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.
If you want some real solid advice: never buy the nasal spray that has phenylephrine. It may well be one of the most addictive substances man has ever made.
The pills do absolutely nothing. About once or twice a year I have to get the good stuff from the pharmacy, but I’ve refused to even buy the new stuff.
I can’t help but feel like they could just put something in the regular Sudafed to make it not methy, but I took physics and not chemistry so idk.
What do I use then? I’m already addicted to Oxymetazoline (Afrin) and I need a way out. I’ve tried Propylhexedrine (Benzedrex) but it works for all of 30 seconds before I’m congested again. Even quitting cold turkey didn’t work. I went an entire year without any nasal spray, suffered through the rebound congestion for over a month and was in the clear for awhile… Until the congestion came back. I don’t know what to do.
I swear by this stuff and saline mist. You can use it as much as you want. It’s the miracle nobody is willing to try.
The newer allergy medicine is good, but I think you have to take it for a couple of months before you really notice it. I like the generic Allegra from Costco.
And get some real Sudafed from the pharmacy. I do the generic 12 hour and split them in half (helps you from feeling queasy).
It’s a little weird the first couple times you do it, but holy shit is it the most effective way to deal with congestion for me, but a fucking long shot. For real, saline sinus rinse works like a fucking miracle
You can roll your own saline nasal rinse, but it takes a little care to get the salinity just right. And best to boil the water first in case of brain eating amoebas (seriously — not common, but very, very bad).
I can’t help but feel like they could just put something in the regular Sudafed to make it not methy
Sudafed is not “methy”, but it can be used to make meth
That’s what I meant by methy.
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.
I like in the article how it says they’ll get some time to reformulate, but if it doesn’t work, they could just turn off the widget inserting it and bobs your uncle!
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.
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.
Something tells me the Trump Administration won’t allow this ban to go through.
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?
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
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.
makes your scalp itch too.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Sooo I see the thread is full of US people here and it’s so strange. I don’t have drug brand preferences. I go to my doctor, my doctor tells me what to take, I go to the pharmacy, they give it to me, and I take it as instructed.
Am I missing out on anything?
You’re missing out on a lot of ads telling you how much you need to ask your doctor for certain drugs. That’s about it.
These are over-the counter cough suppressants that you buy from the store without ever needing to see a doctor.
I still usually call my doctor for OTC stuff, and if my doctor says I need it, insurance gets to pay for it. Going to the doctor usually saves me money. And if I schedule it during a workday, it’s not my time going either but my employer’s, if it even needs more than a phone consult.
Over here having your doctor would cost at least a $40 copay and wouldn’t get insurance to pay
Well look at fancy pants over here with a Doctor.
(Really here in Canada I have been without a Dr for about 9 years now, it sucks)
Interesting. I use phenylephrine pills (no other active ingredients) for nasal congestion every time I’m sick, and it has always worked very well for me
I do tend to be extra sensitive to most drugs though, so maybe that has something to do with it
Maybe for you it does, although you’d need to test with placebo to really know. It’s amazing how much our minds can effect things if we expect things to change.
It could also be that your pills are a significantly higher dose. If 1% is absorbed orally, maybe that pill has 100x the dose required otherwise.
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.
and Sudafed
Isn’t Sudafed supposed to be short for pseudoephedrine , the stuff that actually works but they have to keep behind the counter?
There’s also Sudsfed PE which is Phenylephrine instead of pseudoephedrine. Presumably only the PE sub-brand would be banned under this rule
