Beware the Phony Pharmacists!

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Mefiante (May 04, 2008, 10:06:46 AM):
Okay, thanks wandapec for clearing that up. It is much as I had surmised. Here’s more on the Hippocratic Oath for the interested reader. It does strike me as odd, though, that pharmacists are not expected to swear it, considering that there is an ethical (or, in some case, an unethical) side their practices, which relate to medicine.

bluegray (May 05, 2008, 09:51:54 AM):
How informed do you think most pharmacists in SA are on the subject of homoeopathy? And if they do understand it, what are the reasons for them still selling it?
Wandapec (May 05, 2008, 16:09:05 PM):
That's a tough one, but I would think that the answer is no. There are those pharmacists that will develop an interest in homeopathy more than likely based on some experience they have had in life e.g. every time granny gets a cold she takes X and within a week to 10 days she's better, or Uncle Bob is 70 years old and rides the Argus every year swearing that taking Y is the only reason he could manage! I think these people probably fall in the Dr. Michael Shermer's category of "Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons."! What upsets me is the fortunes we have wasted because my wife is convinced that this stuff works - I may have lost a couple of those battles but I think I am slowly winning the war! 8)

I think with pharmacy in general, the besides the fact that there is a profit to be made it is a simple case of supply and demand, and in pharmacy's case it just happened to be in the right place at the right time i.e. Homeopathy shops didn't open up all over the place to cater for the demand.

Speaking for myself, when I did work in pharmacy, over time you get to know what to give for what problem based on what the label says on the bottle. Alternatively, you would put the customer onto the pharmacist or nursing sister that "knows" the most about those preparations.

I once read a pharmacy magazine that had a cartoon about the "like treats like" aspect of homeopathy. A guys walks into the pharmacy with a gunshot would asking for something homeopathic - the pharmacist promptly pulls out a gun and puts another hole in him! :)
Wandapec (May 06, 2008, 17:06:07 PM):
Look what I found in a pharmacy about 2 days ago - Magic Bracelets! I think these therapies fall in line with what I mentioned earlier about supply and demand in pharmacy. Astrophysicist Miguel A. Sabadell, asks some questions about this ancient therapy, as does Bruce Flamm(Nice picture of the real affects of magnetic therapy!). It seems to be quite popular though, if you just Google "magnetic bracelets", you get a whole heap of sites pushing the therapy.

I must admit, my lower back ache suddenly disappeared as I walked past the shelf..... ;D

Claims on packaging -
"Uses the ancient art of magnetic therapy which helps to ease stiffness & reduce arthritis pain."

"Base Metal: Copper""Powerful 2,000+ Gauss Magnets""Drug Free Pain Reliever""Natural Way of Improving Health"
ArgumentumAdHominem (May 06, 2008, 20:19:36 PM):
"Powerful 2,000+ Gauss Magnets"

So a 2 000 Gauss magnet is good for you? Strange how the woo brigade also believes that the magnetic field from power lines causes brain tumours (requiring all manner of protective crystals or "chips") but they will happily use a 2 000 Gauss (0,2 Tesla or 200 000 micro Tesla) magnet at a distance of 0 metres for its curative properties ???. So why then is the magnetic field from a 765 KiloVolt powerline carcinogenic? The 765 KV line at a 10 metre distance creates a field of less than 12 micro Tesla (see Eskom report page 10). 10 meters is the peak area of the maximum magnetic field and to remain in the field you would have to hover 4 metres off the ground directly below the lines.


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