Fliers try to keep colds at bay with remedies from A to zinc
David SANTORIELLO boards an airplane once a month for business but never without first swabbing his nose with Zicam, a zinc-based nasal gel, to ward off cold germs while aloft. “I don’t think I’ve had a cold in three years,” he says.
Santoriello discovered the gel because he works for Matrixx Initiatives Inc. in Phoenix, which makes Zicam. “There is no preventive claim for Zicam nasal gel,” he’s quick to note, but some studies suggest that zinc can shorten the duration of a cold.
Many fliers hold fast to such pre-flight remedies to triumph over cold viruses. Here are a few of the more popular:
Nasal gel: Zicam’s active ingredient is zinc gluconate. The zinc binds to the same receptors as the cold virus, Santoriello says, explaining that zinc is thought to shorten a cold’s duration. The over-the-counter remedy costs $10 for a week’s supply.
Research results are conflicting. In a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2001, Dr. Ronald B. Turner, professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, assigned 91 volunteers to a placebo group or a nasal-gel group. A cold was documented in 74% of the placebo group and 78% of those treated with zinc. His conclusion: Intranasal zinc gluconate isn’t effective in the prevention of colds or their treatment.
In a study published in 2003 in the American Journal of Therapeutics, researchers found that zinc taken four times daily in lozenge form during the cold season reduced the duration of a cold by about two days and that one-fourth of the subjects did not get a cold during the study.
But Turner is not swayed. “Zinc does very little to prevent or reduce the duration of a cold,” he says.
Dietary supplements: Airborne-brand tablets have vitamins A, C and E and magnesium, zinc, selenium, manganese, potassium, seven herbal extracts and other ingredients. It is sold over the counter as an Alka-Seltzer-like dietary supplement. Although no claim is made that Airborne prevents colds, says spokesman Rider McDowell, the company has posted results on its website of a clinical trial that report the supplement has proved “amazingly effective in fighting the common cold.” Makers of dietary supplements, regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, must ensure that a product is safe before it is marketed and that labeling is accurate, but they do not need FDA approval before selling them.
“It sounds like a multivitamin preparation with herbal extracts and zinc,” says Dr. Robert A. Winters, an infectious disease specialist and chairman of the infection control committee at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. “I don’t think it is harmful, but I am not sure if it will protect travelers from a cold.”
Personal air purifiers: The Wein Air Supply personal ionic air purifier, worn around the neck, costs about $100 and is sold on the Internet. It reduces germs and pollutants by 90%, the company reports, and “the risk of acquiring a cold,” says Stanley Weinberg, chief executive of Wein Products in Los Angeles.
“Ionic air purifiers, which put out a lot of ions, can reduce the concentration of viruses and bacteria,” says Sergey Grinshpun, professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, whom Wein contracted to research the air purifier.
“Colds are generally spread by direct contact, such as hand to hand, so an air purifier would not work,” Turner says.
But Winters sees merit in the product. “It could probably reduce one’s risk of acquiring an airborne illness, but I would not go so far as to recommend it.”
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Healthy Traveler appears every other week. Contact Kathleen Doheny at kathleendoheny@earthlink.net.
