In the "no f'ing kidding" department

[drwex]

This is me ranting about modern snake oil. Skip if easily offended.

Story in the NY Times today: Study Sees Little Benefit in Chondroitin for Arthritis. Detail: a review of 20 earlier studies had found that the benefit of the supplement was “minimal or nonexistent.”

Chondroitin is one of the popular remedies found in "dietary supplements" and favored by an alarming number of my acquaintances as miracle cures. Right up there with zinc, emergen-C, garlic and other such foolishness. Yes, healthful supplements, yum yum. Miracle cures for joint pain, making colds vanish? No.

Repeat after me: "There is no biologically plausible way that [chondroitin] can work to repair joints damaged by arthritis." OK, that quote is from Dr. Eric Matteson, chair of the division of rheumatology at the Mayo Clinic. Repeat after him, if it works for you.

Promotion of this product is twenty-first-century snake oil. That is, it's an item with plausible value in some situations that gets touted as the miracle cure-all, hey can't-hurt-to-take-it, my-friend-Joe-swears-by-it, whatever. And people shell out money time after time. Willing dupes at best.

Let me try to be plain: if you have a cold, pounding large doses of Vit C will not make the cold go away any faster, even if it is wrapped up in "32 different mineral complexes." It'll probably just make you pee funny. If you have injuries or arthritis or other joint pains, eating sugar and shark cartilage will not cure them. If you believe otherwise, demonstrate a biologically plausible way for it to happen.

It's unclear to my why so many people who are otherwise intelligent and rational, with fully functional critical thinking facilities, can fall prey to this kind of scamming. Is it because we desperately WANT there to be miracle cures? Sure, being sick sucks and arthritis hurts like hell. But that experience doesn't make me blind to my knowledge of biology, chemistry, and medicine. It's beyond me why people believe in this stuff.

It doesn't help me feel better at all when the Natural Products Association (there's an unbiased organization, yeah) responds that "Clearly, research has demonstrated..." Uh, no. No, it hasn't. That's the POINT, you charlatans.

For the record, I'm not speaking about herbal medicine. If you really want snake oil, take the actual stuff for your arthritis. The original snake oil (which I'm told you can still get in Chinese medicine shops) really does help join pain because it's an anti-inflammatory. Many years ago, I worked with a guy who took it regularly for bursitis. Said person wasn't miraculously cured of his condition but he did get relief with fewer side effects than western-style NSAIDS gave him.

There. I feel better now.

Comments

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

So what I have read about these items includes:

* chondroitin glucosamine, if taken on a regular basis over a long period of time (like, months to years), may help to avert the onset of arthritis. Not cure it.

* zinc, if taken immediately upon the onset of cold symptoms, can help to mitigate the severity and duration of the symptoms. Not cure them.

[ My (purely anecdotal, natch) experience with zinc is that it works as described here: if I take it as soon as I feel a cold coming on, the symptoms are much less prolonged and unpleasant than if I do nothing or just take antihistamines or decongestants. ]

That's not to say that they're not being marketed dishonestly as miracle cures, or that a gullible public isn't interpreting them that way because they desperately want a quick fix. Just that I thought there was established clinical evidence supporting the hypothesis that they have *some* effect on these syndromes.

[imvfd.livejournal.com]

It's not so much taking zinc. It's sucking on Cold-eze lozenges, which contain Zinc Gluconate. Basically need to have zinc ions on the actual mucus membrane to disrupt the virus from doing it's thing. And it only works on cold viruses, not flu (or at least has only been tested on colds). Taking zinc as a pill will not do much for the immune system. Although if you've got a deficiency it can boost testosterone levels.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Right, the key (supposedly) is to let the zinc lozenge dissolve in your mouth, and that the zinc needs to be near where the virus is active in your throat or nasal passages. I knew that, I was just feeling lazy about typing it all out. :-)