Zicam Not Alone in Side Effect Reports

The FDA's own side effect reports potentially implicate at least 843 homeopathic ingredients just in the year ending September 2008, the AP found. It is impossible to verify how many were taken at low homeopathic concentrations. But dozens apparently were, and they were linked to side effects, including muscle and joint pain in reports submitted by consumers, doctors and others.

Though many homeopathic remedies consist mostly of sugar or alcohol, thousands of patients swear by their effectiveness anyway.

Amanda Rafferty of Haverhill took homeopathic sanguinaria canadensis, made from a toxic herb known as bloodroot, for her monthly migraine headaches. She says her next migraine didn't come back for a full year.

She says she had no idea that such remedies weren't checked by the government but voices contempt for "the whole system" of government regulation.

Her homeopath, Begabati Lennihan of Cambridge, treats headaches, colds, ear infections, digestive complaints, depression and behavioral problems. Like other homeopaths, Lennihan considers not just symptoms but also temperaments, favorite foods, even dreams. However, if the problem shows up in an X-ray, she acknowledges, it "is going to be harder to fix with homeopathy."

Today's homeopaths are typically trained in part-time certificate programs. Lennihan took conventional nurse's training to bolster her homeopathic credentials. Only Connecticut, Arizona and Nevada license homeopaths, and they insist on a medical degree as a prerequisite.

With only about 2,500 full-time U.S. homeopaths, patients routinely diagnose themselves. Dr. Ahmed Currim, one of 13 state-licensed homeopathic doctors in Connecticut, discourages people from buying homeopathic remedies without professional advice, because they "don't know what they're doing."

How could they? In the booming nonprescription market, many homeopathic remedies are sold for symptoms so vague and broad that it's virtually impossible to match treatment and ailment.

For example, one homeopathic ingredient, lithium carbonate, is used as a psychiatric drug by conventional medicine. In homeopathy, one advertisement pitches it for "rheumatic soreness in the heart region, paralytic stiffness all over, cerebral congestion, insomnia and epilepsy."

Even some leading homeopaths have begun to change their minds about independent oversight.

Dr. Iris R. Bell, a psychiatrist and homeopathy researcher at the University of Arizona, Tucson, says the suspended Zicam products deliver the homeopathic ingredient right into the nose -- not an accepted homeopathic method. She says the FDA should act against such products.

She also acknowledged that "there are people preparing things homeopathically to try to get around FDA regulations of over-the-counter drugs." But she says most homeopathic remedies are much safer than conventional pharmaceuticals, so no major regulatory changes are needed.

Asked if the Zicam warning portends stronger oversight of homeopathy, FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said only: "We are always re-evaluating our policies to ensure that we are appropriately protecting the public health."