So this one time I got a bit of a cold. I was sniffling and sneezing. My mother – the same one that recommends chicken soup – got me these cotton swabs covered in a clearish a snot. “Stick these up your nose for 30 seconds”, she claims. Now I know a quack when I see a quack, and I looked at her with eyes that asked “and what exactly have you been sticking in your nose?” But my mother’s a nurse, and I couldn’t breath, so I figure – what the hell?

Well, those little sticks seemed to work, but I learned to trust this nose applicator much more. It’s functional, gets the product where you need it, and it seems to reduce the severity and length of the common cold, just like the box says. Five stars for being one of the only effective things I have tried against the common cold and for being the best way to get it there.

Zicam actually makes a bunch of products. They make lozenges, a mouth spray, those little sticks with snot on them, and this nose injector. All of these products are designed to get some wacky chemical they call zinc gluconicum into whatever spot that rhinovirus is hiding – your mouth, your throat, and your nasal cavity.

Now I don’t know what the heck zinc gluconicum is – I guess it contains zinc. Zicam’s website has a bunch of documents claiming it works (apparently it keeps the rhinovirus from being able to effectively multiply), and sure enough – you will note that when you use these products, you will be using your Puff’s Plus a lot less, and you will cycle through the different parts of your cold much faster. For me a cold usually lasts a week or two. With this stuff it might mast 3-4 days. Before I’d go through a box or two of Puff’s – now I might go through half a box. It definitely makes a difference. And most importantly? Stick this stuff up your nose and you will be able to sleep. That’s worth 5 stars right there.

So this zinc gluconicum stuff works – now you have a bunch of choices on how to get it there. For me I found the lozenges to be rather disgusting. Sure they taste like cherries, but they also taste like acidic coal dust. Cherry flavored acidic coal dust, to be sure, but coal dust is coal dust even with cherries on top. The spray I find is also rather untasty, and the spray adds the effect that the disgusting taste does not leave your mouth all day. Those sticks you shove up your nose – well, I don’t think I need to elaborate about that. That leaves this nasal stuff.

It’s not exactly a spray like Afrin. You stick the applicator up your nose, give it a pump, and then it sprays that clear liquid with the consistency of snot up your use. You wince and make funny faces for thirty seconds while messaging your nose with the stuff in there, and then you can blow all you want, which will be much less then you anticipate. I suppose it is not all that much better then shoving the sticks of your nose, but at least you don’t have to leave the applicator up there for thirty seconds.

You do this as often as you need to – usually every four hours. There is a point when it begins to get uncomfortable squirting this stuff in your nose – but for me that point is at the end of the cold when the Zicam manufacturers are telling you to keep squirting. My nose told me to stop, and I didn’t have any problems.

In the end, the stuff works. You should be aware that other companies produce non-name brand stuff with a similar active ingredient. I have tried the Target version of the lozenge, and they actually taste worse then the Zicam, which I didn’t think was possible. In the end, I think the Zicam nasal injector is the best method of squirting this stuff to the places it is needed – your nose, and I suspect that enough of it gets to your mouth to make it effective. I give this product 5 stars for actually working, and for being the best way to get it where it needs to go.

Active ingredients:

Zinc – 266 mcgs/dose

Note: pregnant or breastfeeding women should consult their doctors before using this product.


Recommended: Yes

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