Watch out for useless sinus meds

[MickinMD ★]

Short Version: Many good OTC sinus congestion/headache relief meds used to have 120 mg Pseudoephedrine HCl as their active ingredient and have either drastically cut back on the mg of switched to Phenylephrine HCl - which an NIH study says "is not significantly better than placebo at relieving nasal congestion in adults" and can cause adverse effects.  The good, 120 mg Pseudoephedrine HCl is still available, but it's kept behind pharmacy counters now and most workers there don't know which meds have 120 mg Pseudoephedrine HCl. I think Sudafed 12 hr (now behind the pharmacy counter) still does, but Sudafed only has 30 mg and Sudafed PE has useless Phenylephrine HCl. So, if you need something to relieve sinus congestion, pressure, runny nose, watery eyes - ask for the good stuff!  A helpful counter worker at a Walgreens found this one for me - I paid $24.99 for the 30 tablet box of Wal-Fex D:

Additional info: Most good sinus meds used to have an active incredient of 120 mg Pseudoephedrine HCl.  Tablets with 120 mg used to be about 200 for $2.50 back in the 90's - I used it often with good results before I had sinus surgery that ended my frequent headaches in 2001.

Then someone figured out they could make methamphetamine with it.  The price jumped up and that active ingredient became more and more restricted to the point where it's still OTC but kept behind the pharmacy counter.

A 2015 study published by the National Institutes of Health says, where PE HCl stands for Phenylephedrine HCl:

RESULTS:

None of the PE HCl treatment groups had a statistically significant change from baseline in instantaneous or reflective nasal congestion scores compared with the placebo group. PE HCl was well tolerated at doses of up to 30 mg. At least 1 treatment-emergent adverse event was experienced by 18.4% of the participants, the most common being headache (3.0%).

CONCLUSIONS:

PE HCl, at doses of up to 40 mg every 4 hours, is not significantly better than placebo at relieving nasal congestion in adults..."

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26143019?dopt=Abstract

 

[petitepedal ★]

Sudafed makes my heart race....havent taken it in almost 45 years

[ChrisL]

Huh... I switched from Tylenol sinus to... Shit the product escapes me now... as the Tylenol Sinus stopped working for me recently.  I have jacked sinus’ and get frequent sinus headaches.

My pharmacist put me on the new stuff and it’s still OTC but works.

[maddmaxx ★]

I still use Coricidin 12 hr. during the day

[Kirby]

In the US, they moved the good sinus stuff behind the counter a few years ago because apparently it can be used to make meth.  I think there is a limit on the amount you can purchase in a month.   Those of us with bad allergies know this sort of stuff.  It's probably just as well because the old sudafed is not good for blood pressure and a lot of people have a reaction to it.

[Prophet Zacharia]

35 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

I still use Coricidin 12 hr. during the day

I met someone who does 2 boxes of that a day, multiple days a week. I don’t think sinus congestion is his main problem anymore.

[maddmaxx ★]

9 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I met someone who does 2 boxes of that a day, multiple days a week. I don’t think sinus congestion is his main problem anymore.

The upcoming liver transplant probably will be tops on the list.

1 pill is a 12 hour supply though.

[Prophet Zacharia]

39 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

The upcoming liver transplant probably will be tops on the list.

1 pill is a 12 hour supply though.

But he was euphoric. 

[maddmaxx ★]

49 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

But he was euphoric. 

I'm jaundiced towards these sorts of things.

[Indy]

2 hours ago, Kirby said:

In the US, they moved the good sinus stuff behind the counter a few years ago because apparently it can be used to make meth.  I think there is a limit on the amount you can purchase in a month.   Those of us with bad allergies know this sort of stuff.  It's probably just as well because the old sudafed is not good for blood pressure and a lot of people have a reaction to it.

Yeap, my sinuses are completely screwed up from to many broken noses, but had to give that stuff up awhile ago because it started to cause bad insomnia for me.

Now it's pretty much a neti pot and mucinex nose spray.

[Further]

I use Nasonex

[MoseySusan]

2 hours ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I met someone who does 2 boxes of that a day, multiple days a week. I don’t think sinus congestion is his main problem anymore.

Skittle parties, my students call it. 
 

I take Tylenol PM because it has diphenhydramine, which quiets everything down. Dextromethorphan, which is in Coricidin, makes my mind race.