Genuine question. I once had a medical doctor who swore by saline nose/throat gargling for upper respiratory tract illnesses—he was a by the book, orthodox, evidence-based doc. I did not research it. Anyone know the evidentiary status of his claim? I did not see a recent review.
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Okay, adding the reviews we do have, and one COVID related preprint coming up.https://twitter.com/AartikSarma/status/1476342990176075776 …
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And here's a preprint. It has a positive finding, but do note it is tiny sample and there is no for-real control group—just comparison to national rates of hospitalization. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.21262044v3 … https://twitter.com/jpdleblanc/status/1476342862405111811 …pic.twitter.com/4lzlnxfvJY
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Okay, here's a 2019 study. Same encouraging findings, same small sample, same "need a bigger trial" recommendation. https://twitter.com/microlabdoc/status/1476346209291886595 …pic.twitter.com/YP39ZOkIiW
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I have the most sincere respect for the power of both placebo and nocebo—aka don't mess with folk medicine—but I can't help but get curious about trials for things with plausibility, like this.
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Btw, I asked out of curiosity, and I know this is a common folk-remedy in some cultures but... just in case anyone is encountering this with a practical mindset. DO NOTE THE FOLLOWING. Rinsing nasal passages with tap/contaminated water has real risks!https://twitter.com/heckathorn_amy/status/1476353795927904259 …
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Just because I find rigorous testing of folk-remedies interesting… Someone could do a quasi-experiment by using rapid tests like this, but with some folks using rinse/gargle, some not, and also do before/after comparisons (after waiting an hour or so, as per test instructions).https://twitter.com/methanoJen/status/1476276591219064836 …
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By the way, why rigorously test folk-remedies? First: sometimes there’s unintended harm you can uncover only through proper trial. Second: if beneficial, yeay! Third: if no effect found? It seems that the placebo benefit is essentially unshakable, so no harm in finding no effect.
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Who would pay? It is a common recommendation in Quebec. Low risk, low cost, some potential benefit, why study? Would be nice to have data on efficacy (would help justify forcing it on small kids) but seems more of an academic question.
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If it works, it can do a lot of good at low risk and low cost. If it doesn't, meh, we know and it won't stop people anyway from the ritual aspect of it. I'm just amazed it doesn't get studied since no drug to sell.
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My guess: stuff that is harmless free and feels good does not attract much controversy or funding.
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symptoms (2020) :