeled as St. John's wort, but actually contained the laxative plant Senna alexandrina. The laxative is not recommended for long turn use, and can cause serious side effects, such as chronic diarrhea and liver damage. > 2011 study of 131 herbal tea products found that 33 percent were contaminated. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/health/policy/26herbal.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/health/policy/26herbal.htm... >Nearly all of the herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants >The levels of heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous, the investigators found. However, 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residues that appeared to exceed legal limits, the investigators found. In some cases, the government has not set allowable levels of these pesticides because of a paucity of scientific research. > Among the witnesses at the hearing will be Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, a company that has tested over 2,000 dietary supplements made by more than 300 manufacturers and has found that one in four have quality problems. According to Dr. Cooperman’s written testimony, the most common problems are supplements that lack adequate quantities of the indicated ingredients and those contaminated with heavy metals. > Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, wrote a letter to the committee saying that some athletes have been rendered ineligible for international competitions because they took supplements that contained steroids not listed on the products’ labels. There are thousands of supplements available for sale that contain steroids or other harmful ingredients, he wrote. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852683/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852683/ >Case Presentation > A 54-year-old woman was referred to the University of California, Davis, Occupational Medicine Clinic with a 2-year history of worsening alopecia and memory loss. She also reported having a rash, increasing fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, disabling her to the point where she could no longer work full-time. A thorough exposure history revealed that she took daily kelp supplements. A urine sample showed an arsenic level of 83.6 μg/g creatinine (normal < 50 μg/g creatinine). A sample from her kelp supplements contained 8.5 mg/kg (ppm) arsenic. Within weeks of discontinuing the supplements, her symptoms resolved and arsenic blood and urine levels were undetectable. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/5292535_Nutritional_supplements_cross-contaminated_and_faked_with_doping_substances/file/3deec52274312178fb.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/publication/5292535_Nutritional_... >These investigations showed that nutritional supplements contained prohibited stimulants as ephedrines, caffeine, methylenedioxymetamphetamie and sibutramine, which were not declared on the labels. An international study performed in 2001 and 2002 on 634 nutritional supplements that were purchased in 13 different countries showed that about 15% of the nonhormonal nutritional supplements were contaminated with anabolic-androgenic steroids (mainly prohormones). >In 2005 vitamin C, multivitamin and magnesium tablets were confiscated, which contained crosscontaminations of stanozolol and metandienone. Since 2002 new ‘designer’ steroids such as prostanozol, methasterone, androstatrienedione etc. have been offered on the nutritional supplement market. In the near future also cross-contaminations with these steroids are expected. Recently a nutritional supplement for weight loss was found to contain the b2-agonist clenbuterol. The application of such nutritional supplements is connected with a high risk of inadvertent doping cases and a health risk. This actually worries me a lot, since I am required to take an iron supplement because of chronic iron deficiency. If I get the tablets from the pharmacist (I have a prescription) they just repackage the over the counter stuff and charge me triple the price. There's no way to tell if I'm getting medical grade iron.
faster 13y ago
Did you hear about the homeopathic terrorists? They put nothing in the water supply.
aestra 13y ago
Not the first time this has happened. Zicam was marketed as homeopathy, but recalled because it had real active ingredients in it. (slightly diluted zinc acetate and zinc gluconate) They caused some people to lose their sense of smell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam
- DanBC 13y ago
  Did you read the article before commenting?
  - aestra 13y ago
    Yes, I actually did read it, but I seemed to have a brain fart and didn't actually notice it mentioned Zicam. Or I most likely just didn't retain the information. I must be getting old.

103 points by lukashed 13y ago

MattBearman 13y ago

I was really expecting this to the on The Onion...

Ygg2 13y ago
At first I thought it was early April fools.

ama729 13y ago

That's something I don't understand, how can homeopathic remedies even be sold? The manufacturer can't prove the health benefits they claim and the product don't contain the element on the bottle. It's just complete nonsense.

Ygg2 13y ago
Actually no, homeopathic contains minute traces of cause of disease... Basically if you are hit by a blue car, they need a homeopathic traces of blue color to 'cure' you.
- fetbaffe 13y ago
  Exactly. http://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0 http://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0
- seren 13y ago
  Only in some case, a "nosode", i.e a trace of the disease, is used. But it is not systematic. For example, oscillococcinum [0] which is sold as a flu remedy, is famous for containing some cells from a duck liver. If I remember correctly a single duck is raised every year, and due to the dilution, is enough to produce the millions of dose. I am not sure what makes more sense, the nosode or the duck liver... [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillococcinum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillococcinum
  - codfrantic 13y ago
    A Dutch TV programme ('de Keuringsdienst van Waarden') did a show on oscillococcinum, they went to the factory and actually got a tour. When they started asking about the duck they were quickly taken to lunch (also no Duck). They went to duck farms near the factory but none of them had ever provided the factory with duck liver/heart... Episode (in Dutch / French) http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2011/afleveringen/27-10-2011 http://keuringsdienstvanwaarde.kro.nl/seizoenen/2011/aflever...
- blueskin_ 13y ago
  Not really. Most homeopathic placebos are diluted to the point that you'd need to take anywhere from billions of doses up to get even a single molecule of the 'ingredient'. They are literally just water. Not ot mention that in most cases, the 'cause' is based on a speculative or outright fictional 'link'. For example, one of the most well known placebos is Oscillococcinum, which claims duck liver/heart 'causes' flu. It is also diluted to the point that, to quote, "As there are only about 10^80 atoms in the entire observable universe, a dilution of one molecule in the observable universe would be about 40C. Oscillococcinum would thus require 10^320 more universes to simply have one molecule in the final substance."
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    > They are literally just water. Usually they are sold as granules, containing some form of sugar... to capture the magical water :) So technically it's sugar+water that you ingest.
    - agumonkey 13y ago
      I took some homeopathic 'marbles' as a kid. Probably the best placebo ever designed. The only pill I'd never forget to take. While everything else is sour and alien in taste, this instead, is a doctor approved crunchy candy. Icing on the cake, the dispenser http://goo.gl/xsT3IM http://goo.gl/xsT3IM would be vetted by Steve Jobs, cute squary bottle, press the cap to fill it with a dose, open, ingest, close. Genius ?
  - Ygg2 13y ago
    I know, I just wanted to state they need to contain 'traces' of what caused the disease, not what cures it. That's why it's been revoked. Because it might work.
    - blueskin_ 13y ago
      Ducks cause flu?
  - kitwalker12 13y ago
- deleted 13y ago
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- ekianjo 13y ago
  > Actually no, homeopathic contains minute traces of cause of disease... Above certain dilutions it goes beyond the Avogadro figure and there should be no molecules/proteins left of the original disease agent.
lotu 13y ago
They are sold as a supplement and they fall fine into that catagory.
jejones3141 13y ago
As lotu says, they're sold as supplements. Of course, homeopathic "remedies" are uniquely adapted to our litigious society--since they can have no effects, they can have no side effects, and thus you'll never see ads from lawyers looking to sue over side effects of homeopathy.
- aestra 13y ago
  >since they can have no effects, they can have no side effects Completely and totally incorrect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo In medicine, a nocebo (Latin for "I shall harm") is a harmless substance that creates harmful effects in a patient who takes it. Basically, you think "I'm taking medication, that could cause side effects," that thinking it and of itself can causes side effects!! It's like a reverse placebo. Also see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2hO4_UEe-4 (watch this short video, it give a great rundown on the nocebo effect, including examples) and people are thinking they are getting specific side effects....at least they are searching about them. http://i.imgur.com/lskvrtI.png http://i.imgur.com/lskvrtI.png
- MicroBerto 13y ago
  Actually, they're not sold as supplements all the time either. They're in some sort of weird gray area that is in between medicine and supplements: "The legal status of homeopathic remedies in the United States is unique. In 1938, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was sponsored by Senator Royal Copeland who also happened to be a homeopathic physician. The senator wrote wording into his bill that recognized all products listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States as drugs and made them subject to regulation by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The legislation passed, and as a result, homeopathic products are legally sold in food stores, pharmacies, and elsewhere as a unique category of drug. Despite such widespread use, the FDA regulates homeopathic preparations much less stringently than conventional drugs. Homeopathic products are not required to prove effectiveness or safety. Some regulations do apply. For example, homeopathic products can only be sold without a prescription if they are specifically for self-limiting conditions such as the common cold. Products marketed for severe conditions such as cancer are prescription-only." Source: http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1154-HOMEOPATHY.aspx?activeIngredientId=1154&activeIngredientName=HOMEOPATHY http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-115... That gray area has done a lot of damage to a lot of people.
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- Ellipsis753 13y ago
  I'm sure it causes a lot of bad things to happen to people too. >"Marshall says that cases in which trusting vulnerable consumers have believed the claims of homeopaths and "forgone real medicine" in place of "these overpriced sugar pills" are "too numerable to count" and "often with unnecessary and tragic consequences." I knew someone who took homeopathic remedies instead of going to a doctor and she nearly died (saved by actual doctors). She still believes in homeopathic remedies....
  - fetbaffe 13y ago
    One who actually died of this BS was Steve Jobs.
    - serf 13y ago
      If you are to blame homeopathy for the death of Steve Jobs, might I remind you that he was the person who chose to pursue such quackery? Personally if you were to ask me about his death, i'd blame the cancer for killing him, not the 'science' he investigated in an effort to fix the problem.
      - fetbaffe 13y ago
        Of course it was the cancer that killed him, however by using homeopathy as a cure it certainly fasten the process by not actually curing him. But I don't hate cancer, it's a natural thing, but I do hate homeopathy because it's 100% man made quackery. If one of my relatives died sooner because they had been let to believe to use this nonsense I definite blame the salesman of scamming my relative of money, trust and a longer life. It is the same as the Christian church in the middle ages selling salvation for money to dying people. Despicable.
      - mikeash 13y ago
        Jobs had a relatively benign cancer that has something like a 90% survival rate. Jobs's case was not unusually deadly, and there is every reason to think he would have been cured if he had received proper treatment reasonably soon after being diagnosed. It goes beyond simply wishing he hadn't died, too. He managed to finagle a healthy liver transplant in the process, which might have gone to someone with a better chance of surviving with it longer.
lnanek2 13y ago
It's nonsense, but people pay $100 more for differently labeled bottled water too, so I guess this takes advantage of similar non-sensical behaviors.
- fishy929 13y ago
  Agreed. I wouldn't say either should be illegal though, as suggested by ama729.
bbanyc 13y ago
The primary sponsor of the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act was a homeopathic physician. He put an exemption in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_S._Copeland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_S._Copeland

Ihmahr 13y ago

I just keep being amazed that literate people buy this stuff. What also bugs me about this (apart from their stupidity) is that people look at me strangely when I decline 'medicine' on the basis that it is homeopathic. The reaction is similar when someone is refusing to drink alcohol. "Really, why not?"

seren 13y ago
I don't believe homeopathy works. However, I have seen studies mentioning that a placebo effect (which has a real measurable impact) can be triggered just by knowing you are taking a remedy, even if you know the remedy is bogus. So somehow, you are tricking yourself that you are going to get better. So in a way, you could get better by taking homeopathy even if it has nothing to do with what is (or rather is not!) in the pills. I don't see much harm in taking homeopathy for a common cold for example, however for anything more serious, you are probably endangering yourself.
- driverdan 13y ago
  Placebos can change your attitude but cannot cure anything. You may feel better but in reality nothing has changed other than the feeling.
  - seren 13y ago
    But if you can feel better, without having any possible dangerous side-effect, it is actually a powerful effect we should leverage for minor ailments. Most drugs are not trying to cure you anyway, but are only bringing you some relief. I am not trying to defend the efficiency of homeopathy there, but I am saying that triggering the placebo effect is beneficial.
  - brazzy 13y ago
    Ultimately, the goal of any cure is to make you feel better. And there is lots of evidence that psychology can have very powerful effects on your body.

speeder 13y ago

The article ends as a crazy agressive criticism of homeopathy in general, mixing the issues of manufacturing that also happen to normal medicine with real concerns and conflating the two, but what really ticks me off is leaving in the closing paragraph a phrase that use age of a practice as an insult. Saying that something should have been left in some old era implies that people of that era are inferior to us, the fact that all past eras are targeted, make me think there is some sort of superiority thinking tied to being in the current age, like if current humans are inherently better. As someone that has some practices and beliefs that were actually more common in the past, I personally hear that sort of argument a lot, and I think lots people don't realize that when they diss the past, they also diss lots of things important to them ( like, printing press... Created to print the bible no less... ) EDIT: alright, I get it, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, criticising the writing style of someone criticising something you dislike, even if I dislike it too, is reason to get blasted with downvotes.

JohnTHaller 13y ago
Unlike some natural remedies which are later proven to be right based thousands of years of use in ancient times, Homeopathy is completely and totally bogus. It's based on absolutely nothing. Not science, not observation, not tradition. It's based entirely on one guy, who, in ~1800, thought that 'like cures like'. So, if you have a fever, why not take something else that causes you to get hot? It's also based on the idea that water has a memory of things it comes in contact with. So, they dilute it thousands and thousands of times until the water or sugar pill has no molecules at all of the thing that is supposed to be treating you. In the end, it's a sugar pill that has a placebo effect on some people. There's no logic, science, or medicine to it at all. Pro tip: If water really did have a memory and diluting things made them stronger, then all water everywhere would cure everything. Including terrorism since Bin Laden was buried at sea.
- clef 13y ago
  If water had a memory, with all the toxic stuff we dilute in it, we'd all be dead.
- 13y ago

noja 13y ago

Why do so many homeopathic remedies contain ingredients? I mean they have multiple things listed on the label that are actual things. Doesn't that make them not homeopathic?

Alex3917 13y ago
The idea that homeopathic medicine doesn't contain any ingredients is just a lie propagated by HN and other websites. It's just something that people who are too dumb to read actual books like to repeat to make themselves feel smart.
SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
> Why do so many homeopathic remedies contain ingredients? To bulk out the pill until it is visible to the naked eye.
- noja 13y ago
  But these ingredients aren't bulkers. I'll collect some examples next time I see some.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
    But "listed on the label" is not the same as "contained in the pill" when it comes to homoeopathy. Could you also check how much of the active ingredient is actually present in the pill? ;)
    - noja 13y ago
      Well the ingredient listed is black, and the pill (actually it was a liquid) was pitch black.

chrisbennet 13y ago

Whenever I hear about homeopathy I think of this wonder rant ("Storm") by Tim Minchin : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U

sjwright 13y ago
"It's a miracle! Take physics and bin it! Water has memory! And whilst its memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is infinite, it somehow forgets all the poo it's had in it."
- SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
  The water forgets the previous substances that were in it, when a trained homoeopath hits it with magic paddle. Yes, that's really how it's suggested to work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Preparation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Preparation
- ekianjo 13y ago
  The saddest thing is that in some countries (like France...) Homeopathic medicines are actually reimbursed by social security (and therefore paid for by everyone who pays taxes). We're still waiting for double-blind, vs placebo, clinical trials to show how efficacious they really are.
  - todd8 13y ago
    Years ago, I dated a French woman while she was here (in the USA) for a couple of months. She took homeopathic medicine and said that she knew that it worked because it was provided by the national health service! (One night she saw a full moon and remarked to me that it meant it would rain. When I said that I didn't think so, she was surprised and said "All farmers know the full moon brings the rain.")
  - seszett 13y ago
    The idea is that they are as good as placebos (which are proven to be useful in some cases) so they are actually somewhat useful. While I think that "real" placebos would be better for this than de facto placebos with bullshit pseudoscience attached to them, it's still not completely stupid to reimburse them if they do provide the same level of relief as active medicine through placebo effect. Of course they're not effective at killing bacteria, but there are some domains in which placebos have their place. Edit - to be clear, the reason given for reimbursing them is explicitely that they are good as placebos, they are not claimed by the French social security to be useful as active medicine.

singularityyy 13y ago

Does anyone know why homoeopathic remedies are so common in India? Even my very educated Indian friends seem to use them with a surprising frequency, sometimes over actual medicines.

yen223 13y ago
"This medicine is effective because it contains salicylic acid, which suppresses the activity of cyclooxygenase (COX), an enzyme that is responsible for the production of pro-inflammatory mediators." versus "This plant is effective because it's 100% natural!" 7 out of 10 times, people will go for the explanation that's easier to understand.
- aestra 13y ago
  Salicylic acid is natural! It comes from the bark of the willow tree. It has been known since ancient times, presumably they used to consume willow bark. We then figured out the active ingredient in willow bark. However, asprin is acetylsalicylic acid, which is produced form salicylic acid to remove the side effects of salicylic acid.
  - yen223 13y ago
    I didn't choose that example by accident ;). If I didn't know better, "salicylic acid" sounds like one of those chemicals that scientists keep putting in our food as part of their ongoing efforts to KILL ALL OF US, while "willow bark" sounds oh-so-natural and wholesome and makes me think of green meadows and chirping birds. So despite the fact that we know aspirin is a lot more effective than willow bark, I'd still feel a lot more comfortable eating willow bark. If I didn't know better. Basically, evidence-based medicine faces a big marketing problem, thanks to the "evidence" part.
pramalin 13y ago
My be because there are many government homeopathy colleges and hospitals.
KumarAseem 13y ago

eponeponepon 13y ago

This really ought to be hilarious; but then you realise that they're talking about penicillin. If one batch of one type of snakeoil distributed by one pack of charlatans has turned out to contain an antibiotic, how many others do too? And how many people out there are merrily munching down a couple of homeopathic sugar-pills when their piles flare up and making amazing new antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains? Homeopathy is actively harmful.

SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
Unintentionally taking penicillin can be quite bad: some people are allergic to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin_drug_reaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin_drug_reaction
- eponeponepon 13y ago
  Sure, but that can happen to an individual with any substance - I might take any given medicine that I haven't had before and turn out to be viciously allergic. But if I take a homeopathic 'remedy' that contains an antibiotic previously usable to treat, say, E. coli, and have no noticeable reaction to it, then I just silently create a new strain of E. coli in my gut that happens to now be immune to the antibiotic, just itching to be caught by someone else when I forget to scrub my hands thoroughly... nothing bad happens to the individual, but the species suffers for my gullibility.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
    > Sure, but that can happen to an individual with any substance It's particularly common with penicillin. This is why people who are allergic to penicillin know about it and check their medication so that they don't get some accidentally. This is IMHO probably the reason for this recall: it is an immediate danger to a significant number of people. Sadly increased antibiotic immunity in the environment is not viewed with the same level of concern as a sudden medical crisis that causes next of kin to sue.
brazzy 13y ago

eponeponepon 13y ago

BuildTheRobots 13y ago

To everyone commenting on the insanity of homeopathy and how it has no scientific basis (which I don't believe it does), I'd point out that surely it's just a form of placebo -and placebos have been scientifically proven to work, even when you know about them [1]. [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_mead_the_magic_of_the_placebo http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_mead_the_magic_of_the_placebo

Nursie 13y ago
This is true. However for conditions where a placebo is not suitable, homeopathy may well keep people away from real medicine. There have been several high-profile examples of homeopaths keeping folks away from 'allopathic' medicine, eventually killing them. But even in the more passive sense this can be true - the simple existence of snake-oil, even without the homeopath persuading the patient to stay away from mainstream medicine, can delay treatment.
rmc 13y ago
Ah, but homoepathic proponants claim it works better than a placebo.
- BuildTheRobots 12y ago
  Interesting, different placebos have different effects. Injections are seen as 'better' than pills and have more of an effect. If you believe homoeopathy is better than medicine, then yes, I can see it holding more authority than a prescription.

Argorak 13y ago

I am waiting for the moment where those people realize that a lot of food contains salicylates, acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) among them. Just by habit of nature. I lived with a person that had an intolerance (sometimes called "asprine intolerance") and it is basically impossible to keep your diet free from that.[1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylate_intolerance#Treatment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicylate_intolerance#Treatmen...

rmc 13y ago
Penicillin allergy is different. It's not just "oh I feel a bit unwell for a few days", it's fatal. And penicillin is not a common substance.
- Argorak 13y ago
  Not questioning that, but it questions the idea of not taking any medications at all. Where do you make the cut?
  - rmc 13y ago
    I don't understand the question. I am allergic to penicillin. I just tell the doctor when they are perscribing antibiotics. I can still take medication. Some substances, due to their large adverse reactions in some, can and are restricted.

userbinator 13y ago

I see this happen once in a while, and I've always believed that this is how they can keep the whole scam running - put some real medicine in them, so that it does have a beneficial effect, and the users will continue to preach about its efficacy. Add just enough to have a real effect, but e.g. not to all batches, so you don't (easily) get caught.

jacquesm 13y ago

I have this vague sense of unease about this...

dhimes 13y ago
Here, have some water.

k-mcgrady 13y ago

I just skimmed the article but I didn't see any mention that the company was being punished for this. As someone allergic to penicillin that's quite concerning. I'd never take homeopathic remedies but not only was this a stupid abuse of antibiotics it could hurt people.

aestra 13y ago
The article doesn't say directly, but it could have been accidental, just like the discovery of penicillin. >produced during fermentation That's what it says, that seems to imply to me that it was accidental.

cfontes 13y ago

I had an old math professor that used to say: "Lottery is a special tax aimed at people who are really bad in math" I guess Homeopathy is a tax (health and money one) for people who are really bad in Chemistry and Biology.

Sniperfish 13y ago
Unfortunately - given the OP article - through misuse of antibiotics the consumer of homeopathic treatments is playing lottery with more than just their health. A lottery where the losers also cause society to lose. "Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was originally sensitive....The misuse of antimicrobial medicines accelerates this natural phenomenon."[1] [1] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/

MicroBerto 13y ago

When building our site/engine, I struggled with what to do with product categories such as Homeopathy. I find that much of it is actively harmful to users, especially when they truly need real medical care. It's the indirect consequences (not seeing a real doctor for your ailments) that are far worse than the potential direct side effects. But at the same time, people are searching for it, so they might as well get it from us / through us. So my solution was to write a negative analysis of the homeopathy category, drop it so that it can only be found if you are actively searching for it, and kind of never speak of it again. Won't spam, but you can see the link to my site in my profile if you care and search for the category. At the end of the day, I do love the supplement/nutrition industry, but this kind of stuff makes my blood boil.

aestra 13y ago
>I do love the supplement/nutrition industry Why? It is almost entirely unregulated and unsupervised. They have been known to contain unlisted ingredients, none of the ingredients they say, and dosages that differ wildly from what they are labeled as. I saw a movie where they just put some random shit into a pill (flour and stuff) and started marketing it as a supplement. This was apparently legal. http://www.livescience.com/40357-herbal-products-unlisted-ingredient.html http://www.livescience.com/40357-herbal-products-unlisted-in... > In the study, nearly 60 percent of herbal products tested contained plant substances not listed on the label. In nearly a third of products, the main ingredient was substituted with a different product. More than 20 percent of products contained fillers such as rice, wheat and soybeans, in addition to the main ingredient. >Overall, out of the 12 companies that produce herbal supplements included in the study, just two had products with no substitutions, fillers or contaminants, the researchers said > Such unlisted ingredients may pose health hazards for consumers, the researchers said. For example, one produced was labeled as St. John's wort, but actually contained the laxative plant Senna alexandrina. The laxative is not recommended for long turn use, and can cause serious side effects, such as chronic diarrhea and liver damage. > 2011 study of 131 herbal tea products found that 33 percent were contaminated. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/health/policy/26herbal.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/health/policy/26herbal.htm... >Nearly all of the herbal dietary supplements tested in a Congressional investigation contained trace amounts of lead and other contaminants >The levels of heavy metals — including mercury, cadmium and arsenic — did not exceed thresholds considered dangerous, the investigators found. However, 16 of the 40 supplements tested contained pesticide residues that appeared to exceed legal limits, the investigators found. In some cases, the government has not set allowable levels of these pesticides because of a paucity of scientific research. > Among the witnesses at the hearing will be Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, a company that has tested over 2,000 dietary supplements made by more than 300 manufacturers and has found that one in four have quality problems. According to Dr. Cooperman’s written testimony, the most common problems are supplements that lack adequate quantities of the indicated ingredients and those contaminated with heavy metals. > Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, wrote a letter to the committee saying that some athletes have been rendered ineligible for international competitions because they took supplements that contained steroids not listed on the products’ labels. There are thousands of supplements available for sale that contain steroids or other harmful ingredients, he wrote. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852683/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1852683/ >Case Presentation > A 54-year-old woman was referred to the University of California, Davis, Occupational Medicine Clinic with a 2-year history of worsening alopecia and memory loss. She also reported having a rash, increasing fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, disabling her to the point where she could no longer work full-time. A thorough exposure history revealed that she took daily kelp supplements. A urine sample showed an arsenic level of 83.6 μg/g creatinine (normal < 50 μg/g creatinine). A sample from her kelp supplements contained 8.5 mg/kg (ppm) arsenic. Within weeks of discontinuing the supplements, her symptoms resolved and arsenic blood and urine levels were undetectable. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/5292535_Nutritional_supplements_cross-contaminated_and_faked_with_doping_substances/file/3deec52274312178fb.pdf http://www.researchgate.net/publication/5292535_Nutritional_... >These investigations showed that nutritional supplements contained prohibited stimulants as ephedrines, caffeine, methylenedioxymetamphetamie and sibutramine, which were not declared on the labels. An international study performed in 2001 and 2002 on 634 nutritional supplements that were purchased in 13 different countries showed that about 15% of the nonhormonal nutritional supplements were contaminated with anabolic-androgenic steroids (mainly prohormones). >In 2005 vitamin C, multivitamin and magnesium tablets were confiscated, which contained crosscontaminations of stanozolol and metandienone. Since 2002 new ‘designer’ steroids such as prostanozol, methasterone, androstatrienedione etc. have been offered on the nutritional supplement market. In the near future also cross-contaminations with these steroids are expected. Recently a nutritional supplement for weight loss was found to contain the b2-agonist clenbuterol. The application of such nutritional supplements is connected with a high risk of inadvertent doping cases and a health risk. This actually worries me a lot, since I am required to take an iron supplement because of chronic iron deficiency. If I get the tablets from the pharmacist (I have a prescription) they just repackage the over the counter stuff and charge me triple the price. There's no way to tell if I'm getting medical grade iron.

faster 13y ago

Did you hear about the homeopathic terrorists? They put nothing in the water supply.

aestra 13y ago

Not the first time this has happened. Zicam was marketed as homeopathy, but recalled because it had real active ingredients in it. (slightly diluted zinc acetate and zinc gluconate) They caused some people to lose their sense of smell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zicam

DanBC 13y ago
Did you read the article before commenting?
- aestra 13y ago
  Yes, I actually did read it, but I seemed to have a brain fart and didn't actually notice it mentioned Zicam. Or I most likely just didn't retain the information. I must be getting old.