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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Decongestant nose spray is fabulous when your nasal passages are so congested you can’t breathe. Just a spritz can open clogged sinuses. However, such nasal sprays have a big downside: nose spray addiction. If a decongestant spray is used for more than a few days, the tissues of the nose become dependent on it. Stopping it suddenly results in rebound congestion, and suddenly you can’t breathe again! Sometimes people get stuck in this vicious cycle for years. How can you overcome it and break your nose spray dependence?The Medical Name for Rebound Nasal Congestion:Doctors call this problem rhinitis medicamentosa. It translates as drug-induced inflammation of nasal tissues. What’s really happening?The ingredients in nasal decongestants are vasoconstrictors. That means they cause the small blood vessels in the nose to constrict. These are medications such as oxymetazoline (Afrin, Duramist Plus, Dristan 12 Hr, Sinarest, Vicks Sinex Severe 12 Hr, etc), phenylephrine (Neo-Synephrine, Nostril, etc) and xylometazoline (Balminil Decongest, Otrivin, etc.)The Warning on the Label To Prevent Nose Spray Dependence:The FDA actually requires a warning on the label of many nasal decongestants. For example, here is what you will find on the Afrin Original Nasal Spray packaging:When using this productdo not use more than directedDo not use for more than 3 days. Use only as directed. Frequent or prolonged use may cause nasal congestion to recur or worsen.How To Resist The Temptation To Breathe?People love the effect of nasal decongestants. Within seconds of a spritz to the nose, you can breathe again. It’s almost like magic and very seductive. When your nose gets stuffy again, another spritz and voila! Your stuffy nose goes away…until the medicine wears off. Why not spritz again…and again…and again?It’s easy to understand how people would keep using a nasal decongestant for more than three days. Allergies and colds usually last longer than that. And the FDA does not require drug manufacturers to provide strategies for dealing with a nose spray dependence.Medical Management of Rhinitis Medicamentosa (Nasal Spray Dependence):Here is what some experts wrote in the journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (March, 2019):“Objective: Rhinitis medicamentosa (RM) is a common condition resulting from overuse of topical nasal decongestants. Despite the prevalence in otolaryngologic practice, a clear treatment protocol has not been established. Our objective was to review the current published literature pertaining to the treatment of RM with the possibility of finding data that support one treatment over another.”The authors
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