Hi, this is Your Health Quickly, a scientific American podcast series.

We bring you the latest vital health news, discoveries that affect your body and your mind.

And we break down the medical research to help you stay healthy.

I'm Tonya Lewis.

I'm Josh Fishman.

We are scientific American senior health editors.

Today, we are talking about decongestants.

Scientists who advise the FDA recently concluded that phenyl effron, a common decongestant in

cold medicines, doesn't work, and we'll talk about what actually does.

I don't know about you, Josh, but I have pretty bad allergies, and my sinuses are blocked

pretty often.

I've tried all sorts of things to help, from nasal sprays and decongestants to antihistamines

to hot showers.

Some of these things help, and some of them don't.

What helps you the most of all those things, Tonya?

I find that the steroid nasal sprays work pretty well, but I don't like to use them all

the time.

How come?

I just find that sometimes I develop a tolerance to it, so it stops having the same effect.

Sometimes hot showers do help temporarily, but usually the congestion comes back.

Yeah, and there's only so long that you can stand under a hot shower, right?

Right.

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