My Berocca Performance tabs showed up today in the mail. Canada’s Redoxon-B isn’t a bad substitute, but I need my calcium, folic acid, vitamin C and zinc as well. The new Performance stuff isn’t quite as reddish as the original Berocca was, nor does it quite have the same taste, but I guess the new Tang-like flavour is preferable, anyway.

Wikipedia’s article on Berocca links to a serendipitous, fantastic study in the Medical Journal of Australia regarding treatment of anxiety disorders via various means, including Berocca. It covers just about every alternative treatment I’ve seen, and does a fantastic job of surveying the literature for evidence/lack thereof on efficacy. (For reference, Berocca is ineffective.)

We need more of these guides. And for those of my friends who are holistic health practitioners, remember: there’s nothing wrong with admitting that ‘faith healing’ is just that — based on faith. It’s not the Bach flower remedy or the raw vegetable that causes the improvement in mental or physical health, it’s the well known placebo effect. Be proud of the power of the human to heal itself. Just stop doctoring it up as “magic” (k or no k.) ‘k? k.

(On that last link on the placebo effect, at least read the first couple of pages, and the conclusion. It’s well written and conversational in tone. Look for the “PDF” link.)