"1.) Have you tried Zicam?"
Of course I have. It is jokingly referred to here by my detractors as "The Hank Study", although it was an honest attempt on my part to see if it worked. They were enthusiastic about the fact that I was trying it and praised me for being open minded enough about it to give it a shot until, of course, I began to report that it wasn't working for me. I tried Ziscam for a full week, used it according to the directions, reported on my symptoms here daily, and concluded that it had absolutely NO effect on the duration of my cold. That was roughly two years ago and I haven't had a cold since, so I guess I'm better off not using anything at all. I've never met anybody personally that has either tried or heard of Ziscam outside of the posters on this thread.
"2.) If a subset of people tried Zicam, even a small subset, and believed to have derived some benefit from it, the same as zinc lozenges lets say, then where is the harm? Aside from labeling and regulatory issues of course."
Well, as you know, the placebo effect is a quantifiable anomaly. You could give people a bottle of saline solution and tell them that if they squirt it up their nose 4 times a day, it will cure their cold. If enough people do it, then some of those will swear it works as advertised. In the absence of a bona fide clinical study, there's no way to prove that it did or did not. The harm comes from a deception in advertising based on pseudo science that is not regulated by the FDA due to a loophole in labelling. I have often felt as though I MAY have been coming down with a cold over the last two years but the feeling ultimately went away after only a day, even though I took nothing to thwart the potential onset of illness. Am I to assume that the air I was breathing that day was "special" in some way and nipped the cold in the butt before I could really become sick? You would say I was ludicrous for suggesting as much. I am saying the charlatans posting here are equally ludicrous for suggesting the same about Ziscam without adequate scientific proof.
Of course, the real harm is done to the gullible that believe the story and religiously buy GUMM stock as though it were the answer to all their financial problems. Just read the last post by the joker that started this thread and you'll see what I mean. That is why I persist here. |
