I think Zicam is causing my migraine headaches and auras--anyone else having this problem?

In response to:

Anonymous March 25, 2010 - 3:51pm Wow, I feel alot better knowing I'm not the only one...I had a sore throat and my sinuses were a bit runny. I hate being sick so decided to try Zicam dissolvable tablets. I made it through 4 of them on day 1. I took them as advised on the bottle and was fine when i went to sleep....When i woke up the next day i could barely get out of bed. I was disoriented, couldn't focus, had a terrible headache, no appetite and a nagging sense of nausea. I fought it and made it to the store to get some Excedrin to see if that would help. The Excedrin killed the headache and the nausia and the only way i can describe it is "my head snapped back into place" and I feel fine now but with the sore throat still.

I will never take Zicam again. It made me feel so sick i thought i was going to have to go to the emergency room. I have a high threshold for pain but this stuff did me in BIG TIME.

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This is the exact same thing that happend to me, word for word. I kept thinking the migraines were just because I was sick. So I kept taking it. I stopped taking it the night that I almost took myself to the ER! I made it through the night without the ER but I felt much better after I stopped taking it. Turns out the Zicam made me even more sick than I really was. Never again!

I took Zicam once, a year ago, it gave me so much nausea I had to leave work and go home to lie down. It was the equvalent of being really sea sick. I tossed the bottle that day. I was feeling ill for the last 3 weeks and thought I had an infection, but doctor told me it was a really bad allergy. I never had allergies which effected my breathing before, only my sinuses(30 years). Oh great, my allergies have become worse. So she gave me Flonase, I spoke to the pharmacist, and told him about my bad experience with Zicam for allergies, he told me it was the Zinc component which made me ill. Taken Flonase 3 times, got a very light headache, but not sure if its Flonase, or the inhaler medicine...still testing it out. May use the inhaler spray with my regular allergy medicine, but I forgot to ask if it was okay.

Wow, I feel alot better knowing I'm not the only one...I had a sore throat and my sinuses were a bit runny. I hate being sick so decided to try Zicam dissolvable tablets. I made it through 4 of them on day 1. I took them as advised on the bottle and was fine when i went to sleep....When i woke up the next day i could barely get out of bed. I was disoriented, couldn't focus, had a terrible headache, no appetite and a nagging sense of nausea. I fought it and made it to the store to get some Excedrin to see if that would help. The Excedrin killed the headache and the nausia and the only way i can describe it is "my head snapped back into place" and I feel fine now but with the sore throat still.

I will never take Zicam again. It made me feel so sick i thought i was going to have to go to the emergency room. I have a high threshold for pain but this stuff did me in BIG TIME.

I'm so glad you posted this because I have the exact same situation: I normally take Imitrex injections for migraines: one will take care of it, I have nailed down most triggers like hormones, certain foods, etc., and if I rarely get aura (and sometimes get aura without the migraine pain). Well after taking the Zicam disolvable tablets, as directed, yesterday, around 5 pm I suddenly got blazing aura to where I couldn't properly read text on my monitor. It was really bad and pain did follow. After taking TWO Imitrex shots throughout the evening yesterday and sleeping through the night, I woke up with the migraine still not completely gone. It finally occurred to me that there might be a connection to Zicam, since that's the only thing differently that I did yesterday; I came online to check, and found your post- among many others!
I'm going to see my doctor today, but I am really worried about this severe headache and I will never, never take Zicam again.

I have been having migraines for the past 7 years and i have them regularly. several times a week and tryed some stuff that was used in england. A study into the use of several types of teas. I still get the problums, but it has decreased a lot!!! If it is in my mind I dont really care. I also use saltwater for the nose and that does like the zycam. I rarely get Ill, but i am stuck homebound because the migraines. My problum started after I was working in the oilfield. I have trouble being around gas stations and my real challange is CHEAP perfumes. that really sets me to the bedroom. cigaretes do the same also.I havent had the trouble with the zycam yet, but hope that I never have that trouble.

I just suddenly noticed the correlation between my migraines and Zicam use. Zicam works great at warding off the common-cold. I use it at the first sign of a cold and haven't had a full-blown cold in almost 3-years. The downside is the associated headache. I always attributed them to the onset of a cold, but now I am rethinking this....based on the comments I've read above, it may be related to the Zicam itself (intranasal pump). I am very sad because I think Zicam is a godsend.

Everyone should know that this month, Zicam was taken off the market for having caused some people to lose their sense of smell.

Apparently the company who makes the drug -- Matrixx Initiatives Inc -- didn't share with the FDA the fact that they had 800 complaints about this very thing.

FDA's warning applies to Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel, Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs Kids Size, but does not affect Zicam oral zinc tablets or lozenges. The agency said the drug must be tested for safety and benefit, like a conventional drug, before it is again marketed.

The recall does not mention anything about headaches, but it's important for people to know that these Zicam products need to be thrown away or returned to the store where they were purchased.

And the recall has brought up questions about the safety in marketing of other homeopathic remedies. As always, when you are taking a supplement, a remedy, a nutritional drink or anything that promises medicinal benefits, read the labels and if you don't recognize the ingredients on them, do a quick Google search to see if there are cautions for those ingredients. And it's always a good idea to call your doctor, or at least your doctor's nurse or nurse practitioner, to determine whether a homeopathic remedy might interact with anything else you're taking.

Zicam seemed to be very effective in limiting the duration of colds for me this winter, so I took it on a few different occasions. I have been experiencing near-migrane headaches now for a few months. I, too, never had problems with headaches in my entire life. I hope my headaches will go away; I will definitely go with the chicken soup instead in the future.

Wow...on a whim I googled to see if others were experiencing headaches with Zicam. I found a lot of hits! I'd kind of thought in the past that there was the correlation between when I used the Zicam nasal swabs and getting a nasty banging headache. Been coming down with something and have been using the Zicam for a few days and a nasty headache started yet again. I'm done using this stuff....I think a migraine/headache is worse than just suffering with a cold.

I purchases Zicam Sunday for my sinuses are kicking my butt this winter. I'm glad I came to this web page when I typed in "zicam headache and stomache" for it suggested this site and I see all the responses to zicam. I have had a bad headache and my stomach has been upset. I must say it is helping my sinuses from dripping but I can't go on with my stomach and headaches. Sunday morning I did my nasal zicam and did it again Sunday night and I went to be around 10:30 and maybe got to sleep around 1am (not knowing what caused this). Monday I took some in the morning and had a headache and an upset stomach all day and didn't take any last night. I did squirt one time in each nostril today and I'm back to a stomach ache and headache..I'm done with Zicam..thanks for all the information I have read.