Time to post again! So let's embarrass ourselves

[msg1138]

Ok, so I've had what feels like a teeny bit of a slight cold for a couple of days. A few weeks back some woman I'd met on some dating site talked me into purchasing this Airborne stuff (www.airbornehealth.com). She claimed that her whole office has a stack of it and have been using it this winter and haven't caught colds

Comments

[pisicutsa]

The stuff rocks! I love it, my coworkers love it, it really helped us... and I was uber-skeptical. :)

[ratphooey]

The day-glo urine was probably just your body getting rid of extra B vitamins. That is likely to happen even with less expensive vites.

[cos]

There's no way to tell whether something like that actually works from just anecdotal evidence. One the other hand, after reading your comment about your doctor, perhaps if a bunch of your friends commented to say "yes it works!" it would help you out :)

Placebo

[tautologie]

Excellent retort to the dr. If it's not draining your bank account, it causes no harm and cures what ails ya, then why not?

Re: Placebo

[cos]

It rewards smart marketing with profits. Is that good or bad? I can make a case either way, I think.

Re: Placebo

[tautologie]

I'd have to argue that it's good. The product causes no harm that we are reasonably aware of. People have the choice to use it or not; there are plenty of alternatives, including the choice to use nothing at all. If the product is indeed totally inert (like Pepto-Bismal, reigning queen of placebo cures) and serves no scientifically quantifiable, medicinal purpose that can't be achieved by swallowing Skittles and calling them Anti-Snifflexin, the availability of such a product creates jobs. So it burns a little discretionary spending cash. The wallets shelling out the money likely won't miss it. Free society includes the right to shell out money based on dubious claims.

[syringavulgaris]

We went through a similar thing with zinc tablets. audiovile, who it must be confessed is something of a hypochondriac, swore that when he takes it when he's starting to feel sick, he never actually gets sick. But then, how do you tell if he wouldn't've gotten sick without it? And on the other hand, I had a rotten cold and sore throat just before I was about to visit sweh in London, and I drank about three of those big Naked Juice all-the-vitamin-C + lots-of-zinc bottles and I was as right as rain by the next morning. I have a fast recovery rate, but not ordinarily THAT fast.

So, zinc + vit C, both of which Airborne contains, seem to have useful effect, whether it be for actual physiological or just placebo reasons I can't say. (The herbal elements, most I don't know anything about, and the ones I do aren't actually useful to the ordinary person's immune system--but again, placebo?) I'd have to say it falls into "can't hurt but might help", so if it's not obnoxiously expensive, go for it.