Spill the beans... on products that don't live up to the hype

Mrs_Dizzy

nuttywoman wrote: »

That Cillit Bang All In One Dish and Surface cleaner.I got a free one with the machine and the stuff is rubbish, i would never buy a refill for it.

The degreaser one in the purple bottle is brill though

SueC_2

Ben84 wrote: »

I agree with your friend. I'm a chemist

I've always wondered what the difference is between a Chemist and a Pharmacist?

blugner

Netflix -- everything plays nicely, but what a small, disappointing catalogue of old films and TV shows they have. Once you take out the zombies, vampires, manga, and kiddie cartoons, not much seems to be left left. I signed up for the one-month free trial, and will cancel before they take a payment.

blugner

blugner wrote: »

Netflix -- everything plays nicely, but what a small, disappointing catalogue of old films and TV shows they have. Once you take out the zombies, vampires, manga, and kiddie cartoons, not much seems to be left left. I signed up for the one-month free trial, and will cancel before they take a payment.

Left left? Can type faster than can think.

GrouponUK_company_representative

[carray] wrote: »

Groupons goods.
Purchasing two microfibre quilts from Zen Bedrooms on a groupon deal. on receipt of the order i found that only the cover was microfibre and the innards hollowfibre, certainly not what the advertisement was purporting to be What a CON.
Was just off on holiday so i did not have time to send them back.
This was the second time i have been conned so groupon is now deleted from my computer:eek:

Hi @carray, we’re extremely sorry to hear that you were not happy with your Zen Bedrooms order. Please email sm.support@groupon.co.uk if you haven’t done so already and one of our representatives will be happy to assist you further. Thanks, Groupon UK

Ben84

SueC wrote: »

I've always wondered what the difference is between a Chemist and a Pharmacist?

In everyday common language, basically no difference as people do often refer to pharmacists as chemists. This isn't technically correct though. Pharmacists don't call themselves chemists.

As a chemist I've studied and worked on the reactions, synthesis and analysis of various molecules in a lab. I know a lot about that, but I couldn't jump in to a pharmacists role from here, because a pharmacist has spent as much time as I have thinking about molecular structures instead learning about drugs and medical products and the clinical aspects of administering them and dispensing them.

So, I've worked a bit with drug design in a lab and know aspirin molecules for example are all the same, no matter who makes them. If it says aspirin, that clearly means the active molecule in the tablet is identical to any other product that says it's aspirin. There is no better or worse aspirin, they're all identical as any change to the structure and it's no longer an aspirin molecule and cannot claim it is. The marketing of the branded aspirin products however would lead people to believe there is a difference.

It's notable when you know what the chemicals in products are, either as a set defined chemical or as a member of a class of molecules that do basically the same thing, just how little difference there is between many products that claim to do the same thing in a different way, from carpet cleaner to pain killers. Usually the majority of the difference is marketing, price and packaging. There is also often a cheap simple substitute for many things.

For example, Calgon is just as effectively replaced with soda crystals. Window cleaner is not as good as a bit of household ammonia diluted in water and sprayed on. As for stains in carpets and clothes, the household ammonia takes those out better than anything else I've tried. Borax and hot water takes off grease in the kitchen better than any degreaser like Cillit bang. The mark up for sticking industrial chemicals in a brightly coloured bottle, showing them on TV and everything is massive and I'm pretty sure quite a few of them aren't even that effective.

Edit to mention: you might encounter names like boots the chemist. They're referring to the section of their business that sells formulations like shampoo or face wash. The pharmacy stuff is classed separately as boots the pharmacist.

John_Pierpoint

The physical structure of the molecules can make a difference though?
Is it built left or right handed? Is a granny knot the same a a reef knot?.
I this was the problem with "Thalidomide" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide

If patients think they are getting a better drug - then it works better. Such is the power of suggestion.

John4110

My wife has used a Remoska cooker for about 5 years, Bought it from Lakeland. It is better than the electric slow cookers on the market. It is cheap to run and we rarely use the main oven at all, exept when the extended family are back home.
The first Remoska packed up, and we took it back to Lakeland and they changed without quibble with no receipt!!!!

The best anti-dandruff shampoo is Nizoral. Very expensive at £4.00 for 60ml. Much cheaper to get it on pescription from your doctor.

hm71_2

jml carpet foam what a load of poo!! my carpets look worse for using it!!!

Ben84

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

The physical structure of the molecules can make a difference though?

Yes and no (sorry, it's one of those things). Molecules are made from atoms, these atoms could be thought of as having bonding points around them which attach to other atoms to make molecules. Carbon has four, oxygen has two, for example. So, atoms are modular and we build molecules out of them by attaching them in various ways.

If we arrange the atoms in an entirely different order we have a different molecule, which would be called an isomer. The etymology is iso (same) and mer (parts). You can take the constituent atoms from aspirin and make other molecules, none of which are aspirin or have the properties of aspirin - but they are made from the same parts in much the same way you could build many different houses from the same piles of bricks, or even demolish a house and build another different one from the bricks.

However, there is a situation where the molecules are similar, but different. As I mentioned, carbon atoms for example have four bonding points, and this opens up a possibility that might not be immediately obvious. If all four of the atoms attached to these binding points are different and if you place them on different bonding points, you can make a mirror image molecule. Try it with two balls of blue tack and eight pens, four for each ball, each set identical and containing four different colours. You will be able to arrange them in such a way they are mirror images of each other. This is chirality and the carbon is now classed as a chiral centre. The etymology is that chiral is derived from the Greek for hands, and they too are chiral. Assembled from the exact same number of fingers and thumbs, but they clearly are not the same as either is the mirror image of the other and they do not superimpose. You cannot orientate them in any manner that one could in theory occupy the same space as the other. So, some molecules have the potential to be chiral, some have multiple chiral centres and others don't have any - so that all their molecules are identical. Determining which is which would take too long to explain so I'll have to ask you to accept that.

Molecules are usually named by their arrangement of atoms, so isomers all have different names, but whatever the chiral situation, the molecule name is the same and we just add something to prefix the name, either define it as L or D (bit dated now) or various combinations of + and - before the name to state the conformation of the chiral centres.

Anyway, chirality matters a lot in drugs as most the molecules in nature that we are made from are chiral too, so they often bind only one chiral form of the molecule. Thalidomide has two chiral forms, one that is a sedative and works well as it binds the right thing, the other causes developmental problems to foetuses by binding to something it shouldn't. What appears to be a small difference can in some situations be very significant in use. However, many drugs contain other chiral forms that are both inactive and harmless.

Aspirin and paracetamol as I recall are non-chiral, so no worries there. Codeine is made from opium, which as many natural molecules do has predefined chiral centres within it of only one form and not the other possible ones, so we just change it a bit and end up with a molecule of a single chirality at the end of the synthesis. I'm not sure what if any effect the other forms might have, but they're not present in the tablets.

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Is it built left or right handed? Is a granny knot the same a a reef knot?.
I this was the problem with "Thalidomide" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide

If patients think they are getting a better drug - then it works better. Such is the power of suggestion.

Suggestion is a powerful thing, but then again knowing it's all as good as any other should, I hope, mean you get as much benefit from whatever brand you take.