Do topical drugs really work?

May 31, 2009

Dear Friend,

It's bad enough that people are ingesting needless pharmaceuticals into their

bodies willy nilly. Now the habit of using useless -- and potentially dangerous

-- topical drugs to treat all manner of muscle and joint pain is gaining even

more popularity. But unlike most pharmaceuticals, it's an almost universally

accepted truth among the medical community that most of these creams and

ointments don't do anything.

Well, they might kill you. But other than that, they're fine.

The sports cream industry is a $275 million per year behemoth -- and that

doesn't even count sales at Wal-Mart. That's a lot of money to spend on

something that has essentially zero evidence to back it up.

And I'm not the only one who says so, either. Dr. Sallis -- a past

president of the American College of Sports Medicine -- said, " Do topical

analgesics help heal the injury or get an athlete back to activity any quicker?

The answer is no... there's no evidence to support that topical analgesics

actually work. "

Then why are they so popular? It's because of a simple tick your mind plays on

you, called the placebo effect. Based on their popularity, it must be quite a

strong effect indeed. And if that were the end of the story, it might not be a

big deal.

But it's not the end of the story. The problem is, many of these analgesics

contain harmful chemicals. Not long ago, I wrote to you about the story of

17-year-old cross- country runner from New York who died because of methyl

salicylate poisoning. Methyl salicylate is the key ingredient in many of the

most popular sports creams such as Icy Hot, Ben Gay, and others.

Experts cautioned that the young girl's death was caused by excessive exertion

and bodily heat that contributed to her body's absorption of the chemical. Is

that supposed to make anyone feel any better? These are sports creams, after

all, so most people apply them before or after spates of intense exertion, which

can cause a spike in body heat.

I'll grant you that the young girl's death was out of the ordinary. But I still

find it aggravating that there is an entire family of purportedly " medicinal "

products out there that have zero clinical evidence or research studies back up

their product claims -- and have killed at least one person who used them as

directed -- and yet, the FDA sits idly by, doing nothing. Except, that is,

denouncing natural cures and remedies.

Love, Gabby. :0)

" I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had

some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin. " ~ Jerry Newport

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