The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
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The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
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Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#2Discussed at the time:
The Uselessness of Phenylephrine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30858202 - March 2022 (592 comments)
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#3[flagged]
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#4It's never worked for me and I didn't understand why people bought these products.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#5Probably will get downvoted for this, but a bunch of my family members are pharmacists. Their quiet opinion is that most pharmaceuticals don’t work. Even the ones that are thought effective. The data is anecdotal, but is over 15 years of watching people come in for prescriptions. The other aspect, is they say it’s mind boggling to see what kind of drugs people are on.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#6This strikes me as an example of a larger phenomenon. Take for example the counter-insurgency wars that have become normalized since 9/11. In these conflicts, there is enormous pressure to minimize casualties because these directly undermine the political will to conduct military operations. As such, the strategic objectives eventually degenerate to mere "presence", and commanders are effectively unable to pursue the kinds of operations that might actually translate into military success.
Similarly, we've collectively decided that selling an OTC drug that is effectively inert is somehow preferable to selling a useful-but-abusable substance, at which point one might argue that it's even safer to sell nothing at all.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#7The risk:reward ratio is infinite — it has adverse reactions but essentially no benefit. It’s about as much “medicine” as was drinking radium.
Good riddance.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#8Probably will get downvoted for this, but a bunch of my family members are pharmacists. Their quiet opinion is that most pharmaceuticals don’t work. Even the ones that are thought effective. The data is anecdotal, but is over 15 years of watching people come in for prescriptions. The other aspect, is they say it’s mind boggling to see what kind of drugs people are on.
I’d like to think you’ve heard them grousing about specific things like this and misinterpreting that as a general mistrust. Every medicine I’ve ever taken had an objective, quantifiable effect on me.
Except for phenylephrine, of course, which only served to teach me how to ask the pharmacist for the good stuff.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#9The fact that phenylepherine is ineffective is quite old and has been common knowledge for many years. What is news is that the FDA is finally acknowledging it. I've maintained my own reserve of pseudoephedrine for years.
https://gizmodo.com/report-many-over-the-counter-decongestan...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2015/10/26/the-pop...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2089555-breaking-bad-sn...
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#10phenylepherine is the otc version of pseudoephedrine, what Sudafed was originally created with.
If you need Sudafed that works, go to the phamacist and ask for "real sudafed". You might have to scan your ID if you live in certain states and you actually need a Rx if you're in Oregon (lol), but for most free states you're good to just purchase it at the counter.