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.
No worries, three months from now it’ll all be back on the shelves again
Something tells me the Trump Administration won’t allow this ban to go through.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
