It’s almost the end of 2019, and time again to share the remedies I’ve found most helpful over the past year for my patients and myself. You’ll find a couple of new favorites here, along with some old standbys.
- Cerave® for relief of dry skin.
This recommendation is new. Cerave® has rapidly become one of my very favorites, replacing several creams that I have recommended over the years. When my patients raved to me about this product, I decided to try it myself. After purchasing a one-pound jar at a local Walgreen’s pharmacy, I tried it on my hands and body.
What impresses me most about Cerave® is how quickly and completely it soaks into my skin. Washing my hands frequently and living in a dry climate, I always seem to be dealing with dry hands and itchy skin. With Cerave® there’s absolutely NO greasy or slippery feel after applying it. That’s impressive all by itself, but it works just as well or better than products that are much heavier and need time to soak into the skin.
- Vaseline® (petroleum jelly) or coconut oil to prevent nosebleeds.
Nosebleeds range from inconvenient, to annoying, to scary. People who use oxygen at night are often plagued by frequent episodes of bloody noses, especially during the fall and winter months. Many of my patients have reported great success in reducing winter nosebleeds by GENTLY applying a thin layer of petroleum jelly (Vaseline®) or petrolatum to the inside of their nose every evening with a Q-tip swab.
If you don’t have any petroleum jelly or petrolatum you can substitute coconut oil on the Q-tip swab. Please avoid petroleum jelly entirely if you breathe oxygen through tubing with prongs that go into your nose, because it can actually dissolve the plastic tubing of the prongs! Instead of petrolatum, you can use coconut oil instead or a saline gel for the nose like Ayr®.
- Afrin® nasal spray to stop nosebleeds.
Afrin®, or oxymetazoline, relieves nasal congestion by shrinking blood vessels in your nose, which reduces stuffiness and is also quite helpful in stopping a nosebleed. If you show up at the Emergency Department with a nosebleed, the first thing many ER doctors will do is squirt several sprays of Afrin® on a gauze pad, roll it up and then shove that soaked roll of gauze up your nose. The combination of the pressure and blood vessel shrinkage from the Afrin® can often stop a nosebleed dead in its tracks.
- New Skin® to seal and protect hangnails and paper cuts.
I hate hangnails. I can go for months with perfectly intact cuticles, then all of a sudden, I have 3 hangnails all at once, just begging me to bite at them. Then there are paper cuts. I absolutely HATE the sting of a paper cut. Band-Aids® may be convenient to cover up hangnails and paper cuts, but what happens when you wash your hands? Ugh, who wants to wear a soggy Band-Aid®?
New Skin® is a sealant that dries clear and protects hangnails, paper cuts and minor abrasions from the sting of soap and water and alcohol sanitizing gels. I always keep a bottle of New Skin® at work to patch myself up if I get cut or if any dreaded hangnails show up. The active ingredient in New Skin® is 8-hydroxyquinoline, the same anti-infective as in Bag Balm® which helps discourage bacterial infection of cuts.
- Actifed® for runny and stuffy nose.
When I get a viral infection, my nose gets stuffed up. If I take a decongestant to treat that, it often makes my nose run. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to ragweed which makes my nose BOTH stuffy and runny at the same time. Luckily, the antihistamine triprolidine found in Actifed® dries up my runny nose while relieving both my itchy eyes and stuffy nose. Because it contains the decongestant pseudoephedrine, you’ll need to ask for it from the pharmacist. It’s hard to find in other states, so I never leave home without it.
- Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula® Swivel Stick for travel.
Palmer’s has a Cocoa Butter Formula® cream in a jar and roll-on (swivel stick). The cream is greasy, so I use it for lips and at night. The swivel stick is about twice the diameter as a typical tube of Chapstick®, and very convenient to use. I always pack it because it’s smaller than the jar and is a solid, so it doesn’t affect your liquid restrictions.
