zicam works amazing well for clearing out my sinuses

I guess you can't use it longterm but it cleared my nose out amazingly well - I never had nasal congestion problems prior to cpap......but i do now.

johnthomasmacdonald wrote:I guess you can't use it longterm but it cleared my nose out amazingly well - I never had nasal congestion problems prior to cpap......but i do now.

Hi John,

I can't remember which of their products was the culprit but one of them caused a loss of sense of smell and the company ended up paying out cash in a lawsuit. You might want to check that out.

Glad it worked for you.

49er

zicam works amazing well for clearing out my sinuses

There is nothing amazing about this. The active ingredient is oxymetazoline. Oxymetazoline has strong vasoconstricting properties. It has been used in very popular nasal sprays since the early 1960s. Afrin is the most popular version.

At my local drugstores you can buy generic Afrin for one-fourth the cost of Zicam Extreme Congestion Relief. The products are equivalent.

I guess you can't use it longterm

The problem is rebound congestion if used longer than a few days and then discontinued.

There are other products on the market that avoid this problem.

I never had nasal congestion problems prior to cpap......but i do now

You are probably obsessive about your CPAP humidifier and have it set too high.

johnthomasmacdonald wrote:I guess you can't use it longterm but it cleared my nose out amazingly well - I never had nasal congestion problems prior to cpap......but i do now.

That's right. It's fine for one-time use, or a few times, but you will quickly find you need it all the time if you use it for more than two or three days. Try a saline nasal spray instead. It's just salt water in a spray bottle. Spray each nostril several times until the salt water starts running downt he back of your throat and that should keep your sinuses clear.

johnthomasmacdonald wrote:I guess you can't use it longterm but it cleared my nose out amazingly well - I never had nasal congestion problems prior to cpap......but i do now.

Hi John,

Is changing the pressure(s) an option?

Last night, I had horrific nasal congestion and bumping my pressure up by .5 greatly helped. I still slept horribly but I feel other reasons were probably the cause since my sinuses felt alot better when I woke up.

49er

49er wrote: "I can't remember which of their products was the culprit but one of them caused a loss of sense of smell and the company ended up paying out cash in a lawsuit. You might want to check that out."

YEs, i saw that and when you loose your sense of smell, you also lose your sense of taste. Funny, i saw how that could actually be an advantage. I'm not that into food and without a sense of taste i thought i could pretty much live on the perfect diet since flavor wouldn't be an issue.


Deadly sleep wrote: "There are other products on the market that avoid this problem." Great, which ones?

"you are probably obsessive about your CPAP humidifier and have it set too high." not at all, I often forget to fill it - i mostly have it set at 2 but I've been raising it to 3/3.5 but that might be because it isn't working ( as my new thread states)

Slartybartfast wrote: " Try a saline nasal spray instead. It's just salt water in a spray bottle. Spray each nostril several times until the salt water starts running downt he back of your throat and that should keep your sinuses clear."

I did try that first and it didn't work but maybe i wasn't doing it right. I'll try it again tonight

Thanks All for the advice, I really do appreciate your taking out the time to help

_________________

johnthomasmacdonald"]49er wrote: "I can't remember which of their products was the culprit but one of them caused a loss of sense of smell and the company ended up paying out cash in a lawsuit. You might want to check that out."

YEs, i saw that and when you loose your sense of smell, you also lose your sense of taste. Funny, i saw how that could actually be an advantage. I'm not that into food and without a sense of taste i thought i could pretty much live on the perfect diet since flavor wouldn't be an issue.

John, I greatly beg to differ as one who has zero sense of smell. Additionally, I feel my sense of taste was diminished by years of being on psych meds.

Also, I had a big scare when suddenly, I couldn't taste anything one day. I was frantic until I realized that using Listerine was the cause.

Trust me, you do not want to lose your sense of smell and taste even though you think it would be an advantage. It isn't.

49er

You guys are so out of date on Zicam and possible loss of smell. The products in question were withdrawn from the market four years ago.

What you are using now, as I said before, is nothing more than a solution of oxymetazoline.

Oxymetazoline has been used for more than 50 years by millions of people without any complaints about loss of smell.

You post this incorrect information and people find it with a search engine and the bad information get passed on and on.

Deadly Sleep,

You are correct about the products being withdrawn 4 years ago. My apologies.

But interestingly, there have been scattered complaints on the Internet about oxmetazoline causing a loss of smell. I know, it doesn't prove anything but when I experienced insomnia from taking Nasonex in 2007, I encountered the same situation. Anecdotal reports here and there but no solid evidence. Now, there is no doubt it has that side effect for some people.

49er

DeadlySleep wrote:You guys are so out of date on Zicam and possible loss of smell. The products in question were withdrawn from the market four years ago.

What you are using now, as I said before, is nothing more than a solution of oxymetazoline.

Oxymetazoline has been used for more than 50 years by millions of people without any complaints about loss of smell.

You post this incorrect information and people find it with a search engine and the bad information get passed on and on.

I've seen those reports from time to time as well. But isn't one of the side effects of a cold also loss or dulling of the senses of taste and smell?

I think that's the "belief engine" at work: If I do A and B results, then B must have been caused by A. In college we used to train rats to stand on their hind legs following the sound of a whistle. After a while we didn't have to give them a food reward; they'd just stand anytime someone whistled. Really weirded out visitors when all the rats suddenly, in unison, stood on their hind legs.


OBJECTIVE: The placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind study was performed to investigate dose-related effects of oxymetazoline on olfactory function during the course of the spontaneously occurring cold

CONCLUSIONS: Oxymetazoline appeared to have neither negative nor major positive effects on intranasal chemosensory function. It is hypothesized that oxymetazoline needs to be applied locally to the area of the olfactory cleft in order to significantly improve olfaction during the course of the common cold.

from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9832293

I put a few drops of Vicks Vapor Steam (or generic) into the humidifier when I have a problem with congestion. Its the stuff that you normally poor into the water chamber of a vaporizer. Make sure you use the liquid not the oil and be sure to clean it the next day. I've talked to both my regular doc and the sleep doc about it and they it shouldn't cause any negative effects. In fact my regular doc said he was going to give it a try. The only thing is you only want to use a few drops otherwise you will be overwhelmed. Been doing this for over a year and haven't had any problems.

jimmyd wrote: "I put a few drops of Vicks Vapor Steam (or generic) into the humidifier when I have a problem with congestion."

I think i'll give this a try - i used the saline last night and it did initially clear my sinuses but by morning one was totally blocked