Pacifiers on pharmacy shelves
10 popular medicines that are actually completely useless
Our pharmacies sell a lot of medicines with unproven effectiveness. Our legislation does not prevent this. Some of the drugs popular in Russia are banned in Europe. You can buy them from us without a prescription. They sell us sugar balls with duck entrails, calves' blood and herbal preparations under the guise of miraculous remedies. Thanks to advertising, we willingly take them for a lot of money, without even thinking about what these popular medicines are made of. But it would be worth it. We have compiled a list of ten dummy medications that should be abandoned. Surely you've heard of them, and maybe you've used them.
1. Actovegin
According to Pharmexpert, actovegin ranks third in Russia in terms of sales among medicines. According to the description on the package, the drug activates the metabolism in the tissues and stimulates the regeneration process. What is he really like? Actovegin is an extract from the blood of cattle. Preparations from components of animal origin are prohibited in the USA and Western Europe, so Actovegin is used exclusively in the CIS, China and South Korea. In Russia, the drug is universally prescribed at any stage of pregnancy to improve blood circulation, despite the risk of complications.Clinically, the effectiveness of Actovegin has not been proven. In Russia, the drug was tested by order of the manufacturer, but the results of the research were never made public. Moreover, when using actovegin, there is a possibility of catching spongiform encephalitis, the carrier of which may be contained in the raw material — calf blood.
2. Arbidol
Arbidol was developed in the 60s of the twentieth century and for a long time became the leader of the domestic pharmaceutical market. In the 1970s and 80s, the drug was recognized as effective against acute respiratory diseases of the influenza virus types A and B, however, the results of mass clinical trials of arbidol have not been published. Foreign experts were not interested in it. The American Food and Drug Administration did not register the drug as a medicinal product. Nevertheless, in Russia it is widely advertised and actively promoted at the highest level.
3. Cerebrolysin
The drug is intended for patients with impaired functions of the central nervous system and attention, as well as dementia, but in Russia it is more often used for the treatment of ischemic stroke. In 2010, the authoritative international organization Cochrane Collaboration, which collects information on evidence-based studies, published a review of the results of clinical trials of the drug. The condition of the group of subjects who were given cerebrolysin did not improve, and the mortality in it was the same as in the second group who took a placebo. "According to our results, none of the 146 subjects showed any improvement in their condition when taking the drug… There is no reason to confirm the effectiveness of the use of cerebrolysin in the treatment of patients with ischemic stroke."
4. Mezim forte
The drug, created on the basis of pancreatin from the pancreas of pigs, should improve the digestion of food in the intestine. According to the manufacturers, the shell of the drug dissolves only in the alkaline environment of the small intestine. There, the enzymes included in the preparation are released — amylase, lipase and protease, which improve digestion. In 2009, studies of the drug were conducted that questioned this. The President of the Association of Employers' Organizations of the Medical and Microbiological Industry of Ukraine, Valery Pechaev, said that the drug was completely ineffective. According to him, the mezim forte shell dissolves in the stomach, not in the intestines, which makes the medicine useless. Representatives of Berlin-Chemie did not comment on the results of the study in any way, limiting themselves to a retaliatory attack towards Pechaev, whose company produces a competitor drug mezim. In any case, the famous slogan "irreplaceable for the stomach" obviously misleads consumers. If mezim works, it is only in the intestine.
5. Novo-Passit
Manufacturers position the drug as a psychotropic drug that suppresses anxiety and emotional tension. In fact, this is an herbal tincture with an inflated cost and a dubious effect. The composition of Novo-Passita includes a complex of liquid extracts of medicinal plants: valerian officinalis, melissa officinalis, St. John's wort, hawthorn, passionflower incarnata (passion flower), ordinary hops, black elderberry and guaifenesin extracted from the bark of the gayak tree. The latter is responsible for the removal of the alarm. Guaifenesin is added to cough medicines. Its expectorant effect is proven, but which of it is an antidepressant is unknown.
6. Validol
Mint candy, not bad refreshing breath, but not salvation from a heart attack. Due to a common misconception about the benefits of the drug for heart pain, it is put under the tongue instead of nitroglycerin, risking being in the hospital with a heart attack.
7. Corvalol, valocordin
It has been clinically proven that corvalol (the Soviet analogue of the German valocordin) does not affect the cardiovascular system, at the same time phenobarbital, which is part of the drug, accumulates in tissues and subsequently destroys them. Phenobarbital is banned in most developed countries, and we have drugs with it (corvalol, valocordin) sold without a prescription. In addition, the people's favorite remedy for all heart diseases contains psychotropic components, which is why it is prohibited to import into the United States. Professor Vasily Vlasov stated about the complete ineffectiveness of the drug, explaining its popularity: "These drugs are registered as a cardiac remedy, but they are useless for heart diseases. The history of the creation of valocordin refers to the times when it was fashionable to treat all diseases with sleep. In fact, both drugs have an exclusively sedative effect, which is extremely pleasant for the elderly, especially women who are embarrassed to drink a glass of vodka at lunch. The therapeutic effect of the drugs has not been proven by any clinical studies."
8. Linex and other probiotics
The drug is based on bifidobacteria and is designed to improve the intestinal microflora. However, due to the production characteristics, the effectiveness of the drug tends to zero. According to the manufacturers, one capsule of linex contains 1.2 * 10" live, but vacuum-dried lactic acid bacteria. This number is small — the same number of bacteria can be obtained from the daily norm of fermented milk products. When the drug is vacuum packed into capsules, most of the bacteria die. Comparative analysis of dry and liquid bacteria showed that the former are much more passive, so the probability that the surviving bacteria will have time to have an effect on the body is small. Probiotics are incredibly popular in Russia because of the myth actively promoted by their manufacturers about "dysbiosis" - a condition of allegedly disturbed intestinal microflora, which can allegedly be cured with drugs like Linex.
9. Essentiale, Livolin, Essentiale N
Like numerous analogues, the drug, according to manufacturers, improves the condition of the liver. There is no convincing data on this, and the companies that produce them are in no hurry to conduct the test. There is not a single study confirming the effectiveness of drugs against liver diseases. According to our legislation, they are not required.
10. Ocillococcinum
A widely advertised anti-flu remedy. The history of its creation is quite curious, but the effect is doubtful. Its analogue was created at the beginning of the last century. During the Spanish flu epidemic in 1919, the French epidemiologist Joseph Roy, under a microscope, discovered mysterious bacteria in the blood of flu patients, which he called Oscillococci and declared the causative agents of the disease. Subsequently, it turned out that the flu was caused by viruses, and the bacteria of the ocillococcus could not be seen by anyone except the Frenchman. The Rua vaccine based on mythical ocillococci from the blood of sick people turned out to be ineffective, but the scientist was not going to give up. He, following the main principle of homeopathy — to treat like with like, but in much smaller dosages, took as the basis of the drug an extract of the liver of birds — the main carriers of influenza in nature. His ideas were used by manufacturers of ocillococcinum, who indicate the extract of the liver and heart of the Barbary duck as the active substance of the drug, besides there is negligible amount of it in the preparation. (Dilution by 10,400 times implies the absence of even one molecule of the active substance, not only in the package, but, perhaps, in the car of the drug. For comparison, the number of atoms in the universe is about 10 80 – VM.) Yes, you understood everything correctly, we are offered to treat the flu with sugar balls with duck entrails. Needless to say, the effectiveness of the drug has not been proven.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru