Ars TechnicaCVS ditches useless cold meds—but not bogus homeopathic products
Bogus homeopathic products based on pseudoscience will remain on shelves.
Bill, organizer of stuff@arstechnica This has been my suspicion - If CVS eliminated all the "medications" they sell that have no clinical purpose at all, half the store would be empty. Homeopathic garbage, "dietary supplements" misleadingly labeled as medicines, nonfunctional quasi-drugs and patent gadgets that soak up money and deliver nothing - there's so much of it.
Virtue signal 💉💉💉🇺🇸 🇺🇦
kierkegaank@arstechnica that reminds me i overdosed on everything by consuming nothing two hours ago. Please take care of my cat when I’m gone
SoonerMedic 
@kierkegaank @arstechnica I literally laughed out loud waiting in line for dinner at this!
Luna Lactea@kierkegaank @arstechnica You too? I drank some water earlier & instantly began suffering liver & kidney failure, as the water remembered the dinosaur piss that was dissolved in it a few million years ago.
Randall Lee@arstechnica I see old school pharmacist stock copper bracelets to treat arthritis or is it to ward off the evil eye? Probably just as effective against both I guess.
Andrew Zonenberg@arstechnica Would love to see the FDA crack down more on homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractors, and the whole ensemble.
Michael WestergaardHomeopathic remedies against the cold actually work really well. Untreated, a cold can take as much as 7 days to get over, but with proper homeopathic treatment, it is possible to get that down to just one week.
@michael @arstechnica well played.
Nicky🦨✌️@michael @arstechnica took me a while 🤣
Ray Hayes@arstechnica Mentioned homeopathic products to my local organic food store. The clerk laughed. No way they'll be removed. The profit margin is so high on those products that they just can't justify their removal.
Chris Glass@arstechnica I remember I once went to a pharmacist to ask about some medication for pink eye. She pointed me to the homeopathy section.
I immediately walked out and never returned to that store.
I immediately walked out and never returned to that store.
CurtAdams@arstechnica I looked at the studies and "useless" is overselling the problem. Improvement in airflow is dubious, with some studies finding it and some not, and the most positive study done by the manufacturer. But, subjective relief is much better supported, and in blinded studies so placebo is not an issue. There's also a possibility the dosage is just too low.
What we really need with Phenylephrine is large, independent studies, not just throwing it out of the drugstores.
Darkoneko
Ertain@arstechnica When I was working at a CVS, I wondered why they had those bullshit, homeopathic products. I guess a sale is a sale. 🤷
Shelly@arstechnica Dang trying to beat a cold and was about ready to pop my Nyquil gel gaps! 💊😷🤒
Zeebo Effect@arstechnica no active ingredients - less potential for harm.
Chill Bonobo@arstechnica "But I used a homeopathic remedy for 5-7 days and my cold went away."
Chris Rebert@arstechnica This is another reason I swore off Rite Aid. They heavily advertised they'd have best combo of both pharmaceutical and "natural" remedies; ad used a 50/50 visual 🙄
Mercurius Goldstein@arstechnica
Always knew phenylephrine hydrochloride was ineffective BS; never did a frickin’ thing for me symptom-wise.
Whereas every time, pseudoephidrine makes my sinuses drier than the Sahara in minutes!
Always knew phenylephrine hydrochloride was ineffective BS; never did a frickin’ thing for me symptom-wise.
Whereas every time, pseudoephidrine makes my sinuses drier than the Sahara in minutes!
Gnutella@arstechnica CVS drops some useless cold meds but still stocks up on homeopathic fairy tales? Priorities seem a tad misplaced. How about we champion science over snake oil next time? 🧪🐍 #RealMedsNotMyths
John Philip BellSo let me get this straight...
Original Sudafed&Actifed (with Pseudoephedrine) which work, are forced off store shelves, because of usefulness in illegal drug manufacturing; so makers of Sudafed&Actifed (wanting their products on shelves for advertising effect and/or to avoid some kind of liability) change the formula to something that doesn't work which is now being taken off the shelves because it's going to be called out for not working; leaving us with homeopathic products... Which arguably work as well as the product that doesn't work, but with much less side-effects and risk of lawsuit 😉
Sounds about right.
This is why we can't have nice things.
groff 🇺🇦@arstechnica Acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) has also been shown to be no better than a placebo, but one with nasty side effects and can cause death when overdosed.