This sounded important enough to pass along. This is crazy....It is true too! There is a link at the bottom of this to the FDA website with the information. I want my friends and loved ones to know what has happened to me in hopes that it will never happen to you or anybody you care about. About 10 days ago, I felt a cold coming on; so before I went to bed I used Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel. It's supposed to help you "get over your cold faster." Immediately after I sprayed it into each nostril I felt the most horrific burning sensation imaginable. It literally felt like I had sprayed pepper spray directly into my brain. It burned all the way to the top of my skull. My nasal passages swelled, my eyes watered - the burning lasted all night long into the next day. After about a day, I realized I couldn't taste anything and I thought, "Wow - I must really have a bad cold." Then I noticed that I couldn't smell coffee brewing, couldn't smell my perfume when I put it on, couldn't smell the popcorn I burned, couldn't smell my favorite candle. I panicked and starting smelling everything that I could find that had really strong odors - ammonia, finger nail polish remover, bleach, etc. I couldn't smell ANYTHING! I started tasting everything that had really strong tastes such as HOT salsa, raw red onions, Doritos, coffee. I couldn't taste ANYTHING! I told my mother about this and she said, "Oh, I've heard Zicam can affect your Olfactory nerve." I went online, typed in "Zicam side effects" and bam - up popped all sorts of web sites with people reporting the same thing I experienced. It seems that this past June, Zicam pulled the swabs for adults and children off the shelf but not the nasal gel. I went to my ENT and he said the Zicam had basically "FRIED" my Olfactory nerve and the results are most likely permanent. He put me on a strong dose of a steroid called Prednisone in hopes of recovering ANY bit of the nerve damage but he told me to "take this and pray." He said he had read about the side effects of Zicam and couldn't believe it is still on the shelf. It isn't FDA approved. I am taking the Prednisone and praying but nothing is happening. I LITERALLY CANNOT SMELL OR TASTE ANYTHING! I can tell if foods are hot or cold, I can tell the consistency and I can faintly detect if it is salty but that is it. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pass this on to everyone you care about. I don't want this to happen to ANYONE else!!!!!!!!!! And if you have Zicam in your medicine cabinet--THROW IT AWAY! Susan Please share with everyone you can. Check it out on the link below.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm167065.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: John E. Stevens To: silver-list@eskimo.com Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 6:05 PM Subject: Re: CS>sniffing CS and loss of sense of smell i do the same as TW and have for years and my sense of smell has never been better. John On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 5:43 PM, <slickpic...@cox.net> wrote: I spray it almost daily and have had no problem with smells. I put mine in an empty Afrin bottle. TW ---- Day Sutton <day.sut...@gmail.com> wrote: ============= I sniff it all the time. Every time I'm in a crowd somewhere. I have a plastic squeeze sniffer I got at the drug store. It had a spray for colds. I cleaned it out and put my CS/EIS in it. Carry it all the time . Have no trouble identifying smells.. On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 12:53 PM, Beth Harrison <bethharri...@bellsouth.net>wrote: > Hii all, > Several of my family have been battling bronchitis for the last week or so. > > My husband put some CS in a teaspoon, and inhaled it. > He did this maybe 4 times over the last few days, and now says he cannot > smell anything-- even the chlorine type smell of MMS, > or fragrance oils straight from the bottle. (I am a soapmaker, so have > lots > of that around.) > > He had recently read that the use of ZICAM, a zinc-based OTC product that > you used by swabbing in the nasal passages, caused > loss of sense of smell. > > Will sniffing CS into the nasal passages do the same thing? > > Beth H > -- Day Sutton day.sut...@gmail.com -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>