"Phenethylamines I Have Known and Felt Kind of Meh About"
The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
41–50 of 350 posts
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#42The 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...
I just came here to say that I actually find phenylephrine nasal spray quite effective - but I use it for a different use case: stopping nosebleeds quickly. It's quite effective at that and came recommended by an ENT, so I do believe it's an effective vasoconstrictor when applied locally and I'm glad it's available.
That's legitimate. The FDA's issue with oral phenylephrine is that it's metabolized in the gut before it gets to the sites where you want it to work.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#43If you like the author Derek Lowe's writing like I do you might like his "Things I won't Work with". Here's one of my favorites:
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-wor...
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#44Probably 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.
I think that people are hoping for larger effects. I have been a lifelong allergy sufferer. Many years ago, my doctor gave me an intranasal antihistamine. It came with a piece of paper about the studies done on it. Patients rated their symptoms on a 1-5 scale, and the study observed the ratings with and without. The placebo group rated their symptoms, say, 4.0. The people on the drug rated them 3.5. I would say that's exactly the effect I got from the medication, an improvement, but not a complete elimination of symptoms. Certainly some people are going to go to their pharmacist and say "this does nothing", and that might lead them to believe it's all a scam. It's not really a scam, it's just that expectations were not set correctly. People want "this will cure you and you'll get a gold metal in the Olympics!" but all we have is "this will make life slightly less miserable".
It's probably the same for many conditions and medications. Antidepressants don't turn you into someone who is always happy. Painkillers don't make recovering from surgery a joy. I think that people even had the same feelings about COVID vaccines; they wanted "one shot and you'll never be sick again", but all we got was being 90% less likely to get COVID or whatever. None of this makes these things a scam. Rather, they are imperfect technologies that we work to improve. Silver bullets are rare, but they do exist. Just not all the time. (Have you died from strep throat or polio recently? People used to all the time!)
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#45The 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...
> I've maintained my own reserve of pseudoephedrine for years. Synthesizing it from widely-available and affordable street drugs, I assume. https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume19/v19i3/Pse...
At least if I followed that path, I would not be required to have my purchase recorded in an insecure government database.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#46I laughed out loud when I read about the lobbyists who are trying to keep phenylephrine from being taken off store shelves. In one article about the FDA panel vote, a lobbyist said that most consumers hate the alternatives -- nasal sprays because of the discomfort and pseudoephedrine because it's stored behind the pharmacy counter -- and so depriving them of a hassle-free option is anti-consumer. The fact that the ha…
My understanding is the nasal spray version works, but the oral just gets metabolized ineffectively?
Correct
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Psuedophedrine requires an ID to purchase and must be kept behind the counter in any state in the US. It's a federal requirement. Stores are also required to keep a record of purchases for 2 years. If you were able to purchase Sudafed without having someone get it from the back or out of some locked cabinet, and also hand over your ID, it wasn't psuedophedrine.
He said “at the counter”.
It's ambiguous. GP said "some states" require an ID. I'm clarifying it's all 50 states require an ID to purchase psuedophedrine and the other associated federal restrictions.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#48The 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...
I haven't tried lately (moved on to aother anti-histimines) but with a Driver's license, I could pretty readily get ahold of it.
Then had to disengage based on what it was doing to my blood pressure.
Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#49Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine (2022)
#50phenylepherine 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.
It's a different substance. Not version.