OTC And Perscription Medication
Drink up and rest.
Fluids such as water, juice, soup, and non-caffeinated beverages can help loosen mucus, keep you hydrated, and make you feel better, especially if you have a fever. Alcohol and drinks containing caffeine may have a dehydrating effect. To help others stay healthy, limit your exposure to them and promptly throw out tissues rather than letting them pile up on your nightstand.
Gargling with salt water can help relieve a sore throat. A cool-mist humidifier, which breaks water into droplets and releases them into the air, may help relieve stuffy noses. Keep the humidifier clean to avoid a buildup of mold, which could be harmful if inhaled. Saline nasal drops and suctioning with a bulb syringe can help infants and small children breathe better. But be gentle because aggravating the nasal passages could make swelling worse. Also, dress sick children comfortably—like you would dress yourself, Pickering says. “Some parents bundle them up if they have a fever, but that can make it worse.”
Choose over-the-counter (OTC) medicines that are appropriate for your symptoms.
With all the choices on the shelves, it can be hard to know what medicine to pick. It may seem easier to grab a multi-symptom medicine that promises to take care of everything, but it’s better to take a product specific to your symptoms, says Jeffrey Delafuente, a professor and director of geriatric programs at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Pharmacy.
“If your only problem is a runny nose, why take a cough suppressant?” he says. Taking medicine for symptoms you don’t have may not be harmful, he adds, but it unnecessarily exposes you to medicine and the accompanying side effects. “Multi-symptom medicines can be useful if you truly have many symptoms.”
If you want to unclog a stuffy nose, then nasal decongestants may help. Cough suppressants quiet coughs; expectorants loosen mucus so you can cough it up; antihistamines help stop a runny nose and sneezing; and pain relievers such as acetaminophen can ease fever, headaches, and minor aches. Check with a pediatrician or your family physician first before treating children suffering from cold and flu symptoms with medicine.
Don’t give aspirin or aspirin-containing medicines to children and teen-agers.
Children and teen-agers suffering from flu-like symptoms, chickenpox and other viral illnesses shouldn’t take aspirin because of the possibility of Reye’s syndrome. Some medicine labels may refer to aspirin as salicylate or salicylic acid. Be sure to educate teen-agers, who may take OTC medicines without their parents’ knowledge.
Children with Reye’s syndrome start vomiting and become drowsy within a few days of becoming sick. The disorder, which is now rare, can affect all body organs and lead to brain damage and death. Reye’s syndrome occurs almost exclusively in children 4 to 12 years of age and is rare in adults, Pickering says.
Read OTC medicine labels carefully and follow directions.
Use the dosing device that comes with the medicine and don’t exceed recommended dosages or length of use. Taking a nasal spray for too long during a cold could result in an even stuffier nose, for example. Always check with a doctor first if the correct dose for a child isn’t listed on a label and before giving a child more than one medicine at a time.
Delafuente says he tells older people, who often take multiple medications, to check with a doctor or pharmacist before taking a new OTC cough and cold medicine because some can worsen underlying health problems, such as high blood pressure or heart disease. Decongestants can speed up heart rate, for example, and antihistamines can cause urinary retention in men with prostate problems. For both young and old, antihistamines can make you drowsy, which could affect driving.
Be sure to check expiration dates and get rid of old medicine. The FDA has warned consumers against using OTC and prescription drug products containing phenylpropanolamine because the ingredient has been associated with an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain). This ingredient was commonly used as a decongestant in OTC and prescription cough and cold medicines before the warning.
Be careful not to double up on ingredients.
If you take more than one medication at a time, be careful not to duplicate ingredients, says Marina Chang, a pharmacist with the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Look at the active ingredients of every medicine you take,” she says.
For example, you don’t want to accidentally take two different medicines that both contain acetaminophen. The same goes for taking acetaminophen tablets to relieve pain while also taking a cough medicine containing acetaminophen. Too much of this drug can result in liver damage.
Jon Temte, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, recalls a young woman who came in complaining of a racing heartbeat and anxiousness. He discovered her symptoms occurred because she had taken two different products, both containing a decongestant.
Relenza (zanamivir) and Tamiflu (oseltamivir), both approved for use in 1999, are to treat uncomplicated cases of influenza caused by types A and B flu virus. Tamiflu also is approved for preventive use, while Relenza is approved only for treatment. Two older drugs, amantadine and rimantadine, which are sold under the trade names Symmetrel and Flumadine respectively, are approved for the treatment and prevention of Type A influenza.
Talk with your health-care provider about any use of these drugs in children. The doses and approved ages are different for each. Because some of the drugs’ side effects can be serious and because viruses may become resistant when antiviral drugs are used indiscriminately, the FDA recommends that decisions to use these drugs be based on individual evaluations of risk and benefit.
Relenza, which is orally inhaled as a dry powder with a device known as a Diskhaler, can cause wheezing or serious breathing problems, and is generally not recommended for patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and other airway diseases.
Common side effects of Tamiflu, which comes in pill and liquid form, include nausea and vomiting. Both amantadine and rimantadine can cause gastrointestinal side effects and central nervous system changes such as nervousness and difficulty concentrating. Other side effects that can occur are mentioned in the drugs’ package inserts.
Other important flu drug facts:
Jerry Rogers, M.D., a family physician in Moorhead, Minn., says some patients have asked him about taking an antibiotic early on, before their cold or flu symptoms get bad. But antibiotics don’t help viral illnesses. Using antibiotics inappropriately only spreads antibiotic-resistant bacteria, making fewer drugs effective for treating disease.
Most of the time, colds and flu simply have to run their course. “We don’t typically treat colds and flu unless they become complicated,” Rogers says. You usually don’t need to call the doctor at the first signs of cold and flu, but there are times when you should.
Doctors will look for and treat cold and flu complications such as bronchitis, sinusitis, ear infections, and pneumonia—bacterial infections that may require antibiotics. For some people, colds and flu can aggravate underlying medical conditions like heart disease and asthma.
If you aren’t getting any better after about a week or your symptoms worsen, you should see a doctor. Your viral infection may have caused enough mucus build-up to allow for a bacterial infection to occur. Signs of trouble might be a cough that gets so bad it disrupts sleep, a fever that won’t go down, increased shortness of breath, and pain in the face because of a sinus infection (sinusitis). Another warning signal is if after feeling better for a short time, you start to feel worse and experience a high fever, chest pain, or notice a difference in the mucus you’re producing, such as a change from clear to thick, yellow-green mucus.
With children, be alert for high fevers and abnormal behavior—acting unusually drowsy, refusing to eat, crying a lot, holding the ears or stomach, and wheezing.
Some people rely on vitamin C supplements, zinc lozenges, and echinacea to prevent and treat cold and flu symptoms. These remedies may make some people feel better. However, their health effects are unknown, says Linda Lambert, a program officer with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
No conclusive data has shown that large doses of vitamin C prevent colds; they may reduce the severity or duration of symptoms, but there is no definitive evidence. And the jury is still out on zinc. “There are about an equal number of studies that say zinc helps as there are studies that say it doesn’t,” Lambert says.
As for echinacea, “studies have been done of echinacea for preventing or treating colds and flu, but these studies were not rigorous or definitive and the products tested were diverse,” according to a written statement from Stephen Straus, M.D., director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. “These studies at best suggest that echinacea may be beneficial in the early treatment of colds and flu, but does not help prevent them.”
Always tell your doctor about any supplements or herbal remedies you use, and don’t overdo it. For example, taking too much vitamin C can cause diarrhea.