Ok, I look at their FAQs, and I find this.
Ok, so, that doesn’t make much sense =\
It’s the entrance, how does that shorten the cold?
My impression, strictly my impression, is the following:
I’ve wondered if there isn’t a link between asthma and the immune system. When it comes to respiratory infections it seems to take my immune system a L-OOO-NG time to kick in. Note that even without turning into bronchitis my colds lasted weeks.
So the impression I get from the Zicam is that somehow, don’t ask me how, it keeps the virus from multiplying (to the degree that it used to) or it manages to kill off some of the ones that are there.
I recall a science program tracking the progress of a cold and it showed the virus building up in your nasal cavity and throat until it was basically these two big colonies that exploded through your system causing your body to react to it with all those lovely cold symptoms.
So I figure if Zicam somehow causes you to have fewer viruses in your nose, they’ll be fewer to travel to your throat and start a colony there (plus I gargle with Listerine every couple of hours – again on the premise of using external aid in killing the nasties), and with fewer of them in the body, the body reacts less severly (symptoms aren’t as bad) and my immune system can actually succeed in defeating the little buggers in a reasonable amount of time.
Now some M.D. is going to come along and tell me I’m all wrong.
However, that’s the rational I’ve worked out based on my body. I’d volunteer to be part of an experimental group except that they’d require me to do a control, meaning no Zicam, and I’m not going through that again.
It’s also why I’m not sure of the benefit of Zicam to people who don’t suffer “the cold of death.” If their immune system works fine, maybe it won’t help. You’d have to read some posts from people who have normal colds and whether or not the Zicam helped them.
My thinking is that by applying the zinc straight to the nasal cavitives the zinc is more effective at killing the cold virus than taking zinc orally.
One word of warning for anyone considering using Zicam, when you spray it up your nose DO NOT INHALE! If you do, it will go into the wrong area and you will get the worse headache you have ever had. Ask me how I know this.
Well if its to stop the virus, what happens after you blow it out? It says you can blow your nose after 30 seconds.
That’s the part where I think it either absorbs into the bloodstream – there are medications that absorb through the skin, think of the nicotine or birth control patches – or it adheres to the lining where you’ve applied it, so you’re not blowing all of it out.
You ever use a nasal spray? Squirt it up your nose, even though your nose is still running and you’re still blowing it the spray still works.
If the whole nose aspect bothers you, you can use the throat spray.
Like lalaith and Rick I used to get nasty, nasty colds that lasted two weeks minimum. For me, Zicam is a wonder drug. It greatly reduces my symptoms to the point I can function normally and the cold is gone in 3-4 days. Plus it clears my nasal congestion instantly.
I’ve recommended it to several friends. Some of them swear by it. Others say it didn’t help a bit.
People: One word: Pubmed:
A review article from Case Western Reserve Medical School (Where’s the front-line medical school hiding?):
An 80 patient study:
Maybe it’s publication bias, but I actually couldn’t find a study with null results in the first page. Now, I know it’s labeled homeopathic, but the manufacturer has no ability to pay for expensive long term clinical trials because the zinc solution is already out there and unpatentable. Maybe the NIH should throw some cash at this.
By the way, I had a thread a while ago on rhinoviruses where I learned a lot:
They never actually enter your blood-stream, it’s a local infection in your nose. Zinc supposedly works by blocking the cellular receptor which rhinoviruses enter through.
This jackass-pre-med’s opinion: it works but safety regarding smelling is completely unknown. A public agency or philanthropy will need to pay for future research.
Heh, punny, Zicam, very punny.
From the Cleveland study:
“In the continuing search to find an effective treatment for the common cold, researchers have studied zinc salts, which have several properties that make them potentially suitable agents. First, zinc combines with the carboxyl terminus of rhinovirus coat proteins, this preventing the virus from combining with surface proteins on the respiratory epithelium called intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM-I).”
Zinc, ICAM, Zicam.
Here is a thread on Zicam which is a stark warning. I wouldn’t take the stuff, and I’ve warned people I know away from taking it too.
It’s possible that Zinc supplements may help. Studies are inclonclusive, but show some promising results. They are more or less harmless when a proper dose is properly injested (not put in your nose). You don’t need to pay “through the nose” for Zicam- there are planty of 'em on the market a lot cheaper. They just don’t call themselves a 'cold remedy". In fact, what’s always worked for me is “Source Naturals Wellness Formula” which also has lots of Vit C, Echinacea, etc.
Homeopathy simply can’t work. It’s impossible. At the higher- “stronger” doses especially, where it’s just rather pure water. Now, some “homeopathic” remedies are really herbal medications, and aren’t 'diluted" all that much. And of course, we do know that some herbal medications do work quite well.
I suggest staying away from Zicam- they use false advertising, are expensive, and use a somewhat dangerous way of introducing Zinc.
If you want to try zinc, get a bottle of it at your vitamin counter. Men- it also *could * help with your libido if you have a Zinc deficiency (no, extra large doses won’t act like Viagra- unless you really think they will 
).
Never worked for me and I’ve tried it all. Vitamin C, Zinc in vitamins and in those cold lozanges, Echinacea, Vitamin B supplements, green tea, salt water, if it was rumored to either prevent colds or lessen the severity of colds, I’ve tried it. None of it worked. Ever.
That’s why I’m so sure the Zicam does and that it’s not the placebo effect. If I were given to the placebo effect it would have happened with one of my previous atempts. (Hell, I’m one of those people who even proven drugs don’t necessarily help: Dramamine, that motion sickness patch, and repetitious mantras about how effective they are and I still end up with my head hanging over the rail chumming fish.)
Ok, now I’m scared of the stuff =\
Maybe I should switch to the rapidmelts?
Why couldn’t it be called a supplement? The only active ingredient in Zicam is Zinc, which is available in almost every multivitamin supplement out there. The FDA doesn’t care that you stick it up your nose instead of swallowing it, especially since they don’t consider it a drug in the first place (They may care in the future if it is proven to cause harm, but they don’t require any pre-testing or approval). Centrum doesn’t need to prove to the FDA that its vitamins are “effective” at anything, they just need to show that they contain what they say they contain. The same is true for Zicam.
I know Randi claims in his article that homeopathy exploits a special loophole, but that’s just him being an old curmudgeon. The fact is that all vitamins and herbal remedies exploit the same loophole.
Oh, and thanks for the links, threemae. I really hope more studies get funded with public funds but sadly I’m pessimistic about the odds 
.
Actually, they are two separate loopholes. Homoepathy has been exempted from FDA regulation since the olden days. Supplements are exempted by the DSHEA, which is fairly recent.