I’ve heard a couple of friends and family swear by Natura Rescue Remedy, “for Shock, Anxiety & Sleeplessness”. So I thought I’d do a bit of research. Here’s what I found:
Firstly, let’s have a look at the ingredients listed on the Natura website. (The ingredients don’t actually matter, but more about that later.)
- Ambra grisea D6
- Banisteropsis caapi Spag D60
- Clematis vitalba (Clematis) aqua inf.
- Helianthemum nummularium (Rock Rose) aqua inf.
- Impatiens glandulifera (Impatiens) aqua inf.
- Melissa officinalis Spag D3
- Moschus moschiferus D6
- Ornithogalum umbellatum (Star of Bethlehem) aqua inf.
- Prunus cerasifera (Cherry Plum) aqua inf.
Let’s look at each of these in turn:
| Ingredient | Natura Says | In reality |
|---|---|---|
| Ambra Grisea | supports the functioning of the nervous system to treat anxiety, fear, hypersensitivity, shyness and numbness of the body. | biliary secretion of the intestines of the sperm whale … was used as a fixative in perfumery |
| Banisteriopsis caapi | helps calm extreme nervous hypersensitivity |
Hallucinogenic used by native American tribes and some religious sects. Entheogenic.
|
| Clematis | is a flower essence indicated for inability to focus on reality and the present and is useful in the treatment of shock. | Essentially toxic. Causes internal bleeding of the digestive track. Despite its toxicity, it was used by Native Americans in small amounts to treat migraines. |
| Rock Rose | is the flower essence that relieves extreme fear and a feeling of panic | This is a good nectar source for bees |
| Impatiens glandulifera | acts on the nervous system to relieve irritability, restlessness, hyperactivity and impatience | When crushed has a strong musky odour. |
| Melissa Officinalis | has a carminative and sedative action to help induce restful sleep, prevent insomnia, soothe irritability and help cope with stress and tension. |
Wikipedia actually notes one study that did find it “may” relieve stress, though even the authors of this study state that further research is needed to confirm it.
Don’t expect much from this as Natura dilutes this ingredient 1000 times before adding it in with the mix of other ingredients.
|
| Moschus moschiferus | acts on the central nervous system to relieve fainting, shock, anxiety and fear |
Siberian Musk Deer. Hunted for its musk gland (believed to have aphrodisiac qualities). Classified as a threatened species by CITES.
Now Natura is helping to kill endanged animals!
|
| Star of Bethlehem | is the principle flower essence specifically indicated for shock | Wikipedia says: “The plant is toxic.” |
| Cherry Plum | is a flower essence that acts on the nervous system to treat anxiety and fear | Wikipedia says: “excellent for jam making” |
Hopefully by now you’ve figured out that Natura is trying to fool people and relieve them of their money, rather than their anxiety. Firstly, not a single one of the ingredients has been proven to have any of the effects Natura proclaims. Furthermore, the ingredients are so dilute that they wouldn’t have any effect in any case.
If you thought that you’d at least get a little bit high from Banisteriopsis caapi as the Native Americans did, think again. It is diluted 1×10^60 times before it’s added. This means that there is 1 part of this in every 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 parts of water. That’s a pretty big number. Let me try put this another way: It will take 2 billion doses, per second, to 6 billion people, for 4 billion years, to deliver a single molecule to any one patient.
I.e. you haven’t a snowball’s chance in midsummer to get any effect from Banisteriopsis Caapi.
And that ain’t the end of it! Hold on to your chair for this one:
According to homeopathy principles, the more dilute the solution, the stronger the effects! I kid you not.
Now, I know some of you reading this are saying: “But I’ve tried homeopathy and it works for me!”. And this may well be true, because of the Placebo Effect, and it has indeed been scientifically proven that Placebos do help with symptomatic relief.
The question is: How much are you willing to pay for a Placebo?
—
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_remedy
Please share this article with your friends and family. Even if Rescue might have no effects on your body, the long-term effect on the environment from manufacturing and distribution of these remedies is highly destructive.
RELATED: BIG PHARMA BAD? HERE ARE SOME FACTS ABOUT THE “ALTERNATIVE”
Thank you for posting the reasearch. For those who says it does work, it may have to do with the 36% alcohol.
I don’t use homeopathic medicines generally, but Natura Rescue tablets really do work. Don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it. The tablets do not have alcohol in, and nothing else helps me sleep without side effects and I’ve been using this amongst others (which have always had some negative) for years. It settles my restless legs and I sleep fabulously and yes it does work for restless kids too. Yes you are right they are so diluted they are definitely not toxic, but you are wrong about all the other stuff and it’s clear you don’t have any scientific background. ALso you clearly haven’t tried it.
I don’t use homeopathic medicines generally, but Natura Rescue tablets really do work. Don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it. The tablets do not have alcohol in, and nothing else helps me sleep without side effects and I’ve been using this amongst others (which have always had some negative) for years. It settles my restless legs and I sleep fabulously and yes it does work for restless kids too. Yes you are right they are so diluted they are definitely not toxic, but you are wrong about all the other stuff and it’s clear you don’t have any scientific background. ALso you clearly haven’t tried it.
Good video on the topic:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U
The placebo effect works on me!!!! Wooot!
does it realy work couse i get realy stressed out an nervous then i feel pins and needls?
would you rather be taking medicine for depression that makes you shake like an old person, hair falling out , attacking your liver, gaining or losing weight . ext ext ext I’m talking about experience you will then be given a tab to counteract the bad symptoms and another to counteract those. Rescue is very inexpensive compare to the thousands you spend on perscribed meds.
You obviously have no idea about how homoeopathy works… Don’t talk about things you don’t know anything about.
Anuschka, feel free to enlighten me. How does homeopathy work then? Maybe James Randi got it wrong…
<p>It occasionally works a little better than the placebo effect… which is 1 out of 2 times, if I'm not mistaken… which is pretty great.</p> <p>What's the alternative? Telling yourself it's all in the mind does relieve any symptoms nearly as well, there's clearly a niche for curing psychosomatic ills…
</p> <p>And then there's the profound conflict of interest that capitalism has with health care… where's the profit in healing? What's a Hippocratic oath to a pharmacist?</p> <p>Sent from my phone</p>
I started using Natura Rescue after it being recommended by a Gastric Surgeon on diagnosing be with an extreme case of irritable bowl syndrome, brought on by severe long term stress. I can tell you now it works for me. I am also in the habit of investigating individual ingredients and came up with the same info on the separate ingredients. So I can tell you I certainly was not convinced that this would have any effect on my stress at all. I decided to give it a go, since I was given a complimentary bottle by the surgeon and really had nothing to lose. I can vouch for the results and suspect that it is the combination of products that has the effect.
<p>Yes, just because it's called a placebo doesn't mean that it doesn't do anything. The only way to get the benefit of the 50% success rate of a placebo, is to actually take one.
</p>
You are clearly an ignorant person–just reading your riveting "wikipedia research" has lead me to believe you probably have some sort of learning disability or are mildly retarded (as in intellectually slow or mentally challenge). How you ever figured out to make a blog is a mystery. How can anybody read wikipedia and think you are actually doing research??? Its people like you that cause such destruction and problems in the world today because you publicly speak of things that you are absolutely wrong about–its completely slanderous. What were your intentions by posting this–other than clearly to display the problems you have with your family members taking these herbal products to better themselves? Instead of continuing to be a useless human being that tries to bring others down, why don’t you educate yourself to actually better yourselfps if you knew anything about the science of the human body you would also know the placebo effect is actually real, not just a "coincidence" as you lay men (that means uneducated people) call it. But if you actually read a book you would know this
Dear "your new teacher": It’s always fun seeing such passionate personal attacks from people who choose to remain anonymous! But anyways, regarding ignorance… I think you meant to use "libellous", rather than "slanderous". Similarly, try "it’s" instead of "its" where appropriate. Did you mean to append a ‘d’ to "mentally challenge"? It’s people like me who cause such destruction and problems in the world? Enlighten me then, how does your personal and cowardly anonymous attack help to increase knowledge or make the world a better place? Besides for not saying anything of value whatsoever, you also single-handedly managed to sodomise the English language! I did not for one moment suggest that the placebo effect is a "coincidence"; my article states very clearly that the placebo effect has indeed been scientifically proven to work. (For more information on this, read Ben Goldacre’s book "Bad Science" and check out his website: http://www.badscience.net) p.s. I studied anatomy, physiology, endocrinology, haematology, physics, chemistry, zoology and many other subjects at university level. Have you ever done a single scientific experiment in a lab? Do you understand the concept of empirical evidence?p.p.s. One of the foremost scientific journals in the world, Nature, published a study showing that Wikipedia is, in fact, as accurate as the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
<p dir="ltr">Re Wikipedia: not to mention, many times more peer reviewed.</p> <p dir="ltr">If you want to change the world – why not study a subject you are passionate about, do research, meet peers in the field, have them review your work, do case studies and publish it, and share your knowledge on Wikipedia for everyone to learn from?</p> <p dir="ltr">Sent from my phone</p>
I believe if you are determined to prove something wrong you can find the information you are looking for to help you believe you are right, and this information put together in the right context looks great and makes sense, but the same can be done with mainstream medicine for example… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChemotherapyChemotherapeutic techniques have a range of side-effects that depend on the the type of medications used. These side-effects include- Depression of the immune system which can result in potentially fatal infections, Gastrointestinal distress ??? Nausea and vomiting are common side effects, this can also produce diarrhoea or constipation. Malnutrition and dehydration can also result. And some others include Cardiotoxicity (heart damage), Hepatotoxicity (liver damage), Nephrotoxicity (kidney damage), Encephalopathy (brain dysfunction) and Infertility. and from http://curezone.com/diseases/cancer/chemo_therapy_facts.asp"We briefly have viewed the miserable results obtained by orthodox surgery and radiation. However, the record of so-called anti-cancer drugs is even worse. The primary reason for this is that most of them currently in use are highly poisonous, not just to cancer but to the rest of the body as well. Generally they are more deadly to healthy tissue than they are to the malignant cell.All substances can be toxic if taken in sufficient quantity. This is true of aspirin, sugar, Laetrile, or even water. But, unlike those, the anti-cancer drugs are poisonous, not as a result of an overdose or as a side-effect, but as a primary effect. In other words, their poisonous nature is not tolerated merely as a necessary price to pay in order to achieve some desired effect, it is the desired effect."And yes the placebo effect works, and I truly believe the mind has a huge ability to overcome an illness when it believes it has help. But I have also seen animals been treated by homeopathy and given we cannot influence an animal’s beliefs I cannot see how the placebo effect has anything to do with their results.I did not for one moment suggest that the placebo effect is a "coincidence"; my article states very clearly that the placebo effect has indeed been scientifically proven to work. (For more information on this, read Ben Goldacre’s book "Bad Science" and check out his website: http://www.badscience.net)the thing is we live in a world which is full of people who are adamant they are right and consider themselves superior to those who believe otherwise. i am not implying that anyone here fits in to these categories but these are human traits not to be ashamed of but we should be aware of this in ourselves and remember that it is not any particular type of person that causes destruction and problems in the world, its when people react to others beliefs and try to force their own on others and believe they have a right to do so, that is when all the negative results occur. we can all be to blame. We have to remember we have no right to tell others they are wrong and ignorant for believing otherwise, because fact is, no matter is, no matter how well we are educated, no matter how much we study any amount of subjects, we will never fully understand how anything in the world works and also remember, most people will never study somthing they are determined is wrong as much as somthing they are determined is right therefore we will always be sure we are right because thats all we have proved to OURSELVES.Mags
Mags, can you please provide any evidence that homeopathy works in animals? The problem is that homeopathy is actually harmful to society. Not because of the actual pills that are sold for a pretty penny, but because of the influence that homeopaths have on their patients. So when homeopaths tell patients not to immunize their children, they endanger us all. Your philosophical discourse on "being wrong" is the type of solipsism that I usually only find in people who start to discover that reality doesn’t agree with their own delusions. So rather than admit they are wrong, they take a view of "everybody is wrong and everybody is right and it’s all just personal experiences" rather than facing the facts.Here’s another website that tries to explain how homeopathy works; http://www.howdoeshomeopathywork.com/
Henk, I have just seen this message. I didnt make the comment because I desire an ongoing debate, it was simply somthing I wanted to say at the time. I am exausted and have no desire to gather evidence to prove anything about what I believe. I know when someone is determined to prove themselves right to others. I however am not as iv learned from experience that its not worth the hassle. but i will say one thing, on the part "homeopathy is actually harmful to society. Not because of the actual pills that are sold for a pretty penny, but because of the influence that homeopaths have on their patients." the same can be said about mainstream medicine (except for the ‘pretty penny part) im not saying mainstream med is all crap, hey i still take paracetamol when i need to
Anyway, I have little doubt that you will reply telling me im a coward and am avoiding continuing this debate as i have no evidence to support my statements or somthing along the lines and thats fine, you say what you need to say. your opinion on me or my opinions are not important to me as i dont even know you and iv had these debates and heard the opinions from my brother. im well used to it. Take care Henk.
Mags, when I asked you for evidence on homeopathy working on animals, it was a rhetorical question
Regarding paracetamol: It has known effects and side-effects that are transparent. There’s no "magic" being claimed nor denial from doctors about these side effects. When more side-effects are found, these are studied and replicated and discussed – all in full public view. That is the basis of medical ethics. And not doing research in this way is simply unethical. Regardless of who is wrong or right. Henk p.s. I reserve the "coward" word for people who make personal attacks anonymously, not for people who simply disagree with me.
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Hey Henk,<div>I know it was a rhetorical question but i was acknowledging that the question does exist. i have seen it work but unfortuantly i was too young at the time to be aware of so much doubt in people to think of documenting it every time, and now as i have grown up, my life has grown away from animals. but im happy with what my life has thought me in my 30 years. but for all i do believe i dont believe in magic, but i do believe in things being too difficult or complicated for me to understand how it works, as a result i wouldnt bother trying to get david blaine or keith barry to explain some things to me. theres side effects with homeopathy which are not denied either.</div><div><br></div><div>Mags
<div><br></div><div><br><br>—</div></div></td></tr></table>
Hey Henk,I know it was a rhetorical question but i was acknowledging that the question does exist. i have seen it work but unfortuantly i was too young at the time to be aware of so much doubt in people to think of documenting it every time, and now as i have grown up, my life has grown away from animals. but im happy with what my life has thought me in my 30 years. but for all i do believe i dont believe in magic, but i do believe in things being too difficult or complicated for me to understand how it works, as a result i wouldnt bother trying to get david blaine or keith barry to explain some things to me. theres side effects with homeopathy which are not denied either.Mags
Ok, I’m sitting here with a bottle of this Rescue Remedy and it definitely does not have Moschus moschiferus in it. I’ve catagorically gone down the list of ingredients according to your research and the list on the bottle and there is no such thing in this stuff. I will now conduct my own research to see how accurate yours is. Purely because I too do not trust herbal medications all that much and am also on a mission to see how much nonsense they feed us, but we must be 100% sure it’s all bulltwak.
Ambra Grisea – or Ambergris – indeed doesn’t seem to have any valuable medicinal properties other than what was believed to be the case in the Middle Ages… hmmmm. Quite worrying when one reads that in some countries it’s use is illegal. In fact in perfumery they now use a synthetic component that emulates Ambergris. Nowhere but on Natura’s website have I managed to find out that this has any medicinal value at all.http://www.cropwatch.org/amber.htmMakes for interesting reading. So, the whole thing has fallen down for me already based just on this one lie. If they can lie about one ingredient, they can lie about anything else, which makes this product seem dodgy at best to me and this bottle will now be joining the trash in my dustbin. Thank you for an eye opening read.
Amanda, you are quite right, it looks like Moscus Moschiferus is no longer on the ingredients list and Natura’s website has been updated with the original link to ingredients getting broken. They might have taken it off the list of ingredients in response to complaints about deer hunting and breeding (see http://www.ethicalliving.co.za/rescue-remedy-natural-perhaps-but-do-you-want-to-put-it-in-your-mouth/) Of course, you can willy-nilly add or remove names of ingredients as much as you’d like, seeing as none of them were present in the bottle to start with.
Sorry, your rationale ignores all the tenets of homeopathy, and is thusly invalid. The homeopathy that has saved my life twice could not have done so with placebo effect. Nice try, though.
http://www.vithoulkas.com/en/books-study/online-materia-medica/2848.html
GNOSIS: I’m quite familiar with the "tenets of homeopathy", which is precisely why I ignore them along with any adults who seriously believe in Santa Claus or that the dead would want to speak to a prick like John Edward. Should I waste my time explaining HOW the reindeers fly or HOW John Edward talks to the dead when it’s clearly poppycock? Unless you cloned yourself a 1000 times and did a double-blind study using a placebo vs homeopathic remedies and found that half of your clones died (the placebo group) and the other half were "saved" (the homeopathy group), I’d bet that you’d find the placebo work. And speaking of bets… James Randi will even pay you a $1,000,000 if you can prove that homeopathy has any positive effect on your body. (Nobody has yet claimed the $1,000,000) But for anyone here who is interested in the tenets of homeopathy, here’s a video that explains it perfectly well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWE1tH93G9U
I’ve used flower essences and have made essences and they work. I’ve used them on my animals and seem immediate results. I’ve made essences without alcohol and they work. Why are you so threatened by all this when it actually works. And you don’t seem very educated on the subject and yet you form an opinion. It’s not the actual parts of the toxic plant. I could explain all day but there’s not point. You aren’t listening nor do you want to hear. Shit, I don’t even know why I’m commenting on this page, except you piss me off with your ignorant post on essences. But maybe that’s your point. To get comments and reaction, then bravo!
I have to say that in my experience they do not work at all. After trying for months I can confirm that they have absolutely no effect whatsoever. Even if you take 20 or 30 tablets a day, nada.In fact, I have yet to see a homoeopathic remedy that is of any use. I’d sooner believe in the tooth fairy.
Pingback: Ben Goldacre – Battling Bad Science | geekrebel.com