In Good Health: When A Popular Decongestant Doesn't Work
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This comes as COVID cases continue to rise and as we head into fall allergy season. Studies also show that human-caused climate change is making allergies more intense and last longer.
For this edition of In Good Health, our panel of experts discusses the best alternatives for relief and how you should prepare for the colder months as sicknesses surge.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for NPR and the following message come from St. Martin's Press, |
| 0:03.7 | publishers of the new book from Bettina L. Love, Punished for Dreaming, |
| 0:08.0 | which reckons with the impact of 40 years of public school policy on generations of Black Lives. |
| 0:14.0 | It's available wherever books and audiobooks are sold. |
| 0:25.8 | The allergy cold and flu aisle at the pharmacy is vast, |
| 0:29.6 | but have you ever felt like some of those medications really don't do much? |
| 0:33.6 | Well, you may be on to something. |
| 0:35.2 | Kind of a stunning new message from the FDA. |
| 0:38.2 | A key ingredient in the over-the-counter cold medicines that so many of us buy, |
| 0:42.7 | well, it just doesn't work. |
| 0:44.4 | It's in a lot of over-the-counter cold treatments, |
| 0:48.1 | like suit-of-fed, nightgull, those kind of things. Just read those labels. |
| 0:51.2 | It's in almost everything. |
| 0:52.5 | The 10 milligram over-the-counter drug performs no better than a placebo. |
| 0:57.4 | That key ingredient is phenylaffron, |
| 1:00.1 | and you'll find it in many over-the-counter decongestant medicines. |
| 1:03.5 | A food and drug administration advisory panel unanimously agreed last week |
| 1:08.0 | that the ingredient is ineffective when taken orally. |
| 1:11.1 | So have we all been throwing money away? |
| 1:13.1 | The decision could affect hundreds of products, |
| 1:15.3 | including suit-of-fed PE, |
| 1:17.2 | nightgull, severe cold and flu, |
... |
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