Zicam Dangers

I was at the store about a month ago when I noticed the cold medications in the pharmacy. Having just written an article on "Vitamin C and the Common Cold" and "Airborne," I was interested to see what was on the shelves. I noticed that Zicam had the word "Homeopathic" right on the box!!! Immediately I was concerned that they were marketing complete crap. It's just sitting there on the shelf next to other over-the-counter cold remedies. But before I jumped to any conclusions I did my research.

After I had a rather hostile conversation with my family tonight, I realized that I never wrote the article. I found my family was making claims that Zicam works for them. My brother is taking it because he thinks he may be getting a cold and my mother thinks that it will lessen the effects. So I was determined to re-research a write the article after all.

A quick Google search will pull up the usuall articles like "Homeopathic medicine company fights off Zicam lawsuits." In early 2006 Zicam settled a class action lawsuit with more than 340 people for around $12 million. The product has caused a loss of smell and taste due to it's high levels of zinc.

This was a surprise to me considereing that homeopathy is based on diluting "medicines" to the point that they don't exist anymore. How can there be high levels of zinc in it? I read the back of the box and found that the active ingredients are "Zincum Aceticum 2X, Zincum Gluconicum 1x." This means that the zinc is diulted to 10% of the entire dosage. That is still enough to cause anosmia and hyposmia (perminant loss of smell and taste).

Considering that the FDA has not approved it for safety or efficacy, I would not waste my money or my health experimenting for them.