Word on the street is that there is an herbal / homeopathic remedy for ADD from Vaxa, called “Attend”.
Anyone try this? What were your experiences?
Well, looking at the webpage for it, you can ignore the homeopathic ingredients since those are usually diluted in water to unnoticeable concentrations. So, taking a closer look at the ingredients pop up from this page…
See that note at the top? “Ingredients are not listed in any specific order”? That’s a warning sign. The FDA generally requires that supplements list things in order of amount of ingredient. It’s probably so they don’t have to list their homeopathic stuff way way way down at the very end.
So what are the other ingredients? A bunch of amino acids, some green tea powder, flax powder, gotu kola (a stimulant, used in herbalism in extracted form as a leprosy treatment and other things), B vitamins, that kind of thing. Some of this stuff, like radix heraclei, I only find mentioned on discussion boards for ADD and supplement sellers for ADD, so it appears to be the latest fad. None of which have any concentrations or amounts listed, mind you, so it could have more caffeine and B vitamins than a Monster-type energy drink, or it could have almost nothing.
Full article at: ProgressiveHealth
In other words: Lithium carbonate and Lithium bromide. Sounds like they’ve taken a standard treatment for bipolar individuals and packaged into a mixture of herbal uppers and downers. I suppose it might work if you’re bipolar but why not just go to Wal-Mart and get a 90 day supply of lithium for 4 bucks?
Well, because lithium is not really there. It’s a ‘homeopathic preparation’ so there’s unlikely to be more lithium in it than in tap water. Maybe less.
Besides, lithium (in actual factual dosages) needs close monitoring, can easily be toxic, and isn’t indicated for ADD anyway.
The preparation mentioned in the OP appears to be snake oil to me.
They claim the lithium - well, at least the first formulation - is at homeopathic levels, which means pretty much non-existent. But considering that none of the ingredients have amounts noted, I would worry very much about taking any amount of a drug that can be dangerous or deadly at too-high doses, especially from a manufacturer that seems to be violating or at least dancing desperately around FDA regulations.
So what are the dilutions of lithium then?
Sure you can - all homeopathic remedies are worthless crap, and are nothing more than overpriced water.
It’s not a warning sign. It’s because homeopathic medicines are so diluted that they do not have any measurable effect.
Because they are being sold OTC. That’s why they are regulated so that they do not contain any measurable amount of the stuff they list. The homeopathic part has no more effect that placebo.
Exactly. Homeopathic remedies are worthless - they do not contain amounts sufficient to affect someone.
There is no appropriate use of homeopathics apart from placebo.
Sure you can - they are worthless.
Regards,
Shodan
What Shodan said. Either the substances in question are diluted beyond usefulness or even detection, or the company is using the term “homeopathic” inappropriately, thus giving a potential buyer even less reason to trust them. Furthermore, lithium is not proven as an effective treatment for ADD and should not, at any concentration generally shown to have any effect in humans, be used as an OTC medication.
And the Vaxa Attend salesperson receives a Google Alert and shows up with predictable responses.
And one more thing.
This statement -
is false, if you mean the claims from the quack article online.
Both these claims are false. Homeopathic remedies have never been demonstrated to have any effect on the course or outcome of any illness, apart from placebo.
Regards,
Shodan
Dilutions - let’s take the lithium carbonicum as an example. The link I posted way upthread has it listed as “9C, 12C, 30C.” The C dilution scale in homeopathy is logarithmic, with each C being a 100-fold dilution. A 6C dilution would be a one-trillionth dilution of the substance in water; 30C is 10^60.
Frankly, I’d feel confident drinking damned near anything diluted to 6C, never mind 30C, and expecting it to affect me as much as water, since there’s a superb chance that few if any molecules would remain at even the higher concentration.
Oh, and person-who-just-happened-to-stop-by? Don’t throw that “chemicals” word around here like it’s a bad thing or something; you’re insulting our intelligence. Every single ingredient in that pill is a chemical or multiple chemicals.
Um, the sorts of conditions the FDA has in mind for OTC (over the counter) sales of homeopathic products are colds and other self-limiting conditions. It seems to me that the product in question is being marketed for a serious, non-self limited condition (ADHD) and thus should only be sold on a prescription basis under the supervision of a qualified practitioner.*
The reason homeopathy has a weird (and beneficial to the homeopathic quacks) regulatory setup at the FDA is that it got written into law in 1938 under the influence of pro-homeopathy forces, and has gotten a kind of pass ever since because homeopathic “drugs” are basically water and and are very unlikely to cause harm unless you’re taking them for cancer or other serious conditions and not getting the care you need.
If you possess common sense you’ve got to ignore them.
It’s often a good idea to treat people with chemicals, just not the nonexistent and/or unproven ones contained in the product you’re promoting.
*Kind of a conundrum there, since no qualified practitioner would ever prescribe the stuff.