Getting To Know Smelling Salts, Smelly Salt That Is Claimed To Improve Athletes' Performance

Illustration of smelting salts (Freepik)

YOGYAKARTA Many of us do not know smelting salt. This is a white powder with a pungent smell that can help make people faint.

Smelling salts has been used as medicine since the 13th century for fainting. Even though it is outdated in most medical circles, you can still buy it freely for personal use.

Recently, many people use smelting salt to improve performance. It is not clear how effective this is, but the effect on the human body is still being debated.

The following is a review of what is smelting salts, how it works, and how it affects the human body.

Quoted from the WebMD page, Smelling Salts or known as ammonia inhalan is a white powder containing ammonia and other chemicals.

Because the main ingredient is ammonia, smelting salts have a very pungent and unpleasant odor, as does the smell of household cleaning.

In the United States, the use of ammonia inhalan is only allowed to treat fainting people. How much, how often, and how long you use it depends on the reason you use it and the strength of the product. Follow your doctor's recommendations and package instructions carefully.

When salt smells under your nose, ammonia vapor will irritate the inside of your nose. This triggers a reflex that causes you to pull and exhale deeply to clear the nasal tract, even if you pass out.

When the resulting oxygen flow touches the brain, the sympathetic nervous system responds with a against or run'' reaction that sends the adrenaline hormone throughout your body. This will wake you up if you pass out, and may make you feel more alert for a while.

To use, place the ammonia inhalan at least 10-15 cm under the nose of a fainting person (to prevent irritation in the nasal tract). They have to breathe vapor slowly until they wake up again.

Still from WebMD, the main benefit of smelting salts is to make people faint. However, many doctors now advise people who faint easily to lie down and take a deep breath until they recover.

In addition, Smelling salts are also often used by athletes to improve performance. Some football players and hockey are still using it to try to ward off temporary effects from head injuries.

Other athletes may use it before the game in hopes of preventing fatigue or helping them focus. Bodybuilders may breathe it before lifting weights in the gym.

Even so, there has been no research to prove that ammonia inhalan can increase energy in a short time.

On the other hand, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning to makers of smelting salts for making unproven claims that their products can increase energy and vigilance.

When used occasionally and according to leads, smelting salts only have a few serious effects. You may cough and sneezing, as well as your eyes and runny nose.

In a small part of the case, the use of smelting salts may lead to the following side effects:

If there are dangerous side effects after using smelting salts, immediately go to the nearest health facility to get proper treatment.

That's the information about smelting salts. Hopefully the review above can make you know more about smelting salts. To get other selected news updates, keep reading VOI.ID.