Scientifically Unproven Things That People Do

I have decided to compile a list of scientifically unproven things that people do, just beacuse of their interesting or amusing nature. Note that all of these events are true.

1. Some of our Asian customers like to give their newborns/infants dextrose powder. I have stressed that this is pure sugar with no nutritional value, but yet they often cannot be convinced otherwise and continue this activity.

I would imagine that this would probably predispose the child to diabetes in the future as well, due to the lack of maturity of their organs to process this sugar, but noone wants to listen.

2. Some of our Asian customers also ask for rubbing alcohol to help reduce fever. This is to be wiped over specific parts of the child's body (eg. underarms and forehead, I think), and this is to "evaporate away" the heat.

I have stressed that this isn't very effective, and is quite drying to a baby's sensitive skin. Rather, a lukewarm towel wet with a bit of water would do the trick to cool down their baby too, but ultimately fever-reducing medication like acetaminophen/ibuprofen would be best.

3. Some of our Asian customers also ask for rubbing alcohol for any skin ailment that you can think of. If it hurts, itches, burns, weeps, it's an infection, and they must put alcohol on it to disinfect it.

A lot of the time, when you put alchol on eczema it gets worse due to the drying nature of the alcohol. Strong products like alcohol and hydrogen peroxide can also impair wound healing.

4. Some of our Asian customers request for these "cool patches" to reduce fever that you stick to the forehead of their child. Apparently these are quite common overseas.

We have similar patches in the store, but they say clearly on the box that it is for "soothing" the child, rather than for fever reducing. I don't think a tiny patch on the forehead would be effective at reducing the internal temperature of a child.

5. I have had customers request for Dettol liquid. This can be used as a disinfectant for floors, bathrooms, etc. THESE people are using it for various ailments, including itchy or stinky feet.

I reminded them that there's a poison symbol on the bottle for a reason; it's quite possible that this is getting absorbed through the skin, and to just be cautious when using these products. Perhaps a better-studied Western medicine product would be more effective for their skin problem.

6. I had a 20-something year old female customer ask me for a refillable/reusable enema. After I asked a bunch of questions, I realized that she was not constipated. She actually wanted to refill this enema with organic coffee. I wondered what in the world for, and she told me that apparently it made your skin beautiful. LOL. I should've taken down her information and asked her if she ended up being successful.

7. I have a bunch of customers who have cold symptoms for 1 day like runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing, and perhaps a sore throat and they immediately go to their doctor for antibiotics. They don't understand (or refuse to) that colds are caused by viruses which are not killed by antibiotics. The first doctor (hopefully) tells them that they don't need any drugs. After wasting the government's money to see the doctor the first time, they continue to have symptoms for another 2 days, which is normal, as colds usually last around a week, and are worst around the 3rd to 4th day. They then waste more of the government's money going to another doctor to get a second opinion. At this point in time, perhaps they have gone to a doctor who easily prescribes antibiotics, even when the patient has a dry non-productive (non-chunky/phlegmy) cough, and the sore throat has gone away.Now the patient will come to the pharmacy gloating about their first doctor being wrong and not giving them drugs in the first place, because look, the second doctor thought they needed drugs.

This is what I say to myself and my loved ones:
A) ***SUCK IT UP***. It's a cold. Fighting it will make you stronger.
B) If you take antibiotics at the start of a cold, by the time you're almost done your 5-7 days of antibiotics, even if you did NOT take them in the first place, your cold symptoms will have still typically resolved. Now you have created some bacterial resistance. Good job.

The worst part is that some doctors WILL prescribe antibiotics for patients who have been sick for two days! Often these symptoms have partially resolved by the time the patient gets to the pharmacy, lol.

8. Lots of Asian customers believe that it is bad for you to "take so many days of antibiotics". The more you take the worse it will be for your body, thus, only taking them until you feel better ie. 2-3 days is the best! I had a guy come to the pharmacy asking for something to treat his tooth pain. I found out from him that he had already taken some clindamycin from his previous bout of tooth pain, about.2 days worth until he got better. THEN, the tooth pain returned, and he had been taking another two days of clindamycin, but now it was not working.

HELLO bacterial resistance. The duration of treatment has been studied to be whatever it's supposed to be, in order to kill all/most of the bacteria causing that particular bacterial infection. When you only take 2-3 days of antibiotics, you end up killing the bacteria that are easily killed, leaving behind all the strong ones that survived. These strong bacteria now end up reproducing and you have an infection that returns, and the antibiotics you just used is ineffective. Oh wait, so are all the OTHER antibiotics that are related to that one.


More and more of these scenarios occur daily. I hope you enjoyed this post. =)