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April 05, 2008
BehindTheMedspeak: NOZIN Nasal Sanitizer
That's different.
Just the thought of sanitizing my nostrils makes my eyes water.
This new product was reviewed by Jennifer Huget in the March 16, 2007 Washington Post.
Long story short: You won't be seeing the review on the NOZIN website anytime soon — or later.
Dr. William Schaffner is vice-president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and head of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Huget interviewed him to see what he thought of NOZIN.
Asking if he would "... recommend it to family and friends?", Schaffner replied, "No."
If you really like the idea of trying to stay sterile in a dirty world, you'd be better off with one those little battery-powered air purifiers you wear around your neck (below; $129).
At least then you'll be giving everyone around you something to laugh about.
Hey — I just thought of a great name for the little doohickey Mr. Protected Air Traveler pictured above is sporting: "Ionic Wheeze."
Not bad, eh?
Considering what I'm working with....
April 5, 2008 at 10:01 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Wow, well what can one say to that comment by Fortune except that I'm sold. Let's go get me an oily barrier in which to trap bacteria!
Posted by: Milena | Dec 23, 2008 5:50:17 PM
Joe:
I’m a big Nozin Nasal Sanitizer advocate and would like to offer some insight into this important product:
Though Nozin Nasal Sanitizer is new, its science is based on the same prophylactic principles that support hand washing and hand sanitizers: use a safe topical antimicrobial to reduce the risk of infection by germs. The tests that have been conducted are clearly supportive that Nozin is safe and effectively kills germs at the nose with persistence over 8 hours.
While the Nozin product has strong clinically data support, The Washington Post story pointed out that large scale double blind studies had not yet been conducted. Dr. Schaffer said such larger studies would help determine if the product was “worth it”. Of course, this is a very high and expensive hurdle that very few OTC products meet. Certainly the early days of hand sanitizers did not have this support. The air purifier you mentioned would be doing very well just to have the substantial level of supporting data that Nozin currently has.
Dr. Schaffer notes that Nozin works at the nose, but that it did not target the mouth. Think about this. Nozin not being used on the mouth is irrelevant to the product's purpose. It's like saying hand sanitizers are flawed because they don't address the problem of airborne germs that enter the nose. Truth is each product has its place that it was designed for.
Dr. Schaffer suggests hand sanitizers, washing hands, avoiding sick people and getting the flu vaccine. I say definitely add Nozin to the list because studies suggest that touching the nose is a primary route of acquisition of cold virus. For instance, even if you have just washed up, then you shake hands with someone, then you inadvertently scratch your nose, you could become infected. If you had used Nozin within 8 hours prior there is a better chance to inhibit the infection at the site of nasal acquisition. Let’s even add the air purifier to our hygienic regimen, but it also is not designed to inhibit hand to nose transmission. Nozin targets this gap in our defense right at the nose, the primary entry point for germs. For me, Nozin has worked great and I use it routinely.
Thanks for your blog.
Posted by: fortune | May 1, 2008 5:41:59 PM
