美国食品和药品管理局（FDA）的顾问科学家最近得出了一个结论：感冒药中常见的减充血剂苯肾上腺素（phenylephrine）对消除鼻塞不起作用。鼻塞是个常见的困扰，虽然应对它的方法众多，但是并不是每个都十分有效。洗个热水澡能暂时缓解，但是一旦你离开热气缭绕的浴室，鼻子也许很快就又堵上了。许多人也会使用盐水洗鼻器清洗鼻腔，但这种方法不会立即起效，而是须要长期坚持。类固醇鼻腔喷雾剂也是一种缓解鼻塞的常用药物，但是长期使用可能产生耐受问题。相比之下，减充血剂口服片似乎更加有效。减充血剂可以减轻鼻内水肿，打开呼吸道，最常见的减充血剂成分之一是苯肾上腺素，它广泛存在于许多感冒药中。但是让人惊讶的是，不久前FDA的一个顾问委员会证实，口服苯肾上腺素对于缓解鼻塞毫无作用。苯肾上腺素之所以被广泛使用，是因为标准的非处方减充血剂伪麻黄碱（pseudoephedrine）受到了管制。伪麻黄碱是一种兴奋剂，它不仅能引发诸如高血压、出汗、焦虑等副作用，还可以制取甲基苯丙胺（methamphetamine），也就是人们熟知的“冰毒”。如果要在药店购买含有伪麻黄碱的药，你不仅……[查看全文]
This Tick Bite Makes You Allergic to Red Meat
Josh Fischman: Today, we're talking about decongestants. Scientists who advise the FDA recently concluded that phenylephrine, a common decongestant in cold medicines, doesn't work. We'll talk about what actually does.Tanya Lewis: I don't know about you, Josh, but I have bad allergies and my sinuses are blocked pretty often. I've tried all sorts of things to help, from nasal sprays and decongestants to antihistamines to hot showers. Some of these things help, some of them don't.Fischman: What helps you the most of all those things, Tanya?Lewis: I find that the steroid nasal sprays work pretty well, but I don't like to use them all the time.Lewis: Um, I just find that sometimes I develop a tolerance to it so it stops having the same effect. Sometimes hot showers do help temporarily, but usually the congestion comes back.Fischman: Yeah, and there's only so long you can stand under a hot shower, right?Fischman: I've tried those saline sprays up my nose. They kind of flush things out and I feel more comfortable. But I have to use them for a bunch of days before I feel any difference.Lewis: Yeah, those saline ones are pretty good.Fischman: Overall, I tend to go for decongestant tablets, which are supposed to reduce swelling inside my nose, opening up my airways.Lewis: You're not alone in preferring tablets. One of the most popular decongestant ingredients is phenylephrine. It's found in drugs like Sudafed PE, Benadryl Allergy D Plus Sinus, and Vicks Dayquil Cold and Flu Relief.But earlier this month, in a rare move, an FDA advisory panel declared that oral phenylephrine is completely useless at clearing up congestion.Fischman: That really surprised me. I've been buying cold and flu medicines for years. And I always look to see if a decongestant like phenylephrine is in the capsule.Lewis: I'd heard for a while that it wasn't that effective, but it's in a lot of cold medicines. In fact, it became popular because the standard over-the-counter decongestant, pseudoephedrine —the active ingredient in regular Sudafed—got locked up behind pharmacy counters. That's because it can be used as an ingredient in making methamphetamine.Fischman: I remember that. In the mid-2000s, all these cold medicines were suddenly put behind plexiglass windows with padlocks on them. I had to...[full transcript]
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