does day quil and the like CURE or just COVER up colds?

[weflyhigh]

I think I'm getting sick... i started having the sniffles yesterday and then this morning my snot was kinda yellow but not anymore and I just have the sniffles and kind of a headache

I dont usually take medicine except for hangover headaches but I was wondering:

do medicines (tylenol, advil, dayquil, etc, etc) just cover up symptoms or do they treat symptoms? I want to get over this potential cold as quick as possible, so what should I go buy?

 

[MrX8503]

From what I understand cold medicine doesn't cure anything. All it does is lessen the symptoms while your immune system does the rest of the work.

 

[OCGuy]

Are you serious?

 

[KeithTalent]

Is this a serious question? A cure for the common cold?

KT

 

[Key West]

NOTHING in our current medicine 'cures' anything. They just block/lessen/ease up your symptoms and pain receptors.

I think I made a rant thread about this few months ago.

 

[JulesMaximus]

No, it just eases the discomfort of the symptoms.

Some of these products also help break up congestion which can help you get well sooner...or at least not get any worse. Drink lots of fluids and get plenty of rest.

 

[zinfamous]

Is this a serious question? A cure for the common cold?

KT

yeah, I was dumbfounded, too, but then I noticed the OP.

 

[dfuze]

Treats the symptoms.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

There's nothing out there that can 'cure' colds. Those drugs just lessen the symptoms so you feel more normal. But whatever you decide to take, it's important to hydrate; being dehydrated while sick isn't good. But at the same time, there's no need to go overboard with the water.

NOTHING in our current medicine 'cures' anything. They just block/lessen/ease up your symptoms and pain receptors.

I think I made a rant thread about this few months ago.

That's not true.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

NOTHING in our current medicine 'cures' anything. They just block/lessen/ease up your symptoms and pain receptors.

I think I made a rant thread about this few months ago.

You've never heard of antibiotics, have you?

They don't help symptoms whatsoever. They make your body cure itself.

 

[zerocool84]

yeah, I was dumbfounded, too, but then I noticed the OP.

Yea he always starts the dumbest threads.

 

[dullard]

Like others have said, they just cover up the cold symptoms while giving you a ton of other symptoms (disconnected, drowsy, medicine head, etc.) For me, the tradeoff usually isn't worth it. I'd rather have a little sniffle than the cold medicine side effects.

Full disclosure: my wife makes a good living making those cold medicines that I don't like.

The closest you can do is to take metal. The healthiest version is probably those zinc tablets you can get over-the-counter. The metal doesn't cure the cold, but it can slow* cell's replication (including those that would pass on the cold virus). That slowdown gives your immune system a bit of a better start if you take it right away. The fact that you had symptoms yesterday means that it is probably too late for metal ions to do you any good for this cold.

* Technical details can be discussed later, this is just a word that I think most will understand well enough to get the main point.

 

[rcpratt]

How do you make it past the age of...eight?...without learning that we don't have a cure for the cold. Wow.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

ok, i think too many of you are too quick to bash the op. I don't think he means something magical to cure your cold.

But for example, there's ingredients like antihistamines that dry out your sinuses. That's called a cover up. To make you feel better.

But to fight the cold, you really want a decongestant. It will make your life a little worse in the sense that your nose will be a water faucet and you will need to blow it a lot, but you will get chunks and chunks of mucus/phlegm.

You really gotta look at what dayquil does. It's similar to Tylenol cold which I believe gives you a little phenylephrine to help with your cold. In a sense it helps you decongest a little, but they're not that effective.

Here, let's look at Tylenol

Ingredients

Active Ingredient: Acetaminophen (Symptom reliever)
Purpose: Pain reliever/fever reducer
Active Ingredient: Dextromethorphan HBr (Symptom reliever)
Purpose: Cough suppressant
Active Ingredient: Guaifenesin (Helps you fight cold symptoms)
Purpose: Expectorant
Active Ingredient: Phenylephrine HCl (Helps you fight cold symptoms)
Purpose: Nasal decongestant

So basically 2/4 ingredients help suppress your symptoms. It helps you feel better, but it's the latter 2 you need to help fight it. Of course you do want a cough suppressant because you don't want to cough every 30 seconds at the office if you're sick.

If you really want to fight your cold, I would highly recommend mucinex. That stuff just throws guaifenesin at you which loosens up mucus and if you have a huge sinus, get the "D" version which throws in pseudoephedrine, the stuff that really works and clears your mucus. If you notice the main ingredients in mucinex it's just heavy does guaifenesin and some cough supressant. If you get the nasal version, it's got pseudoephedrine too, so yeah. The main purpose is to help you get the crap out of your body. I don't believe any of this really fights the cold, but there's some ingredients that just cover up your symptoms, while others allow you to fight off those symptoms (in a certain sense).

Of course to really help your body heal, you need more than this. Vitamin C, zinc and echinacea help.

 

[Ichinisan]

A true cold is a caused by a virus, not a bacteria. Antibiotics don't do anything to viruses, which are much smaller than living single-celled organisms like bacteria. A medicine that indiscriminately destroy microbes the size of viruses would kill things that it's not supposed to.

With so many constantly-changing strains, there can be no catch-all vaccine. There's simply no effective "cure" for the cold.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

The closest you can do is to take metal. The healthiest version is probably those zinc tablets you can get over-the-counter. The metal doesn't cure the cold, but it can slow* cell's replication (including those that would pass on the cold virus). That slowdown gives your immune system a bit of a better start if you take it right away. The fact that you had symptoms yesterday means that it is probably too late for metal ions to do you any good for this cold.

Zinc increases cell replication and proliferation.

 

[Kadarin]

How do you make it past the age of...eight?...without learning that we don't have a cure for the cold. Wow.

No kidding.

 

[BoomerD]

Yea he always starts the dumbest threads.

He certainly was smart enough to figure out that Avatar was all about traitors to their country...

I shudder to think that he MAY end up in the military yet...

 

[spidey07]

It relieves the symptoms and it does so very well. However there is a school of thought that decongestants are not good medicine to combat bacterial infections as your body is trying to flush it out and you should let it do so (like a sinus infection or other head "cold").

By stopping the mucus production you are letting the bacteria grow and multiply in your sinuses.

Just remember these rules - yellow/green snot, you've got bacterial infection.
White or clear, you've got cold/viral.

 

[zerocool84]

He certainly was smart enough to figure out that Avatar was all about traitors to their country...

I shudder to think that he MAY end up in the military yet...

Don't forget that he's trying to be an officer so his brain will lead to others getting in harm.

 

[zinfamous]

It relieves the symptoms and it does so very well. However there is a school of thought that decongestants are not good medicine to combat bacterial infections as your body is trying to flush it out and you should let it do so (like a sinus infection or other head "cold").

By stopping the mucus production you are letting the bacteria grow and multiply in your sinuses.

but then it wouldn't be a cold.

a sinus infection is a different sort of beast.

 

[spidey07]

but then it wouldn't be a cold.

a sinus infection is a different sort of beast.

Yes, but they are frequently confused or mis-self diagnosed. I gave the "snot color test" as a reference in my edit.

 

[zinfamous]

Don't forget that he's trying to be an officer so his brain will lead to others getting in harm.

I'm thinking David Shwimmer is the perfect Hollywood version of an officer for portraying weflyhigh.

 

[shortylickens]

The cold is a virus. Nothing artificial cures it. Only your body cures it. Drink water and rest. Let your immune system work.

And not to be critical but what school system are you in?
Cuz in Minnesota public schools we learn this stuff in elementary school.

 

[disappoint]

How do you make it past the age of...eight?...without learning that we don't have a cure for the cold. Wow.

No kidding.

This.

I had to take a final exam the night before my 9th birthday and one of the questions was "Is there a cure for the common cold?" I put down no, was that right? Also I never saw Timmy Hufnagel after that, I guess he moved?