Yesterday, while picking up a presrciption at my local pharmacy, I was shocked and saddened to see magnetic bracelts and copper bracelets for sale on a nearby counter. Both are being touted not as jewelry but as therapeutic devices.
Copper bracelets are supposed to relieve arthritis, I think. The magnetic bracelet does not mention any specific diseases but the packaging info definitely implies that it will somehow be good for your health.
Now, let me make this perfectly clear: I am NOT saying the pharmacy should not be allowed to sell them. So please do not bother to respond with issues of freedom to trade, etc.
What I am asking is whether any self-respecting pharmacy SHOULD sell such ridiculous pseudo-scietific voodoo junk.
I though pharmacology was part of modern medical science. I thought pharmacists were supposed to be trained medical professionals, even if they are not doctors.
Why not sell moss from the skull of a criminal hanged in chains, while they are at it?
Didn’t the Supreme Court rule that hanging is “cruel … punishment?” I left out the “and unusual” part because it didn’t used to be unusual and there was a time when we had a lot of hanged criminals with skulls to grow moss from, but not anymore. And today lethal injection executions are so rare that there is no hope we could make it a commercial product. I mean, look at all the Walgreens, CVS, Sav-On/Osco, etc in the country and imagine supplying all of them. No, we’d have to import moss from China and the Chinese would need to revise their execution method since a bullet in the back of the head busts up the skull and that would make harvesting the moss uneconomical, even though Chinese workers only make something like fifty cents per year.
Nope, there are too many arguments against it. Stick with the copper bracelets.
Once our library was considering whether to provide space for a local woman to discuss homeopathic medicine; I argued that a center of learning shouldn’t sponsor something that is a sham but I was outvoted.
It’s good that you tried (they at least should include someone knowledgeable to refute her claims).
If pharmacies felt ethically compelled not to sell copper and magnetic bracelets, they’d also have to chuck out a load of supplements that haven’t been shown to do anything useful, plus a few over the counter meds like guaifenesin.
But the bracelets would be a good place to start.
Retailers should not knowingly sell fake/fraudulent crap. Another example is the dead hunk of moss or algae that’s sold as a living “air plant” by stores and home centers.
Is guaifenesin considered to be ineffective? I just tried googling it, but Wikipedia has bupkus and none of the pharmo websites I’ve seen thus far include criticisms.
I’ve been using it off and on because I dislike how pseudoephedrine dries me out. I’ve noticed that it does tend to clear out my sinuses, but it takes longer to do it, and I can’t say I’ve ruled out other possible causes when I take the drug.
Plus, I love the word “expectorant.” Reminds me of that most brilliant song in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Guaifenisen is not in the same category as magnetic bracelets and yohimbe. It does what it claims to do, and it is an FDA-approved drug (my MD has prescribed it for me.) “Supplements” and foilhattery such as magnets and copper jewelry are not within the FDA’s authority, unless they are shown to be hazardous.
Perhaps the law should be changed, but the magnet bracelets, good only for sticking notes to the refrigerator, are equal to the prayer coins one of our local drugstores sells at the checkout. They are placebos, and some people will tell you they felt a lot better after buying that prayer coin.
Hey, many sell homeopathic “drugs”, and I’d say that magnetic therapy has hwaaaay more chance of working than homeopathy. (“Homeopathy” works on the principal that “Practitioners of homeopathy believe that this water retains some ‘essential property’ of one of the substances that it has contacted in the past.” :rolleyes: )
It’s also not impossible that copper has an effect- wearing a copper bracelet next to the skin does allow for cupric absorbion:
“From over 300 arthritis sufferers, half of whom previously wore ‘copper bracelets’, three treatment-group-subjects were randomly allocated for a psychological study. This involved wearing ‘copper bracelets’ and placebo bracelets (amodised aluminum resembling copper) alternately. These groups, as also a control group, answered questionnaires. The copper bracelets were weighed before and after use. Preliminary results show that, to a significant number of subjects, the wearing of the ‘copper bracelet’ appeared to have some therapeutic value. A study of the components of sweat and the solubility of copper in sweat was carried out. In five sweat samples, the copper concentration was of the order 2 x 10(-5) M and after equilibrating with copper turnings at room temperature for 24 hours the samples turned blue in colour and contained approximately 2 x 10(-3) M copper. The permeability of skin to copper containing solutions has also been discussed. It has also been shown that the wearing of a ‘copper bracelet’ results in a weight loss in excess of the body’s total burden of copper (100-150 mg). A pair of copper bracelets lost 80 mg in 50 days when worn around the ankles and a copper bracelet worn around the wrist also lost about 90 mg in that time.”
“A review is presented of both published work and unpublished observations concerned with: a) the ‘efficacy’ of copper bracelets for arthritis; b) the bio-reactivity of metallic copper (especially with human sweat); c) permeation of the skin by Cu(II) when complexed with certain ligands (such as salicylates); d) the pharmacological and clinical activity of AlcusalR and DermcusalR, two formulations of copper salicylate with ethanol and dimethyl sulphoxide respectively that can be applied to the skin. Topical application promises to be a superior alternative to orally ingested drugs.”
"Copper is also known to have anti-inflammatory activity. Rats fed a copper-deficient diet had an increased inflammatory response in two models of acute inflammation.19 The role of copper complexes as anti-arthritic agents has been reviewed by Sorenson.20-22 Between 1940 and 1971 a small number of rheumatologists used copper complexes safely and effectively to treat rheumatoid diseases. Studies have shown that copper complexes of NSAIDs are more potent anti-inflammatory agents and are less toxic than the parent compounds. For example, in animal models of inflammation, the copper chelate of aspirin was active at one-eighth the effective dose of aspirin. Moreover, whereas NSAIDs can cause peptic ulcer, copper chelates of these same drugs have potent anti-ulcer activity in animal studies. It has been suggested that NSAIDs become active in vivo by forming complexes with copper. If that is true, then the ulcerogenic effect of NSAIDs may be due, at least in part, to their tendency to pull copper from certain tissues (copper depletion leads to impaired tissue integrity).
Copper complexes of NSAIDs have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are difficult to obtain in the United States. In addition, the long-term safety of administering copper complexes to humans has not been studied. While it is conceivable that supplementing with “nutritional” doses of copper (e.g., 2-4 mg per day) could increase the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of NSAIDs, that possibility has not been tested.
Folk wisdom teaches that wearing a copper bracelet can relieve arthritic symptoms. While most conventional doctors consider that claim to be nonsense, a pilot study indicated that copper bracelets may, indeed, be helpful. Some 160 individuals with arthritis, half of whom had previously worn a copper bracelet, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group 1 wore a copper bracelet for one month, and then a placebo bracelet (anodized aluminum resembling copper) for a second month. Group 2 wore the same bracelets in reverse order. Of those patients who noticed a difference between the two bracelets, significantly more preferred copper (p < 0.01) than placebo.23 Previous users of copper bracelets deteriorated significantly during the time they were wearing the placebo bracelet. Interestingly, the weight of the copper bracelets fell by an average of 13 mg during the month they were being worn, suggesting that some copper from the bracelet may have been absorbed through the skin."
In the first study, the magnetic bracelets were commercially available in the United Kingdom, where the study was conducted. Patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups who used either a commercially available magnetic bracelet with steel backing that creates a fluctuating magnetic field, a weak magnetic bracelet that is accepted to be non-therapeutic, or a nonmagnetic steel washer. Analysis of data showed that pain relief was greatest in the group using the strong, real magnets. This effect was unrelated to whether the patients could determine that they were using a real magnet. The problem with this report and all others that employ a group receiving placebo is that it is easy to tell whether a strong magnet is being used and therefore difficult to compensate for a self-fulfilling prophecy. "
So, although I gave magnets and copper bracelets a :dubious: they don’t get a :rolleyes: as homeopathy does. Certainly both are worthy of further studies. Let the stores sell the cute little bracelets- if nothing else they look nice.
My landlord used to sell those magnetic shoe-sole inserts. I can report that those actually do work, though I wasn’t quite using them as directed.
The latch on our dryer wasn’t working too well, so the dryer would tend to open while drying stuff. This shut off the dryer, which meant that you had to keep going in and re-closing the dryer. That was a little annoying. I got one of the magnetic shoe soles, and used it to hold the dryer closed- worked like a charm. I sometimes wish I had one now, for when the fridge or freezer doesn’t want to stay closed.
I don’t have a cite for this but my pharmacy school professor told us just last week that guaifenesin may not be more effective than drinking lots of water.
I don’t think pharmacies should sell cigarettes and alcohol, either. I think they’re much worse than copper jewellery. What about selling junk food?
More than one published study has cast doubt on guaifenesin’s effectiveness in treating cough.
For example, here’s a succinct comment from the authors of the Medical Letter (2/14/05), noting that a new extended-release formula of guaifenesin (Mucinex) had just been released: “Medical Letter consultants have not been impressed by guaifenesin’s effectiveness in older formulations.”
According to a recent review article two studies have been done comparing guaifenesin with placebo - in one, patients felt it helped them, in another placebo was just as good.
Sure…its called “capitalism”-or, sell what the market wants. Others have mentioned the (worthless) homeopathic “medicines”, how about the worse than useless stuff-like “herbal” medicines…or the positively harmfull stuff (ma huang, ginseng, etc.). What amazes me-pharmacies sell a substance KNOWN to kill you (tobacco), but cannot sell stuff that in appropriate doses, is good for you (marijuana).
I disagree; there’s an issue of trust here - The pharmacist is supposedly qualified and certified to sell me something effective, not just something that enables him/her to make a quick buck.
Pharmacists aren’t quite the same thing as pharmacies. Drug stores sell all kinds of crap: candies, cigarettes, etc., not to mention greeting cards and refrigerator magnets and other random stuff. While it’s true those aren’t even pretending to be medical in nature, it does indicate that the pharmacist isn’t involved in selecting the merchandise based on its healthful nature.
I think it is a matter of supply. Most herbal remedies and even a lot of vitamins don’t have any proven medical benefit, or have a very exaggerated health benefit, but people insist on buying it, and drug stores have a right to sell it to them. As long as the pharmacist doesn’t recommend it to a client, I don’t think there’s an ethical issue. Caveat emptor, etc.
BTW, does anyone know where I can buy a foil hat? Major league baseball has been monitoring my thoughts again, and I’d like a little protection.
At my pharmacy, right next to the pharmacist’s counter, they’ve got a big rack of those herbal remedies, complete with their outlandish claims.
What bothers me is that the purveyors of the herbal remedies are allowed to make whatever bullshit claims they want, and it’s as legal as church on Sunday, while drug manufacturers are limited to the claims they can actually support through controlled experiments. I’m sure a lot of the local yokels come away with the opinion that the herbal remedies can do a lot more for you than the drugs can.
