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Comment by roydivision | Hacker News Reader

At the very least pharmacies should be prevented from selling anything as medicine that isn't backed by proper science. Pharmacies should be trustworthy establishments, by selling this garbage they are as complicit in this whole scam as the manufacturers.

And although placebo is a scientifically proven effect, it is not a label for quackery to hide behind.

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Yes I strongly agree. I remember a friend bought coloidal silver cleansing spray at a pharmacy. She thought it was a normal antiseptic spray and used it to clean her kids wounds. She was very surprised when I explained it was just overpriced distilled water. I'm in Europe so there were no health claims on the packaging but other than that there wasno way to know. It is especially confusing in that case since silver is a real antiseptic, so it's not like obviously non plausible.

Colloidal silver is not a homeopathic medicine. It was briefly in vogue in the days before sulphanilamide and antibiotics, and some wound dressings contain silver. It works by giving bacteria heavy metal poisoning.

Some people make the stuff themselves and drink it, which over time can give one argyria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria). Definitely not a good idea to do that, but I suspect for putting on minor wounds this might be more a case of "there are better solutions".

I don’t know where you are but in the US pharmacies wouldn’t sell homeopathic eye drops, but the drug store in which the pharmacy operates would.

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