alt Hacker NewsDoes anyone else feel like dayquil is an effective decongestant? I do. I can literally feel the gunk running down from my sinuses to the back of my throat when I take it. Confusing to me cause it's phenylephrine, which is what the article states is ineffective. I've had this experience after reading these reports about a year ago.
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It's probably the guaifenesin (Mucinex) that you're feeling.
I swear I read a report somewhere that said something like PE is effective iff you take twice the dose on the box or you take it with other drugs (I think ibuprofen was tested?), although I can't find it again, and I may have read it when I was congested and only had PE.
My lived experince with PE is it never works most of the time. But if I realise I need psuedoephedrine and I'm not somewhere or sometime where I can access it, I'll get PE and hope. Sometimes hope works, but it usually doesn't clear my sinuses very effectively. But if I have sinus congestion related to flying, I might also have soreness related to flying and take PE (because you can get it at the airport) and ibuprofen together, and maybe it works.
But also some people are more sensitive to some drugs, so it could work for you, while not being very effective in general.
Might be the other ingredients reducing inflammation, widening your clogged pipes and letting stuff drain.
As mentioned in a sibling, try looking at Mucinex a try. There is a 12h version that has Guaifenesin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaifenesin and Dextromethorphan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextromethorphan as the only two active ingredients.
Compare with Dayquil - Acetaminophen 650 mg (pain reliever/fever reducer), Dextromethorphan HBr 20 mg (cough suppressant) and Phenylephrine HCI 10 mg (nasal decongestant).
> Guaifenesin, also known as glyceryl guaiacolate, is an expectorant medication taken by mouth and marketed as an aid to eliminate sputum from the respiratory tract.
> ...
> Guaifenesin is used to try to help with coughing up thick mucus, and is sometimes combined with the antitussive (cough suppressant) dextromethorphan, such as in Mucinex DM or Robitussin DM.
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> Dextromethorphan (DXM), sold under the trade name Robitussin among others, is a cough suppressant used in many cough and cold medicines.
> ...
> The primary use of dextromethorphan is as a cough suppressant, for the temporary relief of cough caused by minor throat and bronchial irritation (such as commonly accompanies the flu and common cold), or from inhaled particle irritants, as well as chronic cough at a higher dosage.
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The combination of the two is designed to reduce coughing and when you do cough, it is much more productive with the expectorant and cough suppression. It isn't a decongestant, but it has (personal anecdotal take) a good effect on getting rid of the secondary effects of congestion.