The speaker makes several good points in her discussion of Nosinia, an herb that allegedly relieves the symptoms of allergies. This substance, however, is in no sense comparable to prescription drugs.

First, no scientific study has yet been conducted on Nosinia. The speaker is correct when she claims that researchers have compared Nosinia to a placebo. However, she seems to be unaware of the fact that the placebos used in such studies are usually sugar pills or salt tablets. In the case of allergies, however, the placebo may not contain anything. A placebo is a sham treatment, and the sham treatment is intended to fool the patient into believing his symptoms are diminished. In this case, however, the placebo effect could be so strong that the patient would be convinced that his symptoms have been relieved, despite the lack of any substance causing the relief. If that were the case, then Nosinia would not perform any better than a placebo.

Second, the claim that Nosinia offers significant relief for severe allergy symptoms is not supported by the evidence presented in the study. According to the speaker, researchers administered 95 people either a placebo or Nosinia. However, the dosage of the placebo was 500 mg a day and the dosage of the Nosinia was 2,000 mg a day, which would amount to 200 times the amount that the placebo contained. The studies, therefore, were far larger than the ones involving the sugar pill. Even if the placebo did offer relief, Nosinia is far more than a mere placebo. Furthermore, the participants were most likely to report feeling better because of the placebo effect, which essentially amounts to wishful thinking. The dosage was so high, and the symptoms so severe, that it is unlikely that anyone other than a true believer in the herb would have experienced any relief from it. Indeed, after the researchers administered the Nosinia, those participants who had felt poorly at the outset of the experiment may have experienced a placebo effect that made them feel better than they had before the study started. Thus, the relief felt by participants may have been nothing more than wishful thinking.

Third, the claim that participants given Nosinia were more likely to report feeling healthier than those given a placebo is not particularly relevant, since all participants were suffering from allergies. The participants, therefore, were not a healthy group to begin with. Moreover, although some participants did report feeling better, the majority of the participants did not. The speaker proposes that we should use Nosinia to treat those severe allergy symptoms. However, there are many over-the-counter and prescription drugs that alleviate the symptoms of allergies. The speaker does not specify which drug she is referring to, but we do know that there are many effective treatments for allergies. If the speaker wants to introduce Nosinia as a treatment for allergies, then she needs to present some convincing evidence that the substance is superior to those existing treatments. Fourth, and most tellingly, the assertion that Nosinia is effective for severe allergy symptoms contradicts what the speaker claims in her introduction, that Nosinia offers relief from mild symptoms. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that Nosinia is effective for severe symptoms, either. The speaker seems to suggest that only severe symptoms should be treated with Nosinia, which is an absurd claim. This contradicts the claims made both by the study and the speaker.

The speaker’s argument is highly flawed. The claim that the Nosinia is more effective than a placebo is unsupported and based on insufficient data. The claims made in the study, that the participants felt better after receiving the placebo or the herb, are questionable. Furthermore, the claim that Nosinia is effective for severe symptoms is also derived from flawed data. Instead of relying on anecdotal evidence, the speaker needs to conduct proper research in order to substantiate her claims.

A final consideration is that the speaker’s recommendation to use Nosinia to treat severe allergy symptoms is extremely vague. She states that we should use Nosinia to treat severe symptoms, but she does not say what those symptoms are. There is no information about what the symptoms of severe allergies are. Furthermore, she does not tell us whether Nosinia is, in fact, more effective than other drugs for treating allergies. Without that information, it would be premature to suggest that people try Nosinia to treat their allergies.