Article Contributed on: 6/17/2009 11:58:35 AM
Zicam seems to cause permanent anosmia in a number of patients. Mom had a loss of smell when she tripped on the asphalt that had oozed up between the concrete slabs in the sidewalk at the semi-nursing home. I think after her blackened eyes, etc. got better that the anosmia finally went away.
Of course, her nose was pushed up so it fractured the cribriform (a Latin word for sieve) plate in the ethmoid (a Greek word for sieve) bone where the nerves of smell run through all those little holes in the sieve-like bone.
It is hard to eat when all foods just smell (and therefor taste) like wet concrete.
It is not easy to regulate Zicam because it is listed as a Homeopathic drug, and therefor, like all Homeopathic drugs, basically not subject to regulation by the FDA. I think this stinks, which may not matter to you if you've lost your sense of smell ;-).
Delmar
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/health/policy/17nasal.html?hpw