That’s true, stuff like oxy/xylometazoline have their drawbacks, just as pseudoephedrine has. I just wonder why in one country common cold symptoms are (mainly) treated with a systemic decongestant and in the other (for example my country NL) only topical decongestants are used. I guess it boils down on some decision made by a medical committee in the past, one favouring systemic and the other topical decongestants (or both, as topicals are also available in the US).
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Yeah, and since my sinusitis is chronic, I need to not be out of action for a few days every couple of months. Pseudoephedrine works so well even if I have to deal with feeling like I shotgunned two hammerheads (drip coffee+triple shot for the uninitiated).
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Topicals are certainly safer to use, work really fast, and clamp out congestion well. But they don’t last very long, cause rebound congestion and taste awful. While pseudoephedrine is relatively safe it shouldn’t be given to people with heart and bloodpressure problems, but it has the advantage of lasting longer per dose, not having rebound symptoms and that extra little stimulant kick that makes you generally feel better. So yes as you say they both have their upsides and downsides, and that’s why it’s nice to have options. And hey they’re even safe to combine if you feel like it.
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I don’t know if you’ve looked into it, but there is some clinical evidence that regular use of a a Neti pot works as well as prescription decongestants. It’s pretty unpleasant at first, but you get used to it.
I currently am testing Claritin and Zyrtec against my usual go-to for allergies, OTC Allegra. Conditions this year have produced a bumper crop of whateverthefuck makes my sinuses go berserk, and the last month has been miserable. Sadly, none of the antihistamines make more than a speedbump against my rampaging sneezes and stuffiness (the stuffiness comes about because of chain sneezing and nose honking).
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Eucalyptol doesn’t make my eyes water. 
Paprika runs as low as 10 ppm capsaicin.
And that will produce a long-lasting burning sensation (cite: http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/archive/chemmatters-dec2013-pepper.pdf)
And the threshold of feeling the effect (on the tongue at least) is below 1ppm
and
https://books.google.com/books?id=u0s6z2KAScC&pg=PT246&lpg=PT246&dq=capsaicin+ppm+threshold&source=bl&ots=ppFKenOpO&sig=jLWP8H_ftbrIYWwdabVf1Y3JSZE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBmoVChMI9NeEzo_ryAIVwng-Ch1s4A8a)
Another source reports it as low as 0.2 ppm
I can’t believe nobody has realized that the problem is that the dosage is simply too high. You need to drop it down to something like .000000001 mg/l in pure water.
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Hardly. Hell, Big Pharma probably had a hand in the original act that pushed it behind the counter, maybe because they’d spent millions getting phenylephrine through FDA approval and couldn’t do anything with it because it was useless.
The purpose of the act clearly wasn’t combating meth distribution, because the vast majority of the supply came from producers who got their pseudoephedrine directly from the factory via the occasional missing 50 gallon drum. Nobody was producing meth in any quantity by buying from supermarkets.
As others here have noted, while in theory you can still get pseudoephedrine at the pharmacy, you do have to jump through hoops, which includes limiting how much you can buy at once. That might seem minor, but as someone with severe allergies and a tendency to catch colds at the drop of a hat, those limits can be a pain. Some pharmacies have also decided that it’s not worth all the bother and simply stop carrying the stuff at all, forcing people to use ineffective medicine instead.
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If I may riff:
I am so goddamn fucking tired of seeing homeopathic remedies lining the shelves at the pharmacy. I’m also so fucking tired of seeing it advertised as anything other than sugar pills and water. The FDA and the Department of Commerce can’t ban that stupid placebo shit fast enough. Start enforcing the consumer fraud protection laws like they’re supposed to.
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The trollichlorians are strong with this one.
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My wife.
If it says “May cause drowsiness. May cause excitability - especially in children” she will be wired for hours.
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Get this: I’m allergic to benadryl. I break out in hives if I take diphenhydramine.
Until that started happening I never knew you could be allergic to antihistamines. Ironic huh?
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I have bought it, within the last couple years or so, in Florida. Had to show ID, but it was still available.
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Tired? I recommend remedies based on Carbo vegetabilis, Phosphoric acid or Cinchona, the potency should be D6 to D12.
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Don’t even joke man. People die thinking that the lies on the side of the bottle are true, since it’s sold right next to real medicine, and civilians are allowed to recommend it as if they’re qualified to dispense medical advice without any kind of license. Thanks to DSHEA and the quacks Orrin Hatch who is a homeopath, and Tom Harkin who is a credulous fool who has no scientific literacy.
I will not take homeopathy jokes lightly as long as fraudulent placebos are given equal legal footing compared with pharmaceutical drugs approved by the FDA in both administration and advertisement. They are literally (I mean literally. Not figuratively.) killing people because they are confusing the public. Yet it takes gargantuan effort by the US’s most powerful skeptics to make various executive agencies even consider the idea that sugar pills and water don’t cure FUCKING GODDAMN CANCER. Anyone who sells homeopathic remedies needs to be prosecuted as frauds because that’s EXACTLY what they’re doing. They’re fraudulently attempting to sell magic as if it were medicine, and the results speak for themselves. Homeopathy has been proven for OVER A HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS TO BE BULLSHIT, yet it still is legal to sell as if it’s medicine. THE HOMEOPATHS HAVE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS, yet they walk free as if they’re doctors. Prosecute them. Shun them. Send them to the lethal injection stretcher. They are a clear and present danger to the wellbeing of humanity because of their lies and bullshit. Their bullshit costs lives and joking about them is inappropriate. You wouldn’t joke about the influence ISIS has in Syria today. You shouldn’t joke about homeopathy in the US either.
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No one can stop me making fun about anything I see as ridiculous.
Scratch that.
No one can stop me making fun.
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Eh, I can recognize that I’m in a very foul mood. But seriously, the homeopaths are costing lives. I personally try very hard to tread carefully. I mean sarcasm and ridicule are good. But confusion is very bad in this case…
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Placebos are fine, when the patient is informed and the practitioner does not suggest the $esoterictreatment can replace evidence-based medicine.
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Sure. But the vast majority of the time there is no doctor. There’s just some poor fucker with a cold, or the flu or fucking cancer walking into a pharmacy, seeing that this bottle of distilled water claims that it makes all tumors shrivel up and die, and thinks they’ve figured out their medical plan for $29.99 a week for six weeks. Because homeopathy is allowed to be advertised as medicine in the US except that each “remedy” doesn’t even require a single RCT to be sold on the shelves with claims of miraculous healing power.
Also, any doctor who recommends it is a quack and needs to have their license stripped ASAP. They’ve proven they don’t understand even the most basic chemistry and should never have been granted a license. The lack of due diligence with regard to homeopathy is sickening (literally). It’s as if the DMV wouldn’t require licenses to drive, say Teslas. And Tesla decided to advertise their cars as the safest in the world. And also they never had to meet any standards, and they could claim they have airbags without actually installing them in the car.
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“my” doc gave me prescription for some homeopathic thingy last winter when I had a ugly cold, with an explanation similar to “sorry, I cannot do anything for you instead of a sick certificate until you feel better. in my experience the globuli are helping even if it’s not something I can explain with science”.
not sure why he should be marked as a quack.
