June 24, 2009

What’s that Smell?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jim @ 9:07 pm

Many peeps I know, at the first sign of a cold, smear the inside of their nose with Zicam Gel swabs, in the belief that it will prevent the cold from taking hold, or lessen its severity. While this may or may not be true, the FDA has issued a warning stating that the use of Zicam nasal swabs may be associated with a loss of sense of smell, which could be of long-lasting or permanent. The FDA Notice is here.

This could be a bummer, given that most of our sense of taste relies on olfaction. In addition, as the FDA notes, the loss of sense of smell could prevent one from detecting the smell of gas, smoke or other dangerous stuff.

The flip side is that this could be a good thing if you find yourself surrounded by people with world class B.O., or you are in regular close contact with a person who has dramatic bowel windage issues.

PRS reports, you decide.

7 Comments »

  1. Salt water snorting does just as well to clean and disinfect the sinuses.

    Comment by hammer — June 24, 2009 @ 10:40 pm

  2. dramatic bowel windage issues….LMAO. You know they’re bad when you can’t stand your own funk!!!

    Comment by Dave — June 25, 2009 @ 10:42 am

  3. It’s all in the context. If I ever move to the city I shall have to consider buying some Zicam.

    Comment by Teresa — June 25, 2009 @ 11:38 am

  4. What about all that Vick’s Vapo Rub our Momma used to smear under our noses??? Good gawd, that was worse that having a cold!

    Altho, when the younguns were showing horses, we used to smear that stuff on the male horses noses in case there was a mare in heat at the show. Makes ya wonder!

    Comment by Michele — June 25, 2009 @ 6:20 pm

  5. Never used the Zicam nasal swabs but have used the oral spray. It will definately kill your sense of taste for 3-4 hrs. after you use it…

    Comment by Tbird — June 25, 2009 @ 7:41 pm

  6. Dramatic bowel windage issue`s……

    Hey! after an evening of beer, beans & chili….laying down a green mister is the respectable thing to do. A real fun event is to launch one of these sphincter blasts in front of the coolers in the produce section of the local supermarket & watch the reactions of the Patron`s who stray into the gas cloud.

    Comment by dudley1 — June 25, 2009 @ 9:46 pm

  7. I had surgery on my sinuses years ago. Prior to that, I couldn’t breath through my nose, nor did I have a sense of smell.

    After the surgery, I regained an intense sense of smell. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, I took a trip to New York during a garbage strike! Hardly a way to celebrate my newly gained olfactory sense!

    Slowly, over the years, my sense of smell has faded away again. But I can’t complain. For every good smell, there are a myriad of bad smells.

    Comment by DogsDontPurr — June 28, 2009 @ 2:22 am

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