Vicks First Defence Nasal Spray, Microgel Formula to Help Stop a Cold in its Tracks, 2 x 15 ml (Twin Pack)

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Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth - if your hands touch an infected surface this could transfer it into your body. Some lab-based tests are available through private health firms, but they come at a very high price, which has attracted some criticism. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has raised concerns that the confusion around the availability of testing kits could fuel the marketing of fraudulent test kits by scammers. So we have some preliminary evidence of efficacy, but with such a small study and such unconvincing results on the primary outcome of symptoms, I think we’re going to have to do a lot better.

OK, so Boots obviously want us to think that it can do both: prevent colds and flu and help treat them.Briefly, 3 days before use, the inserts were washed apically with 200 μL culture medium (10 min), and TEER was measured to verify their integrity. The apical medium was discarded, and the inserts were returned to the incubator for 3 days. On the first day of product testing (Day 0), the inserts were transferred to new 24-well plate with 500 μL/well fresh medium. The apical surface was treated in triplicate with 10 μL of a 1:5 aqueous dilution of AM-301 or its matrix or left untreated. The inserts were returned to the incubator for 24 h.

Previous studies investigating the effects of cold and flu nasal sprays employed participants already at the onset of an upper respiratory tract infection and their results have been inconclusive. I first discovered this stuff about 12 years ago whilst suffering with a dreadful cold. Of course it didn’t help at all. The debate about whether or not masks should be worn by the general public has gained steam as the pandemic develops. Briefly, on Day 0, the inserts were transferred to a new 24-well plate with 500 μL/well fresh medium and washed apically by incubation with 200 μL medium for 20 min at 34 °C in a humidified 5% CO 2 atmosphere; then, the apical medium was removed. The apical surface was then treated with 10 μL of a 1:5 aqueous dilution of AM-301 or of its matrix, or with 10 μL saline diluted 1:10 in water. After 10 min, without washing, the apical side was treated with 100 μL SARS-CoV-2 suspension (SARS-CoV-2 WT: MOI = 0.5; Delta variant: MOI = 0.1). Infection was allowed to proceed for 3 h in a 34 °C incubator and stopped by gentle washing of the apical surface with 200 μL medium (3 times). Viral replication was assessed immediately and daily over 4 days as follows: But can it at least treat a common cold? That would be pretty impressive if it could. The common cold has proved remarkably resilient to anything medical science can throw at it. A treatment that actually worked against the common cold would indeed be good news.

Review Overview

Quite a bold claim, I thought. “Defends against cold and flu” would indeed be impressive, if it were true. Though I also noticed the somewhat meaningless verb “defend”. What does that mean exactly? Does it stop you getting a cold or flu in the first place? Or does it just help you recover faster if you get a cold or flu? The 3 important questions about wine and health – Age Gets Better With Wine on New alcohol guidelines The implication from this groundbreaking research is that vocal students, teachers of voice and singing performers at any level would benefit greatly from taking “First Defence” to avoid catching colds. Well, the first thing to note is that although there were 4 papers, there were only 3 clinical trials: one of the papers is a combined analysis of 2 of the others. The next thing to note is that all 3 trials were of patients in the early stages of a common cold. So right away we can see that we have no evidence whatsoever that the product can help prevent a cold or flu, and no evidence whatsoever that it can treat flu.

But even if I did know any of that stuff, it wouldn’t make any difference. I don’t care if you want to waste your money on snake oil. It’s not my money you’re wasting. I do care that Boots are trying to con people, and feel I would like to warn people about that, but if people ignore my warnings and spend their money on it anyway, that doesn’t affect me in any way. Belongia EA, Berg R, Liu K. (2001). A randomized trial of zinc nasal spray for the treatment of upper respiratory illness in adults .Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9343(01)00765-3 Accessed on 19/01/2023

Antibody tests - to detect whether you've previously had the virus - are not yet available to the general public. Private firms selling these tests have been instructed to stop while the MHRA verifies the accuracy of the tests. Schematics of experimental protocols. ( A) Safety assay experimental design. CBF, cilia beating frequency; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; TEER, transepithelial electric resistance. ( B) Efficacy assay: Pre-viral load application (Prophylaxis). ( C) Efficacy assay: Post-viral load application (Mitigation). And science does take into account that there are such things as both false positives and false negatives, ie and a case in point, the blood test commonly used to identify if you have cancer. Because viral replication was unhindered in the matrix-treated samples, we can infer that bentonite within the AM-301 formulation is primarily responsible for the effect. Boots Pharmaceuticals Cold & Flu Defence Nasal Spray is an easy to use nasal spray with antiviral properties containing clinically proven Carragelose to defend against colds and flu, as well as help shorten the duration and severity of both colds and flu.”