Comment on Alternative medicine

• HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Or we could just start selling placebo tablets and make a fortune. I have some clay in my garden that should be easy enough to shape into pill shapes. We could even paint a few of them red and sell those as extra strong.

  Not hurting anyone…

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  • Jarix@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Um Clay would have an effect. Use powdered sugar and simply compress them into a pill. This is literally one way they do already make placebos in pill form. You can buy a pill press on amazon

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    • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Sugar isn’t great for diabetics. Wouldn’t clay just pass through as it has no nutritional value.

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      • Jarix@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Well sure but you could use other household ingredient that aren’t contaminated with whatever might be in your soil.

        It was intentional that i said it’s one way they already make placebos in pill form.

        It entirely is only important if you care about hiring people and not just stealing from them

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  • almost1337@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Why waste valuable clay when you can just sell homeopathic remedies?

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• Senal@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  ah, that makes sense.

  Does that still apply if the underlying mechanism isn’t understood?

  I know examples of this exist already , I’m wondering if “proof of effectiveness” really means just the effectiveness in this context.

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  • andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Effectiveness is independent of mechanism. As an example, to my knowledge SSRIs don’t really make sense but mostly outperform placebo.

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    • Senal@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Agreed,

      Pretty sure anesthesia is similar, (in the not fully understanding the underlying mechanism)

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  • turmacar@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    We are only ‘pretty sure’ of the mechanism of how Tylenol works biochemically as of 2025.

    You can test for effectiveness and dangers and everything else you need to prescribe something to get a good idea of whether its actually doing something or not.

    ‘Alternative medicine’ is largely, “I felt better after a bit”.

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    • HerbGrower@slrpnk.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      We didn’t know how alcohol worked but it was still an effective medicine for battlefield surgeons through history.

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