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Nasal decongestant sprays - The various types

Mycotheologist

Bluelighter
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Apr 8, 2012
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141
I've tried 3 types: saline, adrenergic and steroid. The saline and steroid ones don't work at all whereas the adrenergic (theres an OTC sudafed one that contains xylomethazoline) work brilliantly. Whats your experience with these 3 types of decongestant sprays? I wonder why only one of these classes of decongestants work on me. Pseudoephedrine tablets don't really work on me either. I didn't bother getting a sudafed spray cuz the doctor gave me this steroid one but now the pharmacies are closed. I have a salbutamol inhaler, salbutamol is the same class of drug I wonder if insufflating salbutamol will work.
 
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Pseudoephedrine tablets don't really work on me either.

Strange, 'cos it's mostly an adrenergic. Dose? XR or IR? 60mg IR is usually good for most people.

Sali8ne and steroid nasal sprays are not vasoconstrictors (which is what you want). Saline is simply 0.9% salt in water, and steroid spray is like a topical anti-inflammatory.

Other things to try: Phenylephrine spray, ephedrine, small doses of amphetamines.

The problem with xylometazoline and other adrenergics is you can get bad rebound congestion. Similar to their use in eye drops.
 
Afrin, oxymetazolone HCL works better than anything else ive ever had BUT its more addicitive than heroin! Lol maybe not but use it multiple times daily then stop cold turkey and it literally feels like ther is cement in your sinuses for the next week or 2 so use it very sparingly bc the rebound effect is beyond horrible. Sinus pressure like nothing else ive ever experienced.. They also make an extra strength that has menthol and it does add some relief, or you could try phenylphrine which is a little weaker, or just plain menthol or saline sprayhs. It sux i know.
 
I was in your boat 6 months ago until religiously taking:
- 180 mg of OTC Allegra
- oxymetazolone HCL (alternating nostrils as needed to avoid dependence/rebound congestion)
- Flucticasone


The last two are the key, honestly. You think you don't need them, but when you forget it hits you hard.
 
Well if you're using it that much you might want to get an allergy panel done.

But, please for the love of your god don't rail a B2 angonist! Salbutamol dilates blood vessels and bronchiols in the lungs. You do not want more dilation in your sinuses.

A1 agonism is your friend in this case. Most gas stations carry phenylephedrine nasal sprays where I'm at so it might work better. Pseudoephedrine might not work for you unless its topical, as another A1 agonist does work for you topically.

Coffee works for my sinuses and chest congestion for what it's worth.
 
Strange, 'cos it's mostly an adrenergic. Dose? XR or IR? 60mg IR is usually good for most people.

Sali8ne and steroid nasal sprays are not vasoconstrictors (which is what you want). Saline is simply 0.9% salt in water, and steroid spray is like a topical anti-inflammatory.

Other things to try: Phenylephrine spray, ephedrine, small doses of amphetamines.

The problem with xylometazoline and other adrenergics is you can get bad rebound congestion. Similar to their use in eye drops.

Pseudoephedrione works slightly but are completely ineffective compared to xylomethazoline. Also, I don't like the way they cause whole body vasoconstriction, not just vasoconstriction where its needed. With the sudafed spray, my nasal passages are cleared completely in a matter of seconds. You can't beat that. I haven't experienced any rebound congestion AFAIK, its mainly allergies that cause the congestion but if I'm somewhere with not many allergens (i.e. when I'm outdoors), I don't need it at all. I didn't know phenylephrine is also a topical local decongestant, I'll give that a try. Phenylephrine tablets are completely useless IMO, many people share that experience.

Afrin, oxymetazolone HCL works better than anything else ive ever had BUT its more addicitive than heroin! Lol maybe not but use it multiple times daily then stop cold turkey and it literally feels like ther is cement in your sinuses for the next week or 2 so use it very sparingly bc the rebound effect is beyond horrible. Sinus pressure like nothing else ive ever experienced.. They also make an extra strength that has menthol and it does add some relief, or you could try phenylphrine which is a little weaker, or just plain menthol or saline sprayhs. It sux i know.
I'll stay the hell away from that then lol. I only breath through my nose so extreme congestion is horrible. I grew up in a house with cats and I didn't know, until I moved out, that I'm allergic to cats and thats what was causing my severe asthma and vasoconstriction lol. Nowadays I keep a salbutamol inhaler and xylometazoline nasal spray beside my bed at all times. Menthol and eucalyptus don't do anything for me either. Thank god for these adrenergic sprays, life is so much better now that I have a sure shot way to instantly reverse the congestion.
 
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Well if you're using it that much you might want to get an allergy panel done.

But, please for the love of your god don't rail a B2 angonist! Salbutamol dilates blood vessels and bronchiols in the lungs. You do not want more dilation in your sinuses.

A1 agonism is your friend in this case. Most gas stations carry phenylephedrine nasal sprays where I'm at so it might work better. Pseudoephedrine might not work for you unless its topical, as another A1 agonist does work for you topically.
Ah right, I thought salbutamol constricted blood vessels. I was thinking of snorting a pseudoephedrine tablet at the time but congestion sinuses, it would have been impossible.
 
Those xylometazoline/oxymetazoline sprays are really handy, I get one on rx to help prevent nasal congestion from my clonidine script. I get it a lot less on clonidine though than I did on tizanidine. Been using a corticosteroid spray of late too, to bring down the swelling in my nose after whacking it pretty hard after a myoclonic seizure, its worked a treat, although its not something I want to be using for too long at a time.

Phenylephrine is utter shite though, and pseudo doesn't agree, too many systemic effects, it makes me overload too much/too easily (I'm autie), same goes for ephedrine. I really don't know why they bother with phenylephrine though. Total fucking crap.
 
Change your diet, eat fresh, drink clean water 2 liters every day and do a procedure with neti pot(saline0.9 solution).
My girlfriend was addicted to xylometazoline for 1o years, after two weeks of RAW diet she throwed away all the bottles and never returned to them. Basically sinuses are clogged because too much mucus in your system and you have a kind of allergic reaction in your bowels and all the body(anti-h1 drugs helps with relieing clogged sinuses symptoms too).
I actually found a cheap way to prooduce adrenergic and antihistaminergic drops, fouund cheap Rinza tablets(10 mg phenylehprine, 10 mg chloropheniramine, 500 mg paracetamol, 30 mg caffeine) - 20 of them costs 3 bucks, extracted 3 of them with a 50 ml of water, filtered - and voila i have a bottle that will be priced insanely in the pharamacy, for example simple xylo 0.1 % costs 2 bucks, comined with anti-histamines costs 15 bucks. Silly apothekaries. :)
Vegeterian diet is helping too, avoid eating too much bread, meat, milk products, find what kind of food is compatible with another, and you will forget about clogged sinuses until the next rebirth.
 
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As for pseudoephedrine - you can make en extractions of tablets similar way and make a nasal drops, this will prevent you from systemic issuses.
 
I don't need to. I have a vial of recrystallized pseudoephedrine hanging around for that reason. I very rarely use it though, I find xylometazoline/oxymetazoline works perfect, and whilst I have the swelling in my face as a result of whacking my face when I had those myoclonic attacks a corticosteroid spray has been doing the trick perfectly. And I find that even fairly longterm, as long as I take occasional breaks, tapering down a bit in the process, being on clonidine (formerly on tizanidine, which actually caused more congestion, although weaker and shorter acting); counteracts the development of tolerance to the alpha2 antagonist sprays.

I don't use the p/fed unless I have sod all else around, it just doesn't agree all that well with me, and is prone to making me overload. My main use for it is for a topical vasoconstrictor, for minor nicks and scratches, shaving cuts and the like.

I couldn't be a veggie, I'd starve. I can't eat any vegetables, for sensory reasons. I do eat a lot of fruit, but the taste and textures of pretty much any and all veg makes me heave. I am pretty much an obligate carnivore. I like my steak, my chilli, bacon sandwiches, fried fish, calamari in batter, and I just cannot resist a nice footlong meatball, chilli cheese and black olive sub, or a big plate of cold roast chicken, nicely slathered in tabasco habanero sauce. Or even better, those big chunky cheese and steak burgers, again drowned in tabasco sauce.

The closest I come to veg, is the tofu in spicy black bean sauce from my local chinese, pickled olives, and I am a huge fan of wild mushrooms, taught myself mycology since about age 5. There is nothing quite like spending all day in the woods on a nice bit of AMT base up the nose, hunting down a free dinner, and curling up at the base of a tree in a little clearing in the woods to relax, trip and just watch the world go by, before heading home and having a nice fried mushroom omelet for my supper and breakfast.

It should be fly agaric season not too far in the future. And been quite lucky in that dept the past few years, and found quite a lot of peppery boletes (Chalciporus piperatus), and whilst not so many, last year I was lucky enough to find a good few helpings of parasols, which are absolutely delicious served fried up in butter. I always add both some powdered peppery bolete to my chillies, and a few teaspoons of powdered and finely chopped up heat-cured Amanita muscaria. The former adds some spicy heat, but of a unique taste, different from both black pepper, and the fly agaric complements meat dishes perfectly, adding what the orientals call 'umami', the fifth taste, that of savory/meatiness.

But veg...eww, no. I can't even stand the texture of chopped bits of garlic or onion, although the taste is needed in chilli and curries, instead I use dried, powdered onion/garlic, and/or garlic paste in such dishes. And the same with pot noodles, They just HAVE to put sweetcorn, dried peas, tomato shreds etc. Takes me ages to remove all those lil' wee bastardly things.
 
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Looks like you are love eating very much :)
Me too.
As for using topical vasoconstrictor for shaving cuts, I hav found that alum works very good. It just stops bleeding. But htanks for an idea.
In my country recrystallized pseudoephedrine is like black gold for meth cookers.
 
Heh. Not a fan of phet myself. I don't like releaser type stimulants. I am not a big upper fan in general. Although I do enjoy certain ones, camfetamine being the main one, As far as stimulants go, I prefer DA reuptake inhibitors and triple reuptake inhibitors that lean towards the DARI/5HT reuptake inhibitor side. GOOD cocaine being the main one, or methylphenidate. Desoxypipradrol in low doses, between 0.25-2mg at most, starting with maybe 1.5mg initially, with maybe a booster of another 0.25mg later if needs be.

Another good trick for minor cuts and the like, is tincture of oak galls/oak bark. The tannins act as an effective astringent, and are kinder to the skin than alum.

As for loving eating...I am not the worlds best cook, but I do make a few good dishes. Flapjacks made with honey, or golden syrup and a bit of treacle are another favourite. Quick and easy to make, even quicker to eat the entire lot =D And I LOVE lemon balm tea. No caffeine, and instead its nicely calming and relaxing, containing compounds that act as GABA transaminase inhibitors, Fried cod/haddock, swordfish, battered calamari, or a nice tasty piece of fillet/rump steak, a steak stew, served with fried shiitake mushrooms in butter, covered in a sauce made of black pepper, spicy hot brown sauce, positively drowned in tabasco habanero sauce with a little Amanita muscaria to bring out the meaty flavour.

A recipe I made just recently if you want to try the best chilli con carne you will ever eat:

Half a kilo of lean beef steak mince, fry it and brown it, with fried finely chopped onion, cracked black pepper.
Two cans each of chickpeas and chilli beans, a can of kidney beans or two. A bag of dried morels, rehydrated for about 10 minutes along with two finely chopped rehydrated smoked habanero chillis, one or two birds eye chillis (be bloody careful when preparing these little devils, they are absolutely lethal. Get it in your eyes and you will wish you just cut them out with a rusty melon baller. Wearing gloves, fillet them of the ribs and seeds inside using a razor sharp scalpel, Again, cut yourself and you will wish you died of smallpox a thousand times over.

At the last minute, add the morels and some rehydrated cep (Boletus edulis, porcini, the penny bun mushroom) at the last 15 minutes. Two or three teaspoons of Chalciporus piperatus, the peppery bolete and fly agaric, the latter must be dried overnight at the lowest heat the oven goes to, door slightly open to allow them to dry, and the toxic ibotenic acid to be decarboxylated to the psychoactive and tonic muscimol (this is not enough to be psychoactive as such but instead it brings out the umami flavour of the meat and be gently relaxing and in general to provide a tonic effect.

Also add a good wallop of tabasco habanero sauce, two or three bay leaves, a couple of pinches of celery seed, some spicy brown sauce, a nice slug of worcestershire sauce and dark soy sauce; along with some pasta shells/spirals/both, boiled in salted water with a tiny bit of butter to stop them sticking, cook these separately at the last 10 minutes ish, along with some fried oyster mushrooms and shiitake, some diced chestnut mushrooms added to the main pot of chilli, and a can of finely chopped, diced tomato. Water to bring to the correct consistency if required, although the water from rehydrating the chilli and various mushrooms, morels etc. I find that suffices, but if needs be, add a little water, bit by bit. Serve in enchilada wraps, topped with a bit of finely shredded emmental and/or mozzarella cheese.

For pudding, I like a nice plate of watermelon, sliced and covered with grated lime or lemon zest, I prefer lime myself, and squeezed lime or lemon juice, with just a wee sprinkle of brown sauce, and a cup of lemon balm infusion. To go with the main meal, nothing beats a few bottles of cold beer.

That serves at least two meals, more like an initial big bowlful, followed by another big helping, then stick the rest in the fridge/freeze some, and it will keep you in enchiladas for a week.

And yes, I have a HUGE appetite of late. I just got out of hospital twice after two myoclonic seizure episodes. The stingy bastards neglected to feed me more than a couple of tiny sample packs of cereal, a few cups of tea and a cup of hot chocolate for almost a week the first time, after having next to no food for a week beforehand. And even then, they had a go at me for apparently being greedy in asking for two sugars in my tea and another cup of chocolate to dip my weetabix in. So I've been making up for that and stuffing my face after. And the second time they kept me in for two days with NOTHING to eat. Not one single bite.

Apparently, it was also greedy bringing my OWN sugar from home and some lady grey teabags. Hades made flesh, even asking politely for some hot water to make my own brews was 'greedy'

God damn fucking well fuck, I HATE hospitals. Didn't help with my opioid withdrawal either, I'm a chronic pain patient, on quite a bit of oxycontin, I did manage to squeeze a script for 14x40mg OCs out of them in the end, and 2mg of lorazepam. And the second time in there I did get 60mg of codeine. Being autie (and proud of it. Its not just the best way to be, its the ONLY way:D), I am photosensitive though, and would they just leave me alone and stop opening the door to the ward and bugger off opening the curtains, leaving me to have to keep getting up off my arse to close them again...would they bloody fuck. Not easy when my knee keeps collapsing, and without my cane to walk with.
 
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I've been chronically addicted to decongestant nasal spray for more than 20 years, never been able to quit for more than a few days, the withdrawal is unbearable.
 
Why not try diluting it, bit by bit. Take say, a quarter ml out of a bottle, replace with saline, or less if you have to. And use your spray as normal. Every so often, set a timescale to suit you by experiment, and taper yourself off slowly, rather than trying to just stop straight away?

Works for benzo/opioid addicts so why not. Bound to be better than doing it cold turkey.
 
i've been having severe congestion issues lately and i do have oxymetazoline, it works so well. The thought of rebound congestion really scares me though so i use it sparingly, does anyone know of any effective alternatives that won't cause the same issue? Of course the one thing that works so amazingly, causes problems. However i also take acid reflux pills and they cause bad rebound heartburn if i don't take them, so i just never stop taking them. Can i just do the same thing with the nasal spray?

either way i've been seriously thinking about getting surgery for this issue. I have smashed my nose on many things while benzod and drunk so i may have a deviated septum.
 
Hm...one idea might work, might not...an alpha2 adrenoreceptor agonist in a dose titrated to suit. When I was on tizanidine for preventing overloads (I'm autistic), they act by blocking release of noradrenaline, and as a side effect caused nasal congestion. Annoyingly short acting, I'm on clonidine now which is much better.

So I got rx'd a xylometazoline spray on repeat script. I've used it for nearly a year, and no rebound congestion has been noted. The two, for me at least, seem to cancel each other out. Helpful for comedowns, and especially god for opioid w/d too. As well as being good sleep aids. Clonidine is longer acting, and is IMO by far the better f the two.
 
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