Stop blowing your nose and stock up on this! (Sudafed)

Member Name: bubblecat

Product:	Sudafed
Date:	22/02/06 (1417 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clears your stuffy nose

Disadvantages: Doesnt help any other symptoms

This review will be about the non-drowsy congestion relief version. I am sure you have all seen the ad with the guy explaining why you feel so stuffy with a cold. He tells us that it is 'not the build up of snot - yuck!' but the fact that our blood vessels swell when we have an infection which causes the stuffy, blocked feeling.

I have many a times despaired when I have had a cold of ever being able to breathe properly again, so when a few days ago I felt the horrible scratchy throat and stinging sinuses started, I vowed to finally test the congestion relief Sudafed.

These cost £2.49 for a pack of 12 tablets in Tesco.

I was fairly surprised to realise that these appear to literally only be for the relief of nasal congestion and catarrh. They do not contain any paracetamol, aspirin, codeine or ibuprofen and the sole active ingredient is Phenylephrine Hydrochloride.

This is known as a sympathomimetic drug and in this instance is a stimulant which causes the contraction of blood vessels and mucous membranes. As this cannot be specifically contained to the vessels in the nose, this medicine can often cause faster heartbeat, dry eyes and blurry vision and should most definitely NOT be taken if you have thyroid, heart, blood or respiratory problems or if you are pregnant or elderly without consultation withyour GP. This (or variations of it) are sometimes used to treat some symptoms of hayfever, sinusitis and opthalmic problems such as irritation from contact lenses.

As this is a stimulant it does not cause you to become drowsy. It can however cause you to become slightly hyperactive or over excitable, so exceeding the dose of 1 tablet (containing 12mg of the active ingredient) every 4 hours is not recommended. Also, this product is NOT for children under tha ge of 12 and prolonged use (longer than 7 days) should only be on the advice of a doctor.

As a comparison, Phenylephrine Hydrochloride also resembles the drug Epinephrine, which you may have heard talked about a lot in medical dramas when someone is in shock or something and the doctor screeches '10mg of Epinephrine now!!!' I'm not sure if the dosage is correct in that it is just an example.

About 15 minutes after taking 1 tablet, I did notice that my nose was clearer. I have to say I was very impressed! Then after a while, I realised that I still had my banging headache and my eyes were beginning to feel very dry. As you are not supposed to take any other decongestants with this, you have to be very careful if you want to take anything to help your other symptoms. Many over the counter cold remedies contain decongestants so make sure you get one without. I also noticed that I did indeed feel more lively - perhaps too lively! I was feeling very restless and talkative which is not necessarily a bad thing, but in certain situations may not be appropriate.

All in all this medicine does do what it says on the box, but is not an all in one treatment for colds and flu and it isn't advisable to take at night when the blocked nose is at its worst as it will probably keep you up anyway, so perhaps not the greatest value. I would still recommend it for daytime use though, so if you have a heavy head at work due to a cold, go out and buy some of this.

Summary: Effective Congestion relief