Summary
The FDA has proposed removing oral phenylephrine, a common ingredient in over-the-counter cold medicines like NyQuil and Sudafed, due to evidence that it is ineffective as a nasal decongestant.
The proposal follows a unanimous vote by FDA advisers last year, and recent studies showing less than 1% of the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream when taken orally.
The public comment period ends on May 7, after which the FDA may finalize the ban.
Late reply, but I’m currently sick, and saw this as an opportunity.
I have never had much success with OTC cold medicines. The best I’ve seen is Alka Seltzer Plus and Mucinex, but I felt these always underperformed significantly. With other commenters offering advice, and the internet being vast, I did some research.
I ended up taking Sudafed (bought today) and Zyrtec (always have on hand). I also took Excedrin for pain relief (last dose I had).
I’m still sneezing occasionally, and my nose is slightly tingly, but I feel obviously better than before–much better success than I’ve seen with other OTC drugs.
I don’t have ibuprofen, but I suggest that over Excedrin. Excedrin contains acetaminophin (and aspirin–important!), as well as caffeine. Essentially, I’d recommend doing the following, as directed on packaging:
Pseudoephedrine (DANGEROUS MAOI INTERRACTION–Non-Rx, non-OTC, works well for congestion)
Antihistamine (Zyrtec, Allegra–Benadryl if you feel like seeing the hat man)
Ibuprofin (NSAID–do NOT take with alcohol or other NSAIDs–reads more effective as an NSAID than aspirin and acetaminophen. Most effective NSAID of the three)
Caffeine (Tea is probably better than coffee–helps with pain slightly, but especially drowsiness, and therefore depends on time of day)
For something more unique, cannabis products are certain to help without all too much risk. I experience neck pain when I’m sick, so lightly smoking helped. CBD oil works super well for specific spots, and is probably better than THC for most people. This is a sure-fire way to help with pain and insomnia, but I hope you aren’t that sick.
Finally, another unique suggestion, and one you’ll only see from me. Proceed with reasonable caution and do your research, though. Red kratom strains, or green if you prefer something a little easier on the system–faster onset, too. Recent “gas station heroin” headlines are fearmongering and utter bollocks, in a surprise to nobody. Thanks, Nixon. Kratom helps considerably with pain/insomnia, but it’s somewhat risky to use kratom with NSAIDs and antihistamines. Don’t see issues with pseudoephedrine. I sincerely doubt a 4g toss-and-wash is going to do more harm than good, but please measure by weight, and not volume. Do the minimum effective dose. Yet again, do not drink with alcohol–it’s horrible on the liver. Just don’t drink in general, to be honest. All in all, I’d honestly suggest picking between either your NSAID of choice, or kratom–not both. If you’re really being kept awake, or you’re really in pain, then kratom is likely the better option over your Excedrins or Tylenols. Sorry this section’s long–it’s important that it’s detailed, for obvious reasons.
Quite a lot at once–balance doses responsibly, experiment, see what works, and stick with that when you fall ill. It’s a lot of information, but safety isn’t something to compromise with. I hope I’ve been helpful. That’s all, folks.
Yet the homeopathy pills can still be on the shelves right next to real medicine.
From my understanding they don’t need to be FDA approved. At that point blame the store, not the FDA. I’m just glad they’re getting this done before they’re purged by the next administration
I’ll blame both.
Oh I’ll blame both, thank you very much. It’s well within certain governed agencies authority to say “you cannot sell that next to real medicine”.
Yeah, you’re correct, and in fact the Phenylephrine itself would still be allowed if they didn’t claim it does something when it doesn’t. All the alternative cures are labelled “homeopathic”, “traditional medicine”, or “herbal remedy”. They don’t say “Active Ingredients: Epson Salt 0.2% : decongestant, bees wax 1% anticoagulant” of some other shit.
Good. Now do something about homeopathy. I’m so sick of having to explain to people that homeopathy is not medicine in any shape or form. It’s not even a home remedy. And it sits right next to actual medicine so people might accidentally buy it unwittingly.
This was so infuriating during covid as it was hard to find children’s cold medicine already and half the time you’d see a couple bottles of “Children’s cold and flu” on the shelf, buy it, and get home before you notice “homeopathic” written in 3pt font along the bottom of the bottle. Shit’s completely useless.
I’ve gotten into the habit of checking active ingredients after almost accidentally buying something homeopathic that was immediately adjacent the thing I actually meant to grab.
I’m sure the Trump Administration will get right on banning homeopathy, or even just labelling it properly. lol
Most certainly! They surely won’t completely dismantle the FDA and then allow big-pharma to dictate everything. /s
The problem is, unlike homeopathy, this drug was ineffective for what it was approved for while actually causing side effects. At least the water doesn’t do anything.
Right? You can’t even get ear drops that work anymore because all of the ones they stock over the counter are homeopathic where I live.
Right, but what can they do, short of banning small bottles of water?
Ban small bottles of water that claim magical fixes?
Or ban it from being placed next to actual medicine. Go put it in the candy or soda aisle.
Ummm they did? That is what this banned, an advertised effective treatment that does nothing.
Tell me you didn’t read the article without telling me you didn’t read the article.
Seriously dude, you just had to read the first sentence. They only banned one particular ingredient.
That is included in most over the counter decongestants as the active ingredient.
Please tell me this is not the first you have heard of the switch to combat meth production to a worse then placibo replacement?
Dude, what are you even talking about?
I said it was good they banned the ineffective ingredient so now they should do something about banning homeopathy. You said, “Ummm they did? That is what this banned, an advertised effective treatment that does nothing” but they did NOT ban homeopathy, just that one specific ingredient which had nothing to do with homeopathy. Now you’re talking as if the first comment you said was something completely different.
So please, tell me what argument you’re actually trying to make.
It was a dig at things like nyquill being homeopathy, since they both are treatments that don’t work being sold as if they do.
funny considering they caused the use of this garbage because we cant have real ephedrine cuz tweakers.
was anyone under the delusion this shit worked?
My former boss (Canada) kept a bag of ephedrine bottles in our produce cooler. Dude was twitchy as fuck. Very bird/dinosaur-like.
He would take several per day and chase them with coffee and energy shots. Then he would complain intermittently about vomiting blood due to his ulcers.
He’s probably dead now. Ulcers are no laughing matter.
Sounds like a nightmare! The man needs Adderall, holy shit
BTW, I could be wrong but pretty sure you dont want to take ephedrine, pseudoephedrine is milder while still doing the decongestion
Wasn’t ephedrine the drug used in all those diet pill commercials from the 90s/00s? The ones that caused anal leakage, liver damage and death?
I think it was this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenfluramine/phentermine
Fen-phen! This shit was a wonder drug for dieters, until they found out it kills you. Maintenance Phase did a wonderful episode on it years back.
Thats what Trump is on!
Ephedrine is fine. It’s what’s in bronkaid.
Think that’s epinephrine, ie adrenaline (as a hormone, epinephrine when a neurotransmitter or when affecting the heart and vasculature).
Edit: actually adrenaline was the first European patent name, while the US discoverer used epinephrine thinking it was a different compound, interesting.
makes your scalp itch too.
Who says you can’t? I can walk up to the pharmacy counter and get some with ID. It’s usually a helluva lot cheaper than the phenylephrine stuff, too.
duude i totally forgot they hid it behind the counter.
i grew up being able to buy full bottles of almost pure ephedrine billed as a ‘stay awake’ thing for truckers and the like. like no-doze
Yeah, you have to know about it to ask for it. Most people would buy the useless shit
I remember like a year or two ago when they officially announced these products are LESS effective than a placebo. How the hell is it taking so long to get them off the shelves?
I assume they submitted the results and stated they need to be removed, then reviewed the supreme courts measure that stated they only have power to make measures if Congress grants them privilege to do so (precidence, set in Julyish of 2022 with the EPA) making the specialized divisions of government created by Congress illegitimate unless Congress votes on the measure afterwards, making them just superficial recommendations for Congress to wait and see what their lobbyists think is okay.
Aka will drug companies pay enough to keep us lying to the public, vs maybe we will go by the recorded data.
Exon mobile recorded their data of environmental impacts in what year? And we had battery powered vehicles traveling up to 100 miles before that time. Instead of doing what was best for the future of the people, we chose what was best for profits. Reference article for fun; https://www.corporateknights.com/transportation/half-a-century-ago-one-u-s-senator-fought-to-ban-gas-powered-cars-almost-won
Point being. what power did they have to remove them from the shelves. I assume they are launching these last ditch efforts before Biden leaves, and praying to get some support before they get chiseled away at.
Imagine where we would be if GM/Ford and such started forcing the R&D in 1975 instead of 2005, 2015 or whatever we call it now
Fucking finally.
These products will mysteriously re-appear after inauguration.
It won’t even take that - you can sell products that don’t work (airborn, homeopathy, etc.), you just can’t claim that it does. So they’ll slap the standard “this product is not intended to treat, cure, or prevent any disease” disclaimer on it and people will continue to buy it.
I have been railing about how this shit doesn’t work for what feels like forever.
The entire cold/cough aisle is essentially a scam. Pick up some generic diphenhydramine, APAP, ibuP, and some Pseduophedrine. It will cheap as dirt and do all the things that overpriced shit will do. Anything else that actually helps with a cold/cough is prescription only.
Pseudoephedrine can’t legally be sold in the aisles, and requires you to get out from the pharmacist’s counter and provide an ID.
That’s why they push the aid that doesn’t work. It can be sold at a gas station and after hours.
Damn meth heads ruining it for the rest of us.
We got Breaking Bad though.
Is this the shit they started using when they started using the original stuff to make meth?
By my understanding yes, pseudoephedrine was being used for meth so they put it behind the counter and the name brand “Sudafed” made a PE line that was this, phenylephrine, to stay over the counter.
Something tells me the Trump Administration won’t allow this ban to go through.
Oooo! Do Guaifenesin next! That also has basically no evidence of effectiveness despite being on the market for ages.
That I didn’t know. Does that mean that the benefit from it just comes from drinking the insane amount of water it recommends?
Guaifenesin works very very well for me as an expectorant.
The entire cough/cold aisle is a gigantic scam of combo meds.
It won’t be pulled from the shelves - it’ll just be getting some new fine-print.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
About time. Thankfully in Australia we can still get access to the ones containing psuedoephedrine, which works amazingly well.
Can’t believe it has taken this long to see the inefficacy of these.
In the US, you can still get the stuff containing pseudoephedrine but you have to go to the pharmacy and ask for it and then show your ID. Out of curiosity, what’s the process in Australia?
It’s the same here. The Therapeutic Goods Administration, our equivalent to the FDA, generally follows along with FDA regulations (though I don’t think that will continue from next year somehow).
(though I don’t think that will continue from next year somehow).
Yeah, might be hard to follow FDA regulations when the FDA gets dismantled and no longer exists… eye twitch
Exactly the same, pharmacist will request to see your ID.
Nobody is taking Nyquil to decongest, they’re taking it to pass the fuck out.
I mean yea but it does keep me dried out for the next day after I take it to pass out.
No worries, three months from now it’ll all be back on the shelves again
