11 Popular Cold & Flu Medications Face Ban From Idaho Stores

Cold, cough and flu season is upon us. When you’re feeling cruddy, you probably have a go to over the counter medication you reach for a little relief. There’s a very real possibility that your favorite may not be available at Idaho pharmacies in the near future. 

It’s very rare that we get to write a health related article that ends with us getting to tell our spouse, the son of a pediatric nurse, “Told you so.” Every time that we’re feeling congested, he offers us something from the stockpile of random decongestants in the medicine cabinet. And every single time, we put up a fight saying those don’t work for us anymore.

READ MORE: 13 Popular Foods Sold in Idaho May Be Linked to Cancer

Keyword being anymore. The little red Sudafed sinus decongestant pills he tries to push on us were little miracle workers when we got sick before an important cross country or track meet in high school. They opened us up long enough to get through a workout, even if we had been so stuffy that we were pretty sure we were mouth breathing during class earlier in the day. 

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But the older we got? The less effective they became. We just assumed that the way that our body reacted to the over the counter drugs had changed. That’s why we were a little surprised when we stumbled across an article from Health.com that listed some of the cold medications that we’ve given a chance over the years as being on the verge of being banned by the FDA! 

According to the article, after analyzing a great deal of data, the Food and Drug Administration wants to revoke its approval of something called “phenylephrine” from its list of approved ingredients for over-the-counter oral decongestants. Turns out the ingredient became extremely popular for drug makers to use as a decongestant after something called the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act went into effect in 2006.

That law meant that decongestant makers who were using “pseudoephedrine” in their products, could no longer sell them over the counter. Because the ingredient could be used to make meth, those medications had to move behind the counter with a pharmacist. These products were still available for those 18 and up, but the pharmacy would record your information, track how many times you purchase the medications and would limit how many times you could purchase them in a month. 

Knowing some people weren’t willing to jump through those hoops for a stuffy nose, many drug makers changed their formulas and switched to phenylephrine, an ingredient that you can’t make meth with, instead. 

Why Does the FDA Want to Ban the Ingredient?

If you frequently take these medications when you have a cold, don’t freak out. The potential brand has NOTHING to do with safety. Turns out the data shows that the ingredient just doesn’t work when you take it by mouth. The FDA wants to remove it because it's ineffective. Little did we know that all these years of telling our spouse “these just don’t work for me,” we were right. It wasn’t just us! (Also, the story about high school track was relevant because we graduated in 2006 around the same time the medications changed.) 

So If They Don’t Work, What Can I Use for Relief?

There are a lot of other active ingredients on the market that ARE effective in providing congestion relief. Health.com recommends jumping through the hoops to get a pseudoephedrine decongestant from the pharmacist. 

They also say that nasal sprays like Neo-Synephrine or the Walgreens nasal spray in the red box are effective. Yes, their active ingredient is phenylephrine, but because it’s absorbed differently when you take it through the nose, it does actually provide some relief. 

Which Medications Are Facing a Ban?

They included a LONG list of oral medications from The National Library of Medicine that contain phenylephrine, but when we cross referenced it, we noticed that the Theraflu products being sold at a local Idaho Walgreens no longer contained the ingredient. Those bottles were labeled with “new formula,” so it's likely that if these medications DO get banned after public comment ends in May, drug makers may just tweak the formula again. 

For now, here’s a look at some of the most common medications sold in Idaho that STILL contain the useless ingredient.