Is this a good David and Goliath story?

[chakka35]

Three years ago I noticed that my local pharmacy (then Alliance) was selling magnetic bracelets. I wrote to the manager, pointing out that I would expect a shop up the road called Beyond The Senses to sell such things since they also peddle magic crystals, tarot cards, psychic sessions and the like, but such quackery was hardly the thing for a responsible pharmacy. I received no reply.

When Boots took over Alliance I started again with their big chief of pharmceuticals at their Nottingham HQ. He never deigned to answer me himself but passed me to a succession of staff members who, over a year or more, tried in turn to fob me off. I contacted The British Pharmaceutical Association who told me their retailing rules and the MHRA to ask whether the ludicrous medical claims made by the manufacturers of these bracelets were in breach of the law. After a long wait they said that the result of their investigation had, by EU edict, to remain confidential!
I was about to reply to that nonsense when…

…out of the blue came a letter from Boots saying that in view of the manufacturer’s claims they were withdrawing the bracelets from sale once present stocks had expired. So I had won!

To those tempted to tell me to get a life and get out more, please don’t bother. And to the inevitable question as to whether I am now going to tackle homeopathy and the like, I say – only if my doctor’s surgery or my local chemist starts to promote such charlatanism. It is one thing for the quacks themselves to con the gullible, quite another for the medical and pharmaceutical professions to do so.

I now sit back and await your plaudits, your congratulations, your gasps of admiration, your offers to have my baby, and so on. But please don’t embarrass me by overdoing the hero-worship. I’m a shy person really.

[redcrx]

Boots stores will soon have very empty shelves wont they. All those anti aging creams, bigger lash mascaras etc etc.

i also wonder if it will just be your local store that removes it from the shelves just to avoid your letters?

[Sqad]

Zac and redcrx are quite correct............when one is dealing with the British Public and you want an "easy and prosperous life" then give the British Public what they want and NOT what they need.

[Coobeastie]

You must be a bundle of laughs...

Most cough medicines have little or no benefit should pharmacies stop selling those too?

[LazyGun]

Pharmacists are in the middle of a serious rebranding exercise, attempting to position themselves as "the medical professional on the high street".
How does it help their professionalism when attempting to answer a query about, say, overdosing on a homeopathic remedy? How does it help their image to be selling expensively packaged water and sugar pills with a huge markup?

Boots is the most respected high street pharmaceutical chain in the UK.Their own chief pharmacist, at a recent House of Commons Science and Medicines Select Committee enquiry into homeopathy, admitted that there was no credible clinical evidence in support of homeopathy, nor any plausible biological mechanism by which homeopathy could work at all!

Zacs seems to think those of us that challenge the peddling of therapies completely devoid of any plausible biological mechanism or clinically relevant, controlled trials are unaware of the placebo effect. I would far rather that the public get proven remedies with a biologically active ingredient, since then they will get a pharmacological benefit PLUS the benefits of placebo - And it wont cost them as much either.

The harm in allowing such remedies shelfspace in reputable pharmacies is that it promotes quackery, sanctions the effective ripoff of the gullible, and reinforces anti-scientific attitudes.I wish more of the public would be like Chakka, and challenge this sort of pseudo medicine when they find it.

[Sqad]

Lazygun.....just a guess and with no disrespect, but I assume, probably incorrectly that your occupation does not bring you into direct contact with the British Public.........? in a laboratory. If I am correct that does not in anyway invalidate your argument.

[LazyGun]

Zac - I was very clear in what I wrote, and you still argue a strawman.
I am very well aware of the placebo effect.I am aware that pretty much any medical intervention offers some sort of placebo benefit. I would rather the public are offered a remedies offering an active biological ingredient PLUS the placebo effect.
If high street pharmacists wish to offer homeopathic remedies and other quackery to the public, then it should be sold in a section labelled "remedies with no biologically plausible mechanism, nor active ingredient". Perhaps they can be bought from your local Bodyshop, or Holland and Barretts, instead.
Can you tell me how a pharmacist can offer medical advice to a patient querying the dangers of an overdose of a homeopathic remedy and still keep a straight face or any professional credibility?
I am very against the idea of homeopathic quactitioners making a fortune from water, shaken but not stirred, and sugar pills that offer no active biological ingredients

[Seadragon]

You make a good point LazyGun but labelling the remedy with 'no biological plausible mechanism, nor active ingredient' would defeat the purpose of a placebo effect for most people? Because the bracelet say is available in the chemist is already some way to believing that research has been carried out on it. Besides at this moment I'm not too keen on the Pharmacist rebranding exercise as the 'medical professional on the high street'. I think the medical advice they are already allowed to give is enough and they continue to direct people to the doctor?

But I speak without any medical knowledge, just a normal person on the street.

[Sqad]

Seadragon....you make a point that hadn't occurred to me.............once the "medicine" was labelled, then the "placebo effect" would be nullified.

Mind you, cigarette packets are so labelled as "damaging your heath." but that seems to have little effect.

[sophie_1003]

I think I read somewhere that in a few placebo vs real medicine studies even when the group knew they were taking a placebo their symptoms still improved. Apologies for not knowing the source of this but thought it was interesting.

[Seadragon]

That's because Sqad addiction outweights the health concern until one ends up in hospital!

[LazyGun]

Zac - Are you just wilfully misreading my posts?
My position is this - ALL interventions have a placebo effect. Taking a product with some biologically active, pharmaceutically active ingredient means that the patient gets that benefit PLUS the placebo = How clear do I have to be? We are not talking novel diseases here - there is a conventional, biologically active remedy for every homeopathic one that is being offered.
Boots know perfectly well that these products have no clinical benefit apart from placebo - but they are willing to charge the earth for water or sugar pills.Such cynical endorsement of woo and faux medicine only confers a fake legitimacy on homeopathy as a whole, leading to homeopathic remedies being actively offered for such potentially serious diseases as Malaria, or sugar pills being offered as a viable alternative to vaccines.
Homeopaths wish that they and their 18th century remedies to be afforded equal status to regular doctors and proven medicine. Fine. let them produce the clinical evidence showing the beneficial evidence!
As it stands, people are in essence being ripped off, buying pharmacologically inactive products with the connivance of a respected high street brand.
Such antiscientific and evidence free remedies should have no place in a modern pharmacy. If there is a demand, let the health shops and nutriwoo stores sell them, preferably with a "no proven efficacy" label on them so it is more difficult to rip the public off

[dothawkes31]

I think they are a great fashion accessory in winter timne when you don't want to wear bright gold or silver and you can glue semi-precious stones on them and bling them up and sell them on ebay.

[dothawkes31]

'bored now' Zac?? I read most of the replies above with the voice of that ' very interesting' priest out of father ted droning in my head lol I hope the job losses suffered by the manufacturers and distributors of the bracelets will not be on your consience chakka when Boots cancel their orders.

[craft1948]

Should I challenge my local librarian and argue that the Bible should be in the fiction section?

[naomi24]

I remember this saga Chakka, but you never posted the outcome. Congratulations. The problem with selling such 'remedies' is that since major companies like Boots are deemed trustworthy, these products could be assumed to carry some sort of endorsement, and that could encourage people to use them instead of either buying a tested remedy, seeing a doctor, or even speaking to the pharmacist about the ailment.

By the way, as much as I admire you Chakka, I really don't want to have your baby. My husband wouldn't like it - and I doubt Mrs C would be too impressed either. :o)

[Teleph0ne]

I think you all need to get out more!! if there wasn't a demand then they wouldn't sell. I have heard people claim that these things work for them, so what if it's in their heads! Who are you to tell them that they are wrong?