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Homeopathic medicines make up a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Despite being included in the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never enforced the requirement that the homeopathic industry demonstrate safety or efficacy of its products prior to putting them on the market. Although drug regulation falls within the purview of the FDA, labeling the products is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
In 2015 both the FDA and FTC announced workshops to review how over the counter (OTC) homeopathic products are marketed. Both agencies have the authority to increase the regulation and labeling requirements for these products. The reviews generated thousands of public comments, and the FTC is the first to release their decision in a Staff Report and an Enforcement Policy Statement.
In summary, there is no basis under the FTC Act to treat OTC homeopathic drugs differently than other health products. Accordingly, unqualified disease claims made for homeopathic drugs must be substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence. Nevertheless, truthful, nonmisleading, effective disclosure of the basis for an efficacy claim may be possible. The approach outlined in this Policy Statement is therefore consistent with the First Amendment, and neither limits consumer access to OTC homeopathic products nor conflicts with the FDA's regulatory scheme. It would allow a marketer to include an indication for use that is not supported by scientific evidence so long as the marketer effectively communicates the limited basis for the claim in the manner discussed above.
Essentially, any homeopathic product that isn't backed up by competent and reliable scientific evidence must communicate on its label that:
- there is no scientific evidence that the product works
- the product's claims are based only on theories of homeopathy from the 1700s that are not accepted by most modern medical experts.
Though largely seen as a win for consumer awareness, Slate notes the potential for this to backfire by noting that those who seek out homeopathic medicine will only have their resolve strengthened by seeing a statement pointing out that the contents of the bottle they are holding are not endorsed by the scientific community.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Francis on Sunday November 27 2016, @04:15PM
People forget just how many medicines we get from natural sources. Most of the antibiotics created during the 20th century are natural molecules that were then synthesized in a lab for industrial scale. Taxol was discovered in Yue trees and has since been used for cancer treatment. And obviously, the most famous medication from a natural source would be penicillin.
Magnesium being used for bone spurs shouldn't be that surprising as one of the things that magnesium does is regulate the calcium levels in the blood stream.
That being said, it can be a bit of a fine line sometimes between effective treatment and placebo.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday November 27 2016, @04:21PM
Or Aspirin (sort of).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:46PM
And obviously, the most famous medication from a natural source would be penicillin.
Or Aspirin (sort of).
Not to mention the tears of the poppy.
(Score: 4, Informative) by theluggage on Sunday November 27 2016, @05:16PM
People forget just how many medicines we get from natural sources.
You're falling right into the FUD trap: Homeopathy is not about herbalism or natural remedies.
Homeopathic medicines are based on the theory that you can create a cure for a disease by taking a substance that causes the symptoms and diluting it again and again until there probably isn't a single molecule of the original substance left*. This avoids the embarrassing danger of the medicine poisoning the patient, leaving the field open for confirmation bias, placebo effect and regression to the mean to "prove" its effectiveness. Homeopathic medicines from honest suppliers will have been through the dilution and shaking malarkey, but since the end result is indistinguishable from sugar pills go figure how many suppliers have spotted the obvious shortcut.
Other natural remedies may be a crapshoot because of the lack of clinical trials, but at least the content of the pills can be verified and you can apply the common sense "don't take anything that you wouldn't put in your dinner anyway" approach. (Years ago, my mother started eating somethingorother leaves because she's heard "some scientific evidence" that they cured migraine... until I came across "some other scientific evidence" that they were probably causing the mouth ulcers that she was complaining about... this is the sort of stuff that the drugs industry is supposed to sort out).
(* obviously the Atlanteans/astronaut Gods did a sloppy job when they taught the ancients about vaccines and immune system disorders... [Joke])
(Score: 5, Funny) by purple_cobra on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:12PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @07:48PM
Oh Touche. My sides were nearly split. Wonder if I can drink a diluted joke to fix that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @11:15AM
Of course they won't accept it. A credit card isn't real money. Dip a bit of gold in the water and they should happily accept it!
And don't draw wrong conclusions when they at first reject it. You know, it first has to get worse before it gets better, so it's a perfectly normal reaction.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Sunday November 27 2016, @05:40PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @08:05PM
Taxol was discovered in Yue trees
What the F*** is a "Yue tree"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 27 2016, @11:24PM
月朳
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday November 28 2016, @02:41AM
LOL, my Mandarin slipping in there. But yes, that's the tree I'm talking about. Also, it never ceases to amaze me how poor people's reading comprehension could be. Anybody that really needs to know and didn't make the connection would just look up Taxol and find that there was a typo. Everybody else would just gloss over it as the tree that Taxol comes from.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @04:31AM
So, you meant a "You" tree? C'mon, Francis! You know this place is mostly Americans, so asking them to google mandarin is just like asking them to blow Eth. How much easier would it be if you checked on correct spelling? This was not even a typo. And, you are hijacking the thread, which is not at all about nature, it is about dilution and how stupid people with bone spurs can be. Besides, you left out foxglove, Datura, psylosybin, yage, and maggots.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday November 28 2016, @12:39AM
You also need to understand the history of medicine to see why homeopathy was initially popular. At the time, treatment was split between allopaths and homeopaths. The allopaths believed in aggressive treatment of sickness, which involved things like mercury, bloodletting (without any sterilisation or other precautions, the essence of a good solid stink in a hospital drove away bad spirits), arsenic, and other stuff. The homeopaths believed in homeopathy. Since this killed less people than what the allopaths were doing, and some of those eventually recovered, homeopathy was "seen" to "work".
Medicine has progressed a wee bit since then, but some people still believe in woo-woo + placebo. And, given that about 70% of illnesses eventually sort themselves out to some extent (which is also what makes things like faith healing work, if you're in the unlucky group where it doesn't sort itself out then it's because you didn't believe hard enough and it's your fault), it still appears to "work" in many cases.