Zicam Scare: Fact or Fiction
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With the June 2009 Zicam recall everyone is wondering fact or fiction.
Over the past few years has made a pretty good impression on those who have tried the product when a cold is just coming on. One of my family members swears by it and uses it often.
As with a lot of other people when the news broke about Zicam causing people to loose their smell. I decided to check into it and try to find out whether this is all a scam or there is truth behind it.
The FDA stated that people should stop using the nasal products completely after over one hundred people claimed to have lost there smell.
On my first encounter with the facts I did find that some forms of zinc in lab animals have caused lose of smell, but it is not the same type of zinc they use in the making of zicam products. Matrixx did settle a $12 million dollar lawsuit which was for using their nasal spray.
Is Zicam safe? The answer to this is this for zicam to cause a lose of smell it would need to come in direct contact with the smell receptors which are deep in the nasal cavity. There may be some risk when using the nasal spray but using the logenzes or the zicam swabs there seems to be no need for worry.
There seems to be some conflicting reports out there but there is no real evidence that the use of zicam will lead to you loosing your smell forever.
I personally think Ill stay away from the products for some time to see what the outcome of all this is. I am sure the FDA and Matrixx will now do some heavy duty research to see whether the zinc in zicam will cause smell lose or not.
I think Ill let the common cold take its course and stand clear of things I have to insert up my nose. Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to put foreign objects in that place?
11 Comments
interesting
This is part of an argument I was having regarding an article I wrote about “The Colloidal Silver Myth” ( http://tinyurl.com/ntx9r2 )
and received some e-mail from people whom maintain that’…it works on sinus problems’… usually their stuffy nose/cold goes away a day or two earlier than usual (but really, 7-10 days for ‘a cold’ is the norm, so a day sooner more-of-less we’re splitting hairs here.)
This Zicam is a potentially bad product. I wanted to say ‘not natural’ but even that does not make it safe, correct or even beneficial either. There are a LOT of natural things that if you shoved up your nose, -like a bumblebee for instance, -would NOT improve the cold and in fact, would cause …other problems! :-O And the excuse might be “but it NATURAL” or “I stopped complaining about my stuffy nose…” :-/
a very informative post, Thanks for sharing Linda.
I have a problem with all medicine apart from vitamins!!
You have a cold, you have a cold!!
Let your body sort it – I haven’t had one for at least 15 years now.
Stickman is right – of course, arsenic, cannabis etc are all natural but it doesn’t mean we should stick them up our nose!!
Anyway, well done for thinking of another new subject
(revivor – from stumble)
Great write Linda!
I just heard of this the other night. It’s really something.
Thank you so much for this information, linda. I heard something about Zicam being recalled, but I didn’t know why. I think I will stay away from this stuff too. I will use home remedies to get rid of my colds.
Worth be prepared.
i hope the above claim is not true.Thanks for the share
Lindalulu: Great article, and great first-hand research. If scientists would try their products on themselves first and foremost, there would be a transformation all over the pharmaceutic industry. But because this is not always possible or viable, I’d rather be cautious with what I ingest or inhale. Thank you again!
Great article. You are very articulative in your work. Well done.