r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/JennyFromTheBlockJok • 6d ago

The inventor of Vaseline, Robert Chesebrough, was such a firm believer in its medicinal properties that he claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it a day. During a bout of pleurisy in his 50s, he ordered his nurse to cover him from head to toe in the substance, and soon recovered. He lived to be 96. Image

Post image
68.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

117

u/TayAustin 6d ago

Phenylephrine might actually get pulled by the FDA for use as a decongestant since it doesn't really work. It does have other uses but mostly in hospital settings as a vasopressor (increases blood pressure) so it may just be pulled for OTC use altogether.

56

u/megustaALLthethings 6d ago

The fact these megacorps can just change the active ingredient to something that literally does nothing for you is mind boggling. All while charging more for ‘improvements’, smfh.

Well after years of heavy bribery they can just do wtf they want ig. Esp with the state the country is in it’s not going to get better. The scotus just blatantly allowed it and nothing lower than them will not be more blatantly on someone’s payroll.

33

u/TayAustin 6d ago

They didn't really "change" the ingredient, they introduced "Sudafed PE" because Psudoephedrine had to move behind the counter, but it's definitely ridiculous they allowed it to be used for something it wasn't proven to work for.

1

u/megustaALLthethings 4d ago

They swapped the items in ads. No one really notices that the new thing is NOT the same. They subtlety advertise it using the momentum of the old.

It’s so complicated, bc they MAKE it that way, for most that they grab it hoping it might help. At this point just grabbing a random ‘cold/flu’ med and using it has as much of a benefit. They all lie and don’t actually do what they claim.