DeVliegendeHollander comments on Open Thread, Apr. 06 - Apr. 12, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (128)
Ah, you are right. Still there's a flu vaccine.
I don't have specific concerns, but in general heating up a region under pain seems to be an idea that could be within standard medicine and it doesn't seem to be standard practice.
If it would be useful, why is there no big pharma company that sells a creme that heats up ears and markets it?
Because a cup of salt costs something like cents, it would be very difficult to compete with it.
Nobody runs clinical trials to show that the cup of salts has ideal properties.
Running clinical trials that a certain creme helps the ear on the other hand puts the treatment into the 'evidence-based' medicine bucket.
See Scott Alexanders discussion of Melatonin vs. Ramelteon.
Of course nobody does it, there is no business opportunity in it.
Nasal irrigation seems to have been pretty successfully commercialized, so I suppose you could commercialize heated salt and run trials with some inventive marketing.
But then you would likely sell your heated salt at a higher price point and not for the price of ordinary salt.