Anyone use this product which is suppose to shorten the length of illness? Does it work? I've read some accounts on the internet of people claiming the product damaged their sense of smell or taste. Does anyone know of someone who had that happen using this product?
Here is a discussion about possible side effects of Zicam. The article mentions two clinical studies. But I cannot find anything about Zicam clinical trials on either the FDA site or on clinicaltrials.gov. So I am suspicious about any claims for efficacy attributable to Zicam.
The active ingredient in Zicam is zinc. Zinc is a fraction of the cost of what you would pay for Zicam and it does the same thing.
I've tried it and think it does have some merit, I wouldn't swear by it either though. I used it just as I felt a cold coming on, while everyone in my office was sick, and though I did get a bit of a cold, it was no where near as bad as everyone else in my office had. My mother on the other hand does swear by it and uses it religiously the minute she feels a sniffle coming on. I've not had any of the problems attributed to the side effects, but I've really only used it twice for the course of a cold... my mom who uses it regularly has had no problems stemming from side effects either. I have bought zinc in the vitamin bottle, and used the cough drops or juice flavored drops with zinc in them, and I can't handle the after-taste of zinc in those forms.
I've found that it works. I've been using it since '95 You have to take right as you're feeling the symptoms coming on. Sore throat, runny nose. You have to taken within hours. After 12 hours its pretty much worthless. Zicam is expensive. So is Cold-eeze. All the generic cheap stuff seems to have disappeared. (Haven't checked Wally World lately. Usually its spur of the moment, pharmacy thing.) I think its a darn conspiracy.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/zicam.asp I think the key part of the whole article is: the last paragraph that talks about this lawsuit: http://www.zicamsideeffects.com/claim/zicam-suit.html
