Why is homeopathy legal?

[Ben Kenobi]

I really don't understand the resistance to treat homeopathic drugs the same way we treat regular drugs

Because they are about as toxic as table salt? What would actually be gained from regulating them? I'm not sure I understand what you are after here. If people are willing to spend money on things that are stupid, that would eliminate about half the products on the shelves. The example cited earlier, where "it's bad because people refuse treatment", are we going to really require people to undergo treatment? It's not a crime to reject sound medical opinion. (at least not yet).

[Ben Kenobi]

What this means is that no one is checking to see whether or not homeopathic drugs contain the ingredients they're labeled as containing. We're fortunate that homeopathic drugs have no active ingredients, but poor manufacturing practices can easily lead to such remedies having ingredients not listed on the label.

This is moreso true of 'natural' products in general, not homeopathic products in particular. Many natural products do have active ingredients which can spoil over time, or become adulterated through improper manufacturing processes. You'd be surprised at the number of products where this is the case, most people assume that because it's 'natural', it can't be bad for you.

[Aeson]

It makes you wonder how bad those health products made by MLM's and distributed here must be since they can't be sold in the states ...

[Lorizael]

Outside of homeopathic drugs and supplements that fall under DSHEA, the FDA is actually pretty strict about what drugs get approved.

[Aeson]

That's the thing ... they're mostly just herbal supplements. (And mostly manufactured in Utah ... the MLM capital of the universe.)

[Aeson]

It may be their sales tactics that get them banned in the US (and many other countries)

[The Mad Monk]

Yes, but it shouldn't be. It should be outlawed just like the snake oil salesmen of yor were outlawed.

Yor?

[MRT144]

He spelled it wrong. Too many red blood cells.

Its too much iron in the blood

[Hauldren Collider]

Yor?

[onodera]

They can not buy an antibiotic themselves. They need a prescription. They will not get one.

What kind of socialist dictatorship do you live under? How are people going to breed resistant bacteria strains if they can't self-medicate?

And there must be leftover pills from previous prescriptions, since there's never the right amount of pills in the box.

[yass100]

is an broad overgeneralisation. It was explained to me that they stimulate the body's immune system to respond to that the less potency you use, the more of your immune system's response there is to help the body.

[Lorizael]

is an broad overgeneralisation. It was explained to me that they stimulate the body's immune system to respond to that the less potency you use, the more of your immune system's response there is to help the body.

I don't know why I'm bothering to respond to a bot, but I feel I have to. This is wrong for a variety of reasons. The first, and most important, is that the process used to create homeopathic remedies ensures that, literally, not a single molecule of the "active" ingredient remains in the product. So there is no lesser potency; there is no potency at all. Secondly, there is no monolithic immune system in the body that can be stimulated in a general sense. There are a number of systems that make up the immune system, and all they operate in very specific ways. In order to strengthen the immune system in some way, you have to target those specific systems. And thirdly, repeated clinical trials over many decades have shown that, ignoring the implausibility of homeopathic remedies, they have no effect larger than placebo. That is to say, they do nothing.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

The bots have been generating better questions than the regular posters for years now.

[Elok]

I'm guessing it searches for the title text, then pastes the first hit?

Lori, you forgot that tap water contains homeopathic-strength doses of strychnine, cyanide, and arsenic.

[Lorizael]

Indeed. Not to mention all the feces.