Last fall I was honored to have attended a FABULOUS luncheon at Spa Chakra in NYC hosted by Vicks. The "Breathe Life In" event was fabulous in that it was well organized, featured friendly informative speakers, offered healthful food, and was in a beautifully sunny and relaxing setting. (Even the spa display shelves leading to our meeting room sylishly showcased the new Vicks products - c'est chic!) About a dozen or so local NYC-area bloggers participated in the luncheon to learn more about this year's new product line from Vicks, and we heard from Procter & Gamble employees Dr. Crystal Harrell, Vicks global ER manager; Dianna Kenneally, principal scientist; and Stefanie Ferrari, a pharmacist.
I learned more than I would have otherwise liked about mucus, phlegm and respiratory science from the speakers that day, and in a nutshell discovered that the philosophy behind cold medicines is to thin out the mucus making it easier to cough it up. I also learned that liquid cold medicine can usually taste bitter, and that humans are born with an aversion to bitter (historically to protect hunters and gatherers from poisoned/bad food options). When you have a cold or are sick, your sense of taste is affected (I know this first-hand, as I can't taste a thing right now!), so the new NyQuil products have flavor additives to distract from the bitter taste.
I wanted to wait to post about my experience until I could try the product samples they gave us myself (I surely wasn't going to taste the expectorant or cough suppressant for the fun of it ;-) ) SOoooooo . . .
Fast forward to this weekend, and I've been annoying c2cDad with my sneezes and runny nose, which kept us up Friday night and threatened to do so again Saturday night. He kept asking me, "Do you need to take something? Did you take some Vicks? It should help you sleep." (aka HE'LL get to sleep.) Not one to take medicine unless absolutely necessary, I countered with, "That's DEcongestant and expectorant - I'm not congested, I have the opposite problem. My nose won't stop running!"
Come Saturday evening, I caught c2cDad laughing to himself as we were getting ready for bed, which ticked me off. "What? Why are you laughing?"
He asked how well I read the Vicks bottles. Which told me that he was fed up enough with my sniffles to have pulled out the bottles himself and read up on them.
"We learned about phlegm and snot - the new Vicks varieties are to help you get it out of your system. I have no problem getting it out of my system," I said as I grabbed for another Keenex. "My nose is raw, and I think I threw my neck out with the last sneeze. I don't need help with that! I need sleep so my body can recover and fight this off, and I'll be fine."
My husband brought out a bottle with a Cheshire-like grin and sure enough, right on the front were the words for "sneezing, runny nose" OH. I'm an idiot. I got caught up in my 'always being rightness' and I failed to actually read the bottle myself and see quite plainly that it could have been helping me these past 36 hours. My bad. Humility restored. Though better yet, breathing restored. Sleep restored. Long live Vicks!
Here's the new Vicks products I learned about at the luncheon:
- Vicks DayQuil Mucus Control (Non-Drowsy)
- Vicks DayQuil Mucus Control DM (Non-Drowsy)
- NyQuil Less Drowsy (Berry flavor)
- NyQuil Cold & Flu (Better tasting original flavor)
- NyQuil Cough (Cherry flavor)
- VapoSyrup (with soothing Vicks vapors for severe congestion)
Full Disclosure: I received product samples and a gift certificate for a service at Spa Chakra as an attendee of this event. I was not paid to attend this luncheon or post about it.
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