Walking down the cold medicine aisle at a local pharmacy or grocery store, customers will find shelves stocked with various treatments, some accompanied by brand names and others relatively less well known.
It’s a sight that experts say can overwhelm people looking for a quick fix for cold or flu symptoms.
“I tell everyone that generic products work just as well as brand-name products,” said Matt Fishley, chief pharmacist at Mount Carmel Healthretail pharmacy division of . “But anytime you’re not familiar with the product, I’d check with the pharmacist or your doctor.”
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With cold and flu season here, over-the-counter cold and flu medications will be hitting many grocery carts and homes for months to come.
With that in mind, The Dispatch consulted with Fishley and a local doctor about which medications patients should use and which they should avoid.
This is what they said.
Relief for aches and fevers
Two of the most popular over-the-counter medications are still the best for quelling body aches and fevers, said Dr. Stephen Auciello, a family medicine physician in OhioHealth.
Ibuprofen, which is the drug in both Advil and Motrin, is one, Auciello said. The other, he said, is acetaminophen, which is the Tylenol drug.
The one thing people need to be careful about is using ibuprofen or acetaminophen in combination with other medications, Auciello said. That’s due to the fact that versions of some cold medications, like Mucinex or NyQuil, already include one of the two pain relievers.
containing a cough
The best way to control a cough depends on the type of cough a person has.
If it’s a wet cough caused by sinus drainage, taking an oral antihistamine might help dry up the mucus and phlegm causing the reaction, Fishley said. Antihistamines include products like Benadryl or Zyrtec.
For a dry cough that lingers at the end of an illness, Fishley said people might try cough syrups like Robitussin or Delsym. The medicines contain an active ingredient called dextromethorphan which is believed to help suppress cough.
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“Cough is a little more difficult to treat…” Fishley said. “Dextromethorphan…that cough suppressant would probably be the one I’d pick.”
Lozenges can also be effective in calming a persistent cough. But, Auciello said, people should pay attention to cough drop health labels and avoid taking more than the labels recommend.
Congestion and nasal problems
For nasal congestion, the doctor and pharmacist recommended steroid nasal sprays such as Flonase.
Sprays like Afrin can also be helpful in temporarily relieving nasal congestion. But Fishley warned that overuse could result in rebound-like congestion.
“These are reasonably safe drugs,” Auciello said. “Usually there aren’t a lot of significant side effects from using them.”
Saline nasal rinses and things like neti pots can also be helpful in clearing a person’s sinuses.
Auciello and Fishley each recommended a particular oral drug to treat congestion: pseudoephedrine.
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The drug is most effective at relieving the congestion people can suffer from colds, they said.
While patients do not need a prescription for pseudoephedrine, they will have to go one step further to obtain it. This is because the drug is stored behind the pharmacy counter in most stores, due to the fact that it can be abused or used to produce methamphetamine.
The SUDAFED brand behind the counter contains pseudoephedrine. Patients should also know, Auciello and Fishley said, that SUDAFED also makes treatments under the same name that are not kept in the pharmacy and do not contain pseudoephedrine.
Heart patients should consult a doctor or pharmacist before taking a decongestant, as some products can increase blood pressure, Fishley and Auciello said.
supplements and other things
Fishley and Auciello warned people against using supplements to relieve colds.
There is some evidence that vitamins like zinc or vitamin C can shorten the life of a cold or flu, but Auciello said people shouldn’t rely on either.
There are a number of products on the market, such as the popular Airborne tablets, that claim to shorten the course of a cold.
However, most supplements are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore face little regulation or approval process. That means what’s in them may have very little effect, Auciello said.
“Most of the time, these things are just a combination of different vitamins,” Auciello said. “There is limited benefit in many of the herbal supplements and dietary supplements.”
mfilby@dispatch.com
@MaxFilby