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Yet we have "medicine" that you can buy that in fact is not at all effective (Phenylephrine, for example).

I saw it recently used in the cocktail being administered by an anesthesiologist during surgery. It seems to have a use in staving off hypotension during that sort of thing.

Is it a nasal decongestant? Hell no.

Yeah I was going to say - definitely a real drug just a bad nasal decongestant - and generally overshadowed by other phenethylamines.

A long tail from the ephedra plant, once similarly an unregulated supplement that absolutely does stuff.

If you're unfamiliar, see https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/uselessness-phenyl....

Where do you think Derek goes wrong?

I don't.

I was replying to someone who was dismissing non "medicine"

Phenylephrine is useless, but ephedrine and pseudo are not, derived from a non "medicine."

Ah, I misunderstood you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com