FDA宣布常用鼻塞药无效(下)

But I’ve been taking these cold medications with phenylephrine for years and they do make me feel better, I think. Is that just a placebo effect?

但我已经吃这些含苯肾上腺素成分的感冒药很多年了，我觉得它们确实让我感觉好多了。这只是安慰剂效应吗?

Not necessarily. Those meds usually are a combo of several ingredients such as acetaminophen, which helps reduce pain and fever, and antihistamines, which help in the first few days.

不一定，这些药物通常由多种成分组成，含有对乙酰氨基酚这类有助于退烧和减轻疼痛的成分，也含有抗组胺药这类对感冒初期见效的成分。

So the combo may still make you feel better.

因此，这些组合成分可能会让你感觉好多了。

Overall, though, if oral phenylephrine doesn’t work, what should people use instead of it?

总的来说，如果口服苯肾上腺素不起作用，还有什么更好的替代品吗？

I asked Le the same question. She basically said that for short-term congestion with a cold, you should just wait it out.

我问了詹妮弗·勒同样的问题。她基本上是说，对于感冒引起的短期鼻塞，你应该耐心等待它恢复。

The nasal congestion that occurs with the common cold is self-limiting.

普通感冒引起的鼻塞具有自限性。

And so if it's possible, and if it's tolerable—I have a very high tolerance rate when it comes to symptoms— let it resolve, let the symptom resolve.

如果有可能，如果可以忍受——对症状的耐受较高——可以让症状自行消失。

You know, there's nasal saline products that can maybe help with congestion a little bit.

盐水鼻喷这类的产品可以帮助缓解鼻塞。

A warm, hot bath, a humidifier can help with some of that too.

洗热水澡、用加湿器也可以缓解一些。

But Tanya, you said you tried a lot of those things, and often they don’t work.

不过，谭雅，你说你试过很多方法，但通常都不起作用。

Yeah, I find that most of them only offer temporary relief.

对，我发现大多数都只能暂时缓解。

So are you just supposed to walk around with your nose blocked or running for a week, and a headache pounding, maybe a box of tissues tucked under your chin?

你应该会在一个星期里走路不是鼻塞就是流鼻涕，头疼欲裂，也许下巴处还塞着一盒纸巾擦鼻涕？

I know, right? It really doesn’t seem great.

我了解，真的不舒服。

There are other decongestants, like pseudoephedrine, which you can get by asking a pharmacist, like we mentioned earlier. And that works pretty well.

还有其他减充血剂，比如伪麻黄碱，可以让药剂师开带这种成分的药，就像我们之前提到的，这种成分功效不错。

You can also use nasal sprays like Afrin, but be careful—if you use those longer than three days, they can cause your symptoms to rebound.

也可以用像Afrin这样的鼻塞喷雾，但要注意——如果这些鼻塞喷雾连用三天以上，可能会导致症状反弹。

What about other sprays like Flonase or Nasacort?

那其他像Flonase或Nasacort这类的鼻塞喷雾呢?

Those steroid nasal sprays work pretty well.

这些类固醇鼻塞喷雾效果不错。

But ask a doctor if you’re congested for longer than a few days, because you might have chronic inflammation due to allergies.

但如果鼻塞过了几天还不好，就去看医生吧，因为可能是由过敏引起的慢性炎症。

And allergies are a different story, right?

过敏是另一回事，对吧?

Right. For that kind of congestion, you should consult an allergy specialist.

对，对于这种鼻塞，应该咨询过敏科医师。

The standard therapy involves some combination of oral and nasal antihistamines and nasal steroids like Flonase.

标准的疗法是口服抗组胺药与鼻用抗组胺药结合，也可以使用像Flonase这样的类固醇鼻塞喷雾。

In some cases, you can get allergy shots or even surgery.

在某些情况下，患者可以打抗过敏针，甚至可以做手术。

Okay, but for colds, clearly it’s time to restock my medicine chest.

好，对于感冒，显然是时候补充我的药箱了。

Those saline sprays do help me, so maybe some more of those.

那些盐水鼻喷确实对我有帮助，也许可以再来点。

And if I have a rougher case, it looks like I’m going to ask the drugstore to take out their keys, and open up their pseudoephedrine stash.

如果病情比较严重，我就要让药店拿出他们的钥匙，打开他们隐藏的伪麻黄碱了。

Your Health, Quickly is produced by Tulika Bose, Jeff DelViscio, Kelso Harper, Carin Leong, and by us.

“科学快播” 栏目由图里卡·博斯、杰夫·德尔维西奥、凯尔索·哈珀、卡林·梁制作，我们也参与了制作。

It’s edited by Elah Feder and Alexa Lim. Our music is composed by Dominic Smith.

由以拉·菲德尔和亚历克莎·林编辑，由多米尼克·史密斯编曲。

Our show is a part of Scientific American’s podcast, Science, Quickly.

我们的节目是《科学美国人》播客“科学快播”的一部分。

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. If you like the show, give us a rating or review!

无论你从哪里收听播客，都可以订阅我们的节目。如果你喜欢这个节目，请给我们评分、留下评论吧!

And if you have ideas for topics we should cover, send us an email at Yourhealthquickly@sciam.com.

如果大家对我们报道的话题有什么想法，请发邮件至Yourhealthquickly@sciam.com。

I’m Tanya Lewis. I’m Josh Fischman. See you next time.

我是谭雅·刘易斯。我是乔希·费什曼。我们下次见。