hello, My wife is from Uzbekistan and claims a nasal spray (Galazalin)
helps her greatly when sleeeping. I cannot find this drug anyplace and
she does not want her family to send it because they will worry. I
tried ordering from a Russian pharmacy in Moscow but they do not ship
internationally. I need to know the name of a pharmacy or internet
site that will sell this nasal spray to me.
Thanks, Joe Corrado (joe_corrado@yahoo.com)

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Request for Question Clarification by grimace-ga on 27 Aug 2002 06:18 PDT

Hi Joe,

Are you in the US?

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Clarification of Question by joecorrado-ga on 27 Aug 2002 09:52 PDT

Hello,

   I am in the USA in Massachusetts. My wife claims this nasal spray
clears up her nose and helps her to breathe and sleep. All nasal
sprays I have found do not work on her. I have a suspicion this may be
only available in Russia or her native country of Uzbekistan possibly
because it contains an outlawed solvent of sorts. I could be wrong and
do not have a bottle of it to determine its chemical name.

Thanks, Joe Corrado

joecorrado,
Please consider taking your wife to a doctor here in the US and have
her describe her symptoms to him/her. Using solvents in the nasal
cavity is dangerous. It may be illegal to import a banned substance as
well.Many cultures in many countries use remedies that indeed work,
but cause further problems later in life. In Mexico, for example,
there is a remedy for diarrhea, that is sold over the counter, in an
envelope resembling a Kool-Aid package. The powder does indeed work,
it stops the symptoms! However, the powder contains a large amount of
lead, a very toxic heavy metal, that causes mental retardation and
brain damage, along with other problems.

If the nasal spray does indeed contain a banned substance in this
country, it is for a good reason. Did you ever hear of Thalidomide? It
was approved in England and possibly Canada as a medication safe for
pregnant women. It was not approved by our FDA (Thankfully). England
and Canada saw (I have no figures right now) thousands of babies born
with no arms and legs, to these women.

Your docotor can write for one of several excellent effective nasal
sprays. One excellent prescription nasal spray that eliminates the
congestion and nasal mucus is "Flonase". It has no rebound effects,
and is safe for long term. Let your doctor evaluate your wife's
condition and prescribe an appropriate spray. One other word...most of
these prescription sprays must be used for up to a week before results
are seen, and they must be used consistently.
Please don't allow anyone to spray, ingest,or apply banned solvents!If
you have an old bottle, could you post the ingredients?
Best of luck
-crabcakes

Joe,

I've looked at listings of nasal decongestants available in the US and
in the UK, and have not found anything with a remotely similar name. 
One thing you could do is contact the pharmacy in Moscow again and ask
them to tell you the generic name of the active ingredient.  Then we
could look again.  I did try transcribing Galazalin into Cyrillic, but
even then could not find anything on the Internet.  However, the
transcription could have been incorrect, so this is something that you
might like to try.  If you can find any information in this way, it
might help us identify the active ingredient.

Another thought, which is not intended in a deragatory way.  I wonder
if perhaps a placebo effect is coming into play?  What I mean is that
perhaps your wife is convinced this particular brand helps and so
reacts favourably to it, while not noticing any benefit from other
brands.  I doubt that the solvent used to dissolve the active
ingredient would have that much effect.

Yet another thought: could air conditioning be making your wife's
condition worse?  I live in the UK and do not get exposed to air
conditioning very often.  I know that when I visit the US, I do
sometimes find that air conditioning affects my nose and breathing,
because it does dry out the air a lot.  Perhaps you could try
introducing a humidifier into the bedroom?