Nyquil is a bad idea for this.
It has :
Acetaminophen 650 mg (Pain reliever/fever reducer)
Dextromethorphan HBr 30 mg (Cough suppressant)
Doxylamine succinate 12.5 mg (Antihistamine)
and a half-shot of alcohol.
You can get Generic benadryl/diphenhydramine for about $3-5 per 100. And, you should never drink and take Acetaminophen- especially as far too many people will drink Nyquil and also take 2-3 Tylenol, then a nitecap drink- and POW! To the ER for liver failure.
A bottle of store brand cider vinegar costs 99 cents. And I use the the saline nasal sprays all winter long because the heat at work dries my nose out so badly, and they cost way less than the decongestant ones, even the store brand ones. And you’ve got enough money for ibuprofen/pseudophedrine etc.
If you don’t like Elbow’s suggestions that’s fine but there’s no need to be snotty about it.
No-drug remedies for unproductive coughing and/or congestion you need to cough up:
Have yourself percussed! A partner cups his/her hands and pounds on your back, starting mid-back and moving to upper. Stop and cough once in a while.
There are yoga positions (and even simpler, just lying over the bed) that move that congestion up and out. Head lower than chest is the idea–gravity do work!
Otherwise, you can take Robitussin DM (cough suppresant/expectorant.) But beware: people also use this to go “Robotripping,” and based on my hypothetical experiences with this, you really do trip. It’s the cough suppresant (Dextromethorphan) that gives you that LSD feeling.
Feel better. tapu
I’ll tell you what set me off, it was this part of his post:
It is factually incorrect that you can shorten the duration of a cold by “almost a week”. No, you can’t. As I noted, the only thing showing any sign of shortening a cold is zinc lozenges, and not by nearly that much.
It is also factually incorrect that letting your body take care of these things is “always” better than taking drugs. For many people with chronic health issues failure to pay attention to something as minor as a cold and/or take needed medications can lead to severe illness or worse.
There is also the bit about brushing too soon after exposure to acidic liquids being bad for your tooth enamel, too, although that was pointed out by someone other than myself.
Thus, I dismissed his post as woo-woo BS of the sort that is benign at best and potentially very bad for some individuals. Even if some of his advice had been originally given to him by a surgeon I question first of all if it was relayed accurately by him, and also, that advice was likely from a doctor to an individual patient and not a blanket recommendation for everyone everywhere.
This sort of “use only natural! Don’t take drugs!” really does get my goat. I’m not advocating for needless mediating but modern pharmaceuticals are a godsend, just ask anyone of my parents’ generation who grew up seeing childhood friends die of things that are now considered laughably trivial. They are valuable tools. While they can be misused, used properly they are indeed a good thing.
Now, if he had said “this is what I do, what works for me” I wouldn’t have cared (well, maybe would have called him out on the “shorten by one week” claim) but that’s not what he did - he basically declared anyone doing anything else as wrong and was prescribing for everyone. Yeah, I have a problem with that.
You slammed me for you “not having a job when you get paid time off”, “not wanting to gross out customers you interact with”, and not being one who can barely pay their bills!
You may be surprised to learn that I have worked most of my life, just getting by, never had a job that provided a paid day off, and have always worked in service, with constant contact with customers. I’ve spent 30 yrs working for minimum wage. So you can stuff your attitude, as far as I’m concerned.
If you’d like to believe nothing can shorten the duration of your cold feel free, ignorance is bliss, carry on regardless.
And if you feel the need to discount what I learned from a surgeon as “woo”, go for it. I can assure you that it’s not only absolutely true, but 100% effective.
But, then, what do I know? I thought you were actually looking for suggestions. But it seems like you were just wanting to jump down someone’s throat with your host of incorrect assumptions and superior attitude.
I simply shared with you what I learned, through both bitter experience, and from my surgeon! What the hell was I thinking?
Hoping your cold clears up anyway. (You can rest assured I’ll be wiser in future in regards to your requests for ‘suggestions’ ! Lesson learned.)
Well, in that case you should understand why I can neither take a day off nor go to work and drip all over the customers. I’m sorry I mistook you for someone more affluent and privileged.
Provide a rigorous scientific study demonstrating your method actually shortens a cold by a week and I’ll publicly retract my statement. Until then your claim is unproven.
One anecdote is not data.
Also, just because an MD has competence in one area does not mean he is all knowing or correct about everything else - see recent threads on Dr. Oz who is a competent cardiac surgeon but otherwise a snake oil salesman.
Yes, what do you know? Are you a doctor? A pharmacist? A nurse? What are your qualifications? It’s alright if you don’t have any more than any other layperson so long as you don’t portray yourself as something you’re not.
Yes, suggestions. Not new age woo-woo that doesn’t work.
I don’t know - that what works for you will universally work for everyone else? There are pitfalls to that attitude, as I have already stated.
See, one of the differences between real medicine and woo-woo is that real medicine doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, woo-woo does. Note how many other posts in this thread mention side effects, or that something doesn’t work for someone, or cons as well as pros to a treatment… versus something that claims to be universally effective, better than anything else, with no side effects. The latter screams “woo-woo”.
Thank you, I am feeling better the last couple days. Stay healthy yourself.
Anyone use OTC asthma medication? Ephedrine + guanifiasen. I recognize there’s some risk.
I’ve been having good results with it.
Guaifenisen