Alrighty, I have a new one for you guys who are watching this thread. I've come down with a cold and have been feeling under the weather. I had these two boxes of Oscillococcinum in children's strength that I have been extremely curious about that says that it will help relieve flu like symptoms. I know that first thing you're going to think is that I'm obviously not a child so therefore this would not be strong enough dose...Yes, this could definitely be the case. That being said when doing some investigative work on what exactly is in the 'active ingredient', it appeared that it was at a typical dose for an adult. Hmm.
This is the packaging it came in:
And when you opened it up there were three tiny vials in a blister pack:
Each vial was about roughly the size of a sample perfume bottle...slightly thicker:
And when you opened it up, it had very peculiar little 'sprinkle' like balls in it:
The directions were to take the entire contents of one tube (which held a fair sized amount) in the mouth every 6 hours, up to 3 times daily.
When I take a look at the manufacturer's website (
Oscillococcinum® - BOIRON USA - Homeopathic Medicines), they don't even have a Children's version still listed on the website. They have the 'normal' version which says that anyone over the age of 2 would take a similar dosage and that the active ingredient, Anas barbariae hepatis et cordis extractum 200CK HPUS, is listed in the same exact quantity as the children's dosage. Therefore, I think it is safe to assume that this is just Children's strength in labeling only.
What I found very peculiar about this particular type of product is there really isn't a whole lot of information my company's website provides...nor the manufacturers. It felt shrouded in mystery. Even Web MD (
OSCILLOCOCCINUM: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings - WebMD) was very limited in the information it provided. I did a quick scan and found this very interesting website named "HomeoWatch" which had a very interesting and informative piece on exactly what it was, when it was discovered and just how questionable it is. (
The True Story of Oscillococcinum)
I think the most intriguing/disturbing part was this tidbit:
Quote:
Since 1925, Oscillococcinum has been prepared as follows. Into a one litre bottle, a mixture of pancreatic juice and glucose is poured. Next a Canard de Barbarie is decapitated and 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart are put into the bottle. Why liver? Doctor Roy writes: "The Ancients considered the liver as the seat of suffering, even more important than the heart, which is a very profound insight, because it is on the level of the liver that the pathological modifications of the blood happen, and also there the quality of the energy of our heart muscle changes in a durable manner." Maybe the French tendency to call any form of not well-being a "crise de foie" ("bilious attack") had also something to do with it. After 40 days in the sterile bottle, liver and heart autolyse (disintegrate) into a kind of goo, which is then "potentized" with the Korsakov method.
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Honestly, I started taking the product before doing any real research into the ingredients and how it worked. Homeopathic products are typically known to not contain ingredients that will interact with other medications (however please do your homework first as this seems to be the general rule of thumb, and doesn't meant as fact...) and therefore I wasn't too concerned. Did I taste anything organ like in the medicine...No. It just tasted vaguely sweet due to the 1g of sugar in it.
Did I feel any relief because I took it? I honestly can't say. I'm still feeling run down to a degree from my cold, and I have been still keeping up on my daily supplement as well as taking an additional Vitamin C tablet to help support my immune system. I've also been drinking a lot of herbal teas as well as they are known to help support your body and if nothing else they are comforting when you have a cold.
I think I'm on the fence on this...And I'm very intrigued about further homeopathic remedies. They seem to be based largely on an out of date line of thinking. Treating like with like is what seems to be the general idea. If anyone has experience in Homeopathy please speak up! I would love to hear your thoughts/wisdom on this.