Why doesn’t cold medicine work?
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Experts have known for a long time that the cold medicine you can get on pharmacy shelves doesn't really work. So why do they even make it? #health #healthcare #medicine #science #government
It works great. Take it and your cold is over in a week, instead of dragging on for 7 while days.
The same with homeopathic """medicine"""
Cold is caused by virus. Obviously it didn't work, only if people studied a little science
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
It doesnt work but it does at the same time the placebo effect is real
Obviously it doesn’t help with spelling either. 😏
Sounds like a great idea! With the best of intentions! What could possibly go wrong?
hahahhaha lol thats from the other video
@@21NDT_9-SA Spread it far and wide, my friend!
I can hear his voice 😂😂😂😂
I get this reference!
gekoloniseerd
I tried Sudafed PE once and came to the conclusion that the "PE" stood for placebo effect. The stuff was useless.
I take the sign your life away Sudafed and it STILL doesn’t work. I miss Drixoral.
But if it DOES have the placebo effect, it actually works!
@@Fiery154 Drixoral was the *best*
Funnily enough I had a really bad sinus buildup and I took Sudafed PE. It actually worked and after about a week on it, the nasty fluid drained and I was good.
The root problem was my wisdom teeth popping into my sinuses but still. Placibos are strange when they work.
@@sebastianriz4703 how can you be sure it would've been different without the Sudafed?
Mumble, mumble, unintended consequences, cough, cough.
Where's my cold medicine?
Behind the pharmacist counter and they restrict how much you get
@@jonathanjones3126 It's not the restriction that bothers me so much as it creates a record of your purchases for law enforcement to dig into, and try and make a case out of it. That's the real problem.
@macsnafu that is a big issue
In the liquor cabinet
@@CountryTunic524 Or in a back alley with the drug dealer!
its not all cold medicines, it is one active ingredient used in about half on the market doesnt work. However, there are others out there.
So it's a active do nothing with a 50% market share
It’s not just one ingredient that doesn’t work, it’s multiple. Not to mention the ones that actually work opposite as stated!
The situation is the ingredient doesn't activate when digested. It has to be used as a nasal spray for the body to properly break the protein down so that it functions. There have been many news stories covering those that do and do not work. It is actually pretty simple. You can't eat the ingredient that everyone is in an uproar about. Your stomach just eats the ingredient keeping it from activating in simple terms.
Honestly I take Tylenol when I'm sick. It helps with fevers, gets rid of headaches, and reduces swelling so it helps with congestion. It just doesn't help with mucus buildup
For the mucus buildup my friend taught me a trick that helps drain but doesn't help any of the swelling and other stuff you mentioned.
1) Place two fingers on each side of your nose and, using moderate pressure, drag them around your cheekbones up to your ears.
2) Place the fingers on your forehead just above the eyebrows and drag them accross your forehead to your temple, and then down to the ears (same spot -ish you left off w/ step 1)
3) from that point in front of your ears, drag your fingers down around your jaw and down either side of the throat to your collarbone.
4) Repeat once or twice if needed.
This can assist in draining the mucus from your sinuses. Now you are unstoppable.
Yesh this video is clickbait as hell, normal decongestants still work great, normal Sudafed (none PE version) helps alot, cough medicine is a lifesaver when you need it
Tylenol doesn’t help with swelling
Exactly. It’s ignorant people who think they’re a cure to the virus. They aren’t and never were
It's trying to point out the needless bureaucracy and how easily most submitted to it. Imo, so not really cluckbait. @@sharrpshooter1
This is an oversimplification that borders on just lying. One ingredient does not work if ingested orally, but is still effective in a nasal spray. The other active ingredients do work and can help lessen a cold/flu by just helping you relax and letting your body do the fighting. Being able to have a quality sleep does wonders on fighting off colds.
The active ingredient that is supposed to restrict blood vessels in the nose and "decongest" does not perform any better than a placebo. Thus, this "decongestant" does not work. Nobody is lying.
But were they selling it as a nasal spray? No, they weren't, thus, it's was largely ineffective.
@@1mariomaniacit's been sold for decades as a nasal spray. It was known that it didn't work orally, but they still did it.
So they don't work. All they do is relax you. .......
But it’s not sleeping medicine. It’s cold medicine
This is a complete misrepresentation and I really expected a lot better from Reason. The whole story comes from two different parts colliding.
YES, Pseudoephedrine was being bought in large amounts as a main ingredient in the production of methamphetamine. It was often a common tactic for GANGS to hire multiple mules to go an clear out the shelves of several pharmacies buying products with Pseudoephedrine. The law introduced to fix this restricted a person to only buying 3.6 g of the medicine in a day and no more than 7.2 g in a month, hence why you need to get your ID logged. This ended up shutting down a lot of smaller cooking operations, but sadly as demand for meth went up, larger operations shifted to new methods.
Phenylephrine (the ineffective medicine) was always allowed into medicine as it was grandfathered in by the FDA back when their rule was just that "it can't pose harm to patients" instead of now which is "it can't pose harm to patients and must be shown to be effective." Phenylephrine was used as a substitute because of a carve out in regulation. Its effects were always known to be lackluster, but companies didn't want to advertise this as they still wanted to sell "decongestants" that were unrestricted and phenylephrine was still a "nasal decongestant" according to the FDA's grandfathered rules.
the actual story not some rabblerousing nonsense
I mean its also just disingenuous since they are making it seem like all Cold medicines ever don't work which just isn't true
Realising this is just an anti regulation channel repeatedly misrepresentating stories to push an agenda. Very disappointing.
So basically what they said is correct
@@schneemannX their factual statements, yes
their logical conclusions from those statements? no
This is NOT for all cough medicine, this is about “Sudafed PE” specifically
I've never in my life even seen that medicine.
Let's undo the law. When my family is sick and we need Sudafed, it is near impossible to get multiple people to go to the store to buy it. Just let me stock up on it. At least increase the amount people can buy so they can take care of like 4 sick people for a week.
Oral decongestants don't work
But the same active substance in nasal spray form does absolutely work
Your body just can't get it where it needs to go in any meaningful amount if you take it as a pill
That said, the pill does absolutely help with some of the other symptoms of the common cold.
Not that I want to, or suggest doing it, but I wonder what would happen if the pill was ground up and 😤
@@r.taylor8836 they're usually liquid caps but you can get some solid ones, it would probably just cause a whole bunch of irritation though - not just from the ingredients but there's a ton of filler in pills, so you've basically just given your body a bunch of baby powder to flush out on top of the snot, etc.
They work for me
Pseudoephedrine, amphetamine and methamphetamine are all effective decongestants when taken orally.
What are the other things that PE does to help, because I've never noticed a thing myself, but I am still curious to know what is claimed.
The government didn’t fix either problem? What a shocker.
One important exception! Phenylephrine IS effective in a nasal spray, just not orally.
ok, real doctor here, anesthesiologist. We use phenylephrine as a nasal decongestant before doing a nasal fiberoptic intubation. if you have a blocked nose, you can try, for a limited time, ideally at night, phenylephrine or pseudoephedrine drops and the effect is immediate. THIS DOES NOT CURE YOUR COLD, its a very temporary symptomatic relief, but it does allow you to rest better.
Hell, I grew up in the Netherlands learning that there is nothing you can get without a prescription that helps.
There is some truth to that! A lot of things that help also make you sleepy or high
I work for cvs in the pharmacy part as a technician the medication is supposed to relieve your symptoms aka help you feel less pain eta I thought this was common knowledge that it actually doesn’t cure you?
Just buy generic pseudoephedrine from the counter.
Doesn't matter--you still have to show your ID and be recorded for buying it. Medical surveillance.
@@macsnafu there is pseudophed you can buy that works that you don't have to show id for. When the FDA says it doesn't work they are talking about the one that shown in the video. The FDA warns about products that re on the market that don't work as intended.
Or from the gangs
@@hotspot1564 No, there isn't. There are alternative medications called Sudafed PE and generics of Sudafed PE that have NO pseudophedrine in them. The active ingredient in these is phenylephrine. THESE drugs are exactly the ones they're telling us don't work. You CANNOT get pseudophedrine without signing for it.
@@hotspot1564 My comment disappeared. Sudafed PE and generics based on it contain phenylephrine as an active ingredient, not pseudophedrine. These PE versions are exactly what they're telling us doesn't work.
If you want actual pseudophedrine, you have to sign for it.
It's not to heal the cold, it's to help you get through it easier.
But phenylephrine doesn't even work as a decongestant when taken orally, it's mildly effective when taken intranasally, but there are more effective intranasal decongestants out there. The systemic effect of phenylephrine is raised blood pressure and heart rate increasing your risk of adverse cardiovascular events.
Yeah that's the problem, it tends to ease the pain in a way that people like to abuse... Many people want to ease/dull life, even when they don't have a cold...
So when do I get a refund for every dollar I've spent on that junk? We're just going to forget that they defrauded millions? ok.
Now the stuff the FDA made you use only works if you do it like that white powder, instead of eating it like you would an edible. different routes of ingestion cause different effects lole
Stonks
In Australia we actually got compensation from companies selling specific, targeted ‘period pain’ medicine which was shown to be normal all over pain meds. One time we won over big companies
This channel is against government intervention, so what you want us actually the last thing they want lol
"Here's the twist, they didn't solve either"
Thats not a twist that's to be expected from uncle scam
True, the government should stop regulating the companies that just demonstrated they are happy to mislead us and sell us drugs that don’t work, surely that will fix the problem.
The level of placebo goes way deeper than the rabbit hole
Those of us alive at the time never used the fake stuff. We just kept asking for the real stuff at the pharmacy. It obviously didn’t work from the get go.
This is great news. I thought it was just me. I went back to waiting for the pharmacy to be open and getting pseudoephedrine, which works like a charm.
There is a special place in hell saved for the people who decreed that decent people can’t get a freaking decongestant and have to suffer. Just saying
Careful, your Aunt Karen is probably one of them.
I'm willing to sign up to help make that special place in hell extra special after I die. Every theme park needs a crew.
Not fixing the problem while creating new problems is a good way to sum up government solutions
Dextromethorphan and Guaifenesin seems to work honestly. Helped me sleep through alright.
The best medicine is sleeping enough and eating appropriately. For example eating stuff like eggs is great for recovering from fractured/broken bones.
I used to use alkaseltzer cold for seasonal allergies. None of the allergy meds worked. The decongestant helped so much. I felt like a million bucks. Then it quit working. I eventually learned that around the time it quit working was when they took a decongestant out. Reason given was that it was no longer deemed necessary. They added a different type instead. I can’t remember which ones they were.
REAL Sudafed is like magic, when I tried it, I was so shocked that it did exactly what it claimed to do, and quickly.
Really put into perspective how disappointing most medications are.
Traditional medicine works.
Correction that hasn't been 50 years has been more like 30 years. Actual Sudafed pseudoephedrine was available OTC back the 90s.
They should refund All the money for the drugs that don't work. Those FDA individuals, who may or may not be captured, should probably also pay back their salaries to contribute to the fund. This probably sounds ridiculous, but then again the behavior of the FDA is ridiculous. At some point there need to be consequences.
Are you 10
Drug companies didn't make the law. How low is your IQ?
@@theoneafterthelast Its clear you dont understand how captured the FDA is. Employees go back and forth between the industry and the enforcement agency. You think they didn't know that the new drug was useless?
@jackjrabbit they followed the law and used an approved substance. Again, it's not their fault, blame the FDA. You're trying to be too deep.
@@theoneafterthelast Saying that substantial corruption isnt present and that it isnt an underlying substantial if not the primary cause is to completely ignore vast swathes of human history. Capture of regulators is common unfortunately. Both the FDA and the pharmaceutical company are to blame here.
I've known this just from personal use. Once I ran out of the behind the counter Sudafed, tried the stuff in the shelf since it was cheaper and easier and it did nothing. I had to go back and get the real Sudafed before I got any relief.
Thank god we had real medicines here
Oh man, the government tried to solve 2 problems and failed… if only there was a way to hold them accountable 😅
I wouldn’t say 50 years. I remember taking the old Sudafed when i was a kid and I’m only 40.
"sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions, what could possibly go wrong!?"
Great logic. Food isn't made from crops, it's made by farmers.
children's cold and allergy elixer was a mixture of pseudoephedrine and diphenhydramine---and it tasted pretty good (grape flavor). It kicked in fast and worked.
Sadly, this product was completely killed off by this legislation.
Another thing you forgot to mention, phenylephrine does work when used as a nasal spray, in modern times if you want to change the delivery method of a medicine you have to test its effectiveness but in the past you didnt,so it was never tested if orally it worked
No, this is not true, it flashed "less effective" as someone who can get really bad sinus pain, to the point of not being able to focus on anything, trust me when I say it works enough.
Phenylephrine is a great medication for maintaining blood pressure when given IV but not so great as a nasal decongestant
"Here's the twist: they didn't solve either."
No, no, I think that's the expected outcome with congress.
“Here’s the twist” Government proceeds to do exactly what you would expect and not solve problems. That’s not a twist😅
This sounds like taking Tylenol for pain.
"They [Congress] didn't solve either"
Yeah, that's not really a twist.
"They didn't solve either problem" sounds like a bureaucratic goal.
I don’t know, I just had a 102.1 temperature with nonexistent sinuses and took cold and flu, magically my temp came down and I could breathe a little bit better. FYI, this was Friday night till about 8 hours ago I was bed ridden and took some medicine and feel a ton better.
Did the medication also have acetaminophen or ibuprofen in it? If so, that's why.
😂 I knew back in 2004 It didn't work. I started working on an Ambulance and our ER doc back then straight up told us that it wasn't going to work it was just a placebo effect to make people feel better about being sick.
Congress was upset they couldn't tax illegal drugs. If they were concerned about public health they would've banned alcohol and cigarettes.
Long time?! You mean september 2023? That’s when they found out the ORAL version of phenylephrine doesn’t work. The nasal spray version still does it’s just that people don’t know how to use nasal spray correctly.
I take nyquill when I want to sleep, sleep is what gets the body to head, and cough suppressent does allow me to sleep longer.
Man, here in Canada you can walk into any of the sports nutrition stores and buy an unlimited amount of actual ephedrine (as opposed to pseudoephedrine as you're talking about here) and it's dirt cheap. Health Canada put out a bulletin about cardiac issues related to it in 2002 or so, but they declined to attempt to regulate it for that or any other reason since their mandate generally does not include herbal remedies, even if it is a potential precursor for making a banned substance.
yeah thats why they raid every house where any kind of chemistry is done
@harrietjameson Care to expand on that? My father-in-law orders restricted chemicals all the time. The RCMP called him about it, he explained what it was for, and they left him alone after that. NileRed has had a similar experience with the RCMP. If you're not a fool who's trying to pull one over on them, the cops leave you alone. And once again, that's not Health Canada's doing.
@@Ad1nfernum nile red has similar experiences? lmao, they harass this dude all the time about this, his explanation on the safety third podcast was what got me interested in this in the first place
More context: current flu medicine treats the symptoms, not the virus, our bodies are capable of fighting the flu with the correct precautions like resting and ventilate the rooms you are in.
If you want to FEEL better, that's when you buy the medicine, if you want to BE better, you take the precautions recommended by your doctor.
So why should we trust anything the FDA and DEA says
When I get sick I just rest in bed as much as possible until it passes. And it always passes without any medicine. If I take any medicine it seems to have absolutely no impact on how long I'll be sick for.
That's not necessarily true, congested sinuses and nasal passages can increase your risk of a secondary bacterial or fungal infection, so using a decongestant can actually make you better, faster. But the main thing these medicines do is treat the symptoms so people do not have to suffer them while infected, congestion causes dizziness, pain and contributes to a general feeling of malaise. Most people who experience it would rather not spend several days like that.
i hate that they didn’t call it pseudo-fedrin
This is misinformation. I don't live in America and I don't know much about laws. I am a doctor and from a medical standpoint everything you said was inaccurate.
Pseudoephedrine has many side effects and I try to avoid because of these, not because people are going to make meth. Phenylephrine is less effective but saying it doesn't work is a lie. The script is obviously not written by a doctor or a pharmacist. The law is stupid, don't make yourself look stupid too.
That is not a twist. Congress never actually solves anything.
So it is not 50 years, but only 18 (from 2006).
The law passed in 2006 so, how does that get us to 50 years of medicines that don’t work?
Is it really a twist when we know the government doesn’t solve problems?
Just to be clear: this is not all cold and flu medicine
Dextromethorphan, present in many OTC cough syrups, is moderately effective (arguably as effective as its narcotic counterpart: codeine) but it really depends on the type of cough someone has. Phenylephrine is effective (nearly instantly) when used as a nasal spray, just not orally.
Milo Murphy lives in Danville so it's possible for them to get an entire class that has no idea
The government should hire Rory Sutherland as an advisor when trying to form plans to combat illicit drug use. 😂
The government not solving any problems is not a twist. it's the norm
If an Advil or a Tylenol doesn't work, I just ride that shit out. If it get's worse, I go to the urgent care.
I never had luck with the stuff. I just take cough drops for sore throat and deal with it. Consequently I dont get many colds.
I wanna see the pharmacist that’s certified in 3 states UA-cam guy to counter this argument 😂
I’m from the government and I’m here to help
The nine most terrifying words in the English language 😮
All drugs should be legal.
I’m worried this video could be taken the wrong way. It’s specifically about that drug-or more accurately, the primary decongestant used in it. It doesn’t mean that all cold and flu medicines are ineffective.
This is why I hand over my license to get real Sudafed.
The only people I've known that have ever been actually addicted to sufafed were teenagers (when i was a teen) and people in prison (not me in prison but people in prison). Maybe there should have been a better way to handle it
Took ephedrine off the shelf too. Great at fat burning, not used a whole ton in meth
On the other hand, phenylephrine wasn't created recently. I believe it's been around for about 50 years.
They say high cholesterol causes heart attacks, so doctors prescribe medicine to lower cholesterol numbers, and it works great. There is only one problem, it has not lowered the chance of having a heart attack. Our Cholesterol numbers are looking better, though. We eat tons of that medicine every year.
For 50 years? That was fairly recently
If you think it works, it will , even though you're still lousy for more days.
You should specify phenylephrine is the one that doesn't work but drugs like Tylenol and Motrin work. There's lots of cold medicine
I've never had cold medicine in my life
This is some right information mixed with a fair amount of hope and unicorn farts. Man expected better.
I mean people also take Vitamin C for colds even though for years it’s been clear it doesn’t do anything for a cold. I doubt telling people it’s ineffective will do anything.
It worked great for manufacturers' profits.
I live in the UK, and I'm pretty sure our sudafed works. I've broken my nose the wrong number of times, and as a result colds go right to it. Sudafed is the difference between drowning in my own gunge or not. 😆
Osmosis Jones touches on this point.
Sounds like a placebo effect, what could possibly go wrong!
It works, but not by mouth. The spray up your nose works fine.
Glad to live in Canada where we have Buckley's. That shit *works*
You tell that to a scuba diver. I’ve seen it first had the old school Sudafed will save you from having to abort a dive due to congestion.
I can't believe the lengths this channel will go to make the government look bad.
I honestly just swallow raw garlic like a pill
Found out over Christmas that my fiancée is allergic to the PE part. Spent a part of my trip down south from PA in the ER bc of a placebo drug?!
Woah woah woah. Sudafed does actually work it works great. The other stuff won't work.
Did you watch the video
Yeah, i switched to that crystal since they took away my cold medicine. Since then my employer has been giving me a bonus every time i get sick 😂
I KNEW IT!! THOSE THINGS WERE JUST PLACEBOS!!
It certainly feels like it.
So it's actually 20 years that the cold medicine hadn't worked
I thought that word circled in red looks familiar. That's the active ingredient in my nasal spray.....
took a hard pass on that stuff myself. After a few years of just dealing with the allergies I eventually out-grew them.