Summary for spirits of nitre Discussion
Spirits of nitre and paregoric are discussed as old-time remedies for "your nerves" and tummy aches, but the thread says they are no longer available over the counter. Dee Moses asks why these medicines were taken off the shelf and whether they can be bought online. The reply from the site says corruption and the FDA system mean we may never know whether they are truly good for nerves or safe, because they are treated as "new drugs" and would require expensive clinical trials that are unlikely to happen for products that cannot be patented. The answer also says no, they cannot be purchased legally online. The broader point is that the disappearance of these remedies is tied to regulation, cost, and politics rather than a simple judgment that they were ineffective.
Q. Old time remedies/medicines worked. Why were they taken off the shelf? Can we purchase them on line? My mom used to treat us for our nerves, tummy aches etc.
Dee Moses
Senior Citizen – Chaptico, Maryland
October 31, 2024
A. Hi Dee.
Corruption has consequences, one of which is that we will never know whether these are good for your nerves, nor whether they are safe or unsafe.
No, you can’t buy them. The FDA considers them “new drugs” which can’t be sold until very expensive clinical trials are run … knowing that it will never happen because these products can’t be patented, so it is impossible to recover the cost of the required clinical trials.
If politicians actually cared about citizens’ health and the cost of medicine they would order the FDA to commission such trials of course; they haven’t and they won’t because people vote for who they’ve heard of, and we hear of the politicians who run TV ads, and big pharma and other megacorps pay for those ads :-(
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.