Best cold medicine

In My Humble Opinion
41

Yeah, forgot to mention Flonase. It’s important to note though, steroid-type drugs like that take time to take full effect. Under a doctor’s supervision, I use Flonase every day of my life whether the allergies are active or not.

Astepro, on the other hand, is for on-demand use, acting instantly. It really stops the drip if you’re running like a faucet or if you have sneezed 1,000 times in the past hour. I mention it here again because I only discovered its existence recently; prior to knowing about Astepro, my biggest gun for emergency use was Benadyl tablets, which ruin your day. They give me spooky nightmares as well.

Astepro works great without bad side effects except for the taste, which I expect is so nasty there’s no worry about forming a habit. Unlike Afrin (decongestant), very habit-forming and a bad one to get into. I’ve known some absolute Afrin junkies.

42

(I’ll mention some name brand meds here but I often take the generic equivalent)

My allergies had been really bad earlier this Spring too. Sometimes, absolute misery. I usually take Flonase nasal spray, together with either Allegra, Claritin (Loratadine), or Zyrtec (Cetirizine).

I should also try Astelin (Azelastine) nasal spray.

On occasion I used to also take Benadryl (Diphenhydramine), but my allergy doc recently expressed a concern of it possibly being linked to Dementia.

(Google’s AI result for searching on Dementia Diphenhydramine —
While there’s no definitive proof that diphenhydramine (like Benadryl) causes dementia, studies have linked its long-term or frequent use to an increased risk of developing the condition, particularly in older adults. This link is due to diphenhydramine’s anticholinergic properties, which can affect brain functions related to memory and cognitive abilities.)

Does anyone else here use Hall’s Mentholyptus cough drops? The strong menthol helps to open my nasal passages.

Finally, to me a really strong ginger tea is helpful, with honey and lemon. I haven’t tried the hot toddy yet, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time (thanks for the reminder, @scudsucker. That sounds like it’ll really work well). For my tea the key ingredient is the pickled ginger that’s served with sushi. Good stuff! I pour some of the juices from that jar into my cup of tea, and I’ll include some of the shaved ginger too. The ginger is really strong and together with the lemon it feels good on my throat. When I’m near the end of my tea, I’ll eat that ginger. For my tea concoction it almost doesn’t matter what kind of tea to use but I usually use any kind of decaffeinated tea.

43

Symptom specific question. I have a tendency to post-viral bronchitis - in other words, I’ll get a sinus drip/typical cold, which will lead to a deep cough, and then the cough becomes self supporting, to the point it can go on for weeks. Most OTC options don’t do much once it settles in, so I end up paying my copay and seeing a PCP or Doc-in-the-box for a steroid/anesthetic and/or codeine either of which will break the loop within 24-48 hours depending on how long it had been going on.

Yes, I know in some, less benighted nations, you can get codeine without a prescription, and yes, I know some people skirt the law and use other options. But does anyone know of a solid OTC option without skirting legality that can be used for a persistent, deep cough?

44

I suppose enough time has passed to acknowledge the same. I think about three was ‘good’ but knew people who took six. Looking up Minithins, the brand from the 90s we used to munch, I see they were ephedrine, not pseudo- and I wonder how similar or different the two are.

45

Find a sympathetic doctor who will give you enough codeine cough syrup to have some on hand for the next cold? And then re-up during the cold?

Have you tried dextromethorphan? It’s OTC. I took it once, and had such unpleasant side effects that i haven’t taken it since, but i found it worked really well for my cough, better than codeine. (The dose my doctor prescribed was clearly an overdose for me, so maybe an overdose of codeine would also work really well on the cough.) But it works similarly to codeine. If you’ve tried it and it works, but not well enough, you might ask your doctor if it’s safe to take more, and see if that does the trick.

46

I may try that with my new PCP - it hasn’t happened much since Covid, since I have a large stock of masks (both disposable and high quality cloth with pockets for 2.5 rated filters) and use them aggressively.

I have dextromethorphan, and it works better than some, and while it makes me a bit uncomfortable, it’s my default for “normal” coughing, but does little/nothing once it gets set in to the chest. Checking on an excessive but still safe does seems promising… but that would increase the discomfort.

47

Oh, that stuff stops a cough flat. It does not mix with SSRIs, though a friend of mine found out the hard way. It causes something called a “serotonin storm”; symptoms of this can include myoclonus, seizures, severe diarrhea, hallucinations, hyperthermia and sweating that can lead to dehydration in short order. (I was the one who drove her to the ER.)

After she got through that, her doctor prescribed Tessalon, a prescription cough medicine for her cough, which happens to work well, but was new and expensive at the time, and her insurance refused to pay when codeine was $2 for 20. This was before the opioid panic. Codeine causes nasty constipation, but the cough wasn’t letting her sleep.

48

It made me agitated, caused disohoria, i felt like my brain was bouncing around in my skull. I couldn’t concentrate at work, and i couldn’t sleep. So i begged my doctor to give me codeine, which I’d always taken as a kid. I’m still using codeine. I keep a bottle in the medicine cupboard. I don’t use much, and it’s very stable, so if a bottle gets old, i just add enough whiskey that nothing nasty will grow in it. (It used to come in an alcohol solution. No longer.)

But my reaction seems to be uncommon, and i know an awful lot of people who tolerate it fine.

49

It can mix with other antidepressants though. A newish psychiatric drug is a mix of DXM and the atypical bupropion (Wellbutrin).

50

Dysphoria? or a condition I’m not familiar with?

I know it can mix with bupropion, because I take a small dose of bupropion in the morning. It’s part of my insomnia regimen. Don’t ask me why it works. It’s smaller than the dose people take for depression, and it really helps regulate my sleep cycle.

51

Yes, dysphoria.

52

For me, it is exactly the opposite. If I have to be awake and functioning the next day, I take a full dose of Nyquil. It guarrantees me 8 or 9 hours of good sleep , breathing well with my nose unclogged.
I wake up feeling pretty good.

53

While oral phenylephrine is on the way out as an OTC cold remedy, other commonly sold cold medications like guaifenesin (expectorant) and dextromethorphan (for cough) also have dubious evidentiary backing.

Dextromethorphan has had other uses though.

54

I was never a cough drop person until the last few years, when I got some on a whim and they REALLY helped. I love the honey lemon with menthol & oral anesthetic. Helps a lot if I start to get a sore throat and it definitely helps keep my coughing down. Bonus is that I can use them when I don’t have a cold, if I burn my mouth on pizza.

I also use a Neti Pot daily, whether I’m sick or not, and when I have a cold I use it 2-3 times a day if my nasal passages are clear enough to get the solution through.

55

I use a similar drop here for breathing at night …only way I can get to sleep. Partner worried about my choking on them…so far so good.
I also use the stronger Fishermans Friend.

56

I had a nasty reaction to it, but it stopped my cough really well. I’m surprised to hear there’s any controversy about that.

I take guaifenesin syrup when i have thick goo, but i tried the pills and they really didn’t help, so I’d believe it’s one of the “inactive ingredients” that actually helps. I’ve also had good luck with licorice tea (well, it was some tea sold for colds, but the most prominent flavor is licorice, and that’s also listed as an active ingredient.)

57

The humidifier is a great idea. I go for Mucinex if I’ve got chest congestion.

58

“It” being dextromethorphan. Also just called DM for short, sometimes.

Stops my cough dead. Codeine does too, and I would say they both work equally well. For a long time, codeine was the gold standard, but for reasons both obvious and bizarre, codeine is not prescribed for cough except in hospitals, or to people who have had REALLY BAD reactions to the other choices.

The only really good cough suppressant I know of on the level of DM and codeine is Tessalon, the brand name, which until recently was available only as such, but now you can get it as generic, benzonatate, and it’s finally cheap. It works by numbing cough receptors.

DM and codeine depress the cough reflex in the brain, with DM better-targeting the specific “cough reflex spot” in the medulla.

However, there’s a big group of people that can’t take DM, and that is people on SSRIs. I don’t know what exactly goes on it the brain, but it can cause insomnia during which the person experiences vivid hallucinations, have seizures, migraines, and a crapload of other bad.

I had a friend this happened to; short version: a clinic was not connected to her primary care, and thus recommended DM without realizing that she was taking Prozac. She called me up when the walls were talking, and the dog was installing new carpeting. She’d been awake for 20 straight hours on about 3 hours sleep.

It got sorted out, and I stayed with her the next 24 hours, and she was fine, but it was scary. I don’t take SSRIs, and I’m trepidatious about taking DM. I never take it before work, and always try to wheedle a benzonatate Rx from my doctor when I have a bad cough.

59

When I had a bad COVID cough a few years ago and was quarantined alone without much in the medicine cabinet, I found the old-fashioned stewed-onion poultice actually quite effective. Good old Vicks VapoRub helped too.

60

Sipping peach brandy while slowly eating Ferrero Rocher candy.

Apricot brandy is also good.

These remedies are for the bronchitis end of an upper respiratory infection OK n. The brandy is a substitute for Nyquil. Tastes better, works about the same.

As for the candy, why not? You’re sick! You deserve it!

~VOW