Q. Isn't Zicam espousing homeopathy and isn't homeopathy medical quackery?
A. This homeopathic "issue" is often brought up by people who seek to discredit Zicam without understanding what it is. Homeopathy is not the issue here. Although homeopathy itself is based on the use of infinitesimal amounts of material to treat illnesses and in many cases uses such dilute amounts of materials that they are unlikely to have any effect, Zicam is a 2% solution of Zinc Gluconate. In other words, it has measurable amounts of the substance. They key issue here is that for LABELING PURPOSES, 2% Zinc Gluconate, no matter how it is delivered, is not considered a "drug" by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), because it is a relatively harmless material. This is the same material in Quigley's cold-eeze, but in Zicam it is delivered to the site of action and is held in place by the Zinullose (tm) matrix - a type of bioadhesive that keeps the zinc ions close to the epithelial cells where the viruses are trying to attach. Zicam mimics the nasal ICAM and works several ways, one of which is to bind the rhinovirus so that it does not attach to the nasal ICAM. Since Zicam does not need to travel to the site of infection via the blood, it can be supplied at a low, but measurable dose. As a matter of fact, that is why Zicam is without all the side effects one associates with zinc lozenges. Irrespective of how one judges the efficacy of cold-eeze, the fact is that GumTech did not come up with the "homeopathic" labeling policy and is not the first company to issue a product under those guidelines. To review, while some people call the specific product, Zicam, "homeopathy", because there are negative connotations of homeopathic practice (since many homeopathic materials contain negligible amounts of substances and, therefore, have questionable efficacy at best), Zicam is a 2% solution of Zinc Gluconate in a gel matrix. It is a 33 millimolar solution. It is not a negligible amount. The reason for the label as "homeopathic" relates only to the labeling policies of our government regulatory agency, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). web.archive.org |
