Dude! No!: Aaargh! It's too late! Might as well get a job as a crime scene cleaner now.Courtesy DimmerswitchCheck it out: The Food and Drug Administration is recommending that people avoid Zicam. Why? Because it may cause you to lose your precious sense of smell.

Zicam (Zicam nasal gel in particular) is a popular homeopathic cold remedy. (I say it's popular because the NY Times says so, and because I vaguely remember seeing a bottle of it lying around my living room this winter.) You stick it up your nose, and blast away. It's got zinc, galphimia glauca, histamine dihydrochloride, luffa opercolata, and sulfur in it. These ingredients are reported by some people to reduce the length or severity of the common cold (although the virus remains incurable).

Over the last several years, hundreds of people have reported that use of Zicam has destroyed their sense of smell. The manufacturers of Zicam paid out $12 million to some of these people in 2006, although their attitude in general has been, "Well, y'all have the cold. What did you expect to smell?"

The FDA, on the other hand, has pointed to the connection between zinc in other nasally administered drugs, and the loss of the sense of smell, or "anosmia." They're all, "Hey, everybody, stop using Zicam if you want to continue smelling things forever. And, Zicam people, cut it out. We need our smells."

And the Zicam people are all, "Whatever. If anybody wants their money back, just ask. Otherwise, enjoy some more Zicam!"

What does everybody think? Fans of Zicam out there? Is the possible risk associated with this homeopathic remedy insignificant compared to any problems associated with conventional cold symptom medications? Anybody lose their sense of smell from Zicam? Anybody lose their sense of smell from, like, anything?

Let's have it.

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