New cold medicines are not as effective

Two months out of it, I still rant about my episode with severe sinus congestion. I’ve never had it that bad before, being so stuffy that I couldn’t even swallow. I tried in vain to decongest myself with over-the-counter phenylephrine cold medicines but could find no relief for a week. I tried four different brands, some with acetamenophen and even guaifenesin, all in desperation of getting better.

None, until I took pseudoephedrine, the original formulation for cold medicines, as in Sudafed.

When I read this article in the Alameda Times-Star, my suspicions were confirmed.

“The new decongestants are crap,” says Nikole Wilson-Ripsom, of Oakland. “They’re appallingly ineffective.” She’s a fellow congestion-sufferer.

In fact, Dr. Simon Lee, an internist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, says consumers are not just imagining things.

“Phenylephrine (as in Sudafed PE) is a similar type of drug to pseudoephedrine, but it’s not as effective. It’s less potent,” says Lee, adding that it doesn’t help to take higher doses of the drug in hopes that it will work better.”

HA! I knew it!

Pseudoephedrine definitely works. But because of a new law to combat the methamphetamine epidemic, sales of cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, ephedrine or phenylpropanolamine are now strictly regulated and sold only from behind pharmacy counters. Oh well. I’ll take this rather than suffer through sinus-hell again.

[source: alamedatimes-star]

Tags: sinus congestion, phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, Sudafed, Sudafed PE, colds