Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
A nose spray with nitric oxide helps people with mild COVID-19 feel better faster. Almost half of users felt improved within a few days, while only a few did with a fake spray.
Causal
A nose spray with nitric oxide was tested on adults who had mild COVID-19. The study found that no one had any serious side effects from using the spray for 9 days.
Descriptive
A nose spray with nitric oxide might quickly lower the amount of COVID-19 virus in your body, cutting it by 95% in one day and 99% in three days for people with mild symptoms.
Quantitative
A nose spray with nitric oxide helps people with mild COVID-19 get rid of the virus faster. When used several times a day for over a week, it reduces the virus amount 16 times quicker than a placebo spray by the second and fourth days.
A nasal spray called Thymogen was tested on cells in a lab and found to be safe to use at certain amounts without harming the cells too much, which is good for studying how it might fight viruses.
A nasal spray called Thymogen can kill a type of virus that causes colds and flu-like symptoms in lab tests, and it might work against other similar viruses too.
A nasal spray called Thymogen can kill a common cold-like virus in lab tests, starting at a certain strength, which might help fight off this virus in people.
Zinc lozenges might help with colds, but it depends on how much zinc you take and what type of zinc it is. Taking more than 75 mg a day works, while less doesn't, and acetate zinc works better than other kinds.
Some people get a bad taste from zinc lozenges when using them for a short time to treat colds, but there's no proof they cause any lasting harm.
Different ingredients in zinc lozenges can change how well they work, even if the amount of zinc is the same, because some ingredients stick to the zinc and make it harder for your body to use it.
Mechanistic
Taking certain zinc lozenges (not the acetate kind) in high daily doses might shorten how long you have a cold by about one-fifth, but different brands or types seem to work differently based on studies.
Taking zinc lozenges with less than 75 mg per day doesn't seem to shorten how long a cold lasts, based on studies comparing them to fake pills. It might only work if you take enough.
Taking zinc lozenges with a certain ingredient can shorten how long you have a cold by almost half, according to studies on people with real colds.
For woodworkers with stuffy or irritated noses, rinsing the nose with salt water is a safe, cheap, and helpful option that doesn't cause many problems.
More than 50% of woodworkers kept choosing to use a nasal rinse on their own after a year, showing they found it easy and comfortable to use.
Woodworkers who rinsed their noses daily with a simple saltwater solution they made at home for two months said their stuffy noses and other nose problems got a lot better.
Breathing in wood dust can irritate and cause cancer in your nose, and it gets stuck there because it stops your nose from cleaning itself out. So, washing your nose out with water (nasal lavage) makes sense to get rid of the dust.
Salt fights viruses by working inside your cells while the virus is copying itself, not by directly killing the virus or stopping it from entering cells.
When scientists block a certain enzyme in non-blood cells with a chemical called 4ABAH, it stops salt from having its virus-fighting effect, showing that this enzyme is needed to turn salt into a germ-killing substance in those cells.
Certain body cells make more of a chemical called hypochlorous acid when they're fighting a virus and there's extra salt around, which can be measured with special tools.
Salt's ability to fight viruses depends on how chloride moves inside cells, not sodium. When chloride movement is blocked, salt can't stop viruses, but blocking sodium movement doesn't change salt's virus-fighting power.
Adding more salt to the liquid that cells grow in makes it harder for many viruses to copy themselves inside those cells, and the more salt you add, the less the viruses copy themselves, without harming the cells.
When certain chemicals are blocked in rats, it seems to slow down the growth of new blood vessels, which might explain how this process works.
Correlational
Honey might help reduce inflammation in rats by blocking certain chemicals that cause swelling and blood vessel growth, suggesting it could calm down inflammation.