Year 2020 and still no cure for the common cold. What does a girl have to do to get a solace from a scratchy throat and runny nose? I desperately relied on OTC cold medicines for a week and heres what I learned.
Firstly, I am not big on taking pharmaceuticals for ailments big or small, being a die hard believer in holistic healing alternatives. Even still, My first mistake was brushing off the initial couple of coughs and sniffles, its imperative to take action as soon as you feel any cold/flu like symptoms appear. Something I avoided! Four days went by, On my birthday is when it all came crashing down. The day started with so much energy and planning, and ended with me propped up in bed clinging to a roll of Charmin. I was willing to sell my soul for relief. It was then, when I surrendered to purchase the fist box of Tylenol Severe Flu.
Reading the box, the instructions suggested taking 2 pills every 4 hours, in a 24 pill box. The subtle relief I received from the pills diminished quicker than they started. It was when I started mixing medicines and taking multiple brands at a time that I actually “felt good”. But of course here lies the problem, I thought excessively taking the meds would accelerate my healing. After the right mix,I was constantly in a state of slight euphoria and easy going moods. Then after days of becoming dependent on the drugs , it came to me that I wasn’t getting better, although feeling slightly wavy. I was experiencing the psychological affects of the ingredients meant to distract the brain from the pain happening in the body. I was getting high, not healing! Recent studies have gone to show that these cold medicines are no better than a placebo. Actually, products like Sudafed PE, Advil Sinus & Pain and others containing the apparent decongestant phenylephrine may work worse than a placebo, since most cold medicines come with unpleasant side-effects like jitteriness and dry mouth, and possibly leave you feeling worse than you did in the first place. One of Big Pharma’s longest running scams to fool the average citizen gain more money. “It’s a ripoff,” Leslie Hendeles, a professor of pharmacy and pediatrics at the University of Florida wrote in an editorial which accompanied the study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice in September. “Right now, people with a stuffy nose deserve to get relief from an effective medicine.”
Past studies have proven phenylephrine to be largely ineffective. According to the Washington Post: “The enormous market for over-the-counter drugs for people with respiratory ailments, estimated at $1.1 billion in annual sales in 2014.” This obviously keeps Big Pharma in the business of selling us drugs that clearly do little to nothing to relieve suffering. A lot of American folk don’t even have access to behind the counter drugs. Pharmacies operate as if they are doing us a favor by pedaling these placebo drugs as a alternative to the more affective ones. Its also not super surprising that The ingredient pseudoephedrine can be used to make methamphetamine and is subject to much more federal regulation, which is why companies started using phenylephrine in their decongestants instead. Most of the basic cold medicines make their trip from the shelves to the average meth labs. The feelings that Meth produces are high state of well being accompanied with tons of energy, sounds like the extreme version, but similar to the of the false relief I felt. One study showed the majority of the drug is broken down in the gut and the liver, flushed out of a person’s system before it makes it into the bloodstream. A 2009 study that will sound especially sinister to anyone who suffers from allergies put 39 patients with a grass allergy into a sealed room called the “Vienna Challenge Chamber.” Then, the scientists piped in grass pollen. The people were given phenylephrine, a sugar pill, or another decongestant called pseudoephedrine. Phenylephrine did no better than placebo, while pseudoephedrine — which must be obtained by going to the pharmacist’s counter — beat them both.
At any rate, cold and allergy sufferers are better off with things like garlic, elderberry,echinacea, vitamin D, plenty of hot and cold fluids, and most importantly,rest.
